Students who fail math are much likelier to drop out than students who don't, and tutors help students pass. Librarians are crucial for students to learn to do research, especially in the age of AI. Academic advisers help students avoid wasting time on courses that won't help them. Financial aid staffers enable students to get the money they need to go to college. They're all helpful, and they're all important.
When I first began teaching Islam, there was no road map. In 2001, I was a visiting assistant professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern studies at the University of Iowa-the first full-time professor of Islam in the history of the state. I was in my 20s, still finishing my dissertation, when the attacks of Sept. 11 unfolded. Suddenly, I found myself trying to explain a 1,400-year-old religion to students who had watched the Twin Towers fall on live television.
The University of Pennsylvania has launched Climate and Environment Journalism: Truth-Telling in the Trump Era through its English department and American Conservatism From Taft to Trump for political science students. The New School's Donald Trump as History module will aim to explore the "Trump phenomenon" and how it alters views of U.S. history, while the University of Washington offers a special Trump in the World module.
It's cohabitation. I think you start with a degree, there's a foundation that comes with a degree, but you need the skills to be relevant in the workplace,
Students, faculty and staff at more than 100 campuses across the US rallied against the Trump administration's assault on higher education on Friday the first in a planned series of nationwide, coordinated protests that organizers hope will culminate in large-scale students and workers' strikes next May Day and a nationwide general strike in May 2028. The day of action was organized under the banner of Students Rise Up, a network of students including both local groups and national organizations like Sunrise Movement and Campus Climate Network.
Under the current administration, we have witnessed a dangerous cascade of immigration policies and actions. These developments are impacting our students, employees, campuses and communities in real time, imperiling the future of our colleges and universities. It's time for us in higher education to pull the fire alarm. Pulling the fire alarm does not mean panic. This is a call to respond, mobilize and act.
"Due to the severe budget constraints currently facing UC, the PPFP faculty hiring incentive is sunsetting as of fall 2025," the spokesperson said in a statement. "While the University will continue to provide five years of salary support to PPFP fellows hired by summer 2025 and in earlier years, no new incentives will be provided going forward. Campuses will still be able to hire PPFP fellows as part of their normal search and hiring processes, but the additional financial contribution from the incentive program will no longer be available."
Our Greek forebears, as early as Hippocrates, coined the term "kρίσις" to describe a "turning point"; kρίσις, a word related to the Proto-Indo-European root krei-, is etymologically connected to practices like "sieving," "discriminating" and "judging." In fact, the most widely mentioned skill we humanists offer our students, critical thinking, originates from the same practice of deliberate "sieving." Thus, when we call ourselves critics and write critical theory, we admit that crisis might just be our natural habitat.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping higher education at an extraordinary pace. From personalized learning assistants to analytics dashboards, colleges are investing in AI faster than ever before. Yet one truth remains constant: no amount of technology will transform learning without human readiness. Faculty members are the heartbeat of any innovation. Their willingness to explore, experiment, and evolve determines whether AI becomes an empowering co-educator or an underused novelty. Building faculty readiness, therefore, isn't a side project; it's the foundation of sustainable AI integration.
In July the University of Pennsylvania was the first to strike a deal, in its case to resolve a Title IX investigation. Penn agreed to erase former swimmer Lia Thomas, a transgender woman, from its record books; bar transgender athletes from future competition; and send personal apology letters "to each impacted female swimmer," among other concessions. In exchange, the Trump administration restored $175 million in federal research funding frozen amid the investigation.
The 2030 Plan calls on the university to expand the reach of its educational programs-both in person and online-and to make UVA more accessible, including to learners across and beyond the Commonwealth. The University of Virginia's Office of the Vice Provost for Online Education and Digital Innovation is a key part of advancing this charge on behalf of the university, helping our schools and institutes design, deliver and scale high-quality online and hybrid programs that extend UVA's reach and impact.
Gen Zers were raised on an American Dream that's slowly disappearing from view. They followed in the footsteps of their parents, who were once told that excelling in school and landing a spot at a top college would lead to success, a house, and a six-figure career-but broadly speaking, that's no longer the case. People are pointing fingers at universities, demanding that they ease costs and provide students with the skills they need to find jobs.
The Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA is giving a presentation about the Wildlife Care Center in Saratoga on Nov. 1. The care center opened in March. Staff will be presenting about the wildlife programs and facilities they use to treat sick, injured or orphaned animals before releasing them back into the wild. The presentation is scheduled from 1-2 p.m. in the Maple Room of Saratoga Library.
Middlesex University Needyanand Raya arrived in London from Mauritius in 1999 to complete his master's degree. He was bearing a promise he made his father - to continue his studies "until there will be no examination beyond that to take". More than two decades later, he's now Dr Raya, having completed a doctorate in social policy at the age of 69 at Middlesex University. When asked how he felt about it? "Well, nothing much. It's just an achievement of a lifetime."
When London Breed was still mayor of San Francisco, she tried to lure some historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) to set up satellite campuses here in SF. Of course, she also attempted to get the University of California to build an SF campus (she was rebuffed), and new Mayor Daniel Lurie has set his sights on attracting a Vanderbilt University SF campus (those negotiations may be promising). Maybe Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee has been watching.
Societal divisions and seismic shifts in technology make this "an enormously consequential time for our university, for all of higher education and for our country," President Michael I. Kotlikoff said Oct. 24 in the annual State of the University address. "Every university president now finds themself seeking, with fresh urgency, new answers to old questions around higher education in America: How can the university best prepare its students for the future they will inhabit - and build the best future for our nation?" said Kotlikoff, Cornell's 15th president.
Between recruiting prospective students, engaging current learners, maintaining alumni relationships, and coordinating with faculty, colleges and universities need robust email marketing solutions that can handle complex, multi-audience campaigns while delivering personalized experiences at scale. Email marketing remains the most preferred communication channel for prospective students during the college application process, with 55% preferring email over text messages (33%).
When students entered Tsinghua University in Beijing this year, one of the first representatives they met wasn't a person. Admission letters to the prestigious institution came with an invitation code to an artificial-intelligence agent. The bot is designed to answer students' questions about courses, clubs and life on campus. At Ohio State University in Columbus, students this year will take compulsory AI classes as part of an initiative to ensure that all of them are 'AI fluent' by the time they graduate.
Sofia Corradi, the creator of the EU's Erasmus program which has sent millions of young people abroad throughout Europe to study, died in Rome aged 91, Italian media reported Saturday. Her family, who announced her death according to media reports, described the academic as a woman "of great energy and intellectual and emotional generosity". The professor of education at Rome's Roma 3 University, Corradi -- known as "Mamma Erasmus" -- in her 20s won a prestigious US Fulbright scholarship, which took her to Columbia University in New York where she received a master's degree in law.