It seems every school is loading up on Diversity Officers, filling up Diversity Palaces as they preach Diversity. It’s obnoxious, of course, all the more so because of the ridiculous, truly ridiculous, amounts of money poured into these Diversity Officers: Campus diversity czars frequently draw massive salaries. The University of Michigan’s chief diversity officer, for […] … learn more→
Blog Archives
Study: $400k a year Diversity Officers do nothing for diversity
The joy of Wiki
Earlier this year, I started a ‘Shut up and Wiki’ group at our university. It has been running now for over six months. Many universities, often with researchers working with the Library, are showing their Wiki-friendly faces with wonderful edit-a-thons, Wiki-bombs, Wiki masterclasses, etc. I wanted to get us in on that action. The initial idea with […] … learn more→
How to turn your PhD into a book – part three
This is part three of my series on academic book publishing. The aim of this series is to take you through the process of turning your PhD into a book – or perhaps writing a new book in the early part of your career. Not all academic disciplines are interested in book publishing and look […] … learn more→
The predatory Art School
It’s no secret that the for-profit schools are doing the most harm to human beings via student loans…it’s such common knowledge that they are shedding students quickly, many have lost half or more of their students or shut down in the last five years. Now, the only reason these schools gained such infamy is our […] … learn more→
Online learning is a friend, not a foe, of traditional education
When we reflect on that grand philosophical question, what is the purpose of higher education, there are many answers we could offer. Part of the answer, however, must be that it is to prepare students for the world beyond university and the realities of the workplace. To its credit, the UK government recently announced a […] … learn more→
Make an Erasmus stay … And after?
For Erasmus students in non-selective fields, studying at a foreign institution is rewarding. This valorization is not only felt as a gratification because of the personalization of his career by the student, but results in a concrete and material return on investment, which is verified objectively by the path of Malia or Loïc for not take […] … learn more→
How a National Education Service could help to break down class divisions
The EU Referendum of 2016 was never a political football match. In spite of the tone that runs through the debate, there are no clear-cut winners or losers in this battle. If Britain ends up better off after Brexit, then everyone wins – Remainers and Leave supporters alike. But nobody wins if the UK ends up in […] … learn more→
Why block subjects might not be best for university student learning
Block subjects is a model of teaching students one subject at a time over two to four weeks, rather than several subjects at a time over ten to 13 weeks in a semester. For some, like Victoria University, the model is a stunning success. There are already tangible improvements in pass rates in the first year of implementation. What’s […] … learn more→
Writing recommendation letters is a courtesy, not an obligation
Are academics obliged to write letters of recommendation for students even if they abhor what the student in question is applying to do? That question is raised by the recent case of John Cheney-Lippold, a University of Michigan academic who refused to support a student’s application to a study abroad programme in Israel because of […] … learn more→
It’s naive to think college athletes have time for school
From my first day as a sociology professor at a university with a Division I football and men’s basketball team, education and athletics struck me as being inherently at odds. Student-athletes filled my courses to take advantage of the fact that the classes met early in the morning. The football and men’s basketball players – most of […] … learn more→
