Applicants to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program have had the rug pulled out from under them, brayed lawyers for the American Bar Association (ABA) in the New York Times last week. But they may never have had a rug to stand on. The Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, established by Congress in 2007, […] … learn more→

  Anyone who teaches at a community college, an urban state university or almost anywhere outside of the top research institutions has run across it: We are not the equals of the scholars at Harvard, the University of Chicago and others of their ilk. Nor are we quite the teachers they are; our students, of […] … learn more→

One of the many strange decays in higher education today concerns language skills. In times past, every college graduate had to take at least a year’s worth of some foreign language. Now, I grant that Latin (a common option, decades ago) wasn’t particularly useful all by itself, but studying another language is incredibly helpful for […] … learn more→

I did my PhD by distance education. This wasn’t terribly common at the time I did it – but it wasn’t all that unusual in universities that specialised in catering for remote, working or part-time students. However, the doctorate at a distance is relatively common now.  As more and more people enrol in doctoral degrees, more also want to […] … learn more→

Last month, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine released Promoting the Educational Success of Children and Youth Learning English: Promising Futures, a synthesis of current research on English learners (ELs) from birth to young adulthood. The report serves as a one-stop compendium on EL policies, demographics, language development, promising educational practices, development of […] … learn more→

In the year 2000, Goldman Sachs employed 600 stock traders, according to Marty Chavez, the investment bank’s deputy chief financial officer. Now, Chavez told a symposium at the Harvard University Institute for Applied Computational Science in January, it employs just two. The other 598 have been replaced by 200 computers. Meanwhile, a 2017 McKinsey Global […] … learn more→

A decade ago, few universities thought strategically about their brand. Now, as the market for academic talent, funding, and recognition heats up, the need has become acute. Universities recognize the necessity of building appreciation for what makes them unique. Yet while some universities may be regarded as “great” brands, most aren’t. And it may be […] … learn more→

Students are bombarded with an array of competing opportunities during college, all with the promise that each will lead to a better job or higher earnings upon entering the “real world.” One such option is the double major, in which a student earns two bachelor degrees at once, sometimes in entirely different disciplines. But will […] … learn more→

  It’s so funny how often official policy is ignored; in particular, every campus I’ve been on has had policy regarding equality, that everything is open to everyone without concern for ethnicity, gender, orientation, or anything else. Despite such policy, I’ve seen faculty and administration chosen based on race and gender, and I’ve seen faculty […] … learn more→

Many apps and algorithms that feature prominently in our lives are, essentially, black boxes: We have no idea how they accomplish what they do; we just know they work. Or at least we think we do. Most recently this became apparent when The New York Times revealed that Uber used a system it called “greyballing” […] … learn more→