Culture trumps salary in the race for talent nowadays. That’s the shift Dave Smith has seen the last few years among employers in West Michigan as unemployment rates steadily declined and the labor market tightened.

BIG RAPIDS — Ferris State University extended a fundraising campaign by three years and increased the amount it hopes to secure from donors.

GRAND RAPIDS — Like many West Michigan-based manufacturers, Wolverine Coil Spring Co. has adopted an all-hands-on-deck approach to counter industry stereotypes and address talent-attraction challenges. 

Michigan’s beleaguered K-12 public education system continues to take a beating from the state’s business groups.

Today’s up-and-coming digital generation still sees the value of a degree-based management education, but a growing number prefer self-directed learning and just-in-time courses instead of established MBA programs, according to a new study.

Grand Valley State University’s search for a successor to President Tom Haas is the latest effort by a Michigan-based public university to secure a new leader.

A handful of West Michigan executives find that practical business experience can carry over from the boardroom to the classroom.

Michigan’s big three research universities kept up with their peers during the past decade in graduating talent, but lagged in commercializing innovations stemming from research.

Here's a list of articles in MiBiz's Higher Education focus section in the May 14, 2018 edition:

By focusing on an internal culture that favors employee retention and support for external training initiatives, some West Michigan executives say they’ve largely avoided any problems associated with labor shortages.

Over the last few years, manufacturers have developed extensive in-house training programs in a move to combat skilled worker shortages.

Until business leaders can come together to address industry problems, companies “will not succeed.”

As demand for engineering talent continues to intensify, some West Michigan liberal arts colleges are partnering with larger state-funded institutions to add niche programs to their curricula.

His first business presented workshops on renewable energy at elementary schools and included solar power kits students could assemble.

BATTLE CREEK — Through a new partnership with one of the world’s largest commercial airline carriers, Western Michigan University hopes to become a premier institution for training aircraft maintenance personnel.

Giving up a Harvard University education to help develop a high-tech wearable device for elite athletes might sound crazy to some.

GRAND RAPIDS — Citing concerns over widespread inequality, economic development stakeholders want to improve their outreach to the growing Latino population in the greater Grand Rapids area.

Citing increasing public awareness resulting from high-profile incidents, Grand Valley State University plans to place greater emphasis on cybersecurity training.

As President Donald Trump’s executive order banning immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries continues to play out in the courts, university administrators and international students in West Michigan say they’re keeping vigilant.

KALAMAZOO — Western Michigan University will launch a new product design institute to create a hub of designers in Southwest Michigan and supply local companies with talent.

GRAND RAPIDS — Given the demand for more engineers in West Michigan, two local universities hope to be the institutions that can step up and fill that need.

As Michigan life sciences companies grow and seek to commercialize their innovations, the firms often face key constraints when it comes to access to capital in the state. 

Employers plan to stick with moderate pay raises for workers next year and at the same time put more emphasis on one-time payouts and merit bonuses.

Reda Jaber could have gone in a few directions after graduating in 2014 from the University of Michigan with a trio of graduate degrees.

The emergence of life sciences-based higher educational institutions continues to have a discernible impact on ancillary development in urban areas across Michigan.

The Michigan State University College of Human Medicine wants to get medical students into the real world much sooner with the launch next month of an entirely new curriculum. 

KALAMAZOO — Achieving two key accreditation milestones this summer shows that the Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine at Western Michigan University is meeting expectations.

BENTON HARBOR — The former president of Lake Michigan College claims she got fired last spring after just four months on the job because she found through an internal assessment that the school lacked compliance with federal rules for student aid.