Open Thread Wednesday: Going Back for More Courses
ByAnastasia Salter. I’ve been accused by friends and family of being addicted to education, and I can’t really argue with them. But given all the attention being paid to MOOCs and other continuing education options, I’m apparently not alone. There are lots of informal opportunities for not-particularly-structured learning in academia: I’m a fan of conference workshops, unconferences, and online discussion groups. Roopika Risam and Adeline Koh are running #DHPOCO Summer School this month, a great model of collaborative online learning. Read more...Let’s End Thesis Tyranny
By Bruce Ballenger. Many of my first-year college students have been battle-trained in writing thesis statements by the time I get them. But rather than opening doors to thought, the thesis quickly closes them. Instead of offering a guiding hand, the thesis carries a baseball bat, muscling its way into writers’ thoughts and beating information into submission. What I’m talking about is the thug thesis, the bully who hangs with the five-paragraph theme and similar forms of deductive writing. Unfortunately, this thesis—an anathema to academic inquiry—is the one most students know best. Read more...Nate Silver Crunches the Humanities
By Mark Bauerlein. In the debates over the humanities that have unfolded at The Chronicle and elsewhere, the statistician Nate Silver has emerged an authority on the numerical facts. Late last month, Silver wrote a post on his FiveThirtyEight blog at The New York Times titled “As More Attend College, Majors Become More Career-Focused.” He cited figures from the Digest of Education Statistics demonstrating that allegations of grave decline are unjustified. In fact, looked at in the proper way, the number of students choosing English and other humanities fields is stable or only slightly falling. Read more...Bill Gates Discusses MOOCs at Microsoft Research’s Faculty Summit
By Sara Grossman. Bill Gates says that this is the “golden era” of learning, thanks to massive open online courses and easy access to information. The chairman of Microsoft gave the keynote address on Monday at Microsoft Research’s Faculty Summit, an annual event that brings together Microsoft researchers and academics from more than 200 institutions for a two-day conference in Redmond, Wash., on current issues facing computer science. Read more...Students Prefer Print for Serious Academic Reading
By Sara Grossman. E-reader use is on the rise, and the textbook market is shifting toward customizable digital products. Are students ditching print in favor of electronic alternatives for their academic reading? A forthcoming small study from the City University of New York asked that question and found that, like previous generations, at least some Millennials still prefer reading long texts and academic selections in print. Read more...Will Students Be Able to Repay Those Loans?
By Beckie Supiano. Many people who work in financial aid are frustrated by news coverage that suggests lots of students are taking on six-figure debts for their bachelor’s degrees. (They’re not.) But even if they think that talk of a student-loan crisis is overblown, aid administrators do worry about whether students will be able to repay their loans. That worry is part of their job: If too many of a college’s borrowers default, the college can lose its eligibility to participate in the federal student-aid programs. Read more...
Fund-Raising Pace Slowed in 2012, but Revenues Were Up, Survey Finds
By Cory Weinberg. The number of alumni donors and the amount of money colleges collected from them stayed relatively flat in 2012, according to survey results released on Monday, bringing fund raising down to earth after a pair of postrecession bounce-back years.
Colleges counted 1.4 percent fewer donors in the 2012 fiscal year but pulled in about 2.3 percent more revenue from them. Institutions have seen donors drop off since before the recession, but the uptick in revenue represented a slowdown from the two previous years, which had seen 5.9-percent and 5.7-percent growth, respectively. Read more...
Federal Student-Loan Debt Crosses $1-Trillion Threshold
By Cory Weinberg. Student-loan borrowers now owe the federal government more than $1-trillion for the first time, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced on Wednesday.
The swelling federal student-loan debt now sits at $1.2-trillion, the bureau estimated. The country passed the milestone with a fitting backdrop: the debate in Congress over student-loan interest rates. Rates for new borrowers of federally subsidized loans doubled, to 6.8 percent, on July 1, with Democrats and Republicans sparring, before and since, over the best way to set future rates. Read more...
Studienplatz-Chaos: Es sind noch Plätze frei
Von Carola Padtberg. Die Bewerbungsfrist für NC-Fächer endet, mehr Studienanfänger als je zuvor bangen um die Zusage für ihre Wunsch-Uni. Doch auch bei einer Absage gibt es noch Chancen. In den kommenden Tagen und Wochen werden bundesweit Abiturienten mit zittrigen Fingern den Umschlag der Traum-Uni aus dem Briefkasten fischen. An diesem Montag endet die Frist für Bewerbungen für zulassungsbeschränkte Fächer - und es sieht düster aus. Mehr...Wissenschafts-Agenda 2025: So soll es an den Unis weitergehen
Mehr Wettbewerb und neue Leuchttürme: In seinen "Perspektiven des deutschen Wissenschaftssystems" hat der Wissenschaftsrat die hochschulpolitische Marschrichtung für das kommende Jahrzehnt festgelegt. Größter Haken: Dafür braucht es jede Menge Geld. Demografischer Wandel und internationaler Wettbewerb - auf diese beiden Entwicklungen muss das deutsche Hochschulwesen reagieren, findet der Wissenschaftsrat. Gemeint ist: Aktuell sind die Studenten in Deutschland jünger denn je, und es so viele wie noch nie. Doch die Entwicklung könnte sich in Zukunft umkehren, wenn die geburtenstarken Jahrgänge die Hochschulen verlassen haben. Gleichzeitig wird die weltweite wissenschaftliche Konkurrenz immer stärker. Um darauf zu reagieren, müssen sich die deutschen Hochschulen erneuern, und wie das geschehen soll, hat der Wissenschaftsrat nun in seinem Papier "Perspektiven des deutschen Wissenschaftssystems" skizziert. Das 117-Seiten-Dokument ist sperrig, aber durchaus bedeutend für die Entwicklung der deutschen Hochschullandschaft, denn es kommt vom wichtigsten Beratungsgremium von Bund und Ländern in der Hochschul- und Forschungspolitik. Mehr...
