higher education

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Carpe Diem, Yes, But Avoid Stitches, Eh?

British university aims to curb dangerous mortarboard toss

(Newser) - It’s fun, it’s tradition—and it’s off-limits at one British institution. Cambridge's Anglia Ruskin University has asked graduates to refrain from the customary mortarboard-toss, arguing that it damages the hats and is dangerous beside, the Guardian reports, after a student needed stitches recently. Grads-to-be, perhaps predictably, derided...

Get Out Of School Already, Colleges Urge

Students feeling more pressure to graduate within 4 years

(Newser) - It turns out kids are staying in school … for entirely too long, the Arizona Republic reports. Across the country, colleges are urging students to get in and get out in 4 years. The paper found that just 30% of students graduated state universities in 4 years, a problematic number...

Dorm Rooms Go Coed
 Dorm Rooms Go Coed 

Dorm Rooms Go Coed

Sexes sharing a room no biggie, students say

(Newser) - Parents who schooled in same-sex dorms are surprised to hear that their kids are sharing coed college rooms, the AP reports. About two dozen schools—including Brown, Penn, and Oberlin—allow the practice, and more are following suit this year, including Stanford. Schools say coed dorm users are usually heterosexual...

Schools Spark Debate by Luring Out-of-Staters

Such tuition cuts will squeeze out local students, critics say

(Newser) - More state universities are trying to lure out-of-state students with lower tuition, a trend that critics say goes against the very purpose of such institutions, the New York Times reports. The schools often do it to make up for shrinking support from their own states, but some worry that universities,...

Ivy Aid May Hit 2nd-Tier Schools
Ivy Aid May Hit 2nd-Tier Schools

Ivy Aid May Hit 2nd-Tier Schools

Big scholarships could siphon top students who couldn't afford Harvard

(Newser) - It’s easy to applaud the generosity the Ivy League is lavishing on the middle class, but it could have unintended consequences, Newsweek notes. Second-tier schools and elite public universities rely on the highly talented middle-class kids Harvard and company are targeting. “Schools compete hard for those students,”...

Berkeley, Stanford Partner with Saudi University

American schools to help develop science and technology graduate school

(Newser) - Berkeley and Stanford University will help choose faculty and develop curricula for a new university in Saudi Arabia, reports the San Jose Mercury News. The graduate-level King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, funded by a $10 billion gift from the king, will focus on fields like petrochemicals and nano-technology...

Colleges Give It the Old Foreign Campus Try

Top US schools opening full-degree programs across globe

(Newser) - With overseas demand for an American education skyrocketing, US universities are racing to go global, reports the New York Times. Many schools are building foreign branch campuses, where students, especially in the Middle East, can skip over to Abu Dhabi and return home with an NYU degree—without mastering culture...

Harvard Offers Middle-Class Parents Help*
Harvard Offers Middle-Class Parents Help*
OPINION

Harvard Offers Middle-Class Parents Help*

*And pre-empts legislation far costlier for superrich schools

(Newser) - Generosity isn't what's fueling Harvard’s new $22 million giveaway to the middle class—it’s greed, educational consultant Steven Roy Goodman writes in the Boston Globe. Harvard’s giving the extra financial aid as a PR move, hoping to squash brewing legislation that would force universities to spend 5%...

College Gets Podcasted
College Gets Podcasted

College Gets Podcasted

Apple serves up free education with iTunes U

(Newser) - Want to attend Yale for free? Thanks to Apple, you sort of can. Many colleges, including Yale, Stanford and MIT, now offer free lecture downloads through iTunes U. You won’t get a diploma, but thousands of non-traditional learners don’t mind, the LA Times reports. “They thirst for...

Oral Roberts University Prez Steps Down

Oral's son Richard accused of misusing school funds

(Newser) - The president of Oral Roberts University resigned today amidst allegations of misusing school funds, the AP reports. Richard Roberts, son of founder Oral, faces a lawsuit claiming he spent university money on a life of luxury—including a $39,000 shopping spree and $29,000 trip to the Bahamas. Roberts...

Tenure Goes the Way of the Typewriter
Tenure Goes the Way of
the Typewriter

Tenure Goes the Way of the Typewriter

Part-timers dominate university teaching ranks, raising questions of quality

(Newser) - Tenured professors are looking rarer than motivated students on college campuses these days. To save money and allow greater flexibility, universities are loading up on part-time instructors, a trend some worry is lowering educational quality. Part-timers are less likely to have doctorates and, as they bounce from university to university,...

US Schools Not in Dire Decline, Study Says

Report blasts myth of kids lagging in math, science, reading

(Newser) - Despite dire warnings, US students rank well against worldwide peers in math, science, and reading, according to a new study. In fact US scores are rising, and students are graduating with more science and engineering diplomas than the US market can sustain. So why all of the hullabaloo about US...

3D Pioneer Delivers Lecture of a Lifetime

Beloved prof evokes ovations, tears with inspiring farewell

(Newser) - The "Last Lecture Series" is an academic task for some, but computer science prof Randy Pausch - who will live only 3 months with pancreatic cancer - took this talk to be literally his last, the Wall Street Journal reports. Yet he was exuberant as he showed photos of...

Turkey May Lift Headscarf Ban
Turkey May Lift Headscarf Ban

Turkey May Lift Headscarf Ban

Constitutional reform would permit Muslim garb in universities

(Newser) - A debate is raging in secular Turkey over the ban on headscarves that has resulted in Muslim women who don them being barred from universities since 1980. Now, PM Erdogan is considering drafting a new constitution with a less stringent dress code that has made many Turkish women hopeful—and...

Educated People Less Likely to Die of Cancer

College attendance lowers risk, study finds

(Newser) - People who attend college have a better chance of surviving cancer, according to a new study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Mortality rates—especially for lung, colorectal, breast and prostate cancer—were markedly lower among people with more than 12 years of education.

UC Berkeley Gets $113M to Corral Profs

Gift will slow loss of good teachers to richer, private schools

(Newser) - UC Berkeley will announce a $113 million gift today, which the school will use to create 100 new endowed chairs—hopefully slowing the emigration of professors to the juicier paychecks offered by private universities. The gift is unusual in that it will go straight to ordinary activities rather than building...

College Kids Addicted to Credit Cards

Banks, advocates battle over credit card plugs on campus

(Newser) - College students are preferring plastic to low-rent living, a trend that has banks and consumer advocates battling over credit card plugs on campus. Critics say students are susceptible to easy money marketing and rack up too much debt. Banks blame students for not reading the fine print. With Dems in...

House Votes to Overhaul Student Loans

Increases Pell money, slashes interest rates on federal loans

(Newser) - The House OKed a major shakeup of student loans yesterday, in a plan that will eliminate $19 billion in subsidies to lending companies and send the cash directly to students. The bill will increase funding for Pell grants and cut the interest rates on all federally-funded loans—assuming it survives...

Big Proctor Is Watching You
Big Proctor Is Watching You

Big Proctor Is Watching You

Webcams help distance-learning administrators keep students in line online

(Newser) - A new device designed to monitor tests remotely helps distance-learning providers keep an eye on students who are taking exams thousands of miles away. The virtual proctor locks down the terminal so users can't search files or the Internet for answers, a 360-degree camera captures the student's actions, and a...

Holocaust Critic Loses Tenure Bid
Holocaust
Critic Loses Tenure Bid

Holocaust Critic Loses Tenure Bid

University cuts controversial Finkelstein loose

(Newser) - Polarizing poli-sci scholar Norman Finkelstein has been refused tenure at DePaul University in Chicago. The school's president said that Finkelstein, a virulent critic of Israel who's been accused of anti-Semitism for his remarks on the Holocaust, stirred too much controversy and ill will for the nation's largest Catholic University.

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