The problem of word over-use often occurs when you are reporting what other people have written or told you. How, for instance, can you avoid writing ‘said’ over and over? Reading the same word several times can be extremely boring. You need to find substitutes for those pesky ‘said’s. Right? Here’s a paragraph which could […] … learn more→

The Onion, like many national media outlets, has beefed up its higher-education coverage in recent years. In past decades the satirical news website’s coverage leaned on jokes about hard-partying frat bros and absent-minded professors. But in recent years its writers have applied their wit to contemporary campus issues like sexual assault, adjunct labor, and free […] … learn more→

Parents can help children develop their language. But when it comes to building the linguistic structure that undergirds the language, new research shows that children would rather do it themselves. Perhaps one of the oldest debates in the cognitive sciences centres on whether children have an inborn faculty of language. This faculty makes it possible […] … learn more→

Every few months it seems, an old 8th grade exam makes the internet rounds. The questions on the exam generally blow away high school graduates of today, and usually the difficulty of the exam is hand-waved away—“oh, it was mostly just local knowledge” and “nobody really passed it, or was expected to.” Old tests are […] … learn more→

National Association of Scholars president Peter Wood has a column at Minding the Campus this week arguing for an 7-point plan for what he calls “a real program for reform” of American higher education that would “take back the campus from those who are intent on making it a 24-7 taxpayer-subsidized indoctrination camp.” The notion […] … learn more→

This is from something I wrote a long time ago, but it still seems to have relevance. My writing ‘voice’ betrays its origin in a formal academic publication. However, the notion that academic work and academics’ learning continues in, through and as a public conversation – as opposed to having “impact” or “engagement” – is […] … learn more→

“We exist explicitly to rip off students as brutally as possible and we will deliberately provide no education in any form.” –this could be the corporate model and official slogan of many schools, and accreditation would have no problem at all with it, as per their written policies. It’s been a while since I’ve talked […] … learn more→

The comments are in, and it appears that the campus is divided. This past fall, the U.S. Department of Education announced its intention to require recipients of competitive grants (an estimated $2.8 billion in fiscal year 2015) to openly license the intellectual property created with those funds. This open licensing rule — which would impact […] … learn more→

One thing is clear about the government’s recent proposals to reform higher education: they will shape and sculpt the UK’s higher education system for the foreseeable future – but at what cost? In its Fulfilling our Potential green paper, published in November, the government set out how it wants to both control the price of […] … learn more→

Each year, hundreds of thousands of students enrol to study at South Africa’s universities. Of the 60% of black African students who survive the first year, only 15% will ultimately graduate. This is hardly surprising: these failed students come from an oppressive, ineffective public school system. Most of their classmates never make it into higher […] … learn more→