Most universities in the United States require a final doctoral defense of your precious work, although the procedures and formats may different from those in other countries. In the U.S., the advisory committee you’ve had a love-hate relationship with throughout your dissertation constitutes your defense committee as well. In other countries, the defense may be […] … learn more→

A few years back, I called attention to changes to the way how higher education in Wisconsin was being run. Namely, they were introducing new rules which potentially could eliminate tenure, annihilate academics, and reorganize higher education into a jobs training program. Naturally, the politicos making the changes said that the “potential” was just pure […] … learn more→

A senior lecturer in my department – a white, working-class woman – was telling me about her daughter who was applying to Ucas a few years ago. When she suggested Oxbridge, her daughter replied, “It’s not for the likes of us, Mum.” Her mother was sad and disheartened that even as a university academic, her child didn’t feel that her […] … learn more→

Taking into account the tech talent gap in the prevailing demand/supply market of software developers around the world, many entrepreneurs, nowadays choose to develop an offshore software development company to avoid the local tech talent shortage. In the software development industry, a large number of technical hiring takes place through the recruitment agencies with different […] … learn more→

By 2026, employment in computer and information technology occupations is projected to grow 13 percent over what it was in 2016. Jobs in these fields will require skills in cloud computing, big data collection and storage, information security and more. As I argue in a forthcoming paper in the Journal of Monetary Economics with Giovanni Gallipoli, these information technology – […] … learn more→

News that Ucas is removing the requirement for applicants to declare if they have relevant unspent convictions when applying to university is a significant step forward. It recognises how, for the past two decades, access to higher education in the UK for people with a criminal record has been perceived as very difficult and has deterred many […] … learn more→

Although there is a Ph.D. glut for much of higher education, there is one field where there’s something of a shortage: computer science. A recent article on Inside Higher Ed highlights the immense cluelessness of the “leaders” which led to this situation, although the author of the article seems to miss this detail: System Crash […] … learn more→

Russia is a top destination for international students and the most popular place for students from former Soviet countries to study. The country currently hosts more than 243,752 international students and considers international recruitment to be an important geopolitical goal. More recently, Russia has resurrected and intensified the Soviet tradition of politicising student mobility. The government has requested that Russian students […] … learn more→

A young Mick Jagger couldn’t get no satisfaction, and on the cusp of his middle age he was desperate “to do some living before we die”. If the dominant mood of the young is angst, for those over 40 it is regret. That is certainly true for me. As a middle-aged university lecturer, I am less […] … learn more→

One of the most infuriating things about higher education is how, when the people at the top are exposed, there are no criminal charges, and they get huge bonuses, even when they resign their positions. Time and again we hand millions over to these “leaders” in higher education, and this situation is so common that […] … learn more→