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Education

UNC Chapel Hill: We’re not investigating students

UNC Chapel Hill officials have walked back a vice provost’s statement that they’re investigating the student group Hill After Hours over a video lampooning attitudes toward the South Campus dorms. “Please be assured that we are not investigating any student or student group” in connection to that, or to The...

By Ray Gronberg

April 13, 2026

UNC workforce report sees big gap in engineering-grad numbers

North Carolina’s public universities mint lots of new engineers every year, but a UNC System analysis says they’re still not turning out enough. But that doesn’t exactly make engineering unique. The system’s new Workforce Alignment Report says the state’s economy can use … well, more of everything. “North Carolina has...

By Ray Gronberg

April 13, 2026

Carolina’s getting FIREd

UNC Chapel Hill is in trouble with one of the country’s top free-speech advocacy groups. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression — more popularly known as FIRE — wants campus administrators to retract their criticism of The Daily Tar Heel’s April Fools edition. They’re also calling on them to...

By Ray Gronberg

April 13, 2026

UNC ups nurse production; legislators unsatisfied

The UNC System says its universities are on track to produce 707 more nurses a year by the 2029-30 school year. Trouble is, that doesn’t fill the 12,459-nurse gap in supply versus demand that UNC Chapel Hill’s Sheps Center for Health Services Research sees coming by 2033. Members of a...

By Ray Gronberg

April 9, 2026

UNC’s new provost introduces himself

Wednesday’s trustee meetings featured the first appearance in that venue of UNC Chapel Hill’s new provost, Magnus Egerstedt. The native of Sweden is an expert in what he calls “swarm robotics,” which focuses on how to control dozens or hundreds of drones at a time. It’s a field that these...

By Ray Gronberg

March 26, 2026

Duke rolls out “HomeGrown” program

Duke University and Duke Health say they’ll channel $203 million over three years into an effort to expand economic opportunity in Durham and the Triangle region. What they’re calling the HomeGrown initiative focuses on four areas where Duke says it can directly impact economic mobility: employment pathways, construction opportunities, local...

By Ray Gronberg

March 19, 2026

A three-way stab at examining education

Gov. Josh Stein, Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Destin Hall have announced the formation of a Blue Ribbon Commission on Public Education The 28-member group is directed to examine teacher training and student advancement, administrative operations, educational leadership, and accountability. Stein, Berger and Hall jointly appointed the panel’s...

By Ray Gronberg

March 11, 2026

Dorm plans at UNC flagships to cost about $1B

Plans for close to $1 billion in new dormitory construction at UNC Chapel Hill and NC State merit more scrutiny from UNC System officials, a Board of Governors member says. Swadesh Chatterjee says this should occur via a “separate session” of the BOG so it can quiz officials from the two...

By Ray Gronberg

February 27, 2026

Project Kitty Hawk grads to date: 96

To date, 96 people have graduated from the online degree programs some of the UNC System’s campuses are offering through Project Kitty Hawk. That includes 73 from N.C. Central University and 22 from East Carolina, according to data Project Kitty Hawk chief Andrew Kelly’s presenting to the system Board of...

By Ray Gronberg

February 24, 2026

NCSU involved in “Golden Dome” anti-missile project

NC State has a chance to participate in a $151 billion federally funded R&D program designed to bolster the country’s defenses against missile attacks. The Defense Department’s Missile Defense Agency in December and January qualified 2,440 companies and universities to compete for grants under what it’s calling the “Scalable Homeland...

By Ray Gronberg

February 10, 2026

School vouchers: More used in blue counties

Two UNC Charlotte professors have published a study that suggests K-12 school vouchers aren’t as heavily used in the places where they’re likely the most politically popular. Writing in the Journal of School Choice, professors Samatha Schuerman and Jason Giersch say they found “a significant negative association” in usage here...

By Ray Gronberg

February 3, 2026

Info about colleges’ NIL program hard to come by

UNC System schools are mostly sticking to the position that the details of the name, image and likeness programs they use to pay their athletes aren’t up for public discussion. Spokespeople for UNC Chapel Hill, NC State and East Carolina University both responded to recent Business North Carolina queries by declining to...

By Ray Gronberg

January 29, 2026

WSSU only UNC school holding out against tuition increase

Only one of the UNC System’s 16 universities — Winston-Salem State — wants to continue holding the line on in-state undergraduate tuition heading into the 2026-27 academic year. Thirteen others have proposed 3% increases in line with the signals the system Board of Governors and state legislators have sent in...

By Ray Gronberg

January 28, 2026

Roberts: No decision yet on Smith Center future

UNC Chapel Hill Chancellor Lee Roberts says he and his team “haven’t made any decisions” about the future of the university’s basketball arena, and remain open to advice on the subject. He told trustees he intends to set up two stakeholder committees, “one of basketball folks and one made up...

By Ray Gronberg

January 22, 2026

UNC pushing for 2027 Carolina North groundbreaking

UNC Chapel Hill will finally break ground on its Carolina North satellite campus in 2027, Chancellor Lee Roberts and his aides say. Briefing trustees Wednesday morning, Roberts said the plan for the first phase of development on the site will include housing for 2,200 students, plus classroom, lab and research...

By Ray Gronberg

January 22, 2026

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