Tag Archives: future of the university

Would teaching economics backwards help students be ready for the world?

Posted on December 5, 2013 by Keith Brown

Who really knows… but it might be worth the experiment! …here’s one temporary fix for introductory economics: teach it backwards. Reversing the order in which introductory economic classes are taught today might be the easiest way to respond to the … Continue reading →

Posted in Broader Impacts, Degrowth Economics, Future of the University, Public Philosophizing | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Brain Drain / Brain Gain

Posted on November 13, 2013 by Keith Brown

In a new book, “Paying the Professoriate,” to be published this month, Mr. Altbach and his co-editors examine academic salaries, contracts and benefits in publicly funded universities in 28 countries. They depict a world increasingly divided “into two categories — … Continue reading →

Posted in Basic News, Future of the University | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Udacity, Coursera: Should celebrities teach MOOCs?

Posted on November 8, 2013 by Keith Brown

Free online courses do big numbers these days. So-called MOOCs, or massive open online courses, typically get tens of thousands of sign-ups to watch video lectures delivered by tweedy academics, some more photogenic than others. But imagine how many students … Continue reading →

Posted in Future of the University, Public Pedagogy, Science and technology ramifications | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Economy Does Not Depend on Higher Education – Commentary – The Chronicle of Higher Education

Posted on October 30, 2013 by Keith Brown

The notion that a person without a degree is doomed to unemployment is at best a widespread misconception, as unwarranted as blaming an economic recession on a paucity of skilled workers. The high unemployment numbers are not due to workers’ … Continue reading →

Posted in Future of the University, Public Pedagogy | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

8 New Jobs People Will Have In 2025

Posted on October 8, 2013 by Keith Brown

New technology will eradicate some jobs, change others, and create whole new categories of employment. Innovation causes a churn in the job market, and this time around the churn is particularly large–from cheap sensors (creating “an Internet of things“) to … Continue reading →

Posted in Future of the University, Graduate Studies, Public Pedagogy, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Academy Fight Song | Thomas Frank | The Baffler

Posted on September 23, 2013 by Keith Brown

This essay starts with utopia—the utopia known as the American university. It is the finest educational institution in the world, everyone tells us. Indeed, to judge by the praise that is heaped upon it, the American university may be our … Continue reading →

Posted in Future of the University, Graduate Studies | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Academic Sustainability

Posted on June 18, 2013 by Robert Frodeman

The academy may be filled with leftists–so we are told–but it has yet to apply its Marxist interpretive skills to its own situation. For the academy suffers from epistemic overproduction. We can expect a crash. This overproduction shows itself both … Continue reading →

Posted in Future of the University, Graduate Studies, Philosophy & Politics, Public Philosophizing | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: The Great University Gamble: Money, Markets and the Future of Higher Education | Impact of Social Sciences

Posted on June 10, 2013 by Keith Brown

McGettigan’s new book is specifically about the situation in the United Kingdom, but I think it offers critiques that would elucidate aspects of the American system as well. McGettigan’s argument is that this market talk drives a wider discourse of … Continue reading →

Posted in Future of the University, New Books | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The ‘Broader Impacts’ of Sequestration on Science

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Keith Brown

CSID Director Bob Frodeman has some suggestions about the interconnection of research & society in post-austerity world. Now that we’ve been driven off the “fiscal cliff,” perhaps we should look around and assess the results. It turns out that sequestration … Continue reading →

Posted in Accountability, Broader Impacts, Economics & STEM Research, Public Pedagogy, Public Philosophizing, Science and technology ramifications, STEM Policy, Sustainability, Risk Management, & Long-Term Security, TechnoScience & Technoscientism | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The looming spectre of differential tuition

Posted on November 28, 2012 by Keith Brown

Someone can do the relatively simple accounting and see that the humanities–”majors without an immediate job payoff”–are already subsidizing those which have a “job payoff.” In fact, this was already done at few institutions, including UCLA. But this is a … Continue reading →

Posted in Basic News, Economics & STEM Research, Future of the University, Graduate Studies, Philosophy & Politics, Public Pedagogy, Public Philosophizing, Science and technology ramifications, STEM Policy | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Denied Tenure, a Professor Burns His Bridges – Faculty – The Chronicle of Higher Education

Posted on July 17, 2012 by Keith Brown

The comments to this piece demonstrate the on-going issues arising from the merger of “college” (oriented on teaching) with “university” (oriented on research). Denied Tenure, a Professor Burns His Bridges – Faculty – The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Posted in Basic News, Future of the University | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment