A recent ranking undertaken by Jiao Tong University in Shanghai shows 36 U.S universities among the top 50 universities in the world, with eight of the top 10 in the United States. Author Fareed Zakaria has declared: "[H]igher education is the United States' best industry. In no other field is the United States' advantage so overwhelming. Although…

Despite wide consensus among higher education leaders that U.S. universities are undergoing a process of "globalization," there is little agreement about just what globalization means, what propels it, or what intellectual, political, and ethical consequences it will bring for American higher education. There is little systematic…

Recent events suggest that open access has gained new momentum in the humanities, but the slow and uneven development of open-access initiatives in humanist fields continues to hinder the consolidation of efforts across the university. Although various studies have traced the general origins of the humanities' reticence to embrace open access, few…

For better or for worse, the assessment of research quality is one of the primary drivers of the behaviour of the academic community with all sorts of potential for distorting that behaviour. So, if you are going to assess research quality, how do you do it? This article explores some of the problems and possibilities, with particular reference to…

The experiences of students taking the same courses in the humanities by distance learning were compared when tutorial support was provided conventionally (using limited face-to-face sessions with some contact by telephone and email) or online (using a combination of computer-mediated conferencing and email). The Course Experience Questionnaire…

The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) provides the humanities and related social sciences with leadership, opportunities for innovation, and national and international representation. The American Council of Learned Societies was created in 1919 to represent the United States in the Union Academique Internationale. Its mission is…

It is often stated that the physical properties of our universe are "fine tuned"--that is, they must be almost exactly as they are to make the development of intelligent life possible. The implications of this statement, called the "anthropic principle," have been widely discussed in a philosophical context, but the scientific basis for the…

Thirty years of academic dialogue and reinvention about environmental and sustainability education conceals the consistency of rhetoric that literature holds. This paper argues that higher education for sustainable development does not call for the invention of anything disconcertingly new. In fact, four simple, long-standing concepts contribute…

Colleges and universities increasingly view engineering as an important part of a liberal-arts education. Rather than segregate engineering from the arts and humanities, they are integrating the disciplines, in hopes of educating students to perform more effectively in an increasingly complex and technological world. Several college presidents,…

High school teacher C. Lynn Jacobs noted that the long-term English language learners in her class had improved in reading comprehension but still lacked writing skills. Inspired by a state humanities project, she worked with the students to publish a collection of stories and poems. Writing about their lives provided the motivation, and writing…

A comparative study was conducted between the minimum required number of humanities and social science credits for graduation at top-tier undergraduate universities in the US and similar, English-medium universities in the Arabian Gulf. It was found that on average the US universities required students to complete a higher proportion of humanities…

In this paper, in keeping with developing feminist methodologies, we reflect on how we became second-wave feminists in the 1970s. We consider how the theories and practices that we were involved in have been changed as the global socio-political context has transformed higher education practices. Second-wave feminism originated as a political…

This article focuses on how electronic information resources influence the information-seeking process in the social sciences and humanities. It examines the information-seeking behavior of scholars in these fields, and extends the David Ellis model of information-seeking behavior for social scientists, which includes six characteristics:…

Scientists have long recognized the value of having statistical data to measure the scope and vitality of education, research, and workforce development in their fields. Such data support evidence-based policy discussions in professional and governmental forums. Since 1982, the National Science Board has been required by law to publish…

This case study involved a detailed examination of learning transfer from an English-for-general-academic-purposes writing course to tasks that involve writing in other academic courses. Data were gathered over one academic year from 11 students enrolled in the writing course. These students participated in a series of interviews and provided…