Blogs

Dr. Peter Stokes is currently the executive director of postsecondary innovation in the College of Professional Studies at Northeastern University. Many of you probably got to know Peter during his tenure (almost 14 years!) in various leadership roles at Eduventures.

In the United States, college or university is a privilege. It is not a right, it most certainly is not a legal requirement. With their admission, students are invited to join a unique community of scholars and scholarship. Academic integrity is the core component of the expectations we set for students.

I said, "sure, why not?" to something nine years ago, and I'm very glad for it.

A longtime reader writes: "If I start a career in the admin side of higher education, am I heading toward a new ceiling I don't yet see? And what kind of job should I look to start in if I want to be able to grow into positions of greater responsibility as I develop greater skills?"

Amidst all the hype and media coverage related to the just released Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings (2013), it's worth reflecting on just how small of a proportion of the world's universities are captured in this exercise (see below). As I noted last November, the term 'world university rankings' does not reflect the reality of the exercise the rankers are engaged in; they only focus on a minuscule corner of the institutional ecosystem of the world's universities. below). The firms associated with rankings have also normalized the temporal cycle of rankings despite this being an illogical exercise (unless you are interested in selling advertising space in a magazine and on a website).

When we asked people that have been working in higher ed for more than a year for advice to people entering in similar positions to them, we received a wide variety of suggestions. In this post we’ll share what administrators (who represented 36% of the 464 survey respondents, respectively) would advise those just entering a similar role.

Redirect, Timothy Wilson's excellent new book, can be read in two ways. The first is to understand this book as analysis of effective techniques to modify and influence behavior.

Twice a week for the last month or so I have driven to an anonymous looking glass and brick building. Automatic doors slide open to admit me and I mount the stairs to a large open space filled with machines, tables, and various exercise implements. It’s not a regular gym; I’m here for physical therapy. After some months of mysterious, on-again, off-again (mostly on-again) pain in my left arm and shoulder, I received a diagnosis of “frozen shoulder” and a prescription for a course of physical therapy, so I now join athletes, post-operative patients, and a number of other folks who look a lot like me as we go through our various paces, trying to rehabilitate shoulders, knees, and ankles.