A leading expert challenges the prevailing gloomy outlook on higher education with solid evidence of its successes Crushing student debt, rapidly eroding state funding, faculty embroiled in speech controversies, a higher-education market disrupted by online competition-today's headlines suggest that universities' power to advance knowledge and shape American society is rapidly declining. But Steven Brint, a renowned analyst of academic institutions, has tracked numerous trends demonstrating their vitality. After a recent period that witnessed soaring student enrollment and ample research funding, universities, he argues, are in a better position than ever before. Focusing on the years 1980-2015, Brint details the trajectory of American universities, which was influenced by evolving standards of disciplinary professionalism, market-driven partnerships (especially with scientific and technological innovators outside the academy), and the goal of social inclusion. Conflicts arose: academic entrepreneurs, for example, flouted their campus responsibilities, and departments faced backlash over the hiring of scholars with nontraditional research agendas. Nevertheless, educators' commitments to technological innovation and social diversity prevailed and created a new dynamism. Brint documents these successes along with the challenges that result from rapid change. Today, knowledge-driven industries generate almost half of U.S. GDP, but divisions by educational level split the American political order. Students flock increasingly to fields connected to the power centers of American life and steer away from the liberal arts. And opportunities for economic mobility are expanding even as academic expectations decline. In describing how universities can meet such challenges head on, especially in improving classroom learning, Brint offers not only a clear-eyed perspective on the current state of American higher education but also a pragmatically optimistic vision for the future.

During the nineteenth century, nearly ten thousand Americans traveled to Germany to study in universities renowned for their research and teaching. By the mid-twentieth century, American institutions led the world. How did America become the center of excellence in higher education? And what does that story reveal about who will lead in the twenty-first century? Allies and Rivals is the first history of the ascent of American higher education seen through the lens of German-American exchange. In a series of compelling portraits of such leaders as Wilhelm von Humboldt, Martha Carey Thomas, and W. E. B. Du Bois, Emily J. Levine shows how academic innovators on both sides of the Atlantic competed and collaborated to shape the research university. Even as nations sought world dominance through scholarship, universities retained values apart from politics and economics. Open borders enabled Americans to unite the English college and German PhD to create the modern research university, a hybrid now replicated the world over. In a captivating narrative spanning one hundred years, Levine upends notions of the university as a timeless ideal, restoring the contemporary university to its rightful place in history. In so doing she reveals that innovation in the twentieth century was rooted in international cooperation-a crucial lesson that bears remembering today.

The essential survival guide for college students Getting into college takes plenty of hard work, but knowing what your professors expect of you once you get there can be even more challenging. Will This Be on the Test? is the essential survival guide for high-school students making the transition to college academics. In this entertaining and informative book, Dana Johnson shares wisdom and wit gleaned from her decades of experience as an award-winning teacher in the freshman classroom-lessons that will continue to serve you long after college graduation. Johnson offers invaluable insights into how college academics differs from high school. She reveals how to maximize what you learn and develop good relationships with your professors, while explaining how you fit into the learning environment of college. Answering the questions that many new college students don't think to ask, Johnson provides tactical tips on getting the most out of office hours, e-mailing your professor appropriately, and optimizing your performance on assignments and exams. She gives practical advice on using the syllabus to your advantage, knowing how to address your instructors, and making sure you're not violating the academic ethics code. The book also offers invaluable advice about online courses and guidance for parents who want to help their children succeed. Will This Be on the Test? shows you how to work with your professors to get the education, grades, and recommendations you need to thrive in the classroom and beyond.

This volume presents an academic proposal, developed by a joint research group of leading scholars in the social and natural sciences from universities affected by global-scale mega disasters occurring in Asia in recent decades. These include Kobe University, which experienced the 1995 Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake; Tohoku University and Iwate University, both at the center of post-disaster reconstruction following the 2011 East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami; Syiah Kuala University in Aceh, Indonesia, which was hard-hit by the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami; and Sichuan University, which took a leading role in post-disaster recovery following the 2004 Sichuan Earthquake. Presenting a comparative analysis focused on lessons learned from the recovery phase following the East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, the book addresses in detail the questions of what should be done to enable truly community-based town planning, and what roles should be played by universities in order to achieve those goals.

Integration of research experiences into the undergraduate classroom can result in increased recruitment, retention, and motivation of science students. 'Big data' science initiatives, such as the Paleobiology Database (PBDB), can provide inexpensive and accessible research opportunities. This Element provides an introduction to what the PBDB is, how to use it, how it can be deployed in introductory and advanced courses, and examples of how it has been used in undergraduate research. The PBDB aims to provide information on all fossil organisms, across the tree of life, around the world, and through all of geologic time. The PBDB Resource Page contains a range of PBDB tutorials and activities for use in physical geology, historical geology, paleontology, sedimentology, and stratigraphy courses. As two-year colleges, universities, and distance-based learning initiatives seek research-based alternatives to traditional lab exercises, the PBDB can provide opportunities for hands-on science activities.

Research on learning and cognition in geoscience education research and other discipline-based education communities suggests that effective instruction should include three key components: a) activation of students' prior knowledge on the subject, b) an active learning pedagogy that allows students to address any existing misconceptions and then build a new understanding of the concept, and c) metacognitive reflections that require students to evaluate their own learning processes during the lesson. This Element provides an overview of the research on student-centered pedagogy in introductory geoscience and paleontology courses and gives examples of these instructional approaches. Student-centered learning shifts the power and attention in a classroom from the instructor to the students. In a student-centered classroom, students are in control of their learning experience and the instructor functions primarily as a guide. Student-centered classrooms trade traditional lecture for conceptually-oriented tasks, collaborative learning activities, new technology, inquiry-based learning, and metacognitive reflection.

Hands-on learning in paleontology, and geology in general, is fairly common practice. Students regularly use rocks, fossils, and data in the classroom throughout their undergraduate career, but they typically do it sitting in a chair in a lab. Kinesthetic learning is a teaching model that requires students to be physically active while learning. Students may be involved in a physical activity during class or might be using their own bodies to model some important concept. This Element briefly discusses the theory behind kinesthetic learning and how it fits into a student-centered, active-learning classroom. It then describes in detail methods for incorporating it into student exercises on biostratigraphy, assessment of sampling completeness, and modeling evolutionary processes. Assessment data demonstrates that these exercises have led to significantly improved student learning outcomes tied to these concepts.

New online resources are opening doors for education and outreach in the Earth sciences. One of the most innovative online earth science portals is Macrostrat and its mobile client Rockd - an interface that combines geolocated geological maps with stratigraphic information, lithological data, and crowd-sourced images and descriptions of outcrops. These tools provide a unique educational opportunity for students to interact with primary geological data, create connections between local outcrops and global patterns, and make new field observations. Rockd incorporates an aspect of social media to its platform, which creates a sense of community for users. This Element outlines these resources, gives instructions on how to use them, and provides examples of how to integrate these resources into a variety of paleontology and earth science courses.

Higher education institutions have increasingly been identified as potentially radicalising locations. The 2015 Counter-Terrorism and Security Act consolidated this belief in the form of a legal duty of "due regard to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism". This duty made engagement with counter-radicalisation mandatory for universities and has required the development of systems that monitor potential avenues for the propagation of the extremist and radicalising ideas that are deemed to be the cause of contemporary political violence.This book explains why radicalisation has become such an important and controversial issue in contemporary higher education. The authors chart the ascent of radicalisation as a central explanation for the causes of modern terrorism and document the development of counter-radicalisation in the UK using higher education institutions as a unique case study. Drawing on a comprehensive assessment of university policy documents and original focus group research with university lecturers and undergraduate students, this book demonstrates the risks involved in taking the 'safeguarding route' to counter-radicalisation and provides recommendations for how universities can better navigate these policy challenges in the UK and elsewhere. McGlynn and McDaid provide a critical assessment of these counter-radicalisation policies upon higher education institutions in the UK making this an invaluable text for students, researchers and policy makers in the field of terrorism studies.

People hold a variety of prior conceptions that impact their learning. Prior conceptions that include erroneous or incomplete understandings represent a significant barrier to durable learning, as they are often difficult to change. While researchers have documented students' prior conceptions in many areas of geoscience, little is known about prior conceptions involving paleontology. In this Element, data on student prior conceptions from two introductory undergraduate paleontology courses are presented. In addition to more general misunderstandings about the nature of science, many students hold incorrect ideas about methods of historical geology, Earth history, ancient life, and evolution. Of special note are student perceptions of the limits of paleontology as scientific inquiry. By intentionally eliciting students' prior conceptions and implementing the pedagogical strategies described in other Elements in this series, lecturers can shape instruction to challenge this negative view of paleontology and improve student learning.

University dinosaur courses provide an influential venue for developing aptitude beyond knowledge of terrestrial Mesozoic reptiles. Passion for dinosaurs, when properly directed, can trigger interest in science and be used to develop critical thinking skills. Examination of dinosaur paleontology can develop competence in information analysis, perception of flawed arguments, recognition of persuasion techniques, and application of disciplined thought processes. Three methods for developing critical thought are outlined in this Element. The first uses dinosaur paleontology to illustrate logical fallacies and flawed arguments. The second is a method for evaluating primary dinosaur literature by students of any major. The final example entails critique of dinosaur documentaries based on the appearance of dinosaurs and the disconnect between scientific fact and storytelling techniques. Students are owed more than dinosaur facts; lecturers should foster a set of skills that equips students with the tools necessary to be perceptive citizens and science advocates.

Lecturing has been a staple of university pedagogy, but a shift is ongoing because of evidence that active engagement with content helps strengthen learning and build more advanced skills. The flipped classroom, which delivers content to students outside of the class meeting, is one approach to maximize time for active learning. The fundamental benefit of a flipped class is that students learn more, but ensuring student preparation and engagement can be challenging. Evaluation policies can provide incentives to guide student effort. Flipping a class requires an initial time commitment, but the workload associated with evaluating student work during the course can be mitigated. The personal interactions from active learning are extremely rewarding for students and instructors, especially when class sizes are small and suitable room layouts are available. Overall, flipping a course doesn't require special training, just a willingness to experiment, reflect, and adjust.

The educational benefits of replacing in-class lectures with hands-on activities are clear. Such active learning is a natural fit for paleontology, which can provide opportunities for examining fossils, analyzing data and writing. Additionally, there are a number of topics in the field that are exciting to geology majors and non-majors alike: very few can resist the lure of dinosaurs, huge meteor impacts, vicious Cretaceous sharks or a giant Pleistocene land mammal. However, it can seem difficult to introduce these techniques into a large general education class full of non-majors: paleontological specimens provide a natural starting point for hands-on classroom activities, but in a large class it is not always practical or possible to provide enough fossil material for all students. The Element introduces different types of active learning approaches, and then explains how they have been applied to a large introductory paleontology class for non-majors.

Research-led, research-oriented, and research-based teaching incorporate research into teaching to different degrees. Research-led teaching focuses on content and informs students about current research findings, while research-oriented teaching focuses on techniques and often occurs in research methods courses. In research-based teaching, students participate in research. Through this involvement, they benefit from improved content knowledge, research skills, and life skills, as well as enhanced personal development. Research-embedded courses can make such benefits available to a wide range of students. Best practices in experiential learning and the incorporation of research in teaching include intentionality, planning, authenticity, reflection, training, monitoring, assessment, and acknowledgment. In this Element, these principles of best practice are illustrated by courses with embedded student research. Guidelines are presented for how to plan and execute a semester-long course-embedded research project, as well as alternative and shorter-term approaches. Research-based teaching provides challenges for students and faculty, but the benefits for all stakeholders are strong.

Teaching History at University examines how high-quality history teaching and learning can be achieved in today's universities worldwide. Alan Booth draws on a wide range of international research as well as the reflections and experiences of university historians, linking theory and practice. He provides a wealth of practical ideas and strategies for the classroom. This is an essential resource for university teachers and all those who are responsible for ensuring the quality of teaching and learning policies and practices within their institutions.

In Transforming the Urban University, Richard M. Freeland reviews how Northeastern University in Boston, historically an access-oriented, private urban university serving commuter students from modest backgrounds and characterized by limited academic ambitions and local reach, transformed itself into a selective, national, and residential research university. Having served as president during a critical decade in this transition, Freeland recounts the school's efforts to retain key features from Northeastern's urban history-an emphasis on undergraduate teaching and learning, a curriculum focused on preparing students for the workplace, its signature program of cooperative education, and its broad involvement in the life of the city-while at the same time raising admission standards, recruiting students on a regional and national basis, improving graduation rates, expanding opportunities for research and graduate education and dramatically improving its U.S. News ranking. Freeland situates the Northeastern story within the evolving context of urban higher education as well as broader trends among American universities during the second half of the twentieth century. He documents the way Northeastern maintained its historic values while making innovative use of modern marketing techniques to meet the competitive conditions of the academic marketplace. He shows how Northeastern rejected the standard model of the modern research university and instead reinvented itself as a new kind of urban university: making excellence in the undergraduate experience its top priority; stressing practice-oriented education and research; and emphasizing the academic benefits of its urban setting as well as the importance of contributing to the well-being of its host city. In chronicling Northeastern's recovery from what the school's trustees called a "near-death" experience, Freeland challenges the conventional narrative of what a university must do to achieve top-tier national status.

Organisational Control in University Management: A Multiparadigm Approach focuses on significant reform and change in large organisations. The book takes as its primary focus the example of management reform at the University of Tartu, Estonia, foregrounding the complexity of change and reform of the management structures at a HE institution. Eneli Kindsiko presents findings that illuminate issues of organisational control in broader institutional contexts, exploring a wide-ranging set of theoretical and practical implications for many institutional sectors in the organisation studies field. The book presents a thorough overview of literature on organisational control, an in-depth methodological approach (with the study building on three core research paradigms: modernist, symbolic and postmodern), and a conceptual framework for addressing the complexities of organisational control in large institutions.

Faculty members, scholars, and researchers often ask where they should publish their work; which outlets are most suitable to showcase their research? Which journals should they publish in to ensure their work is read and cited? How can the impact of their scholarly output be maximized? The answers to these and related questions affect not only individual scholars, but also academic and research institution stakeholders who are under constant pressure to create and implement organizational policies, evaluation measures and reward systems that encourage quality, high impact research from their members. The explosion of academic research in recent years, along with advances in information technology, has given rise to omnipresent and increasingly important scholarly metrics. These measures need to be assessed and used carefully, however, as their widespread availability often tempts users to jump to improper conclusions without considering several caveats. While various quantitative tools enable the ranking, evaluating, categorizing, and comparing of journals and articles, metrics such as author or article citation counts, journal impact factors, and related measures of institutional research output are somewhat inconsistent with traditional goals and objectives of higher education research and scholarly academic endeavors. This book provides guidance to individual researchers, research organizations, and academic institutions as they grapple with rapidly developing issues surrounding scholarly metrics and their potential value to both policy-makers, as evaluation and measurement tools, and individual scholars, as a way to identify colleagues for potential collaboration, promote their position as public intellectuals, and support intellectual community engagement.

Christopher Brooke's account describes the working and development of the college, with much to illuminate the greater world outside its walls. Christopher Brooke's account of the history of Gonville and Caius, founded in 1348, describes the workings and development of the institution, the home of men such as William Lyndwood, Jeremy Taylor, Charles Sherrington and sevenother Nobel laureates - and of Titus Oates. For the more recent centuries, his rapidly moving narrative provides sketches and anecdotes of its central characters set in the wider context of the history of education, religion, learning and research. The Epilogue to this new edition describes the major events in the history of the College in the late twentieth century. Reissue; first published in 1985. The late CHRISTOPHER BROOKE was Fellow of Gonville and Caius and Dixie Professor of Ecclesiastical history, University of Cambridge.

The current daily experiences of undocumented students as they navigate the processes of entering and then thriving in Jesuit colleges are explored alongside an investigation of the knowledge and attitudes among staff and faculty about undocumented students in their midst, and the institutional response to their presence. Cutting across the fields of U.S. immigration policy, theory and history, religion, law, and education, Undocumented and in College delineates the historical and present-day contexts of immigration, including the role of religious institutions. This unique volume, based on an extensive two-year study (2010-12) of undocumented students at Jesuit colleges in the United States and with contributions from various scholars working within these institutions, incorporates survey research and in-depth interviews to present the perspectives of students, staff, and the institutions.

Schools and universities educate (mostly young) people, to equip them to deal with the future as it unfolds from the present. The question - whether these schools and universities are fit for that purpose - has always been relevant, even in slow-paced times of relative stability, where the future seems predictable as a simple extension of the past.Now that the future is not predictable anymore. Slow-paced times have gone. The relative stability in which universities developed and educated successive generations is gone. The question whether universities are fit for purpose is now more relevant than ever.In this book, ten leading thinkers and eighteen students from different continents, countries and cultures present their views on futures of universities and whether present-day universities are fit for purpose. It is an exploration, meant to inform, inspire and crystallize discussions.

What criteria are used to assess the scholarly merit of a thesis?. What is the level of conceptualization that is expected in doctoral theses?. How can you prepare to defend your thesis? . What is the most effective route to achieving your doctorate?. . The starting point to achieving your doctorate is to appreciate how your thesis will be examined. The criteria that examiners use, the questions they ask in vivas and their reports provide templates against which theses are judged. So, why not start from this endpoint as you plan, undertake, write and defend your research?

. . This book focuses specifically on how you, as a doctoral candidate, can raise your level of thinking about your chosen topic. Doing so will improve the quality of your research and ultimately contribute to knowledge. It also explores the nature of conceptualization which is sought by examiners in theses. As a candidate, the book provides those essential characteristics of "doctorateness" that examiners expect to find in your thesis.

. . The book will also appeal to supervisors, examiners and those who conduct workshops for doctoral candidates and supervisors.

. . This practical book includes extracts from theses, examiner reports and cameo accounts from doctoral examiners, supervisors and candidates. It also contains numerous visual models that explain relationships and processes for you to apply and use in your doctoral journey.

. . Based upon contemporary practice, "Stepping Stones to Achieving your Doctorate" is an essential tool for doctoral candidates, supervisors and examiners.

Universities have a key role to play in contributing to environmental development and combating climate change. The chapters within this volume detail the challenges faced by higher education institutions in considering environmental sustainability, and provide both a broad view of university engagement and a detailed examination of various projects. As part of this series in association with the Place and Social Capital and Learning (PASCAL) International Observatory, the three key PASCAL themes of place management, lifelong learning and the development of social capital are considered throughout the book. While universities have historically generated knowledge outside of specific local contexts, this book argues that it is particularly important for them to engage with the local community and to consider diverse perspectives and assets when looking at issues within an ecological context. The chapters in this volume provide new perspectives and frames of reference for transforming universities by engaging in the development of resilient communities. -- .

Originally published in 1910, this book contains a series of lectures on the subject of electromagnetism, delivered by British physicist and statistician Gilbert T. Walker, before the University of Calcutta. Walker writes, 'The University of Calcutta did me the honour early in 1908 to appoint me Reader, and asked me to deliver a series of lectures upon some subject, preferably electrical, which would be of use to the lecturers in the outlying colleges as well as to the more advanced students in Calcutta'. Chapters are detailed and broad in scope; chapter titles include, 'Vector analysis', 'Applications of vectorial methods to magnetostatics' and 'The electron theory of Lorentz applied to stationary media'. These informative lectures capture the very vibrancy and dynamism of the subject and explain the mathematics necessary for a full understanding. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in electromagnetism, physics and the history of education.

The School of Oriental and African Studies, a college of the University of London, was established in 1916 principally to train the colonial administrators who ran the British Empire in the languages of Asia and Africa. It was founded, that is, with an explicitly imperial purpose. Yet the School would come to transcend this function to become a world centre of scholarship and learning, in many important ways challenging that imperial origin. Drawing on the School's own extensive administrative records, on interviews with current and past staff, and on the records of government departments, Ian Brown explores the work of the School over its first century. He considers the expansion in the School's configuration of studies from the initial focus on languages, its changing relationships with government, and the major contributions that have been made by the School to scholarly and public understandings of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.