Lately, more and more students want a non-academic job when they finish their PhD. Anecdotally, some graduates seem to be experiencing the PhD as a barrier to employment, not an enabler. In fact, I’ve heard so much negative talk about how employers react to PhD holders over the years that it seemed important to start […] … learn more→

When I was a PhD student, one of my favourite things to do was to discuss the latest experiments and results related to my research, and exchange views on where the field was heading. I particularly enjoyed poster sessions at conferences, where early career researchers can easily engage with more established scientists and discuss unpublished, […] … learn more→

Why are Nigeria’s universities in such a sorry state? Some would say it had to do with just one word: money. Sadly this is part of the reason. But not entirely. Nigeria’s universities have been under-funded for decades. Like a talented but under-achieving football team, fail to achieve goals because the country hasn’t invested enough in […] … learn more→

This is a fact that is obvious to any organizer of post-baccalaureate orientation or open days in engineering school: boys are far more likelythan girls to hurry around booths dedicated to the trades of digital . One might think that it has always been so. Moreover, this state of affairs is anchored in mentalities, the figure of the “geek” still […] … learn more→

Six months ago I covered how the University of Iowa was targeting a Christian youth group, tossing them off campus because of their anti-homosexuality stance regarding their own club officers—note carefully, the group was merely asking that its own officers adhere to Christian beliefs. The Christian group decided to fight the university’s bullying, taking their […] … learn more→

The University of California recently made international headlines when it canceled its subscription with scientific journal publisher Elsevier. The twittersphere lit up. And Elsevier’s parent company, RELX, saw its stock drop 7 percent in response to the announcement. A library canceling a subscription seems like a simple, everyday business decision, so what’s the big deal? It was not just the clash-of-the-titans […] … learn more→

As a woman working in the environmental sciences, it was always obvious to me that most of my colleagues are men. This tended to focus my attention on surviving in a field in which I automatically contribute to diversity just by being there. Recently though I stopped to consider what I could do to support […] … learn more→

Even though our schools are well-supported by a student loan scam pouring money on them in an ever increasing deluge, they always want more. A sweet spring of such funds comes from foreign students—they get to pay a “non resident” tuition penalty on top of the usual bloated tuition price. It’s particularly prevalent in graduate […] … learn more→

Artificial intelligence systems are powerful tools for businesses and governments to process data and respond to changing situations, whether on the stock market or on a battlefield. But there are still some things AI isn’t ready for. We are scholars of computer science working to understand and improve the ways in which algorithms interact with society. AI systems perform best when the […] … learn more→

If you went to university – or are still there – think about your sleep while there. Would you say you ticked all the boxes for healthy sleep – going to bed at a reasonable hour and waking up at the same time every day, sleeping for around eight hours, and avoiding sleeping in or […] … learn more→