Teaching academic (TA) roles in Australian universities have risen three fold over the past decade, making up around 5% of the academic workforce – and further roll outs are expected. But new research suggests that these roles can be a negative career move for academics. TA roles feature university teaching as the primary or only […] … learn more→

It really is interesting how the other half lives, particularly when it comes to the Poo Bahs who rule over our institutions. Their lives are just so…different. I worry about losing my job, because that would be a major problem for me. I want to move closer to my university, but it’s a major risk: […] … learn more→

I’m what you might call a career contract researcher. This wasn’t what I always envisaged from my academic career, but at the same time, it is the product of active choices on my part, where, at least some of the time, alternative options did and do still exist. I’ve been a jobbing researcher since I […] … learn more→

“Are you on drugs?” –common response to an individual exhibiting strange behavior. It seems a fair question to ask most students on campus today. Every day we get to see another example of insanity on campus, and while I usually blame it on the student loan scam, another explanation comes to mind: More than 25 […] … learn more→

Higher education is misunderstood and struggling financially, but the majority of college and university presidents are increasingly confident that their institutions are financially stable. These seemingly contradictions were found in Inside Higher Education’s annual survey of 706 campus leaders. Let’s set aside the obvious political concerns among presidents about the Trump Administration or the selection […] … learn more→

Few subjects generate as much controversy in England as grammar schools do. Advocates uphold them as “a driver of social mobility” with the belief they can provide a ladder of opportunity for poor but able children. Critics on the other hand, see them as socially divisive; the remnants of an outdated system that disproportionately benefits […] … learn more→

The American poet William Stafford was often asked by friends, readers, students and colleagues: When did you become a poet? The response he regularly offered was: “The question isn’t when I became a poet; the question is when other people stopped.” Stafford was articulating what many poets believe: that the roots of poetry (rhythm, form, […] … learn more→

Over a year ago, I began preparing to launch a podcast called “Research in Action” as part of my full-time job as the research director for Oregon State University Ecampus (it’s available in iTunes and on SoundCloud if you want to check it out). I had never hosted a podcast before, but I was, and […] … learn more→

Time and again I’ve covered how the kangaroo campus court system, incredibly vulnerable to corruption, has been corrupted. The vast bulk of the time when I’ve detailed what goes on in this grotesque simulacrum of a legitimate court system, I’ve shown how corrupt administration uses this system in one of two ways. The first way […] … learn more→

You may not know this, but a great deal of our data about the human mind is based on a relatively small but intensively studied population: first-year undergraduate university students. There has long been concern about the over-reliance on students as a source of data, particularly around lack of demographic diversity and limited sample sizes. […] … learn more→