News

Global university rankings may be distorted by the business activities of the ranker, including selling consulting, analytics and other services to universities, according to a new study from the University of California (UC), Berkeley’s Center for Studies in Higher Education.

Today, March 23, marks the 153th anniversary of the 1868 legislation that established the University of California, also known as Charter Day. The following provides a reflection on the intent of that legislation and its initial organizational principles that remain relevant today for one of the largest and most prestigious multi-campus public universities in the world.

Becoming a State

Abstract

A little over 40 years ago, in the waning days of his presidency, Jimmy Carter signed the 1980 Bayh-Dole Act launching a transformation in the pursuit and purpose of science in the United States. Before 1980, federally funded science was largely focused on meeting the Cold War defence needs of a nation in a science and technology race with the Soviet Union.

The 1980 act, named after the two sponsoring senators, Birch Bayh of Indiana and Bob Dole of Kansas, initiated in earnest the recognition that the advancement of science was also vital for global economic competitiveness.

A bit over forty years ago, in the waning days of his presidency, Jimmy Carter signed the 1980 Bayh-Dole Act launching a transformation in the pursuit and purpose of science in the United States. Before 1980, federally funded science was largely focused on meeting the Cold War defense needs of a nation in a science and technology race with the Soviet Union.

The 1980 Act, named after the two sponsoring Senators, Birch Bayh of Indiana and Bob Dole of Kansas, initiated in earnest the recognition that the advancement of science was also vital for global economic competitiveness.

A survey published by UC Berkeley’s Student Experience in the Research University, or SERU, Consortium took a closer look at how the COVID-19 pandemic may hinder graduate and professional students from completing their degrees on time.

This study examined whether program climate factors, stressors, demographic, and institutional variables were associated with doctoral students’ clinically significant generalized anxiety disorder and major depressive disorder symptoms. Participants: This study examined doctoral students’ responses from the gradSERU survey, which was administered at five U.S. public research universities in 2017–2018 (n = 2,582). Methods: This study utilized confirmatory factor analysis and binary logistic regression.

In the latest sign of trouble for the standardized testing empire that has played a major role in college applications for millions of students, the organization that produces the SAT said on Tuesday that it would scrap subject tests and the optional essay section, further scrambling the admissions process.

The move comes as the testing industry has been battered by questions about equity and troubled by logistical and financial challenges during the coronavirus pandemic.

A bipartisan group of three senators on Wednesday asked the Government Accountability Office to examine whether colleges and universities are doing enough to make sure disabled students have the same access to learning during the coronavirus pandemic as others.

Biden’s election will fundamentally alter the destructive higher education policies pursued over the last four years under Donald Trump. The Trump administration pursued increasingly restrictive visa policies, dampening the ability and interest of international talent to come to American universities, repeatedly proposed large scale cuts in student financial aid as well as funding for science, invoked anti-immigrant policies that affected students, and reduced restriction on largely predatory for-profit tertiary businesses.

Joe Biden’s election as the next president of the United States will fundamentally alter the destructive higher education policies pursued over the past four years under Donald Trump.

This book chronicles the revolution in STEM teaching and learning that has arisen from a convergence of educational research, emerging technologies, and innovative ways of structuring both the physical space and classroom activities in STEM higher education. Beginning with a historical overview of US higher education and an overview of diversity in STEM in the US, the book sets a context in which our present-day innovation in science and technology urgently needs to provide more diversity and inclusion within STEM fields.

This is not a time to be silent. This book addresses the opportunities, controversies and tensions surrounding the New Silk Road. It looks at how universities, while faced with challenges to their autonomy and values, stand firm to defend global cooperation. The global order, based on international governance and multilateral trade mechanisms in the aftermath of the Second World War, is changing rapidly and creating waves of uncertainty. Meanwhile, China has launched its “New Silk Road” (NSR) and is developing its higher education and research systems at speed.

IN DECEMBER, KAWIKA SMITH, a 17-year-old high school student from Los Angeles, along with fellow students and advocates, sued the UC system. The goal? Completely reinvent the admissions process by jettisoning standardized testing forever. After a whirlwind year of protests, a pandemic, court battles, and UC policy changes, it seems like they just might pull it off.

Online learning will become a new normal in higher education for the foreseeable future. Not because faculty find emergency remote instruction gratifying or because students enjoy it so much they won’t return to campus. Online learning will flourish because universities will need it to stay afloat during a long and painful recession.

Quality assurance in higher education often emphasises the importance of lowering student attrition. The first year of study is a crucial period for mitigating risks of attrition as this is the time when students develop a sense of belonging, and academic and personal connections. This study explores the long-term effects of the first-year student experience on attrition during their four years of study using two longitudinal datasets from a highly selective Russian university.