Predatory publishing is a curse for individual academics and universities, and a blight on the landscape of academic publishing generally. We are all familiar with those “greetings” emails asking about our health and promising to publish online any manuscript we submit in double-quick time, for a small fee. But it is not enough to just […] … learn more→

Some time back, I mentioned Arizona State University’s plan to increase faculty workloads 25%, for no additional pay. This policy idea was part of a larger plan by the ASU Poo Bah, Michael Crow, to debase education as much as possible. The primary motivation for doing so is to get more money for administration—every dollar […] … learn more→

After I passed my PhD defense in March 2016 (thank you God), friends in earlier PhD stages jokingly tried to see if I could somehow rub off on them. This is the hope of this post – sharing some thoughts on (surviving) the journey. Naturally my PhD principles are specific to my department, the Global […] … learn more→

What will the world look like a generation from now? Will robots have transformed our working world? Will we move through cities in automated vehicles or even hyperloops? Will we choose to augment our bodies with highly functional prosthetics? Will low carbon energy generation be the norm or will climate change be changing the world around us? […] … learn more→

Underlying the mania for “assessment” and “accountability” in higher education is an elitist sensibility that, having gone unexamined for too long, has undermined real efforts at providing useful education for everyone, no matter what college or what level. Not only is it creating a two-tiered model of education, but it is changing how most students […] … learn more→

In times past, tenure was awarded by scholars, to scholars, as a reward for scholarship. Those days are gone. Today, tenure is (theoretically) awarded by administrators, to scholars for, well, reasons that have little to do with scholarship. Having the right skin color can certainly be a factor, and covering up pedophilia is certainly a […] … learn more→

How do you know what the weather will be like tomorrow? How do you know how old the Universe is? How do you know if you are thinking rationally? These and other questions of the “how do you know?” variety are the business of epistemology, the area of philosophy concerned with understanding the nature of […] … learn more→

Two years ago, the accountancy firm EY made an announcement that no doubt sent a shiver down many lecturers’ spines. After failing to find any published evidence that graduates with good degree results made for better employees, a trawl through its own data, the company revealed, similarly found “no evidence to conclude that previous success in […] … learn more→

No. I’m not cussing. Let me explain why. My colleague Brigitte Nerlich sent me an email the other day. She said: I was talking to a PhD student (not one of mine) and this student repeatedly used a metaphor which I found quite interesting – that of the ‘bleeding document’. This was not a swear […] … learn more→

A college degree, at least in theory, takes 4 years to complete, no matter the major. It’s puzzling how there are few questions about why it takes exactly as long to train a hotel manager as an accountant as a kindergarten teacher…it’s one of many questions about higher education that needs asking, but today I […] … learn more→