Tag Archives: knowledge

Gaining knowledge is what makes a degree valuable, not graduate salaries or transferable skills

Gaining knowledge is what makes a degree valuable, not graduate salaries or transferable skills

The unexpected social and economic challenges brought by the coronavirus pandemic have given increased urgency to questions about the purposes of a university education and the kinds of graduates that society needs. Much of this debate has focused on the extent to which university degrees lead to graduate jobs and higher graduate salaries. For example, […] … learn more→

Academics fear the value of knowledge for its own sake is diminishing

Academics fear the value of knowledge for its own sake is diminishing

A climate of “anti-intellectualism”, faltering levels of trust in “experts” and an era of “post-truth” provides a rather dreary depiction of the state of academia today. Compound this with the reorganisation of higher education – where universities are run more like businesses – along with the politics of austerity, and it may be little surprise […] … learn more→

What’s the “Half-life of knowledge\”?

An interesting question caught my eye recently: what’s the half-life of knowledge, for facts we think we know? Samuel Arbesman provides an answer in his recent Harvard Business Review article called, “Be Forewarned: Your Knowledge is Decaying.” Based on his new book, “The Half-Life of Facts: Why Everything we know has an Expiration Date,” the […] … learn more→

What do animals \’know\’? More than you may think

Rats use their knowledge to make decisions when faced with ambiguous situations, UCLA psychologists report. \”Rats often make judgments and behave as if they\’re rational creatures,\” said UCLA associate professor of psychology Aaron Blaisdell, a member of UCLA\’s Brain Research Institute and senior author of a new study published in the December issue of the […] … learn more→