Around the world, cities endeavour to cut greenhouse gas emissions, while adapting to the threats – and opportunities – presented by climate change. It’s no easy task, but the first step is to make a plan outlining how to meet the targets set out in the Paris Agreement, and help limit the world’s mean temperature rise to less […] … learn more→
Author Archives: Kevin
We examined 885 European cities’ plans to tackle climate change – here’s what we found
Journals censorship is not bowdlerisation
The statement on censorship recently published by the Association of University Presses deserves wide support. It affirms opposition to “all restrictions imposed on the dissemination of [scholarly] work” and raises important questions about censorship in China and the changing nature of researching and publishing. But we must get our facts straight on both of those. […] … learn more→
Why some students are excluded from university later in their degree, and how to remedy it
Student attrition is of concern to universities and to politicians and, most importantly, costly for the students concerned, both financially and emotionally. Voluntary attrition – “dropping out” – has been studied extensively, and can be broadly correlated with measures of disadvantage. We looked at the under-researched area of students who face being excluded from university for […] … learn more→
Slow Academia is for the privileged – but then, isn’t all academia?
During my PhD at Cambridge, I developed the nervous habit of tying knots in my hair. Sitting in the library, I’d twist clumps of it around and around my fingers into a tight, fist-sized tangle. The procedure was very satisfying – until the knot wouldn’t undo and I’d have to cut it out. At the […] … learn more→
Why top US universities have law schools but not police schools
In response to protests calling for police reform and accountability, some U.S. police departments are partnering with colleges and universities to develop anti-bias training for their employees. In Washington D.C., for example, officers will take a critical race theory class at the University of the District of Columbia Community College. The idea of providing liberal arts […] … learn more→
Knowledge diplomacy must be used to enrich the global public good
For decades countries around the world have regarded knowledge diplomacy as a key element of soft power. Knowledge diplomacy – or science diplomacy – was once closely associated with governments. It was used as a vehicle for attracting and influencing countries through their research and higher education sectors. Typically it came under the egis of ministries […] … learn more→
3 vital ways to measure how much a university education is worth
The past several years have seen increased calls for colleges and universities to demonstrate their value to students, families and taxpayers. And the pressure has come from both sides of the political spectrum. Barack Obama, for example, didn’t mince his words when he spoke a few years ago on the University of Michigan campus: “We are putting […] … learn more→
Academics behaving badly – calling out the Cleverclogs
The Drs Cleverclog are well known in academic circles. A very large extended family of know-it-alls. At least one of them makes their presence known at every conference, meeting and large academic gathering you go to. Even if you don’t recognise them by sight, you know them by their behaviour. The Cleverclogs have an opinion […] … learn more→
The evil Uni-Bank alliance
The student loan scam only creates the potential for evil. We would not have over 20,000,000 citizens trapped in a deadly debt spiral if our higher education system had not exploited that potential as ruthlessly as possible. Technically, this scam is an unholy alliance between our Federal government, which backs the loans and enforces collection, […] … learn more→
Wisconsin Higher Ed removes the academics
A few years ago, I mentioned Wisconsin was retroactively changing their tenure contracts. To summarize what I said in 2015: no more new tenured faculty, and tenure can be removed from old faculty whenever admin wants. Now, admin said these changes were necessary but…you’d have to be pretty stupid not to see what the general […] … learn more→
