28 juillet 2013
War of attrition – Asking why PhD students leave
By Melonie Fullick. The Times Higher Ed in the UK had a hit this past week, regarding the issue of doctoral supervision, with an article by Tara Brabazon titled “10 truths a PhD supervisor will never tell you”. Worth noting alongside that one is a recent article by Leonard Cassuto that appeared in the USA’s Chronicle of Higher Education, regarding doctoral attrition, which has long been notoriously high (at least in the United States – an average of around 40-50 percent). Attrition rates in Canada are, as far as I know, not generally available though some numbers from eight of the “U-15″ were published in this article from Margin Notes blog (and a longer discussion of completion rates and times to completion is here). Read more...Why are you publishing?
By Jo VanEvery. Everyone knows that you have to publish. And yet, many academics struggle. Even if you don’t struggle with the actual writing, you may find it hard to submit your work. Sometimes your fears about submitting lead you to publish in not quite the right places, affecting your ability to secure a tenure-track job, a grant, or a promotion. Read more...The value of a degree earned in Canada vs. one earned abroad
By Léo Charbonneau. Statistics Canada’s recent release of education data from the 2011 National Household Survey had many journalists, public policy analysts and others scrambling to interpret how the country is doing in this important area. Among the key findings: women are earning degrees in ever greater numbers, including in the STEM disciplines, while most apprenticeships are still held by men. Read more...Foreign-friendly Canada threatens the U.K.’s international student dominance
By Andrew M. Boggs. The suggestion that the British Conservative Party may consider a cap on international (non-EU) students raises the question, yet again, of the United Kingdom’s interest in international higher education students. Despite protestations to the contrary during the Prime Minister David Cameron’s trade visit to India in February, the perception that the U.K.’s higher education student visa regime is discouraging applications appears to be having a negative impact on international student enrolments at U.K. institutions. A recent survey conducted by Universities UK of its membership suggested the U.K.’s international enrolment figures are not keeping pace with growth in the global higher education market, and Universities UK Chief Executive, Nicola Dandridge, identifies Canada as being one of the competitor nations the U.K. needs to watch. Read more...Racial and sexual minority studies is at a crossroads in Canada
By Sulaimon Giwa. Why racialized scholars need to lead the way. The field of racial and sexual minority studies is arguably in its formative stage in Canada. This is not the case in the United States, where a large corpus of studies has been published on a range of issues that affect the health and well-being of sexual minorities of colour. One area of research that has received wide coverage and attention at scholarly forums and in academic journals is the disproportionate impact of HIV/AIDS on men who have sex with men (MSM), especially MSM of colour. American sexual minority scholars of colour have largely moved beyond a deficit analysis of the virus to examine epidemiological and sociocultural factors that predispose these men to getting the disease. However, in Canada this shift has yet to materialize in a substantive way. There are historical, social, cultural, economic and political reasons for this disparity. For example, Harriet Eisenkraft reported in this magazine on the persistent structural racism faced by academics of colour (among which I include Indigenous faculty and scholars) in the Canadian academy. Read more...Senators: Too much focus on college degrees
By MJ LEE. With federal student loan debt mounting across the country, lawmakers across the political aisle are in agreement that Washington must help emphasize that jobs training can be just as valuable to young Americans as a college degree. Speaking at POLITICO’s Jobs of the Future event Wednesday, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said the out-of-control level of student loan debt in the United States is in part due to the widespread suggestion that a young person is a “second-class citizen” if he or she doesn’t attain a four-year college degree. Read more...Student loans are not the answer
By William Elliott III. The financial-aid model that American college students depend on is broken. Unfortunately, media coverage and political skirmishes focus on student-loan interest rates and rising student indebtedness, while ignoring the one strategy that can increase personal responsibility, educational outcomes and long-term financial health for students: college savings. For decades, the federal government has subsidized student loans, with more than $600 billion in federal student loans outstanding today. As states have cut funding for higher education and tuition prices have increased, students and their families have taken on more and more debt. Total student loan debt now well exceeds credit-card debt with each student carrying an average debt load of more than $27,000. Read more...How online education can create a 'global classroom'
By Daphne Koller. Around the world, and in developing nations especially, there is an overwhelming demand for higher education. Despite worldwide increases in tertiary enrolment numbers, there still remains disparity between those with access to quality education and those without. In Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, only 6% of college-age students are enrolled in higher education. That number rises to 72% in North America and Western Europe, but hovers around 20% to 40% for most developing regions, according to UNESCO reports. Without higher education, most people face a grim future. Read more...Does higher education mean lower joy on the job?
By Mary Beth Marklein. American workers with a college degree are less likely than their counterparts with a high school diploma to feel enthusiastic about their jobs, and that's "bad for the U.S. economy," a new report says. American workers who have a college degree are less likely than workers with just a high school diploma to feel enthusiastic about their jobs, and that's "bad for the U.S. economy," a new report says. The trend holds no matter how much workers make or how old they are, says the report by Gallup Education, a division of the research and polling company. It's based on surveys of more than 150,000 American adults conducted in 2012. Read more...
Are fat Ph.D.'s subject to discrimination?
By Lynn O'Shaughnessy. Does academia discriminate against fat Ph.D. students? A new study that suggests it is in fact happening comes on the heels of a professor's controversial tweet last month that denigrated obese Ph.D. students. Geoffrey Miller, an evolutionary psychology professor, unleashed a firestorm of criticism when he tweeted this:
"Dear obese PhD applicants: if you didn't have the willpower to stop eating carbs, you won't have the willpower to do a dissertation. #truth."
After the tweet caused an uproar, Miller, who is a visiting professor this summer at New York University, claimed that the tweet was part of a research project, but the institutional review board at the University of New Mexico where he is tenured didn't buy it. Read more...
"Dear obese PhD applicants: if you didn't have the willpower to stop eating carbs, you won't have the willpower to do a dissertation. #truth."
After the tweet caused an uproar, Miller, who is a visiting professor this summer at New York University, claimed that the tweet was part of a research project, but the institutional review board at the University of New Mexico where he is tenured didn't buy it. Read more...
