In Soviet Russia, there was real concern that the guys with guns, i.e., the army, might someday turn on the ideologues who were running the show. One of the solutions (beyond the Leftist favorite of “mass murder”) was the new military position of Commissar, who kept a close eye on the officers and troops, to […] … learn more→

A former university colleague once remarked on his practice of copying emails to an administrative officer to encourage her to feel a sense of ownership for his work. When the officer began to devote increasing time to helping him, he complained that she was getting ahead of herself: from the way she wrote, he said, […] … learn more→

Instagram is running a social media experiment in Australia and elsewhere to see what happens when it hides the number of likes on photos and other posts. If you have an Instagram account, you’ll get to see the numbers but your followers won’t – at least, not automatically. They will be able to click and […] … learn more→

Washington state doesn’t have a problem finding educated people to work in its booming high-tech economy – it’s just most of those people come from out of state. This is why Washington enacted the landmark Workforce Education Investment Act into law in May 2019. The main idea behind the new law is to make college more affordable. […] … learn more→

Alice in Wonderland enthusiasts recently celebrated the story’s anniversary with creative events like playing with puzzles and time — and future Alice exhibits are in the works. The original 1865 children’s book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, sprung from a mathematician’s imagination, continues to inspire exploration and fun. But is a connection between math and creativity captured in schools? Much […] … learn more→

Each year, the rankings of universities flourish, causing the same stir as the publication of major gastronomic guides. Who will be in the “top 50”? Have we made progress? Where are the neighboring universities (friends, nonetheless competing)? These questions stir the heads of higher education institutions. In fact, these rankings would hold larger global stock markets that are the Dow Jones […] … learn more→

I’m sometimes asked if our increasing suicide rate is due to the student loan scam. As eager as I am to blame things on it, I’m a little reluctant to do so. After all, around 28% of students with such debt don’t even know it—they’ve been completely scammed by college administrators who haven’t bothered to […] … learn more→

A majority of academic staff at some of Australia’s top universities work in casual or fixed-term positions. This reflects a trend towards casualisation in academia, and other industries, in Australia and New Zealand. Fixed-term employment is also a form of precarious employment. This is usually when the university employs research staff working on externally funded projects only for the extent of the project. So, […] … learn more→

Immersive learning, experiential learning, “action learning” … innovative teaching methods have flourished in recent years so that we no longer speak of learning but of learning experience. Changing posture, the student and the teacher are now both part of a process of co-construction of knowledge and competence. What would be the virtues of these educational innovations? To […] … learn more→

Canada plans to receive 300,000 to 350,000 immigrants in 2019, and likely more than that number annually in the coming years. In 2018, there were 572,415 valid study permits in the country — evidence of the increasing trend of international students coming to Canada. Most people coming to Canada for various purposes are coming from non-English-speaking countries: in 2016, 72.5 […] … learn more→