Blogs

What’s New at UVenus: ● Elizabeth Lewis Pardoe for University of Venus at The Guardian with What Would You Teach...

The Minerva Project claims to “the first elite American University to be launched in a century.” While this statement may make for great PR, it is also wrong – both semantically and historically. And it also raises some interesting questions about elite vs. effective higher education.

Some traditional universities may be in a precarious position now, as new educational providers make inroads, new content providers make educational materials available more conveniently and cost effectively, and technology enables unbundling and greater individuation. The changes that have occurred in the higher education arena over the past decade – and those that are currently unfolding – have made formulating effective strategy more important for the long-term success of any university. And more people are questioning whether traditional universities are up to the task.

A colleague and I are interested in finding out more about how students use library books before we invest a lot of money in ebook collections. Given the unsettled state of the ebook market, there's no telling where we're all headed.

In our 28- country comparative study of academic salaries (See "Faculty Pay Around the World" by Scott Jaschik), we attempted to convey the value of different salaries by converting salaries to PPP, a mechanism that allowed us to compare the "buying power" of salaries in local economic context. The use of PPP has caused a lot of confusion. In this essay a member of the research team, Gregory Androushchak, attempts to clarify the value of using PPP for a complex comparative study like this one.

At my institution, spring break is now a good three weeks behind us. As the academic year lets out its last gasp of life, the natural world is teeming. At least, it is here in southern Indiana, where we’ve been blessed—er, cursed, depending on your tolerance to tree pollen—with an extremely early spring. Lately, the liveliness, vibrancy, and productivity I see outside of the classroom sometimes contrasts pretty sharply with what’s going on inside. Many of my students are in a Spring Slump, and I’m desperate for them to snap of it because, well, the semester’s not over yet.

I have now completed the last actual class of my degree. I have one Special Studies course to complete this Spring (Jane Austen and Adaptation, woo!) and then I graduate. And while I’m not yet breathing a sigh of relief and soliciting congratulations, I feel that I’m now in a position to reflect back over the course of this program a little, particularly at how I’ve experienced the dual-role I currently straddle.

Salaries, inequity, transparency. And I work too hard.