It was a quiet evening in the bucolic foothills of academia. I had just finished updating my lecture for the following morning – checking that the various theories expounded hadn’t been discredited since last term, and that the embedded web links didn’t redirect to sites of a pornographic nature – and uploaded the file to my […] … learn more→

The issue of mother tongue education has been fiercely but sporadically debated in South Africa since 1994. In the past two and a half years, student protests at universities across the country have breathed new life into the discussions. Proponents of mother tongue education tend to argue that children should be taught in the language […] … learn more→

The prospectus SpringerNature released on April 25 in preparation of its intended stock market listing provides a unique view into what the publisher thinks are the strengths of its business model and where it sees opportunities to exploit them, including its strategy on open access publishing. Whether the ultimate withdrawal of the IPO reflected investors’ doubt […] … learn more→

If you’re hoping to improve your grades, you can do this by using a college GPA calculator. There are a few different ways to do this. This can leave you with a handful of benefits and help you out with your college success. Let’s look at a few of the benefits that you can get […] … learn more→

Hooray for fantastic and lofty goals focused on early childhood educators attaining four-year degrees that enhance and challenge their joyful work with children and their families! … But then, BANG! Rainbows don’t appear across the sky because we hit the wall and reality of our nation. While the horizon recedes, though, the dream remains … […] … learn more→

I accept that having a Y chromosome puts a hard cap on my career. I went into this with wide open eyes, as I was told in the 80’s that such would be the case. It was perhaps 1989 where it was made clear to me just how the system was working: the hiring committee […] … learn more→

I recently upgraded from my Masters by Research program to a PhD. A little while afterwards, I received this enquiry from a colleague: “I have a friend who wants to start a PhD, preferably with an Aussie university. He has done several years of fieldwork already but has no Masters, just an honours from a […] … learn more→

Like any new technology, artificial intelligence is the subject of both hopes and fears and what it covers today presents major challenges (Villani et al., 2018). It also raises profound questions about our own humanity. Will the machine exceed the intelligence of the humans who conceived it? What will be the relation between what are […] … learn more→

This is one of a very occasional set of posts about some of my own academic work that you might find useful. A colleague and I have just undertaken what is called in the (academic) trade a Rapid Evidence Review. Or, as I have come to think of it, Quick Lit. An RER is a form […] … learn more→

There has been quite a lot of discussion in the Times Higher Education over the last few weeks questioning the purpose of lectures at university. As my contribution, I would like to advance a rather unfashionable view, but before doing so let me say what I don’t think they are for. Robert Reid argued that “the ‘sage on the […] … learn more→