Angry student: “Why do I have to learn algebra? I’m only going to be teaching eight year olds!” Me: “Because the parents of eight year olds want their teachers to know more than an eight year old.” –I used to get Education majors quite often in my math courses, before they became cloistered into special […] … learn more→

Having someone come to visit is always nice. Unless they arrive unannounced, or stay too long, or too many people come at once, or… actually, there are a myriad of things that can go wrong with visitors. Visiting researchers can be like that, too: a great boon to a research group when the visit is […] … learn more→

The Government of Ontario’s hasty decision to cancel plans and funding for the Université de l’Ontario français recently generated an outpouring of protests and a surge of solidarity with the university founders, with close to 13,000 signatures being added to one of several online petitions. In French-speaking media, journalists explored what it could mean for francophones to establish a hub in Toronto and […] … learn more→

I call to perform a management to a call center. The person with whom I speak warns me that, at the end of the call, I will receive another to assess how I have been treated. When finishing any menu in a restaurant, the waiter, with kindness, asks me if everything went well. Then, he suggests that […] … learn more→

This week, thousands of new students from around the country will be starting their first year at university. For many students and their parents, transitioning to university is an exciting but daunting experience. Here are five tips to help students succeed in their first year. 1. Find support services All universities offer student counselling, mental […] … learn more→

For the last fifty years or so the number of international students choosing to spend some time studying in a foreign country has been steadily increasing, with the United States of America being one of the top destinations. Of course, such a decision is not without potential issues, and having a different native language is […] … learn more→

The Chronicle of Higher Education is a mainstream website for higher ed. They generally don’t cover serious criticism of their bread-and-butter, but recently they covered a mostly empty rant by a tenured professor. Since he’s tenured, he can get away with using his real name instead of a pseudonym (most faculty, tenured or not, generally […] … learn more→

With all the time that young people spend in front of screens these days – from TVs to laptops, cellphones and iPads – children are bound to see a lot of ads and commercials. On average, American children spend anywhere between three to nine hours of time on screen. This includes TV, DVD, mobile, computer and video games. To […] … learn more→

The phenomenon of perfectionism has grown considerably over the last twenty-five years, affecting men as well as women. That’s what we learned from recently leading one of the most important studies ever done on perfectionism . And we have also learned that perfectionists become more and more neurotic and unstable, and less reliable and organized over time. Perfectionism […] … learn more→

You may not have heard of it, but students from across Europe have been studying at The European University Institute (EUI) since 1976. Situated in the Tuscan hills overlooking Florence, the idyllic setting plays home to a unique institution dedicated to training PhD students and enhancing Europe’s research capacity in economics, history, law, and social sciences. Although […] … learn more→