Alabama is removing tenure, but before I get to that, I feel the need to give some background: The degeneration of higher education, slowly increasing over the last few decades, is now visible to the casual observer. The free-fall reduction of standards to the point that social promotion is unimpeded in college, to the point […] … learn more→

Recent data – highlighted in the Grattan report Mapping Australian Higher Education 2016 – raised alarm bells about the employability of science graduates. The report author, Andrew Norton, argues that science degrees are “risky” because more students are going into science while graduate employment rates are low. In 2015, 51% of science graduates seeking full-time […] … learn more→

There is no question that artificial intelligence (AI) and automation are entering the workplace in many graduate level jobs, and this trend is likely to continue and quicken. Times Higher Education recently asked whether universities needed to rethink what they do and how they do it, given that artificial intelligence is beginning to take over […] … learn more→

Humanities PhDs and PhD students: we want to know where you are and what you are doing. We want to know your stories. The TRaCE project aims to develop an infrastructure for a new community of humanities teachers and researchers, inside and outside the academy. We are starting in Canada, but our goals are international. […] … learn more→

You might be disappointed to hear that some intriguing underwater structures recently discovered off the Greek island of Zakynthos are not part of the lost city of Atlantis. But the structures, which resemble colonnades of cobble stones and bases of columns, have an equally fascinating origin. They were actually constructed by microbes gathering around natural […] … learn more→

The last few months have clearly been trying on the nerves and confidence of many academics working in Britain. The vote for Brexit has reverberated through the ivory towers and off the red-brick walls of British universities. In the middle of this unease then came a set of new recommendations by Lord Nicholas Stern proposing […] … learn more→

I love Twitter. On logging in, I am instantly transported to a digital common room full of researchers. I get to exchange ideas, build networks and lurk in the background soaking up the conversation. Want to know what other academics are thinking about mixed methods right now? Go to Twitter, type “mixed methods” into the […] … learn more→

You may know someone like this at work: optimistic and resilient, they appear to bounce through challenges drawing on an internal strength that helps them work through problems they encounter at work. Always hopeful and positive about the future, they treat stressful events as a “one-off” situation, appearing to have a built-in buffer that protects […] … learn more→

I’ve mentioned a few times how identity politics is dementing our campuses, turning them into basket cases that no longer focus on education and research. I trust many of my readers have seen reports of campuses shut down due to student protests demanding certain skin colors or genders get even more special considerations than they […] … learn more→

As a young adult in college, I decided to learn Japanese. My father’s family is from Japan, and I wanted to travel there someday. However, many of my classmates and I found it difficult to learn a language in adulthood. We struggled to connect new sounds and a dramatically different writing system to the familiar […] … learn more→