The Kept-Up Academic Librarian

The Most Successful IHEs Start With High Quality Faculty

Is there a foolproof recipe for academic success? Philip Altbach and Jamil Salmi, the co-authors of “The Road to Academic Excellence,” a new study of what makes for a “world-class research university,” suggest there just might be. what they all have in common, say the two authors, is that in each case “these universities play a key societal role by serving as cultural institutions, centers for social commentary and criticism, and intellectual hubs.” “You can say there are lots of ingredients a university needs to be really successful,” Mr. Altbach said. “But we have found that the quality of the faculty is really crucial.” Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/17/world/americas/17iht-educLede17.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1318856700-0m5VzA2IAPMkTmvf5tB3Qg

Students Shift To Two-Year Colleges But Are Less Likely To Graduate

The number of Baltimore City high school graduates enrolling in four-year colleges and universities has dropped in recent years as more head to two-year institutions where they are far less likely to graduate. The Baltimore Education Research Consortium at Johns Hopkins University found the percentage of city public school graduates heading to two-year-institutions rose 12 percentage points over four years to 52 percent in 2010, while the percentage of students enrolled in four-year-colleges declined 12 percentage points to 49 percent. The consortium also found that only 5.8 percent of those who started at a two-year college earned a degree in six years compared with 34 percent of those at four-year-colleges. Read more at:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/education/bs-md-ci-college-completion-report-20110907,0,7483796.story

The Early Bird Student Gets The Top Grades

Here’s some information that might prove useful down the road for high school juniors and seniors: College classes scheduled early in the day correlate with higher grades, or so says a study from St. Lawrence University, in Canton, N.Y. The study, conducted by two psychology professors, followed a sample of 250 students at St. Lawrence and concluded that those who enrolled in earlier classes earned higher G.P.A.’s. Read more at:
 http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/09/to-earn-an-a-set-the-alarm-clock-early/?partner=rss&emc=rss

 

Scholars Using GIS And Digital Mapping Tools For Humanities Research

This new generation of digital maps has given rise to an academic field known as spatial humanities. Historians, literary theorists, archaeologists and others are using Geographic Information Systems — software that displays and analyzes information related to a physical location — to re-examine real and fictional places like the villages around Salem, Mass., at the time of the witch trials; the Dust Bowl region devastated during the Great Depression; and the Eastcheap taverns where Shakespeare’s Falstaff and Prince Hal caroused. Like the crew on the starship Enterprise, humanists are exploring a new frontier of the scholarly universe: space.

Researchers' Study Documents Vast Increase In A Grades In Higher Ed

We’ve written before about some of the work of Stuart Rojstaczer and Christopher Healy, grade inflation chroniclers extraordinaire. They have put together a new, comprehensive study of college grading over the decades, and let me tell you, it is a doozy. The researchers collected historical data on letter grades awarded by more than 200 four-year colleges and universities. Their analysis (published in the Teachers College Record) confirm that the share of A grades awarded has skyrocketed over the years. About 43 percent of all letter grades given were A’s, an increase of 28 percentage points since 1960 and 12 percentage points since 1988. Read more at:
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/14/the-history-of-college-grade-inflation/

Getting A Financial Aid Grant Increases Odds That At-Risk Students Persist

A first-of-its-kind study found that financial aid may be most helpful to the Wisconsin college students who are the least likely to otherwise succeed. Goldrick-Rab and Harris tracked data from the 600 students who received Morgridge grants, plus 900 eligible non-recipients. In initial results, they found that the most disadvantaged group of students were more likely to stay in college if they received the Morgridge grant, compared to those who did not. “These are students who are predominantly first generation, and with predominantly lower ACT scores,” Goldrick-Rab said. “What we see is if they were awarded a grant, their chance of persisting jumped from 55 to 72 percent.” Read more at:
http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/education/university/article_2579bd20-a8d5-11e0-83f2-001cc4c03286.html#ixzz1RW32kiEV

Study Will Examine If Merit Scholarships Lead To More College Graduates

It seems the Florida Bright Futures Scholarship Program has been under scrutiny since its inception. That a Florida State University professor was just given a $780,000 federal grant to study the merit-based award's effectiveness isn't exactly a shock. Shouping Hu, who's published several previous studies on college students' behavior, wants to find out whether Bright Futures leads to higher college enrollment and more timely degree production. Basically, if a student gets the scholarship, is he or she more likely to go to college, get good grades and graduate on time? Read more at:
http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/fsu-professor-to-study-is-bright-futures-working/1177582 

 

What The Latest Studies Tell Us About The Value Of A College Degree

A recently released study linking college majors to lifetime career earnings has rekindled the long-standing debate over the economic value of higher education. Although the study concludes that there are wide variations in the career payoffs from undergraduate majors, it concludes that a college degree is worth the time and money spent. A separate study, from compensation data provider PayScale, suggests that all is not grim for humanities majors when it comes to earnings potential.  Read more at:
http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2011/06/07/what%E2%80%99s-a-college-degree-actually-worth/

New Study Attempts To Rank IHEs Based On Research Productivity

Harvard University and Boston University are among the top institutions in the nation when it comes to creating value from academic research, according to a new study. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology placed near the bottom of the list — but even the study’s author said that result could be misleading. The vast majority of academic research in the United States is funded by the federal government, and there are few good measures of whether that money is well spent. Litwin acknowledged that the study’s measure was not precise and should be only one of several factors used to determine academic productivity. Read more at:
http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2011/06/06/harvard_bu_excel_in_research_payback_study_says/

Animals For Research Makes Higher Ed A Target For Protests

She is among thousands of animals used every year at Michigan universities for research and training, and a subject of intense debate over their scientific value and ethics. Several uses of animals at Michigan universities have come under fire recently by animal rights organizations and led to some changes. While animal research is regulated by federal law to protect them from inhumane treatment and neglect, some say that research should never involve animals. Read more at:
http://detnews.com/article/20110426/METRO/104260329/Colleges’-animal-research-under-fire#ixzz1KjYxwGPU