The Trump administration recently announced plans to scrap Obama-era guidelines that encouraged universities to consider race as a factor to promote diversity on campus, claiming the guidelines “advocate policy preferences and positions beyond the requirements of the Constitution.” Some university leaders immediately went on the defense. Harvard University stated that it plans to continue to use race as an […] … learn more→

Entering senior management marks perhaps the profoundest transition in an academic career. It is the point at which the job description changes from tasks, such as research and teaching, in which scholars have had years of training and practice, to those in which they may have precious little prior experience and expertise. And failure is […] … learn more→

I’ve said many times there’s a systemic anti-male bias on campus, but for the most part I’ve only documented it with words. It’s not just words which show a distinct dislike of males, and allow me to demonstrate with one campus which is putting their money where the y chromosomes aren’t (the self-identified ones, anyway): […] … learn more→

  When I started my PhD I knew there would be challenges. For people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) there’s a huge boulder blocking the road, stopping us from turning intention into action. The way we process information and respond to the world affects how we work and how we connect to others, and for […] … learn more→

Sara did not expect much to come from her visit to the university’s counseling center, but she was concerned enough about the dark thoughts she’d been having that she decided to go anyway. As she sat in the waiting room after turning in the patient questionnaire, she thought: “It’s probably not a big deal. I’m […] … learn more→

When the universities minister, Sam Gyimah, came online with the Open University earlier this month, he was able to successfully use the Westminster wi-fi to connect first with a group of students and their tutor in an online tutorial, and then to move pretty much seamlessly to our OpenSTEM Labs to set lab-bench experiments and […] … learn more→

At 2.24pm on 6th June 2016, after a morning filled with panic, I plonked myself down at my kitchen table and wrote this: I’ve got PhD Fear. I’ve had it for three days now, and there’s no sign it’s toddling off to find someone else to haunt. It’s always there, like a software programme quietly running […] … learn more→

Rising student loan debt and concerns about college affordability got considerable attention from Democrats in the 2016 presidential campaign. Those issues are bound to get renewed attention since House Democrats recently introduced the Aim Higher Act – an effort to update the Higher Education Act, the federal law that governs federal higher education programs. The bill promises […] … learn more→

More university students are choosing to study online rather than face-to-face, prompting concerns about academic integrity. If you’re tempted to cheat in face-to-face courses, even during exams, how much easier would it be to pass off work that isn’t your own when you’re online? But research by us and others shows how university courses are delivered […] … learn more→

Inside Higher Education (IHE) released its 2018 Survey of College and University Business Officers last week. While the findings vary across the different sectors of American higher education, many are sobering, especially for four-year private colleges. Many Small, Private Colleges’ Financial State is Perilous According to the IHE survey, conducted in partnership with Gallup, “44 percent of chief financial officers […] … learn more→