I don’t know why we call them “soft skills.” They’re certainly not easy to learn, although they are as valuable and necessary as the skills doctors use in surgery, bankers use to assess risk and physicists use to split atoms. Communication, observation, empathy and logical thinking: These precious and frequently undervalued skills have everyday names. […] … learn more→
Author Archives: Kevin
How a humanities degree will serve you in a disruptive economy
Doctoral education matters for Europe more than ever before
Despite the growing tendency for variety in doctoral careers, we are not very good at tracking them. There are good reasons to suspect that surveys exaggerate the numbers remaining in the research system, because many spend up to a decade in temporary posts before settling into a more secure career. Indeed, as single-lifetime careers become rarer we […] … learn more→
Hybrid manufacturing combines 3D printing & machining
Three-dimensional (3D) printing has fast risen from being what amounted to an R&D curiosity to a recognised and highly important manufacturing process that has transformed the way that we make things, regardless of their complexity. Offering both a high degree of flexibility coupled with the potential to make highly complex designs out of what were […] … learn more→
Decoding the cost of College
You return from school one afternoon, open the mailbox in your apartment building in western Massachusetts, and pull out a thick envelope. Heart quickening and hands shaking, you tear into the envelope of your first-choice school—Merrimack College—and you read the first line, “Congratulations and welcome…” Last week, you were accepted to Pace University and your […] … learn more→
Help – I’m drowning in my own notes!
One of the delightful things about blogging is letters from readers; an endless source of delightful validation and sometimes, interesting problems to try to solve. This letter is a case in point. Dora, a reader from Croatia writes: The situation I find myself in is, I think, one that all researchers have found themselves in… […] … learn more→
Forget ‘free speech’ on campus, this debate is about free people
It has now become customary for academics to debate the line between free speech and hate speech. Yale, for instance, recently hosted a panel discussion whose central topic was the difference between hate speech and free speech and “the point where one shifts into the other.” The distinction has already been debated throughout the academy, […] … learn more→
Limits on Chinese graduate student visas may protect US intellectual property but drive away talent
Some Chinese students studying STEM-related fields may not be staying in the U.S. as long as they’d planned. The Trump administration announced on May 29 that it may limit some graduate students’ visas to one year. Many U.S. universities have looked to Chinese students to fill out their programs and revenues, so this has caused widespread concern in higher […] … learn more→
Writing a bio-note
Most of us have to produce bio-notes. The bio-note is a little verbal selfie that goes with a book chapter, a journal article, or sometimes a conference presentation. Book authors also have to provide brief bio-notes which might go in their book as well as on the publisher’s website. The bio-note tells the reader some key information […] … learn more→
What being a professional bodybuilder taught me about gaining tenure
Squatting, curling, pressing, sprinting and preparing meals with the ideal combination of fats, carbs and proteins dominate hours of female bodybuilders’ lives. Such women also spend hours perfecting posing routines and give a final few more to spray-tanning and hair and make-up styling for competitions. They may be on the competition stage for 15 minutes, showcasing what they […] … learn more→
Higher Ed to lower standards (more!)
Anyone looking at the numbers realizes, even if the student loan scam continues, higher ed is going to be in big trouble. We’ve overbuilt, massively, to the point that we could, if we put our minds to it, slam every citizen into higher education today. “98% of our students have been accepted into college!” –a […] … learn more→
