When I left the US for Berlin 10 years ago, I was already contemplating leaving higher education behind me. I had enjoyed teaching at Montana State University for a dozen years, but the employment conditions seemed to deteriorate with each passing year. Pay rates stagnated while the eligibility bar for benefits was raised. A recent […] … learn more→
Author Archives: Kevin
Why I’m leaving higher education
What if painting helped students overcome the fear of making mistakes?
One might expect that French middle and high school students, who have far more hours in French than in visual arts or art history, will be less comfortable with painting than ‘with literature, very studied from the sixth grade (and already in primary school). In particular, we could expect that, for some of them, they […] … learn more→
Western universities must embrace genuinely international partnerships
When we at the University for the Creative Arts opened the Institute for Creativity and Innovation in Xiamen, China this autumn, we weren’t expecting headlines. After all, new overseas campuses have become a familiar story as the UK’s renowned universities do everything they can to protect and enhance their income streams. Except that, for me, […] … learn more→
4 tips for college students to avoid procrastinating with their online work
If you take classes online, chances are you probably procrastinate from time to time. Research shows that more than 70% of college students procrastinate, with about 20% consistently doing it all the time. Procrastination is putting off starting or finishing a task despite knowing that it will seriously compromise the quality of your work – for instance, […] … learn more→
How to start a career in the pharmaceutical industry
From antidepressants to vaccines, pharmaceutical companies have created medicines that save lives and improve the quality of life. At the moment, the US is the frontrunner in the pharmaceutical market, contributing 56.6% to the global sales of the best-selling drugs. On a global level, the industry is projected to reach over $1.5 trillion by 2023. […] … learn more→
To do or not to do: the importance of ethics in teaching
“To be or not to be” is a key question in philosophy. But no less relevant is the question of “to do or not to do”, another of the central topics of philosophy: it refers to the ability of the human being to act in different ways and, therefore, to take responsibility or take charge of […] … learn more→
The cost of e-books is hobbling university teaching
Academic librarians are helpers. Facilitating access to learning resources, campus facilities and research materials is the core of what we do. Therefore, not being able to help people is a source of endless frustration to us. We don’t like having to say “no, I’m sorry, I can’t do that” – but that is increasingly what […] … learn more→
Our unis do need international students and must choose between the high and low roads
Australian universities have come to rely heavily on revenue from onshore international students. Numbers more than doubled in the decade to 2018. But the proposition that Australia’s public universities should step back 50 years, retreat from international education and focus wholly or largely on domestic students is naively nostalgic. Such a move would be a backward step […] … learn more→
Greenland is melting: we need to worry about what’s happening on the largest island in the world
Greenland is the largest island in the world and on it rests the largest ice mass in the Northern Hemisphere. If all that ice melted, the sea would rise by more than 7 metres. But that’s not going to happen is it? Well not any time soon, but understanding how much of the ice sheet might […] … learn more→
Why for-profit college enrollment has increased during COVID-19
When COVID-19 hit the U.S., many experts warned that America’s colleges and universities could be devastated. Some of them predicted enrollment declines of up to 20%. So far, those initial forecasts were worse than what has actually taken place. One month into the fall semester of the 2020-2021 academic year, overall enrollment was only 3% lower than at […] … learn more→
