By Scott McLemee. Some years ago I met a woman who owned a large calico cat bearing a certain resemblance to Queen Victoria: stout, regal, disapproving. She had enjoyed her mistress’s undivided attention as a kitten; thesecond cat joining them a few years later proved easy to dominate. But the large male primate who began coming to the apartment on some evenings was another matter. I appeared incapable of taking a hint, and she was not amused. Read more...
By Judith Shapiro. It should not be controversial to believe that growing up involves becoming stronger, becoming better able to withstand whatever slings and arrows life throws at us and to pursue our goals even against difficult challenges. Surely the college years can and should play an important role in that growing-up process. Read more...
By Holly Else for Times Higher Education. Universities should have a “proper dialogue” with Ph.D. students from the start about the fact that they are “not walking into a job for life.”
That is the view of Dame Athene Donald, head of a Royal Society working group that has published new guidelines about doctoral candidate development. Read more...
By David M. Perry. What are professors allowed to say? Where are we are allowed to say it?
Last week Deborah O’Connor, a senior lecturer at Florida State University, was pushed to resign after making racist and homophobic comments on a public Facebook page. She said some pretty horrible things, like blaming Europe’s troubles on “rodent Muslims.” She also told a well-known gay hairstylist to “Take your Northern fagoot [sic] elitism and shove it up your ass.” More...
By Rebecca Koenig. Just two months after a group of neuroscientists criticized commercially available brain games, a different group of scientists released an open letter on Wednesday saying the products do show promise. Read more...
By Beckie Supiano. There has been a proliferation of consumer information meant to help prospective students choose a college. A number of those tools seem to take it for granted that prospects will embark on a broad, national search. They assume that prospective students are shopping around, just as they might for a car or some other big-ticket consumer item, and that they’re willing to pick up and move anywhere in the country. More...
By Anne Chemin. Computers may dominate our lives, but mastery of penmanship brings us important cognitive benefits, research suggests. More...
By Joe Sheridan. For this column, I settled on something that has virtually consumed me over the past few months: university.
I remember about a year ago going through the stressful process of picking programs and universities to apply to, and anxiously waiting for responses. But looking back, I think high school students, myself included, often worry too much about the process.
It's important to keep in mind that there is no one path or "ultimate goal," as we sometimes trick ourselves into thinking. Some students' paths include changing programs, switching schools, or pursuing other avenues such as college or the workforce. More...
By Lee Skallerup Bessette. I’ll admit that blogging hasn’t come as easily to me lately (wait, I already have here and here and here and here). And part of it is, in fact, the difficulty of blogging when I’m (professionally) happy. The tension never really goes away, however. I still have lots of friends who are mistreated adjuncts, alongside other friends who mistreated faculty and staff. These issues haven’t subsided , but it now seems disingenuous to blog about them, other than to point to others who are writing more eloquently that I am. Read more...
By Steven Mintz. A college degree has never been more valuable. On average, a graduate from a four-year college earns 84 percent more annually than a high school graduate. As a college degree’s wage premium has risen, so, too, has enrollment in post-secondary institutions. But college graduation rates have budged only marginally. More...
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