It’s a phone call most journalists dread to make. A woman in her 20s has died after she was struck by a car while riding her bicycle. “What is your favourite memory of Eleanor?” a journalist asks the woman’s father in an interview. The man’s voice quivers. “I don’t have a favourite,” he says. “Every […] … learn more→

A Kenyan vice-chancellor recently went public about the scarcity of university professors. There are fewer than 1,000 professors for the country’s 68 universities and 562,925 students. That is an average of around 563 students per professor. South Africa has around 4,034 professors and 1,112,439 students – around 275 students per professor. Professors occupy the highest teaching rank in the university. They […] … learn more→

In recent decades, studies on inclusive education and diversity in universities have multiplied. To evaluate the ease of access and permanence of vulnerable or underrepresented groups in higher education, these studies analyze three key factors: presence, participation and progress. Regarding the presence or existence of diversity among students, faculty and technical staff, the university is inclusive […] … learn more→

Engineering courses are a popular choice among South African university students. But these courses are also gruelling and the attrition rates are high. The Council on Higher Education reports that half of the engineering students enrolled at South African universities do not complete their studies. That figure is similar in other parts of the world. Yet, some students weather the storms of […] … learn more→

Quite a few high-profile careers in higher education have been upended as of late amid questions of academic integrity. Marc Tessier-Lavigne, who had served as president of Stanford University for seven years, stepped down in 2023 after it was determined that he had falsified information for a dozen academic papers. The latest casualty is Claudine Gay, […] … learn more→

Do men and women learn differently? Beyond possible sociological or physiological differences, what our research among university students of Political Science is demonstrating is that gender has an impact on the learning process . Socialization involves the assumption of norms during childhood and adolescence that are internalized unconsciously. In a patriarchal system, socialization is carried out through gender norms that […] … learn more→

Harvard University President Claudine Gay resigned on Jan. 2, 2024, less than one month after University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill stepped down. They called it quits amid uproar among conservative lawmakers and several major donors regarding what they saw as Gay’s and Magill’s underwhelming responses to antisemitism on their campuses. In Gay’s case, there were also accusation of plagiarism. […] … learn more→

The move in Canadian academia to “decolonize” or “Indigenize,” and commit to broader frameworks of reconciliation, pertains to how work is done within universities, as well as how universities engage with broader communities. Commitments aim to increase the visibility of Indigenous academics, including hiring of Indigenous faculty members and staff, but they are also about the […] … learn more→

When I started my podcast, Studies in Taylor Swift, in the spring of 2021, I felt that I was simultaneously helping to invent, and trying to catch up to, the academic discipline of Taylor Swift studies. Though there wasn’t much published on reading Swift as literature, I had no trouble finding guests who had some kind […] … learn more→

Australian school students feel immense pressure to go to university, often at the exclusion of all other pathways, which can lead to devastating mental health effects. That’s among the headline findings of our decade-long program of research on the aspirations and post-school trajectories of young Australians. Our research, published today in the journal Educational Review, reveals the […] … learn more→