British academia leads the world in research, innovation, and creativity. The U.K. is ranked third in the world for published scientific research alone, with around 200,000 citable publications in 2020. Yet, U.K. universities are far from leading the world in academic freedom. Liberal identities have become dangerously intertwined with the identities of the institutions. In […]
Tag: higher education
Will Backlash Over Pro-Palestine Protests Spark Change on College Campuses?
Immediately after Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, 2023—starting a regional war that continues today—college campuses across the US erupted in protest. Massive demonstrations were held at Columbia, UCLA, American University, and many other colleges. Most were in support of Palestine, calling for the US to stop giving aid to Israel […]
Not My Child: Parental Pressure on Teachers in South Korea
In South Korea, suicide is the leading cause of death among teenagers. It is the number one cause of death for young people since 2017, and the number of deaths continues to rise. Popular media and expert surveys pin the blame on the country’s rigorous educational system. Students are not only weighed down by long […]
Free Speech is Under Attack
The Problem: Censorship in higher education In March 2023, Kyle Duncan, a conservative federal judge, was invited to speak at Stanford Law School. He was met by hundreds of student protestors, who gathered outside the classroom where his talk was scheduled to brandish signs and hurl insults at Duncan. One student shouted: “We hope your […]
Standardized Testing Isn’t What’s Wrong with College Admissions
“Standardized testing is a form of eugenics,” declared a classmate in my legal studies class. We had been discussing the legacies of eugenics in the United States and how these harmful, pseudoscientific beliefs permeate our lives today. In response to the statement, other students began pointing to popular criticisms of standardized tests like the SAT […]
California’s Push for Performance in Higher Education
Over the past decades, reforms to implement performance-based funding (PBF) programs have been sweeping across the nation. California, joining 36 other states, is the most recent to switch to a PBF model for their higher education system. This legislation intends to link funding with specific measurable outcomes to ensure that public stakeholders receive the greatest […]
Schooled: Could North Korea Learn from Vietnam’s Higher Education Reforms?
Going to college has never been as popular in Vietnam as it is now. The number of students in higher education has skyrocketed from 133,000 students in 1987 to 2.12 million students in 2015—nearly a sixteen-fold increase over less than thirty years. This increase in education has provided the human capital necessary for Vietnam to […]
To Segregate or Not to Segregate, that is (the Bay Area’s) Question
Children born in East Oakland, California have a life expectancy 12 years lower than those born in Piedmont, California. Oakland Unified School District reports about 1,600 homeless students, whereas Piedmont High reports zero. Residents of Oakland have a median household income of $51,000. In Piedmont, it is over $130,000. Yet less than two miles […]