No matter where one falls politically, one must admit that the pandemic brought to the foreground the importance of scientific research. A new report from The Economist’s think-tank spinoff, Economist … Continue reading “Do Academics Still Trust Research?”
The past decade has ushered in dramatic growth in the number of postsecondary degree options available to US students. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the number of … Continue reading “Are More Options Always a Good Thing? The Backfiring Effects of Academic Proliferation”
Last year, Forbes published a headline, “Americans rank a Google internship over a Harvard degree.” It seems higher education is quickly losing hold of its value proposition as the best … Continue reading “Are Students Learning the Right Skills? Why Academia Needs to Go Back to the “Basics””
In early August, archivists and other scholars erupted in protest when the American Historical Association (AHA) wrote a letter asking broad questions about how archives plan to reopen. The AHA … Continue reading “Archivists Serve Historians? A Case of Academic Hubris”
Academics are growing wary of the peer review process amid mounting evidence that it is compromised by ideological biases and that it does not effectively or reliably ensure the quality … Continue reading “An Innovative Solution to the Failures of Peer Review”
I recently submitted a manuscript to an education journal, a review essay of another scholar’s work. It opened with a compliment of the author’s “highly-praised and influential work.” To that … Continue reading “Peer Review, a Tarnished “Gold Standard””
During the last year, many universities throughout North America have declared “anti-racism” to be their official policy. Consider this sample of quotations. “We must ask how Princeton can address systemic … Continue reading “Why Universities Should Not Be Anti-Racist”
Public colleges spend public money, but college officials are reluctant to make information about their budgets easy to understand. That aversion to transparency makes it easier to pass non-instructional expenses … Continue reading “Without Financial Transparency, Colleges Mislabel Research Spending as Instructional”
The scientific process is broken. The tenure process, “publish or perish” mentality, and the insufficient review process of academic journals mean that researchers spend less time solving important puzzles and more time pursuing publication. But that wasn’t always the case.
About to retire, Oklahoma senator Tom Coburn, M.D., has just released his 107-page 2014 Wastebook, a tabloid-type listing of over a hundred wasteful government-funded projects. Coburn continues the tradition of the late William Proxmire, the Wisconsin senator who, more modestly, chose just one or two “Golden Fleeces” each year.