The Kept-Up Academic Librarian

What Drove A Claremont McKenna Admissions Administrator To Falsify Data

Claremont McKenna College, a small, prestigious California school, said Monday that for the past six years, it has submitted false SAT scores to publications like U.S. News & World Report that use the data in widely followed college rankings. Such small differences might influence the rankings, and the deception underscores the importance those rankings have taken on, as colleges fret over the loss of even a notch or two against their competitors. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/31/education/claremont-mckenna-college-says-it-exaggerated-sat-figures.html?_r=1

Just The Latest Incident In The Manipulation Of College Rankings

Any love-hate relationship must have its share of pain, so the academic world, in its obsession with college rankings, is suitably dismayed by news that an elite college, Claremont McKenna, fudged its numbers in an apparent bid to climb the charts. Dismayed, but not quite surprised. In fact, several colleges in recent years have been caught gaming the system — in particular, the avidly watched U.S. News & World Report rankings — by twisting the meanings of rules, cherry-picking data or just lying. repeated revelations of manipulation show the importance of the rankings in the minds of prospective students, their guidance counselors, parents, the alumni considering donations, the professors weighing job offers — and, of course, the colleges themselves. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/01/education/gaming-the-college-rankings.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha23

Admissions Offices Using Software To Detect Plagiarism In Applications

The detection of such wholesale cheating in college applications is on the rise due to the use of Turnitin for Admissions, an anti-plagiarism database service that compares student essays to an immense archive of other writings. Around the country, more than 100 colleges and universities have adopted it, mainly in graduate divisions. That growth highlights the search for authenticity in college admissions at a time when the Internet offers huge amounts of tempting free material. Read more at:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/technology/la-me-plagiarism-20120129,0,6050118.story

Are American IHEs Willing To Sacrifice Basic Freedoms For A Spot In China

The muzzling of Stewart’s journal exposes the compromises to academic freedom that some American universities make in China. While professors and students openly discuss sensitive subjects such as the Tibetan independence movement or the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests on the Hopkins-Nanjing campus, they can’t do so in the surrounding community. Even on-campus protections only cover class discussions, not activities typical of U.S. campuses, such as showing documentary films in a student lounge. As the newcomers take advantage of multimillion-dollar subsidies from China, they may jeopardize the intellectual give-and-take that characterizes American higher education. Read more at:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-28/china-halts-u-s-college-freedom-at-class-door.html

Wikipedia Is The Go To Site For College Plagiarists

A new analysis of “unoriginal” writing by the anti-plagiarism site Turnitin finds that college students aren’t much better than high school students at choosing their sources. A growing number of college presidents and faculty are concerned about student plagiarism in the Internet age. But the questions raised by this analysis go beyond ethics. Wouldn’t professors be disheartened to learn that a significant share of students are harvesting their facts not from an old-fashioned encyclopedia but from Yahoo Answers? Wikipedia is the most popular source of borrowed text on the Internet in both high school and college, according to the Turnitin analysis of 33 million student papers. Read more at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/college-inc/post/students-need-lessons-on-where-to-find-their-facts-study-finds/2011/11/03/gIQAwTkyiM_blog.html?wprss=college-inc 

 

To Increase Global Diversity IHEs Hire Recruiting Firms To Find Best Students

UMass Lowell, along with sister campuses in Boston and Dartmouth, sought outside help. Last year, the schools hired an Australian company called Navitas. It recruits bright but underprepared students around the world.  Navitas and other “pathway programs’’ have won fans among college administrators trying to globalize their operations on tight budgets. The pathway programs boast recruitment expertise most schools could never hope to develop in-house. They bring in students who diversify campus culture and who, crucially, pay out-of-state tuition and typically require little financial aid. But colleges that contract with private recruiters risk wading into ethically tricky waters. Read more at:
http://articles.boston.com/2011-10-28/news/30332978_1_recruiters-foreign-students-independent-contractors

Elite IHEs Mass Mailings To Prospective Students Raise False Expectations

Nicole Ederer was delighted when Columbia University and Duke University wooed her with e-mail and letters. The 18-year-old high school senior in Thornwood, N.Y., said she spent about $780 on 12 applications after mailings from top schools such as Duke, which sent a wall poster. She was rejected by Duke, Columbia, and Cornell, and plans to attend the University of Maryland. Critics say the deluge of correspondence from even the most selective colleges is raising false expectations among thousands of students, bringing in application fees as high as $90 apiece, and making colleges seem more selective by soliciting many more applicants than they can accept. Read more at:
http://articles.boston.com/2011-05-22/news/29571988_1_mailings-college-admission-test-admissions-and-financial-aid

Professor Teaches Underground Classes While On Administrative Leave

Tthe five journalism students gathered around the classroom's conference table this evening aren't getting credit and Protess isn't getting paid for teaching what he calls his "underground class" in a location he doesn't want disclosed. He was placed on leave for the spring quarter — and has been barred from even going to his office — after university officials said he misled them in connection with a pending court case. Read more at: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/education/ct-met-protess-northwestern-ethics-20110504,0,6687069.story

 

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

Germany's Top Universities Help To Hunt For Plagiarizers Among The Political Elite

Weeks after Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, Germany’s defense minister, was forced to resign in a plagiarism scandal, three German universities say they are investigating similar complaints about the academic work of three figures from the country’s political sphere. The University of Konstanz, confirmed that the university was aware of the accusations and that it was investigating a case of plagiarism of a doctoral thesis. Read more at: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/25/education/25iht-educside.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss