In China the global challenges of fast-evolving technology and multidisciplinary studies are complicated by the newness of the market. Only 40 years ago, professors were condemned to manual labor if suspected of capitalist sympathies, and most universities were shut down during the decade-long Cultural Revolution. The government is preoccupied…

The University of Delaware spent years refining its residence-life education program. One week of public criticism unraveled it. Late last month, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a free-speech group, accused the university of promoting specific views on race, sexuality, and morality in a series of discussions held in dormitories.…

Increasingly, college undergraduates are custom designing their courses of study and creating majors that allow them to combine often eclectic interests with career goals. In many cases, students' creations have had a lasting impact through development of new academic programs. Institutional arrangements for planning, advising, and monitoring…

To produce professionals trained to use new technology, library schools are reworking programs to include instruction on computers and telecommunications systems, hiring information-system specialists rather than traditional library educators, recruiting technically oriented students, obtaining funding to restructure programs, and submitting to…

With American corporate investments abroad rising and world trade expanding, the need for managers who are knowledgeable about the culture and business practices of other nations is growing. Some programs in American business schools are described. (MLW)

Reports on controversy surrounding Portland (Oregon) State University's nationally renowned, interdisciplinary general education program. Critics feel the four-year curriculum, which focuses on learning processes rather than content, has resulted in a watered-down curriculum that doesn't teach enough writing, math, literature, science, art, and…

English studies, especially at the graduate level, have depended on coverage of an agreed-upon group of literary works, but new scholarly approaches have led some scholars to change that group, calling into question some basic tenets of graduate education in English and suggesting a need for new directions. (MSE)

Afro-American studies have acquired academic legitimacy. Scholars say the question is no longer whether the field will survive, but how to incorporate Afro-American studies into the curriculum. There has been a revolution in social history because of the unorthodox methods that scholars used to conduct their research. (MLW)

The New Jersey Project: Integrating the Scholarship on Gender seeks to change fundamentally what and how students learn by incorporating issues of gender into college courses. University of Arizona students are required to complete a course that deals with issues of gender, race, or class. (MLW)

At a conference on the senior year experience, participants described "capstone" courses that pull together the themes of a student's major and investigate ethics and civic responsibility. Employers said many college graduates were unprepared to work in teams and unwilling to pay their dues by starting in entry-level positions. (MLW)

The Ford Foundation's Race Relations and Campus Diversity Program, responding to recent campus disruption over race, religion, gender, and ethnicity, helps campuses improve teaching and curricula to keep pace with changing populations on and off campus. Cultural diversity in all undergraduate courses is stressed. Program expansion is anticipated.…

Colleges competing to offer distance education are using aggressive marketing tactics to gain visibility. Some observers wonder whether educational interests or marketing agencies are driving the trend. The agencies offer varied services, including course creation, course conversion to electronic format, faculty training for online teaching,…

Across the country, students are flocking to graduate business schools that teach them how to start and run a business. About 400 schools now offer courses in entrepreneurship, and about 125 have organized entrepreneurship programs. Faculty being recruited for the programs have practical experience, but tend not to have doctorates. Many students…

A meeting of Project 30, an effort to redesign teacher education so that it is multicultural, concentrated on five issues including cultural awareness, general knowledge, knowledge about specific subjects to be taught, teaching ability, and recruitment of minority-group members. (MLW)

An administration plan to discontinue the physics major at James Madison University (Virginia) has raised concerns about the president's leadership and management style, and the role of faculty in institutional decision making. Faculty were notified of the plan only after student leaders were told. (MSE)