Are Rural Students the Next Priority for Colleges?

It’s not hard to find folks in higher education talking about the challenges of getting more rural students to and through college. It’s the solutions that are more elusive. Yet after I wrote about this issue in a newsletter last fall, readers helped to connect me to several ideas worth highlighting. Most notable: Some colleges are beginning to consider their rural students as a separate demographic group and are consciously devising services, such as internships and orientations, especially designed for them. Likewise, I heard about some cool examples in response to my specific question about strategies for improving broadband access, which is one of the biggest and most-obvious barriers right now.