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The article argues that undergraduate research papers teach U.S. college students little about research or writing. Topics discussed include the complaints against U.S. higher education and research papers made by education columnist Rebecca Schuman, the five paragraph essay structure used by students to write research papers, and what the author argues professional communication actually looks like.

The article delves into the practice of affluent parents paying for their teenagers to gain "peer-reviewed" authorship via online research programs, aimed at enhancing their college admission prospects. Topics include the emergence of programs facilitating student research paper publication, the concerning practices within this realm, and the consequences of such publications on college admissions.

An essay is presented that responds to a December 2013 article on the online publication "Slate" by Rebecca Schuman, which argues that undergraduate students should not be required to write research papers. Topics include the attitudes of college faculty regarding Schuman's article, the teaching of rhetoric and composition, and the nature of the essay as an academic research genre.

The article discusses efforts on behalf of interdisciplinary approaches to knowledge in U.S. higher education humanities field, adapted from the book "Paper Minds: Literature and the Ecology of Consciousness," by the article's author. Topics, including expertise, philosopher Steven Pinker's criticism of the humanities, free indirect discourse, empathy and the pluralistic worldview, are discussed.

The article reports on the release of the four discussion papers issued by the federal Commission on the Future of Higher Education in the U.S. These include papers on adult learners, racial disparities in graduation rates, state financing of higher education, and shortages in the health-care professions. The paper on graduation rates predicted the fall of the per capita personal income of Americans and a drop in the proportion of workers with high school diplomas and college degrees if trends will continue. The paper on adult-learners focuses on the responsiveness of colleges to nontraditional students. On the other hand, the fourth paper indicates the shortage of doctors and nurses and recommends ways to increase the supply of medical professionals and professors.

The article reports that the U.S. Commission on the Future of Higher Education has released a series of papers on key topics, including accountability, accreditation, college costs, and consumer information, that are meant to assist the panel as it prepares to deliver its final report to the education secretary, Margaret Spellings, by August 1, 2006. In an e-mail message announcing the release of the papers, the Education Department said they are not formal recommendations by the commission, but are intended to spur discussion.

The article focuses on a discussion paper put out by a British higher-education think tank, Agora, which highlights the the caution that British universities should be using when dealing with Chinese partnerships. The report, "British Universities in China: The Reality Beyond the Rhetoric," states that China is an emerging power in education and is striving to be a leader in higher education. Consequently, its absorption of British talent and intellect is something Britain should be cautious of. It is further stated that a strategy for what British higher education should be trying to achieve in China needs to be employed. Attention is paid to Asian expert, Ian Gow, vice chancellor of the University of Notthingham, Sir Colin Campbell, and Agora's director Anna Fazackerley.

Reports on the warning issued by leaders of Great Britain's Association of University Teachers that its members will refuse to grade the papers of students completing their bachelor's degrees unless university vice-chancellors respond positively to the teachers' demand for 16-percent raises. Estimated number of students scheduled to graduate in 1991; Reduction of the universities' budgets.

In this article the author discusses aspects of the effects of task forces at higher educational institutions. He is critical of two task-force projects that he participated in at Tufts University. He discusses several lessons that he learned from his experiences including to limit the scope of the task force, consider the resources required, build support from the community, and assign responsibility for putting the task force's recommendations into place.

The article offers information on various topics related to awards and prizes in U.S. higher education. Topics include the application for fine arts awards of the Vilcek Foundation, the announcement of research submissions for the 2016 Academic Paper Competition of the "Journal of Investment Consulting," and the financial assistance of the foundation Phil Zwickler Memorial Research Grants to scholars who conducts sexuality research.

The article discusses research conducted by the journal on the amount of academic writing that is completed by undergraduates studying business or education at four-year schools in Texas. It was found that there were few courses that required students to write papers of 10 or more pages. This issue is the subject of the book "Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses," by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa. The educational benefits of academic writing are considered. The research methods used by Arum and Roksa and the journal are discussed.

The article reports that the "Chronicle of Higher Education" has entered its fortieth year of publication. It started out as an eight page paper and now averages a 140 pages a week in three sections. The journal's growth has mirrored the growth of higher education over the last few decades. The forty years that the journal has been in existence have also seen some of the most important stories in the history of higher education. The top stories over the past forty years are enumerated. Some of the topics include student unrest over the Vietnam War, the Reagan U.S. presidential administration, and the internet in education.

Presents a special pull-out section on events in academe for spring-summer 1992. Includes an index to subject meetings, chronological listings of events from February through September 1992, athletics meetings and championships and deadlines forfellowships, grants, papers and prizes.

The article reports that accreditors and some college groups in the U.S. are aghast at a proposal to eliminate regional accreditors and replace them with a national accreditation body. The proposal is contained in a discussion paper released late last month by the secretary of education's Commission on the Future of Higher Education. The news came just as the chairman of the commission allayed another concern of college officials by publicly promising that a mandatory test of college students would not be among the panel's final recommendations.

Lists deadlines for fellowships, grants and papers in higher education in the United States. Workshops; Institutes; Topics for study; Grant application procedures.

The article presents deadlines for various U.S. higher education awards, prizes, fellowships, grants, and papers, including the 2017 Harold W. McGraw Jr. Prize in Education, the Social Science Research Council and the Japan Center for Global Partnership's Abe Fellowship for Journalists, and the Hagley Museum and Library Exploratory Research Grants.

This article presents news briefs related to higher education in the U.S. Admissions forms that Seton Hall University mailed to tens of thousands of prospective students abroad contained a misprinted telephone number that instead connected callers to a phone-sex line. A man who was visiting the Fitzwilliam Museum at the University of Cambridge tripped on his untied shoelace and stumbled down a stairway into a display of 300-year-old Chinese vases, shattering them. Yale University has finally agreed to provide liquid-soap dispensers in dormitories. The university replaced its one-ply toilet paper with two-ply paper a decade ago, but it held the line on providing soap of any kind, citing an anticipated cost of more than $100,000 a year.

The article reports that U.S. students from wealthy families received much more financial aid from private colleges in 2000 than they did in 1993, according to a policy paper that was posted on the Web site of Education Sector, a new, Washington D.C.-based research group. The aid offered to students from low-income families remained relatively stagnant, the paper says. Kevin Carey, the organization's manager of research and policy, said in an interview, that it was a very significant trend, and it was something that he did not thought that the public really was not aware of.

This article presents comments on the job search in higher education, as well as on academic work and life. The author says that his main recommendation is to work hard with the students at the beginning of the semester to make it so they can write a good paper right away. One should give the students a very detailed proofreading checklist that they must go through before handing in the paper.

The article explores on the prevailing campus legends in the U.S. Campus myths are more than just amusing, according to Claire Howell Major, co-author of the article "Exam Scams and Classroom Flimflams: Urban Legends as an Alternative Lens for Viewing the College Classroom Experience." Major and Nathaniel Bray, her colleague in the department of higher education at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, point out that the legends tend to be stuck in a pre-politically correct era. An example of a campus myth is that of the two students who partied all night and came late for a final exam. To explain their lateness, they tell their professor they had a flat tire. The professor sends the students to separate rooms and hands them each a piece of paper. On it is a single question: Which tire?

The article reports that nationalist politics in Bosnia has blocked reforms at the country's universities and cost higher education substantial aid. Bosnian higher education in 2007 is still struggling to reform and rebuild itself 12 years after the end of the country's devastating war. While plans are frequently put on paper and receive the tacit approval of political leaders, but then are sacrificed in favor of other political, economic, or diplomatic priorities, including the rebuilding of destroyed buildings.

The article reports that college accreditors are taking more interest in the way institutions measure student learning. Professors at the University of the South are being required to grade each others papers to retain accreditation. The change was in part inspired by a study led by Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, which found that literacy among college graduates was on the decline. President George W. Bush has called for more accountability in higher education.

The article presents information on the condition of adjunct faculty in the higher-education institutions in the United States. There are around half a million adjunct professors nationwide. In most cases, their working conditions are abysmal. According to the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) the part-time faculty are paid approximately 64 percent less per hour than their full-time counterparts. Many adjuncts do not enjoy health-care or retirement benefits. And many have any job security from quarter to quarter. In 1990s the three major faculty organizations namely the AAUP, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association have emphasized that organizing and collective bargaining are the means to improve the lot of adjuncts. They have issued strong policy papers in support of adjuncts and begun to actively recruit them. But the question arises that why did all three faculty groups begin to vigorously organize adjuncts only in the late 1990s though the number of adjunct faculty members began to grow rapidly in the 1970s. This is due to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 1980 regarding this issue.

The article discusses issues related to the formation of alliances among people involved in higher education in the U.S. Alliances between contingent faculty members and graduate students are not untroubled. Many graduate students fear too close contact with people whom they judge as the failures of academe. In addition, their perches in Ph.D.-granting institutions can give them a narrow perspective on higher education that is at odds with reality and with the perspective of most contingent faculty members, many of whom don't have doctorates. Nevertheless, they have joined with contingent colleagues in the past and can profit from such cooperation in the future. The biennial conferences of the Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor were born out of collaboration between the two groups in 1995 and will continue, with a seventh conference planned for this August. Those conferences gave birth to the biennial Campus Equity Week and a large collection of papers and other resources. Librarians, counselors, manual-service workers, and dozens of other types of staff members have been buffeted by technological changes, privatization and outsourcing, reorganizations, and plain old attrition and layoffs.

The article presents U.S. higher education news briefs as of August 15, 2014. The University of North Carolina's Board of Governors has voted to limit the amount of revenue that can be allocated for need-based financial aid. The U.S. Army War College has accused Senator John E. Walsh of Montana of plagiarism in a paper he submitted for his master's degree. Eight for-profit college companies have received nearly a quarter of all funds from the Post-9/11 GI Bill in 2012-2013.

Reports plans by colleges and universities in the United States to provide newspaper to students. Success of the plan at Penn State in University Park, Pennsylvania; How the plan provides the papers and charges them to students' housing costs; Statistics on the number of college students reading newspapers; Increase in newspaper circulation; Criticism by some members of the College Media Advisers.

Examines problems with academic conventions in the 1990s. The intellectual rigidity and political correctness of many such conventions; The anachronistic practices of using the conventions to present papers and to made professional connections; Difficulty in using a convention as a way to find a job; The author's proposal of using the conventions as social events, rather than strictly professional ones.

Informs about the deadlines for fellowships, grants, institutes, workshops, papers and other miscellaneous issues as of May 19, 1995.

Reports on the World Bank paper entitled `Universities in Africa: Strategies for Stabilization and Revitalization'. Focus on practical programs; Technical education supporting economy; Low salary levels; Structural Adjustment Program causing the problems; More student fees for academic programs; Diversification of fund sources; Enrollment trends.

Lists deadlines for fellowships, grants, institutes, workshops, papers and miscellany in higher education in the months of May, June and July, 1993. Application for participation in the Department of Energy Distinguished Postdoctoral Research Program at national laboratories; Applications for travel grants for research abroad in the social sciences and humanities; Applications for grants for doctoral research on the non-profit sector; More.

Presents application deadlines for fellowships, grants, institutes, workshops, and papers for the month of April and May. Contact information.

Reports that the European Community (EC) has backed away from a plan to create a common system of higher education for its member nations. Reasons why the EC leaders step back from the higher education scheme; Release of a formal paper on common higher education policies in the community; Progress on higher education cooperation among 12 countries.

Reports on the paper written by Judith I. Gill, director of the Office of Research and Policy Analysis of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education in the U.S., which suggests that much of the research on the academic job market is of little use to administrators and policy makers who need to know if there will be an adequate supply of quality professors in the coming years. Projections of faculty demand in the arts and sciences; Reason for the limited applications of the studies.

Discusses position papers from two American scholars on the use of computer-assisted instruction in higher education in the United States. Debates regarding the effect of information technology on the productivity of professors; Information technologies' offer of economical means of providing continuous education needed in the US.

The article features news briefs regarding higher education from September 2013. In a paper released by data provider College Measures it is reported that the average first-year earnings of graduates are influenced by major, college, and type of degree. While 2011 saw an increase in humanities majors, federal financial support for related subjects remains minimal. The arrest and detention of two Canadian professors, Tarek Loubani and John Greyson, in Cairo, Egypt is discussed.

The article discusses the role of Jesuit colleges in the U.S. in educating immigrant communities who are in the country illegally, in response to the release of a 2013 position paper by the Jesuit colleges Fairfield University, Illinois' Loyola University Chicago, and Santa Clara University on their educational mission. Topics include the religious underpinnings of Jesuit colleges, immigrant students' challenges in funding and applying for college, and comments by Reverend Richard Ryscavage.

The article offers news briefs for high education in the U.S. as of April 13, 2012 on topics including Chinese applications to American graduate schools, the publication of two papers on the bird-flu virus, and the effectiveness of college tuition discounting.

BOSTON -- A spin of the marketing wheel has brought abstract painting back into the spotlight, and much of the new stuff turns out to be rewrapped old stuff. At the same time there are enough artists seriously rethinking existing models that very basic definitions -- What does abstract mean? What qualifies as painting? -- are in flux. Mark Bradford, a 49-year-old Californian, is one of these rethinkers, and a lean, bright 10-year survey of his work at the Institute of Contemporary Art here gives a sense of what he's been up to. Mr. Bradford first gained national attention in 2001 in ''Freestyle,'' the self-designated ''post-black,'' new-talent survey at the Studio Museum in Harlem. He was one of the oldest people in the show, but his art looked fresh, and it came with an intriguing history. He had a graduate degree from the California Institute of the Arts, known for its theory-intensive curriculum. But he supported himself as a stylist in his mother's beauty salon in South Central Los Angeles and used hairdressing supplies -- curling paper, gels -- in his art, the large abstract collages that he called paintings. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the results of a paper on the impact of the recession on higher-education budgets. Researcher John Aubrey Douglass, of the Center for Studies in Higher Education at the University of California at Berkeley, found that the recession could alter the U.S.'s position in the global competition to educate more people and produce research. The U.S. management approach to its higher-education budget is contrasted with that of other countries.

A calendar of events related to higher education is presented which includes workshops focusing on lyceums, the release of a compact disc of music by jazz students at the California Institute of the Arts and the release of archival papers of novelist Cormac McCarthy at Texas State University.

Some high school teachers worry about grooming students for admission to elite universities. Judah Lakin worries about getting his students' immigration papers so that they can afford college. Illegal immigrants do not qualify for federal financial aid, and those living in Rhode Island, as in 39 other states, do not qualify for in-state tuition at public universities. Since out-of-state tuition is about three times as high as in-state, many young immigrants forgo higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents information on the conditions in Zimbabwe, as of April 2007, which have caused the government to cease issuing passports for travel outside the country. Poverty and inflation have reached a point where the government does not have sufficient foreign currency to purchase passport paper, which it ran out of in late 2006. Zimbabwean students who have been accepted at universities in the United States and other countries cannot leave the country and consequently are unable to attend. During the 2005-2006 school year, 1,700 Zimbabwean students studied in the United States.

The article presents the author's thoughts on the credibility of information from online knowledge community sources, such as Wikipedia. The author notes that online collaborative sources are no more prone to errors than comparable print sources, and online sources can be amended much more quickly. Middlebury College, in Vermont, lists Wikipedia as an unacceptable source for history papers. The author suggests that, given the age of the students at Middlebury and other colleges in 2007, higher education should be supporting students' comfort with technology and new ways of finding information; perhaps they should be encouraging them to contribute their research to knowledge communities instead of chasing students away from them.

The article reports on an investigation of potential misconduct at the University of Missouri. Three scientists associated with a 2006 paper, published in "Science," have been cleared of wrongdoing. The editors of "Science" expressed concern that several photographs accompanying the article had been altered. In April 2006 the University agreed to investigate the allegations against senior author R. Michael Roberts and co-authors Hwan Yul Yong, and Mayandi Sivaguru. A fourth author, Kaushik Deb, is no longer affiliated with the University of Missouri but will be subject to a hearing in March 2007.

The article explains that Purdue University, in West Lafayette, Indiana, has cleared physicist Rusi P. Taleyarkhan of research misconduct charges, based on an accusation that he doctored the evidence of his claims of success in low-cost fusion experiment. Taleyarkhan was lead author of a 2002 "Science" journal paper reporting that his laboratory had created inexpensive nuclear fusion. Critics still do not believe the experiments are reproducible and feel Taleyarkhan should support his claim by convening a panel of scientists to write a report and observe the experiment in real time.

The article discusses reforms to the system of college and university accreditation as contained in the draft report of the U.S. Commission on the Future of Higher Education. The commission stopped short of calling for changes to the regional system. In an earlier position paper, issued in March 2006, the commission was considering the idea of establishing a national accreditation body to replace the six regional accreditors that oversee 3,000 U.S. institutions of higher education. The article mentions that the commission report does call for more public disclosure of accreditors' findings.

This article reports on the decline in annual returns of foundations in the U.S. in 2005, according the paper, The Commonfund Benchmarks Study--Foundations and Operating Charities 2006, released by the Commonfund Institute. The average annual return of the nation's foundations was 8.1 percent. The foundations' financial health of is important to higher education because it receives 27 percent of its donations from foundations.

The article reports that the two higher-education associations representing the nation's public colleges are calling on their members to develop their own voluntary approach that would allow the public to compare similar institutions. The recommendation was the main thrust of a paper released by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, which represents more than 400 state colleges, and of one released by the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, which represents more than 200 public research institutions.

This article discusses various issues related to plagiarism in the field of higher education in the United States. Plagiarism is one of the most common forms of cheating. It is an unfortunate fact that many students, even good ones, plagiarize or are seriously tempted to do so at some point in their studies. Although teachers do their best to ignore it, the elephant in the middle of the academic room is the fact that very few of the students who plagiarize are ever caught. It is comparatively easy to catch the ones who cheat in obvious or unsophisticated ways. Academics are aware of the usual methods plagiarists employ, like cutting and pasting parts of papers from the Internet, presenting material from published academic works as their own, and copying from each other's essays. With the growth of so-called research-writing firms online, it seems the problem is set to expand.