By Peter Schmidt. The American Association of University Professors has taken a formal stand in opposition to “trigger warnings,” or advance notices to students that instructional material might elicit from them a troubling emotional response. In a report issued on Monday, the AAUP argues that trigger warnings threaten academic freedom and the quality of instruction, and says there are better means of helping students who are the victims of trauma. More...
By Chronicle Staff. Report: “Education at a Glance 2014: OECD Indicators”
Organization: Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
Summary: A survey of 44 countries found that increasing emphasis on vocational education and curriculum changes have greatly improved access to elementary and secondary education, but the changes have not had the same effect on higher education. More...
By Andy Thomason. Report: “Zero Marginal Cost: Measuring Subsidies for Graduate Education in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program”
Organization: New America Foundation
Authors: Jason Delisle, director of the foundation’s federal education budget project, and Alexander Holt, a policy analyst
Summary: The report examines the effects of two federal student-loan programs: income-based repayment, which allows borrowers to cap monthly payments at 10 percent of their annual income and have their debt forgiven after 20 years; and the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, which allows borrowers working in the nonprofit sector to have their debt forgiven after 10 years. More...
By Andy Thomason. The American Council on Education announced on Wednesday a project intended to make it easier for nontraditional students to earn four-year college degrees. Financed by a $1.86-million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the new program will create roughly 100 free or inexpensive general-education courses that will earn students as much as two years’ transfer credit at some 40 participating colleges. More...
By Rebecca Koenig. To catch a fish, head to the water. That simple idea motivated the University of Houston to adopt Snapchat, a smartphone application popular with teenagers, as a method of communication with prospective and current students. When it signed up for an account in January, the university was one of only a few experimenting with the social-media platform. Now more colleges are diving in, hoping to hook students’ attention. Read more...By Steve Kolowich. The providers of massive open online courses mostly cater to adults who already went to college. Now one provider, edX, is setting its sights on high-school students who are trying to get in. The nonprofit organization just announced a raft of free, online courses for high-school students. Most of the new MOOCs cover material from Advanced Placement courses in traditional disciplines. Read more...By Rebecca Koenig. Wearable technology has entered the mainstream. The Apple Watch, announced on Tuesday, ushers in the possibility that, one day soon, campuses across the country will contend with students who are literally attached to their gadgets. Read more...By Jeffrey R. Young. Brendan Iribe dropped out of the University of Maryland, but before he did he amassed 227 parking tickets. And he managed to meet two business partners who would help him build the virtual-reality company Oculus VR, which Facebook bought this year for about $2-billion. Read more...
By Max Lewontin. For humanities departments that are still struggling with the lingering effects of the 2008 recession, it appears no news is the best news.
That’s one of the chief conclusions of a report released on Monday by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The report stems from a survey of the state of the humanities across 13 disciplines...
The new survey results build on a previous one conducted during the 2007-8 academic year. This time around, the academy added five new disciplines to its look at the humanities: classical studies, communication, folklore, musicology, and philosophy. More...
By Graeme Paton. A major international study by the OECD finds that just a quarter of UK graduates display high-level literacy skills – significantly behind countries such as Japan and Finland. Read more.../https%3A%2F%2Fprofilepics.canalblog.com%2Fprofilepics%2F1%2F0%2F1076071.jpg)
