Monthly Archives: June 2021

How to get into further education as an adult

How to get into further education as an adult

There are all kinds of reasons why you might not have pursued further education as a young adult. Maybe you needed to get a job fast in order to earn money, or perhaps it just wasn’t the right direction for your life at the time. Whatever your reason, you might think that the path of […] … learn more→

Teaching kids social responsibility – like how to settle fights and ask for help – can reduce school bullying

Teaching kids social responsibility – like how to settle fights and ask for help – can reduce school bullying

Schools that encourage their students to care for their classmates’ feelings and to peacefully resolve conflicts with their peers can lower incidents of bullying, according to our peer-reviewed study published in the International Journal of Behavioral Development in June 2021. We surveyed 1,850 Brazilian schoolchildren ages 7 to 15 and their teachers over a three-month period in […] … learn more→

College can still be rigorous without a lot of homework

College can still be rigorous without a lot of homework

How hard should it be to earn a college degree? When the book “Academically Adrift” appeared in 2011, it generated widespread concern that college was not effectively educating students and preparing them for today’s world. Among other things, authors Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa claimed that most colleges were not rigorous or demanding, in part because college […] … learn more→

Want more research commercialisation? Then remove the barriers and give academics real incentives to do it

Want more research commercialisation? Then remove the barriers and give academics real incentives to do it

Research commercialisation in Australia has been getting more attention recently, but researchers face major obstacles to achieving this. If Australia wants to get serious about commercialising research knowledge, then we have to look seriously at the obstacles and incentives for researchers. Australia’s gross spending on research and development (R&D) funding has been in the lower half of […] … learn more→

Advice for teachers on how to use the summer to protect their hearts from burnout

Advice for teachers on how to use the summer to protect their hearts from burnout

It’s not uncommon to hear teachers and other educators talk about being “June tired” — the way they typically feel in June after a full school year. But this year, educational workers may be experiencing a new, and much deeper, form of fatigue. Teachers, principals and other school staff spent this past year perpetually shifting between in-school and […] … learn more→

Postdocs on the margin

Postdocs on the margin

Looking for an international postdoc? Watch out for the not-student, not-employee trap! You’d think that when you finish your PhD you’d finally stop being “just a student”. After all, once you have completed your university’s Higher Degree Research programme, there is no such thing as an Even-Higher Degree Research programme (at least in Australia). However, […] … learn more→

University rankings: geopolitical issues underestimated ed?

University rankings: geopolitical issues underestimated ed?

The world of higher education and research is now punctuated by seasonal announcements of the results of “rankings”. Since 2003, when the first ranking of world universities was published by a research team from the Chinese Jiaotong University in Shanghai, meetings have multiplied. Alongside the generalist rankings established annually by the British press group Times Higher Education (since […] … learn more→