By Carl Straumsheim. The editors and editorial board members of the linguistics journal Lingua have stoked antipublisher sentiment with their highly publicized protest against Elsevier. But judging by past revolts, turning their popularity into editorial success for their new journal, Glossa, could be a challenge. Read more...
Leveraging 'Lingua'
'Palace of Ashes'
By Elizabeth Redden. In Palace of Ashes: China and the Decline of American Higher Education (Johns Hopkins University Press), Mark S. Ferrara contrasts the “downward trajectory” of American higher education against the rise of China’s university system. Read more...
Supporting Online Adjuncts
By Carl Straumsheim. Survey of administrators finds more colleges are turning to those off the tenure track to teach courses online, but also a "fundamental divide" among institutions about how to handle those instructors. Read more...
More Support for 'Lingua' Editors
By Carl Straumsheim. More library and higher education groups on Thursday threw their support behind the editors of the linguistics journal Lingua, upping the pressure on publisher Elsevier. Read more...
The Structure of Instructure
By Carl Straumsheim. Instructure’s incursion into the learning management system market reached a new stage last month as the company filed for its initial public offering. As the company prepares to go public, paperwork filed with the federal government suggests Instructure still spends about 80 cents on sales and marketing for every dollar it brings in. Read more...
Senate Inquiry Into Accreditation
By Michael Stratford. As the Obama administration announces a set of executive actions and proposed legislative steps to toughen its oversight of the agencies, a U.S. Senate investigative committee has opened a sweeping inquiry into higher education accreditation, and lawmakers have started requesting records of individual accrediting agencies, according to several people familiar with the review. Read more...
Shaming Accreditors
By Michael Stratford. The Obama administration is trying to ratchet up already growing pressure on accrediting agencies to focus more intently on whether colleges are graduating students with the skills they need to get jobs and repay their loans. Read more...
Are Elite College Courses Better?
By Doug Lederman. The public -- and heck, many people in higher education -- widely assume prestigious colleges and universities provide the best quality education. That's why employers often want to hire their graduates and why many parents want their children to attend them. Read more...
Elsevier Battle Escalates
By Scott Jaschik. Elsevier doesn't always respond in detail to criticism that advocates for open access direct at the journal publishing giant. Open-access supporters say publishing can have high academic quality and be free online without the high subscription prices Elsevier charges. The company says its critics underestimate the true costs of publishing. Read more...
Merging an HBCU
By Scott Jaschik. This fall has been a challenging one for Albany State University, a historically black institution in Georgia.
In October, the university fired four financial aid officials after a state audit found misconduct involving federal funds dating back to 1985. Read more...