Much ink has been spilt of late on the evils of essay mills. Several countries have already outlawed them, and former universities minister Chris Skidmore recently introduced a bill in the UK Parliament to do the same. Essays mills are undeniably a blight on university assessments, but with teaching and assessment still largely taking place […] … learn more→

Back when I was in college, the internet was in its inception; information was hard to find online and even less reliable than it is today. If I wanted to know basic facts (“What is the fundamental attribution error?”; “What are the stages of meiosis?”; “What was the Treaty of Westphalia?”), I had to either ask an expert or […] … learn more→

Online master’s programs make it much easier for non-traditional students to juggle the responsibilities of adulthood — full-time work, childcare, eldercare, housework, and so on — with the demands of an academic program. But if you’ve never taken courses online before, you’ll find that these programs can be challenging in a very different way than […] … learn more→

International students commonly share bedrooms so they can afford the rent. What is perhaps much more surprising is that our research suggests thousands are “hot-bedding” – their beds are available to them for only some hours of the day or night so others can use them the rest of the time. If our survey of more than […] … learn more→

Do you repeat yourself? Most of us do. It’s not unusual. Repetitive writing takes many forms – several sentences that say the same thing using different words, a word or phrase used over and over, paragraphs and sentences that have identical beginnings, one point made multiple times using different examples. But repetition is not necessarily […] … learn more→

Australian universities, for better or worse, have embraced international rankings, especially those published each year such as the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, Academic Ranking of World Universities 2020 (the Shanghai Ranking) and the QS World University Rankings released this month. But there are now signs the influence of rankings on Australian higher education is on the wane. […] … learn more→

For the past 30 years, there has been an uneasy truce in UK business schools between those who think they’re training the next generation of business managers and those who see their mission as academic analysis and research into capitalism and the wider political economy. The latter approach, known as critical management studies (CMS), became […] … learn more→

As a rap artist who is also a professor of hip-hop, I always make it a point to have my songs reviewed by other artists I admire. So when I released “i used to love to dream” – my latest album – in 2020, I turned to Phonte Coleman, one half of the trailblazing rap group Little […] … learn more→

The COVID-19 pandemic led to food insecurity among students making headlines in Australia and the United States. But even before the pandemic, increasing numbers of students were reporting they sometimes went without food. Rising tuition and living costs combined with declining state support for students and privatised food outlets on campuses have increased students’ food insecurity in places as […] … learn more→

Recently I’ve been focused on goal setting and planning. It’s down to lockdown I think and the need to be realistic about what can be achieved. One of the things I’ve not mentioned is time. In particular, writing time. I like the approach to writing time developed by the sociologist Eviatar Zerubavel in his book The clockwork […] … learn more→