By Jonathan Thon. In my previous blog post, I highlighted the fact that despite their academic laurels, publically funded research institutes are no less aware of their bottom line and profit margins, and no less risk-averse, than private businesses. The problem is that while research departments are run like corporations, few principal investigators see themselves as small business owners. The result is a clear lack of push-back from academic faculty against institutional policies that ultimately take advantage of the basic research lab. More...

By Léo Charbonneau. Is a PhD really a waste of time? This was the question that a panel at the Canadian Science Policy Conference held in Toronto from Nov. 20 to 22 was asked to consider. Since all of the panelists had a PhD, with the exception of one who was a doctoral student, it was little surprise that they all agreed that no, it wasn’t a waste of time at all. More...

By John Warner. The more I read and think about higher education, our shortcomings, our crises, our threats, and our supposed saviors, the more I come to believe that the best thing we could do in the name of reform is absolutely nothing.
Down with the pursuit of “excellence!” Enough with innovation!
Leave some of the children behind!
Say it with me! Let’s do nothing!
I say this because I wonder what chasing the next shiniest thing has really been getting us.
What do we have to show for the era of “accountability?”
I’m looking at what’s going on in higher education and thinking about the last 30-plus years of “reform” in primary and secondary education and it makes me worry. Read more...

By Susan O'Doherty. I have been having a wonderful time performing in this piece as a member of an eight-person "time consortium." We are given snippets of scientific, philosophical and literary writing on the nature mad meaning of time, and each night we hold extemporaneous discussions about what we read. We are all actors, but we were chosen in part because of our interest or expertise in a variety of fields (other members include a physics teacher, a playwright and a minister), so discussions tend to be wide ranging. Read more...

By Tracy Mitrano. This semester I am fortunate to be taking part in an IT leadership program at Cornell University. Part of the program includes giving a presentation, and I was thrilled to find “the impact that distance learning has on higher education,” as one of the topics. I am in Florida now at the Sloan Consortium Conference, and so I hope to intellectually vacuum up as much information as I can to help our group prepare for our presentation in January.  With all the members of our group providing input, this morning I compiled a list of 10 reasons why an institution would want to embrace what I have called, “Distance Learning (and MOOCs in Particular)" or “DL/M” in short. Read more...