With many professors approaching retirement. a shortage of qualified academics has reached crisis proportions at a number of African universities. The shortfall is a consequence of decades of neglect of African higher education, as donors and governments concentrated limited resources on primary and secondary schools, and young scholars who manage…

Jeremy Waldron, a professor of social and political theory at University of Oxford and also a professor of law at New York University, contends that laws against hate speech deserve further consideration, even if he doubts they "will ever pass constitutional muster in America." He contends that "The Harm in Hate Speech," as his…

Israeli, Palestinian, and American archaeologists unveiled a draft agreement on archaeological and cultural heritage that they hope to see included in a future Middle East peace agreement. Presenting their proposal to an audience of archaeologists at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, they said it was the first time that Israelis and Palestinians…

For the past three years, leading scientists from more than 40 countries have been conducting a physical of the planet. They have monitored its vital signs, probed its parts, taken its temperature, measured its bodily fluids. This article deals with the global-warming report for the United Nations released by a panel of 1,200 scientists at a news…

As the small states that line the Arabian Peninsula spend billions of petrodollars picking up luxury hotels, satellite television stations, first-class airlines, and high-tech weaponry, three of the emirates (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Qatar) are engaged in a high-stakes game of one-upmanship involving universities, American universities in particular.…

Speaking at a Harvard University commencement 60 years ago, Secretary of State George C. Marshall proposed a massive program of aid and redevelopment--since known as the Marshall Plan--to bring a war-ravaged Europe back to economic health, political stability, and peace. Today colleges and universities need a new such plan, with university…

While the United States and European nations share similar goals for higher education, a recent study of student financial assistance shows they have chosen strikingly different ways to pay student college expenses. Cost arrangements are found to reflect the country's cultural roots and educational and economic objectives. (MSE)

It is hardly a secret that the United Arab Emirates has recruited universities from around the world to set up outposts in the Persian Gulf. Less well known is that it is also tapping Western academics to run its public higher-education system. Westerners are also filling key positions on the faculty at these institutions and in government…

In a January speech at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, laying out his policy for higher education, President Obama opened by noting his agenda: "How can we make sure that everybody is getting the kind of education they need to personally succeed but also to build up this nation--because in this economy, there is no greater predictor…

In lawsuits pending in federal courts in Boston and Chicago, Americans harmed by terrorist attacks linked to the Islamic Republic of Iran are asserting claim to artifacts they believe belong to that nation, in their quest to win more than $4-billion in damages. The institutions that hold the artifacts, which include Harvard University and the…

In this article, the author observes that the economic recession gripping the United States has already had a negative impact on its higher-education system at a time when it is more important than ever to have an innovative, well-educated work force to succeed in an increasingly competitive and global job market. Although federal student loans…

The United States is falling behind other developed nations in terms of the share of its population with a college degree, and the gap will widen substantially unless the nation makes postsecondary education much more accessible, according to a report released last week by Jobs for the Future, a Boston-based research organization. If current…

Many states, and the United States as a whole, are doing a better job than they were two years ago of preparing students for college and expanding access to higher education, according to a national report card on higher education released last week. But the country continues to slip behind other nations on measures of enrollment and degree…

Documents from the Army during World War II arrived with the censor's approval stamp, certifying that no harm would come to the nation if those depictions of life at the front fell into enemy hands. That was the censorship of another time. Everyone understood why it was important and knew that the government needed to control the communication…

The internationalization of higher education in the Americas is mostly talk with little action, concluded delegates at a joint congress in Mexico's second-largest city. More than 300 university administrators, professors, and education specialists from throughout the region and Europe met in Guadalajara last month to promote inter-American…