Unlocking Student Data Could Lead to 'App Economy' for Colleges

Start-up companies want to pry the information loose from campus servers in order to offer personalized services that could transform the student experience.

Portable Education Data, One Click Away

Black Studies: 'Swaggering Into the Future'

A new generation of Ph.D.'s is advancing the field with a multidisciplinary approach.

A New Generation of Black-Studies Ph.D.'s

A look at five doctoral students at Northwestern, and their dissertation topics.

Education Department's Report on Alcohol and Drugs May Prompt Crackdown

Colleges are supposed to evaluate their programs for preventing substance abuse to ensure they're effective. Whether that happens, the Education Department can't say.

Percolator: Birds Lose Their Magnetic Maps as Scientists Reverse Direction

Scientists thought that bird beaks contained magnetic sensors, but new research shows epic migration is still a mystery.

Chiropractic Colleges Seek Legitimacy Amid Financial Woes

Struggling with shrinking enrollments and revenues, these specialized institutions may have to change to survive.

Chiropractic College's Ruling Couple Draws Fire Over Wife's Outsize Role

George Goodman has presided over a period of growth for Logan College with his wife at his side, literally. She has her own desk in his office.

An Australian 'Smart State' Serves Up Lessons for a Knowledge Economy

Support from the government, willingness to cooperate, and the dedication of a generous donor have made Queensland's universities a research hub.

From Bees' Brains to Airplanes: an Australian Scientist Applies His Research

The goal is to create safer, more comfortable, and, for the military's purposes, differently motorized flight.

Head Count: A Liberal-Arts Leader Weighs Costs and Quality

At a conference on the future of liberal-arts colleges, a president describes the challenge of balancing affordability and quality.

Criminal Charges at UCLA Focus Universities' Attention on Lab Safety

The death of a graduate student in 2008 was just one result of the widespread culture of negligence, safety advocates say.

Transitions: Graham B. Spanier Takes Up a National-Security Project

Mr. Spanier has told friends he'll be working on the special project while on sabbatical from the university he once led. Read that and other job-related news.

UConn Medical School's New Dean Wants to Bring More Ideas to Market

Frank M. Torti will oversee a major expansion of the health center and medical school and try to position the university as a player in individualized medicine.

Hamline U. Economist Returns to Her Roots to Lead Asian U. for Women

Fahima Aziz has promised a collaborative leadership style for Bangladesh's young university, which has seen rapid turnover at the top.

'When We Wear Our Religious Lenses, We Can Employ Them to See the World'

Rahuldeep Singh Gill says that students who come to his course, whether Christians or not, leave with a deeper understanding of the religion. 

Kant Expert Is First Hire in Brown U.'s New Humanities Effort

Paul Guyer, a philosophy professor at the University of Pennsylvania, is moving to Brown to be part of a project to stimulate interdisciplinary work.

Pillow Fights and Tuition Protests

As Beef Cattle Become Behemoths, Who Are Animal Scientists Serving?

The financial ties between pharmaceutical companies and agricultural schools have grown deep. And even at public colleges, they're often kept secret.

'Ameritopia' as Best Sell­er: How Dumb Can Po­lit­i­cal Phi­los­o­phy Get?

Conservatives complain, perhaps fairly, that nobody reviews their books. Be careful what you wish for.

The Chosen Genes

Geographically and culturally distant Jews have more genes in common than they do with non-Jews around them, a new book says.

The Jewish Genius and Other Mythical Traits

There's little genetic basis for saying Jews have higher IQ's, or various other alleged characteristics.

Chaucer, That Most American of Writers

In his Canterbury Tales, the progenitor of English poetic tradition was the first to show how the individual emerges from the stereotype in the context of social and...

A Byzantine Plot

A revisionist take on the First Crusade gives the emperor of Constantinople a larger role.

The Professor's Inner Bitch

The cause of my classroom distress? If you answered "cellphones," you'd be right. Or partly right.

Speaking Truth to Bigotry: Do the Ends Justify the Means?

In College Classrooms, the Problem Is High-School Athletics

To what extent has the growth in seriousness of sports at that level contributed to the general dumbing down of public education?

How Unequal State Support Diminishes Degree Attainment

To expand the number of poor and minority students who get bachelor's degrees, states must stop playing favorites with elite campuses.

For Women to Think Mathematically, Colleges Should Think Creatively

Creativity and playfulness may offer surprising strategies for closing the gender gap in some STEM fields.

Survey Courses Should Offer Broad Overviews

"Organizing a survey of literary history around social and political (or economic) issues represents one more instance of literary studies selling out literary, aesthetic,...

Benefits for Grad Students Benefit Institutions, Too

"Graduate students in good situations have protection from unjustified termination and excessive workloads, access to health care, access to child care and maternity leave if...

At a Small College, Female Chemists Reach a Tipping Point

"The chemistry department here at Union College has 10 tenure-track faculty lines, seven of which are held by women."

The Endangered Scholarly Book Review

Done properly, they are still a key contribution to the scholarly conversation.