The University of Iowa is looking into a possible public-private partnership for its utility system to bring in more funding. The partnership would allow the university to maintain ownership of its system and a utility partner to collect payments for the energy after giving the university a hefty upfront payment.

A new study from the Urban Institute shows that low-income and minority students who use the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship to attend private schools are 43% more likely to enroll in four-year colleges than public-school peers. Gov. Ron DeSantis has proposed increasing the allocation for the school choice scholarship by $18.8 million.

Some colleges and universities are seeking ways to make faculty more accessible to students by having them share office space or providing other places for meetings. Some faculty have pushed back against the idea saying they need private offices, but other experts say students may feel intimidated when visiting a professor's office.

Data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center show that college graduation rates inched up 2.1 percentage points this year over 2016. The increase in six-year completion rates to 56.9% follows a two-year decline and surpasses the prerecession high of 56.1%, according to the analysis.

The University Innovation Alliance, a collaboration among 11 major institutions, has seen some success in its goal of improving retention rates to graduate 100,000 extra students in the next decade. This article outlines how the collaboration works, and how it can serve as a model for other universities.