Who hasn’t heard the statement that we only use 10 per cent of our brain? That listening to Mozart’s music makes you smarter or that most learning happens in the first three years of life? Or that a person who is “right-brained” is more creative? Another widespread idea is that we are either visual, auditory […] … learn more→

As colleges and universities decide whether or not to reopen their campuses this fall, much of the discussion has focused on the ethics behind the decision and the associated health risks of in-person instruction. As a researcher who studies health insurance policy, I see two important gaps in this discussion: 1) Who should pay the cost of treating the inevitable COVID-19 cases […] … learn more→

Music education notably influences cognitive development and the acquisition of psychomotor, social and emotional skills. Research carried out in the field of neuroscience has also demonstrated the numerous benefits on brain plasticity of constant musical practice from the infant stage. However, for the digital-born generation, the early stages of conventional music learning, which typically focus on repetitive, […] … learn more→

State and local tax dollars cover the bulk of U.S. public school funding. The federal government spends just under US$55 billion per year on K-12 education, in addition to outlays for early childhood education and post-secondary programs like loans and grants for college tuition. That’s just 8% of the total $720 billion it costs to run the nation’s public schools during the […] … learn more→

Doctoral students show high levels of stress in comparison to other students, and ongoing uncertainty in terms of graduate career outcomes can make matters worse. Before the pandemic, one in five research students were expected to disengage from their PhD. Disengagement includes taking extended leave, suspending their studies or dropping out entirely. COVID-19 has made those statistics far worse. […] … learn more→

Applications to universities in the UK have increased during the COVID-19 lockdown. UCAS, the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service, has reported a 1.6% increase from last year, and over 40% of all UK 18-year-olds have now applied to university. This rise may come as a surprise. The university experience for those starting in autumn 2020 will be very […] … learn more→

Why would anyone start a blog? It’s a big commitment. A blog can be seen as an “extra”, as a “vanity project” as “not scholarly”, particularly if it doesn’t directly hit a “public engagement” or “impact” target.  It’s so much easier to write for other blogs. So why bother with your own? Well, I can […] … learn more→

Defending your doctoral thesis should never be an overly comfortable affair for candidates. After all, those seeking academia’s highest award should expect their research to be thoroughly tested by experts in their discipline. But too often, UK PhD vivas are recalled as frightening and upsetting encounters that many spend their careers trying to forget. I […] … learn more→

As leaders of an executive MBA at McMaster University’s DeGroote School of Business, we felt the burden of expectations as we discarded our established game plans in March and started again with a virtual delivery model. This is, after all, an EMBA in digital transformation, designed to develop leaders for an age of technological disruption. […] … learn more→

It was possible when I was a graduate student in the mid 1980s to have read every article in my field of study, bacterial chemotaxis. I did so, and I was known among my colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley for having achieved a feat that would be impossible now. At a Gordon conference […] … learn more→