future

Does Online Education Actually Work?

Conventional wisdom states that the future of higher education lies online. However, few studies tell us whether this is necessarily a good thing. Indeed, both the detractors and supporters of online education tend to rely on anecdotes rather than data. So a recent report by William Bowen, Matthew Chingos, Kelly Lack, and Thomas Nygren of […]

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Here’s How the Scholar Disappears

Political scientists Gary King (Harvard University) and Maya Sen (University of Rochester) recently produced a working paper titled, “The Troubled Future of Colleges and Universities.” Everyone interested in higher education should read it. The paper is instructive for those who want to understand how little most academics understand the crisis universities face. The problems with […]

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Occupying the Time Machine

In 1895, H. G. Wells concocted an imaginary time machine that hurled people into the future and back to the past.  Since then, that device has been re-invented by sci-fi writers, film makers and scientists.  They needn’t have bothered.  The time machine has already been in existence for more than four hundred years. It’s called […]

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