Here are three reports you should know about this month.

1. Community college students agree that having a positive “mindset” does help in succeeding in college, but their confidence tends to freeze during testing and math. That’s according to a report by the Center for Community College Student Engagement at the University of Texas, which examines the relationship between students’ “productive academic mindset” — how confident they are in being able to succeed — and their performance in college. Nearly 70 percent of surveyed students felt they could significantly change their intelligence, and 82 percent said they felt they could keep up with their coursework. But when it comes to testing and math, they tend to stumble. Forty-four percent of students disagreed or responded neutrally as to whether they could do well on tests, and 44 percent said they same about math.
2. According to the 2019 report  from the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO), higher education funding is stabilizing, with state and local per student support increasing at the rate of inflation from 2017 to 2018. “This minimal growth follows a five-year period of annual funding increases greater than 2 percent, indicating that state appropriations have stabilized, albeit at a much lower level,” say the report’s authors. The good news is that, in 2018, state financial aid saw the largest increase since the Great Recession. In terms of revenue, net tuition revenue remained flat, perhaps due, in part, to factors such as lower international FTE enrollment, smaller tuition rate increases and increases in state public financial aid.
3. A survey released by Ellucian indicates that recruiters and hiring managers are confident that current college students have the skills needed to succeed, but they need to master “soft skills” and obtain additional credentials that go beyond traditional degrees. The survey also reveals that Generation Z (ages 18-21) students feel less prepared for the workforce than older college students. About 36 percent of Generation Z students feel very prepared for the workforce, compared to 49 percent of millennial students (ages 22-37) and 68 percent of Generation X students (ages 38-53). Both students and recruiters agree that credentials, in addition to traditional degrees, are now essential to students’ job prospects.