By Carl Straumsheim. Walter H.G. Lewin’s debut as a massive open online course instructor was announced with some fanfare: “Afraid of physics?” a press release asked in January 2013. “Do you hate it? Walter Lewin will make you love physics whether you like it or not.” Read more...
Intellectual Connections
By Colleen Flaherty. Integrative learning. It sounds good, and it’s a cornerstone of the Association of American Colleges and Universities’ Liberal Education and America's Promise (LEAP) initiative to advance liberal education. Read more...
A Global Hub, Close to Home
By Elizabeth Redden. While other U.S. universities have built branch campuses abroad, the University of California at Berkeley is betting it can create a global higher education hub in its own backyard. Read more...
'Finding Common Cause'
By Kaitlin Mulhere. Despite a shared interest in foreign relations, international affairs scholars and policy makers operate in different spheres, separated by distinct goals and measures of success. Better connections between these worlds of thought and action can lead to better public policy, according to a new book. Read more...
Crowded Houses in Europe
By Jack Grove for Times Higher Education. The following table explores student-instructor ratios in various European nations, as well as spending per student. One euro is worth about $1.16. Read more...
Middle-Class Economics for Tuition
By Michael Stratford. Addressing the nation on Tuesday evening, President Obama highlighted what he called his “bold” plan to make community college free for some students. He also called for an overhaul of the tax code that redirects benefits away from wealthy Americans in order to extend tax credits for college. Read more...
Obama's Final Two Years
By Michael Stratford. The White House has highlighted a range of higher education policy ideas in the days and weeks leading up to President Obama’s penultimate State of the Union address on Tuesday evening. Read more...
Flexibility and Graduation
By Paul Fain. Attending college full time isn’t always the best way to get to graduation, at least for adult community college students who have previously pursued a degree and dropped out.
That’s the central finding of a new study from a coalition of five higher education groups. Read more...
Inclusive Dialogues
By Kaitlin Mulhere. A student group at Mount Holyoke College has decided to cancel its annual performance of The Vagina Monologues, saying the play excludes the experiences of transgender women who don’t have a vagina. Read more...
'Patriotism Abroad'
By Elizabeth Redden. A core assumption of international education is that more conversations between domestic and foreign students will result in mutual understanding and more positive, friendly feelings. But what if those conversations, when they happen, result instead in retrenchment? What if they leave a bitter taste behind. Read more...