Registered in mathematics at the University of Western Brittany (UBO), Jeanne is part of the group of female students “Les filles qui” , whose members go to primary schools to introduce children to computer programming. By taking on this role as referents, they hope to show girls that science opens up careers for them as much as […] … learn more→
Blog Archives
Digital and mixed: these students who lead by example
African Americans take on more debt for grad school – but the payoff is also bigger
When seeking graduate and professional degrees, African Americans take on over 50% more debt than white students. On the upside, African Americans also see a bigger payoff to earning such degrees. Whether or not that payoff is enough to make up for the additional debt burden is unclear. These are some key takeaways from a study we released in […] … learn more→
From 9/11 to Christchurch earthquakes: how unis have supported students after a crisis
Universities across Australia – including in Canberra, Wollongong and Newcastle – have had to close their campuses in the past few months as a result of bushfires. But the deep and long-lasting impacts of the crisis are set to pose a challenge for Australian universities beyond just the immediate response. Of the more than one million university students in Australia, we estimate about 95,000 […] … learn more→
New Campus Commissar: Departmental Academic Diversity Officer
UMich is currently paying $10.6 million each year(!!!) for its 82 “diversity officers,” MLive reported. Further scholarships and a new $10 million multicultural center are all part of a five-year strategic plan, launched in 2016 to diversify the campus. –the Vice-Provost alone rakes in over 400k a year… I’ve written before of the incredible high […] … learn more→
US regional diversity policies discriminate against students from big cities
Regional diversity is one factor among many that is used to determine which students gain admittance to private colleges in the US. It is an admirable idea. In theory, such policies are designed to bring together, in each incoming class, students from diverse urban communities and rural outposts across the nation. In reality, however, the […] … learn more→
Academic writing is visual
Writing is a visual medium It may seem odd to say that writing is visual. Writing – and academic writing in particular – is about words and what they say isn’t it? Well of course it is. But the way in which we engage with words can be pretty seriously affected by the ways in […] … learn more→
Review of At the Community College: Smiles And Reflection
A while back I reviewed The Philip Dolly Affair, a work of fiction that nevertheless pulled back the curtain on the brutal reality of community college. I recently received a copy of a sequel of sorts…At The Community College: Smiles And Reflection. it’s not as good as ‘Dolly, but it still brings back a few […] … learn more→
Box-ticking is the inevitable result of top-down impositions
I was in a pretty good place when I was unexpectedly called in, a couple of years ago, to see the acting head of my school at a UK university. I had just passed probation and been appointed the school’s lead in equality, diversity and inclusion: a role that I had enthusiastically applied for. If […] … learn more→
Universities are more like sports clubs than businesses
Universities are beleaguered institutions in many parts of the world. They are regularly criticised for providing poor value for money to the students, industries and countries they purport to serve. The follow-up to this criticism (much of which is clearly unfair and over the top) is to repeat the mantra that “universities should act like businesses”. The […] … learn more→
Earth sciences face a crisis of sustainability
The ongoing environmentalist revolution has inspired a generation of young people to think differently about the role they play in shaping our Earth’s future. Many want to know that their future career will have a positive environmental impact, finding sustainable solutions to interrelated global problems. However, as Greta Thunberg and other environmentalists inspire us to […] … learn more→
