Higher Education in the United States is changing. Enrollments are growing faster than any decade since the 1960s, and today there are more than 18 million undergraduates and nearly three million graduate students. At the same time, tuition keeps climbing. At public universities, which enroll about 80 percent of students, tuition over the last decade rose by more than 5% [...]

The Freeman by Steve Horwitz, “The Calling of Teaching,” that was inspired by an IHS summer seminar. Dr. Horwitz has some wonderful advice and encouragement for all liberty advancing academics, both current and future teachers, about the significance of teaching and its crucial role in advancing liberty: I’m spending this week speaking at an Institute for Humane Studies seminar for college students [...]

Dirk Mateer, Senior Lecturer and Co-Director of Undergraduate Studies in Economics at Penn State University shares how to make the most of your comparative advantage as a teacher in your academic career. Traditionally, faculty are expected to be as good as good of teachers as hey are researchers when in reality everyone has their individual strengths. Dirk encourages that you aim [...]

Allow me to say something that everyone “knows” but few of us consciously admit: the only way to get better at something is through accepting and addressing constructive criticism (from yourself and, preferably, others). Whether teaching, scholarship, academic advising, or even playing chess, the only way to improve is to embrace and welcome, not avoid or get defensive about feedback. [...]

This is an excerpt from the IHS Academic career guide publication Scaling the Ivory Tower, which is full of great essays from faculty offering advice to students from applying to grad school, through your dissertation and going on the job market. This essay by James Stacey Taylor, Professor of Philosophy at The College of New Jersey offers advice to any graduate [...]

In this video, Professor James Stacey Taylor, Professor of Philosophy at The College of New Jersey, talks about how he uses a “peer review” model with his students to teach them how to engage in their arguments to become clearer and stronger writers. James Stacey Taylor: Involving Students In Writing from Kosmos on Vimeo. For more advice on teaching, see [...]

  In this video, Professor Art Carden of Samford University talks about how he uses speaking engagements to help him with both his teaching and his research.

As a continuation of our series about Online Education and the Future of Academia, we’re going to begin putting together regular roundups of what various perspectives are saying about higher ed.  The Babson Survey Research Group took a survey of 4500 professors and online education administrators, asking them questions about their predictions and concerns for the future of online higher ed. More faculty [...]

Almost every professor who has stood before a classroom has heard the standard lines before: “I worked really hard and put a lot of effort into this project,” or “I’m an A student who ALWAYS got straight A’s in high school,” or my personal favorite, “But I’m paying for this degree!” These are the calling cards of the grade grubber [...]

  I have only been teaching for four years at the undergraduate level, but it’s become clear in that short period of time that there is something very wrong in the world of higher education. I don’t know precisely what it is, but it’s there. Walk through any university campus and you’re bound to empathize with my observation. Look at [...]