By and . States have traditionally provided funding for public colleges and universities based on a combination of the number of students enrolled and how much money they were allocated previously.
But, in the face of increasingly tight budgets and pressures to demonstrate their effectiveness to legislators, more and more states are tying at least some higher education funding to student outcomes. More...
Fewer poor students are being enrolled in state universities. Here’s why
What schools don’t tell you about campus sexual assault
By . A 2015 study found over 20 percent of all women surveyed experienced unwanted sexual contact while attending college. This confirmed earlier findings from a survey conducted between 2005 to 2007, in which one in five women reported being sexually assaulted since entering college. More...
When do children develop their gender identity?
By . Gender is generally thought of as a stable trait: we are born male or female and we stay that way as we grow from small children to adults. More...
Why teachers are unable to stop bias-based bullying
By . State and local lawmakers have put policies in place to address and prevent bullying. Many schools too have implemented interventions to improve school climate to reduce bullying behaviors. More...
Simply punishing students for bullying will not address the problem
By . The spring legislative season is well underway, and, as has been the case for the last several years, a number of states are again considering and passing amendments to their anti-bullying laws. More...
Competition as a fetish: why universities need to escape the trap
By . Competition has colonised our world. Everywhere we go and every step we take, we hear the siren call of competition. Higher education, too, is trapped in a competition fetish.
A fetish is the belief in something having the power to make our desires come true and protect us from harm. More...
Genetics: what it is that makes you clever – and why it’s shrouded in controversy
By . Francis Galton, who was Charles Darwin’s cousin, is considered the father of eugenics and was one of the first to formally study intelligence. His 1869 work Hereditary Genius argued that superior mental capabilities were passed down via natural selection – confined to Europe’s most eminent men, a “lineage of genius”. Barring a few exceptions, women, ethnic minorities and lower socioeconomic communities were labelled as inferior in intelligence. More...
English has taken over academia: but the real culprit is not linguistic
By and . Not only is April 23 the anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death, but the UN has chosen it as UN English Language Day in tribute to the Bard. More...
Why grammar mistakes in a short email could make some people judge you
By and . I’m a cognitive psychologist who studies language comprehension. If I see an ad for a vacation rental that says “Your going to Hollywood!” it really bugs me. But my collaborator, Robin Queen, a sociolinguist, who studies how language use varies across social groups, is not annoyed by those errors at all. More...
College is worth it. Who should pay for it?
By . Presidential candidates from both parties have advanced proposals about how higher education should be funded. Democratic presidential candidates have called for debt-free or tuition-free college. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders both have plans for reducing tuition through increased public spending. More...