Blog Archives

There’s an intensifying kind of threat to academic freedom – watchful students serving as informants

There’s an intensifying kind of threat to academic freedom – watchful students serving as informants

Texas A&M University told philosophy professor Martin Peterson in early January 2026 that he could not teach some of Greek philosopher Plato’s writings that touch on “race and gender ideology.” The university’s local chapter of the American Association of University Professors, an organization of professors and academics in the U.S., quickly denounced this requirement. Peterson, in response to […] … learn more→

More dialogue, less debate: At an ‘Ethics Bowl,’ students learn to handle tough conversations

More dialogue, less debate: At an ‘Ethics Bowl,’ students learn to handle tough conversations

As Canadian federal election candidates prepared for their final debate in April 2025, youth across the country were preparing for collaborative conversations around timely and potentially divisive issues for the National Ethics Bowl at the Canadian Museum of Human Rights in Winnipeg. Ethics Bowl Canada is a non-profit organization that hosts competitions where high school and university students […] … learn more→

Young, undocumented immigrants are finding it increasingly hard to attend college as South Carolina and other states restrict in-state tuition or ban them altogether

Young, undocumented immigrants are finding it increasingly hard to attend college as South Carolina and other states restrict in-state tuition or ban them altogether

The Trump administration’s aggressive deportation policies have heightened stress among the country’s approximately 14 million immigrants who are living in the U.S. without legal authorization. The sharp rise in dramatic arrests and deportations of immigrants over the past year has received widespread media attention. A less publicized issue is that many young, undocumented immigrants are also finding it harder to apply to and stay in college. As someone who researches […] … learn more→

Federal funding cuts are only one problem facing America’s colleges and universities

Federal funding cuts are only one problem facing America’s colleges and universities

Higher education is under stress. The highest-profile threat has been the Trump administration’s efforts to cut funding to several universities, including Harvard, Columbia and Northwestern. Research universities heavily depend on federal money to conduct research and carry out other areas of work. For example, after tuition, federal money allocated for research made up 40% of the total revenue for two major […] … learn more→

Is using ChatGPT cheating? Reflections on student fraud in the age of generative AI

Is using ChatGPT cheating? Reflections on student fraud in the age of generative AI

The use of generative artificial intelligence is now widespread among new generations of students, disrupting the established norms and challenges of knowledge assessment. This poses a number of dilemmas for universities. How can they rethink their exams to maintain the credibility of their degrees? If truly disruptive innovations exist in education, the uses of generative […] … learn more→

Student cheating dominates talk of generative AI in higher ed, but universities and tech companies face ethical issues too

Student cheating dominates talk of generative AI in higher ed, but universities and tech companies face ethical issues too

Debates about generative artificial intelligence on college campuses have largely centered on student cheating. But focusing on cheating overlooks a larger set of ethical concerns that higher education institutions face, from the use of copyrighted material in large language models to student privacy. As a sociologist who teaches about AI and studies the impact of this technology on work, […] … learn more→

‘I do get quite anxious’: why so many students are applying for early offers to uni

‘I do get quite anxious’: why so many students are applying for early offers to uni

An increasing number of Australian school students are applying for an early offer to university, before they have their exam results back. Last Thursday, nearly 16,000 students in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory got an early offer through the University Admissions Centre, after a 3% growth in applications from last year. This […] … learn more→

Trump’s proposed cuts to work study threaten to upend a widely supported program that helps students offset college costs

Trump’s proposed cuts to work study threaten to upend a widely supported program that helps students offset college costs

Work study works, doesn’t it? Federal work study is a government program that gives colleges and universities approximately US$1 billion in subsidies each year to help pay students who work part-time jobs on and off campus. This program supports nearly 700,000 college students per year and is often an essential way students pay their expenses and […] … learn more→