Discourse

  • Some Want To Get Rid of College Majors – Here’s How That Could Go Wrong

    Some Want To Get Rid of College Majors – Here’s How That Could Go Wrong

    Should college majors be a thing of the past? That idea received a fresh airing when author Jeffrey Selingo suggested that it’s “time to end college majors as we know them.” As a researcher who studies higher education, I concede that something about the way colleges and universities educate students in the United States needs… Read More

  • Supporting Mature Female Students Enrolling in University STEM Programs

    Supporting Mature Female Students Enrolling in University STEM Programs

    Women face many barriers when it comes to post-secondary education, and this is especially true in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), as well as in traditionally male-dominated trades like welding. These barriers are even higher for mature female students — those who are at least 24 years old — who are often discriminated against… Read More

  • Is the Opioid Epidemic Reaching College Campuses?

    Is the Opioid Epidemic Reaching College Campuses?

    On average, opioids kill 130 people per day in the United States — over five people every hour. Opioids and college students, however, aren’t often mentioned in the same breath. Primarily, the issue has been cast as a rural, lower-class epidemic. Instead, college students are historically associated with alcohol, marijuana and ecstasy — the “party”… Read More

  • When You Hear a Negative Statistic About Black Students, Question It

    When You Hear a Negative Statistic About Black Students, Question It

    Evidence suggests white teachers are more negative with – and have lower expectations for – black students. As a counseling professor who specializes in educating black children, these findings do not surprise me. I often hear education professionals and others use simplistic negative statistics to explain complex challenges facing black students. In my book, “No… Read More

  • Are You Sure Your Classmate Has a Home?

    Are You Sure Your Classmate Has a Home?

    Many people associate college with fond memories — new friendships, freedom and their first steps into adulthood. Some graduates even longingly look back at it as “the best four years” of their lives. But, for others, that certainly doesn’t hold true.   Thirty-six percent of college students experience some kind of homelessness, and 9 percent… Read More

  • What Colleges Must Do to Promote Mental Health for Graduate Students

    What Colleges Must Do to Promote Mental Health for Graduate Students

    Sara did not expect much to come from her visit to the university’s counseling center, but she was concerned enough about the dark thoughts she’d been having that she decided to go anyway. As she sat in the waiting room after turning in the patient questionnaire, she thought: “It’s probably not a big deal. I’m… Read More

  • 1 In 5 College Students Have Anxiety or Depression — Here’s Why

    1 In 5 College Students Have Anxiety or Depression — Here’s Why

    Many of us think of college as a wondrous time of new experiences and great freedom to explore new ideas and find one’s true self. In recent years, however, depression and anxiety have afflicted college students at alarming rates. As noted in the latest Center for Collegiate Mental Health report, anxiety and depression are the… Read More

  • First-Generation College Students Earn Less Than Graduates Whose Parents Went to College

    First-Generation College Students Earn Less Than Graduates Whose Parents Went to College

    When discussions take place about first-generation college students, often the focus is on how disadvantaged they are in comparison to their peers whose parents went to college. Research we recently conducted shows that first-generation college students experience another form of disadvantage that lasts long after they graduate – and that is: how much they earn.… Read More

  • Student Feedback Rates Male Professors Higher Than Females

    Student Feedback Rates Male Professors Higher Than Females

    Students are consistently rating male professors from English-speaking backgrounds higher than female professors or professors from non-English speaking backgrounds in course evaluations for science and business classes, a new study from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia finds. These findings are not meant to suggest that men who grow up speaking English… Read More

  • Research Shows Students Are as Good as Professors in Tutorial Teaching

    Research Shows Students Are as Good as Professors in Tutorial Teaching

    Professors and graduate students are at opposite ends of the university hierarchy in terms of experience, qualifications and pay. But at many universities, both do the same job: they teach tutorials offered in parallel with lectures. Our research explores whether it makes sense for professors to teach tutorials – and we found it doesn’t. They… Read More

  • What Public Universities Must Do to Regain Public Support

    What Public Universities Must Do to Regain Public Support

    Universities have lost public support in recent years. In order to get it back, college presidents should worry less about how their institutions fare in college rankings and focus more on affordability, great teaching and doing research that matters most to the communities they serve. Those are among the key recommendations that various stakeholders make… Read More

  • How Universities, Students Can Advance Equity for Women of Color

    How Universities, Students Can Advance Equity for Women of Color

    For every dollar men are paid for working a full-time job, women are paid 80 cents. And it’s worse for young women of color — they experience poverty at nearly twice the rate of young white women. While this may be news to some, it certainly isn’t to minority women. They endure these inequalities first-hand.… Read More

  • Stony Brook Models How Universities Can Help Financially-Insecure Students Succeed

    Stony Brook Models How Universities Can Help Financially-Insecure Students Succeed

    Today, a college degree is perceived as a ticket to professional and economic opportunity. Of the 55 million job openings expected through 2020, only 36 percent of them can be earned with solely a high school diploma. And, on average, Americans with a bachelor’s degree earn 66 percent more than those whose education stopped after… Read More

  • When Newspapers Close, Voters Become More Partisan

    When Newspapers Close, Voters Become More Partisan

    It seems impossible to ignore national politics today. The stream of stories about the president and Congress is endless. Whether online, in print or on television, it has never been easier to follow the action. National news outlets are adapting well to this environment: The New York Times and Wall Street Journal made big gains… Read More

  • Why Millennials Listen When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Speaks

    Why Millennials Listen When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Speaks

    Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 29, is now one of the biggest stars in politics. Her dance moves, along with her proposition of the Green New Deal, have made her viral on the internet and a force to be reckoned with in Washington, D.C. In a short period of time, she has become a millennial archetype. Just over… Read More

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