“Worried about the future of higher education? Concerned about the impact the new fees regime is going to have on your university? Bit nervous that everyone is talking about ‘disruptive innovation’ in HE without really knowing what it means? Then fret no more …” (more)
[Registrarism, 4 May]
“… Dan McAdams offers one possible, rarely discussed reason: Maybe evolution is a lousy story. Actually, McAdams, a professor of psychology at Northwestern University, doesn’t think evolution is a story at all. There is no protagonist, no motivation, no purpose—all crucial elements in a narrative, whether it’s Frog and Toad Are Friends or Fifty Shades of Grey …” (more)
[Tom Bartlett, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2 May]
“Ever wanted to attend classes at the world’s number one university? Well, now you can – sort of – thanks to a new online initiative …” (more)
[TheJournal.ie, 3 May]
“Courts around the country are being flooded with mass copyright lawsuits. In a typical case, the owner of a pornographic film sues dozens of anonymous defendants in a single lawsuit, obtains their contact information, and then tries to extort a four-figure settlement from each defendant before the case reaches the courtroom …” (more)
[Timothy B Lee, Ars Technica, 2 May]
“On April 27th, after much toing and froing, the Dutch government gave Ron Fouchier of the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam permission to submit his paper on bird flu to Science. Dr Fouchier is the head of one of two groups studying how bird flu might become transmissible between people …” (more)
[Economist, 2 May]
“Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced today at a joint press conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the launch of edX, a system of online courses that will be available to learners worldwide …” (more)
[Beryl Benderly, Science, 2 May]
“The spreading drone curriculum is a sign of the coming normalization of drones in American life. For all the attention given to US law enforcement’s interest in adopting drones, the biggest users turn out to be not police departments, but universities …” (more)
[Jefferson Morley, AlterNet, 2 May]
“On Monday, the New York City Department of Education published its first set of guidelines for the use of social media, underscoring the importance for teachers and staff to keep a clear distinction between the use of their personal and professional accounts …” (more)
[Cyrus Farivar, Ars Technica, 1 May]
“Higher education is currently under assault in America. Even in the recent past you could count on bi-partisan support of systems of higher education that have long been considered the foundation of American prosperity …” (more)
[Paul Stoller, Huffington Post, 1 May]
“Keele University has become the first English university to join the Common Application system for university admissions in the United States …” (more)
[Sean Coughlan, BBC News, 29 April]
“Two Irish researchers from DCU and TCD have won an opportunity to head to Silicon Valley and meet with business and scientific research pioneers. Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) is funding the trip, which will be hosted by the Irish Technology Leadership Group (ITLG) …” (more)
[Carmel Doyle, Silicon Republic, 30 April]
“The United States Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) has passed in the US House of Representatives despite vocal online opposition, and the surprising threat of veto from the White House. HR 3523 drew criticism because it is purported to be a threat to privacy as it encourages Internet services to share user information with government agencies …” (more)
[TechnoLlama, 28 April]
“A vice dean at the University of Pennsylvania resigned on Thursday after it was revealed that he had misrepresented his academic credentials …” (more)
[Michael Stratford, Chronicle of Higher Education, 26 April]
“A senior Republican legislator unwittingly became a poster child yesterday for one of the Obama Administration’s key initiatives to improve science education …” (more)
[Jeffrey Mervis, ScienceInsider, 27 April]
“Claremont McKenna College’s exaggeration of its freshmen’s SAT scores and high school rankings turned out to be so small that it had no effect on the school’s position in US News & World Report rankings this year, magazine officials said Thursday …” (more)
[Larry Gordon, Los Angeles Times, 27 April]
“As the candidate looks for independent votes, student loans are the perfect issue for a pivot toward the center. Daniel Stone on Mitt’s move against Obama …” (more)
[Daniel Stone, Daily Beast, 24 April]
“Exasperated by the rising subscription costs charged by academic publishers, Harvard University has encouraged thousands of faculty members to make their research articles freely available through open access journals and to resign from publications that keep articles behind costly paywalls …” (more)
[Ian Sample, Guardian, 24 April]
“Opponents of federally funded human embryonic stem cell research returned to a US appeals court today to argue that such research should be banned, despite two earlier court decisions that it is legal …” (more)
[Jocelyn Kaiser, ScienceInsider, 23 April]
“This looks like a bombshell announcement to me (I’m not aware of the internal politics behind this, but I’m presuming that Robert Darnton’s fingerprints are all over it). Discuss …” (more)
[Crooked Timber, 23 April]
“The US government’s Office of Research Integrity this week issued the summary of a scandal that’s been percolating for nearly a year. Peter J Francis, a British medical doctor and PhD, had applied for a grant using fabricated data …” (more)
[Brian Deer, Guardian, 19 April]
