Time and again I’ve pointed out how accreditation has been taken over by the same bloated and overpaid administration that’s destroying higher education. One of the biggest signs of this is the dwindling faculty on campus; although the student base of many of our universities and colleges has doubled, and doubled again, full time faculty […] … learn more→

As a kindergartener, Natalie Resch kept a curious eye on her sisters—then in third and fourth grade—and their more advanced schoolwork. Now a senior at Windom Area High School in Minnesota, Natalie has had a unique opportunity to keep up with them. Through her school’s dual-enrollment program, College in the Schools, Natalie’s teachers have helped […] … learn more→

How well do faculty members write for the general public? As part of a larger research project on college outreach, I sought the opinions of writing experts. The following three statements represent the range of the opinions obtained: \”The authors we typically work with — academics — have difficulty writing for a trade [i.e., public] […] … learn more→

Who could have imagined that London and the island of Mauritius would between them change the face of higher education the world over? That’s exactly what happened 150 years ago through a collaboration between the University of London and the Royal College, Mauritius – a collaboration that merely set out to solve an immediate problem.  […] … learn more→

Last year the Augustana Campus of the University of Alberta ran a pilot study to consider the efficacy of using e-portfolios to deepen students’ learning. We were interested in developing a structure that would enable us to determine how well our students were learning Augustana’s core skill requirements (writing, speaking, critical thinking, and information literacy). […] … learn more→

When the most recent report card for the Great Barrier Reef was released last year, it painted a depressing picture of the reef’s condition. The condition of the reef, measured by coral, seagrasses and water quality, remains poor. Reductions in nutrients and sediment from rivers flowing into the reef is well less than the targeted […] … learn more→

There is a common belief that Asians are naturally gifted at maths. Asian countries like Singapore and Japan lead the ranks in first and second position on maths performance in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) tables – an international survey that ranks education systems worldwide – while Australia sits around 12th. What is […] … learn more→

Being antagonistic to corporatization should not necessarily be conflated with being broadly antagonistic to corporations. Universities and corporations have long had mutually beneficial relationships that have caused relatively infrequent controversies. And, just to be clear, although some faculty with more progressive political values have been very skeptical of those relationships between their universities and corporate […] … learn more→

One of the big issues with the corporate structure, regardless of the corporation, is it must eventually debase the corporate product: invariably, the product is reduced to the lowest quality that can sell at the highest price. If corporate officers don’t perpetually seek to either reduce quality or raise prices at every opportunity, they’re inevitably […] … learn more→

Emily Best is a 32-year old Pennsylvania farmer who wants a little help from the federal government. As reported in MartketWatch, Best believes that the work she does should qualify her for an extremely generous federal program that allows student loan borrowers who work in public service jobs to pay an affordable percentage of their […] … learn more→