Ninth Level Ireland

“Harvard University, along with MIT, has filed suit to block a Trump Administration policy banning international students at colleges and universities conducting classes online from staying in the United States. ‘We believe that the ICE order is bad public policy, and we believe that it is illegal’, said Harvard President Lawrence Bacow in a message to the university community Wednesday morning …” (more)

[Erin Tiernan, Boston Herald, 8 July]

“On Monday 6 July, The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that any exchange students that are currently studying or beginning to study for Autumn in America must leave the country or risk deportation. The ruling states that any colleges that are to run exclusively online learning from now and in the upcoming semester cannot take any exchange students …” (more)

[Luke Murphy, College Tribune, 7 July]

“Foreign students in the United States – numbering in the hundreds of thousands – will have to leave the country if their classes are all taught online this autumn or if they transfer to another school with in-person instruction, a government agency has said …” (more)

[RTÉ News, 7 July]

“On 20 June the Trump administration issued a proclamation limiting entry to the United States under H-1B visas and several categories of the J-1 exchange visitor programme. Both are fundamental for the operation of United States colleges and universities …” (more)

[Gerardo Blanco, University World News, 4 July]

“Five years ago, when Jeffrey MacKie-Mason first joined the University of California team that negotiates with academic publishers, he asked a colleague what would happen if he failed to strike a deal. What if, instead, he simply canceled their subscription? ‘I was told I would be fired the next day’, the UC Berkeley librarian says …” (more)

[Gregory Barber, Wired, 16 June]

“United States colleges and universities are bracing for declines in international student enrolments in the coming autumn (fall) semester, a prospect that could lead to a loss of revenues as high as US$4.5 billion and further slow the momentum of overseas recruitment, a pair of reports examining the impact of COVID-19 on US higher education suggest …” (more)

[Mary Beth Marklein, University World News, 30 May]

“In recent individual op-eds, Mitch Daniels, president of Purdue, and Father John I Jenkins, president of Notre Dame, both declared they’re going to open their campuses for in-person instruction in the fall. Daniels believes opening is the ‘best option from both a scientific and stewardship standpoint, at least for our particular institution’ …” (more)

[John Warner, Inside Higher Ed, 26 May]

“Leaving Cert students who are set to study in American universities on scholarships may be ‘nervous’ over predicted grades, says a sports consultant. Mark Finnegan, founder of All Sports Recruitment, says there are many positives for predicted grades for students looking to study stateside …” (more)

[Emma Costello, Extra.ie, 25 May]

“This week: I share the story of a faculty member who lived through burnout, and what it taught her about how to cope; I tell you how some colleges are planning for fall teaching; I point you to remote-teaching related stories you may have missed …” (more)

[Beth McMurtrie, Chronicle of Higher Education, 21 May]

“The coronavirus has underscored inequities in American society, including among college students. When campuses first began emptying in early March, low-income and first-generation students were more likely to have lost critical sources of food and shelter. When courses moved online, a strong Wi-Fi connection and quiet place to focus were harder to come by …” (more)

[Francie Diep, Chronicle of Higher Education, 21 May]

“This was supposed to be a big year for Einat Lev. She planned to do field work in Hawaii and Alaska, submit a major research proposal, then finish writing the last of five papers necessary for her tenure application. In September, she would finally go before the review committee, the final step to becoming a full-fledged associate professor of seismology at Columbia University …” (more)

[Caroline Kitchener, The Lily, 24 April]

“Across the country, college campuses have become ghost towns. Students and professors are hunkered down inside, teaching and learning online. University administrators are tabulating the financial costs of the Covid-19 pandemic, which already exceed the CARES Act’s support for higher education …” (more)

[Christina Paxson, New York Times, 26 April]

“Whilst the Covid-19 pandemic has led to a short term uptick in open research practices, both in response to the virus and the need for remote access to research and teaching materials. Samuel Moore argues that the long term impact of Covid-19 and its related economic impact will likely increase the corporate control of academic publishing …” (more)

[Impact of Social Sciences, 17 April]

“After college students joined the swarm of 200 million daily Zoom users this semester, experts bashed the company over privacy breaches and concerns about data sharing with third parties. That prompted Zoom executives to start a three-month re-evaluation of the videoconferencing platform’s encryption and licensing …” (more)

[Alexander C Kafka, Chronicle of Higher Education, 14 April]

“Having followed carefully the work of experts and science writers the last few weeks, this is my assessment of how a fall term will be possible in the US (at least for some schools), assuming there is no significant medical breakthrough in the coming months (let us hope there is, then it will be easier); readers are invited to offer corrections, suggestions, links to other sources etc. First, universities would be well-advised to start the school year earlier than late August, on the assumption that by June and July we will see some decline in illness and infection …” (more)

[Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog, 9 April]

“Over the past month, the world has changed rather rapidly. Organizations have had to close their physical facilities and move to virtual operations, practically overnight. We are fortunate to have the technology in place to be able to do this, something that would have been unthinkable a few decades ago. And yet with all of these tools, we are still scrambling …” (more)

[Todd A Carpenter, The Scholarly Kitchen, 8 April]

“Higher education institutions are suffering tremendously from the impacts of the pandemic. And, as one university president noted last week, if any colleges and universities are unable to reopen for residential instruction in the fall due to the pandemic’s continuing effects, the results will be ‘cataclysmic’. Even putting aside worst case scenarios, instability in the economy means that many higher education institutions will likely face reduced revenue this upcoming academic year …” (more)

[Roger C Schonfeld and Christine Wolff-Eisenberg, The Scholarly Kitchen, 6 April]

“Millions of college students are suddenly going to school online, whether they wanted to or not. Testing those students, administering the assessments of these newly displaced students is, well, a major test for the house of academia. That’s because students cheat …” (more)

[Derek Newton, Forbes, 5 April]

“You’ve sent your students home for the rest of the semester, moved heaven and earth to shift your classes online, moved your workforce to telework, and scheduled a virtual commencement. What’s next for university leaders as the COVID-19 crisis deepens across America? The most important task this week for presidents, provosts, CFOs and board members is to begin to pivot from short term emergency response to long term strategic adjustment …” (more)

[John Kroger, Inside Higher Ed, 1 April]

“Ireland’s Ambassador to the United States has urged those who are currently in the country on J1 visas to return home as soon as possible. Daniel Mulhall posted a video on his Twitter page urging people to return to Ireland, saying that people affected should contact their airline immediately …” (more)

[Rudi Kinssella, joe.ie, 31 March]