The demand for higher education and academic research--and the costs of providing them--has risen in recent years, and the search is on for easy answers to limit the financial burdens on families and the government. The most recent suggestion has been to require colleges and universities, especially large and prestigious ones, to spend more of…

Enrollments in foreign-language courses at American colleges and universities have jumped 13 percent since 2002, with Arabic and Chinese showing the most-dramatic increases, according to a report released last week by the Modern Language Association. The number of students studying Arabic soared 126.5 percent between 2002 and 2006, while the…

When the League for Innovation in the Community College held its annual technology conference here last week it drew about 2,350 participants, live and in person. People came from 374 colleges around the country and overseas, and listened to faculty members and technology officials discuss new teaching techniques using gadgets like cell phones.…

In this article, the author reflects on his feelings as a working-class transplant into academic culture and the middle class. He draws on his feelings of alienation from the people who surround him and his observations of the cultural subordination necessary to succeed in the middle class world to explain his desire to do more to help other…

Recently, the Modern Language Association (MLA) called for a major reorganization of undergraduate academic programs and even the structure of foreign-language departments. Typically, the initial two years of language instruction are taught by non-tenure-track instructors with little or no voice in the department. Faculty members mainly teach the…

When the Department of Education released the first-year results for the Academic Competitiveness and National Smart Grant programs, it tried to put a positive spin on its disappointing numbers. There seemed no getting around this fact: The 2006-2007 participation rates for the two new grant programs, which supplement Pell Grants for low-income…

Over the past quarter-century David Petrie, a 56-year-old Scotsman has attended, in the capacity of plaintiff or interested observer, at least 80 court hearings at various levels of the Italian and pan-European judicial systems--all in cases of alleged job discrimination by Italian universities. In the process, Mr. Petrie has become the public…

A dispute over the federal agency charged with reviewing college accreditors may come to a boil at a key review session next month, when the waning Bush administration will have one of its highest-profile chances to try to force colleges to do more to demonstrate how well they help students learn. The federal agency is scheduled to assess five of…

This article features Haitian Education & Leadership Program, Haiti's largest university-scholarship program, which provides merit scholarships to students in the top 10 percent of their high-school classes in the country's poorest areas. On average, the scholarships pay students $4,100, which covers tuition, textbooks, and school supplies, basic…

Americans are not just reading fewer books, but are reading less and less of everything, in any medium. This is the doleful conclusion of "To Read or Not to Read," a report recently released by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Subtitled "A Question of National Consequence," the report piles on the bad news delivered by "Reading at Risk,"…

In psychological terms, impostor syndrome is a cognitive distortion that prevents a person from internalizing any sense of accomplishment. By many accounts, academics--graduate students, junior professors, and even some full professors--relate to this only a little less than they relate to eye strain. The condition was first identified in 1978 by…

This fall has been a season of flag planting for defenders of academic freedom. It began in September, when the American Association of University Professors released its statement, "Freedom in the Classroom." Then in October, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences released its own statement of principles on the topic. Later that month, a new…

This article illustrates the importance of preparation for professors who take students overseas. A University of Washington study-abroad program in Ghana that was cut short last summer after the medical evacuation of half of its participants highlights the potential hazards associated with programs led by individual faculty members who may lack…

Admissions deans have perfected the wistful tone of regret. In rejection letters, they talk of wrestling with "difficult decisions" and having "so many more qualified applicants than space." To the rejected, those words often ring hollow. After all, the student remains excluded no matter what the reason. There is mounting evidence that top…

Last year, the University of Idaho dropped its motto "From Here You Can Go Anywhere" for a new marketing theme dubbed "No Fences," with the accompanying tag line "Open Space. Open Minds." The words were intended to evoke both the romantic landscape of Idaho and the boundless intellectual opportunities at the university. It was perfect. Except no…