Last week, University Affairs published an opinion piece titled “Why archaeology needs a divorce from anthropology” that garnered plenty of discussion and commentary from across the disciplines and throughout North America. Andrew A. White, an assistant research professor in the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of South Carolina was moved to […]

Ending the relationship might allow both partners finally to develop and grow.

Universities must work together to achieve this goal.

An alt-ac career is not the traditional route for a PhD, but it’s not shameful.

Universities and colleges have a unique capacity and responsibility for health and well-being.

There is a move afoot to make publicly funded monographs and journals Open Access (OA) – free – through the Internet. This is a revolutionary move that could lead to the vast dissemination of knowledge, a renaissance in scholarship, and help level the playing field between the haves and the have-nots. I’m for it! But […]

Or, how a professor decides to enter politics.

Brazil understands that investing in international study is a path to global competitiveness.

The newer iterations are a much better use of the medium.

How the liberal arts made me better at mathematics.

There are not many things in A.D. 2015 which can make an adult blush. Certainly, no one seems to be embarrassed these days by the proverbial “embarrassment of riches.” In fact, the one constant in our society is that nearly everybody would be most embarrassed by a shortage of funds, whether culpable or not. My […]

A Quebec physicist responds to the president of NSERC

Why can’t students be more like their professors?

Broadening the role of humanities education is laudable. How we get there is another matter.

More choice for authors of scholarly publications is central to the new policy

On what grounds should academic decisions be made?  I mean decisions about hiring, tenure, and promotion, decisions about curricula and standards, about styles of teaching, about admitting students? On academic grounds alone is one answer, the answer I favour.  Another answer is on grounds also of diversity, equity, or inclusiveness. So why not, when making […]

Sometimes, delaying the university experience is the best move.

Babies rarely work to their mother’s timetable or a conference schedule.

Reverence isn’t what liberal arts students most need. To start with, they need to learn how to use facts and think independently.

There’s a price to pay to attend university; there’s another to pay to succeed once we’re in.