Outside the Beltway

The idea that students raised in the Information Age are therefore savvy about information is a dangerous but pervasive myth.

Contrary to myth, the college classroom is a rapidly evolving place.

Most students need remedial classes. Whose fault is that?

Texas Governor Rick Perry got lousy grades as an undergrad at Texas A&M. Does it matter?

Perry has a combo of Tea Party populism and establishment going for him.

It’s the marketing of college as a panacea that’s a scam, not college itself.

The Obama Justice Department is siding against historians trying to protect the confidentiality of their sources.

The draft ended in 1973. It’s effects still linger today.

A new study indicates that college degrees lead to higher wages even in fields that do not require a degree.

A new study shows that college students who take late classes drink more alcohol.

Do ideologically radical professors impose their biases on their students?

Your major matters. But not as much as simply having a degree.

Is the college curriculum too heavy in humanities and social sciences and too light on science and mathematics?

Academic publishers want to end the Fair Use of scholarly journal articles in the classroom.

The state of Arizona is seeking donations for construction of the border fence.

While elite schools confer many advantages on their graduates, they also wall them off from normal people and create an entitled, out-of-touch elite.

America’s war colleges have some problems but we can’t close them.

An increasing number of bright observers are questioning the notion that everyone needs to go to college.

The Two and A Half Laughs Edition OTB Caption Contest^TM is now over.

While complaints that there’s too much information for intellectuals to sort through, much less read, are constant, they’re not new. Harvard historian Ann Blair argues in her new book Too Much to Know: Managing Scholarly Information Before the Modern Age that this stress goes back at least to Seneca’s time.

Northwestern’s Human Sexuality course includes a naked woman being brought to orgasm with a dildo.

For many Ph.Ds, the Ed.D. represents the ticket to the administrative high life, the white flag to academic scholarship, and the tramp stamp of the compromising careerist.

President Obama is proposing to cut billions of dollars from the Pell Grant program, making it harder for kids from poor families to attend college.

We’re producing more PhDs and JDs than there are full time openings for professors and lawyers.

The repeal of DADT may open the doors for ROTC to return to many elite institutions, if cost doesn’t get in the way.

Does that degree you get at the end of your four years of college really mean anything anymore, and is it worth the money you paid for it?

While the University of Oregon’s athletic programs are flourishing in a seas of green, its academic programs are woefully underfunded.

Iowa Republicans are targeting professor sabbaticals, thus demonstrating that they understand neither higher ed nor economics.

A new survey shows that political ideology leads to different television viewing habits. This shouldn’t be surprising.

There’s a trend toward using metrics to identify ways to stem the skyrocketing cost of higher education. The likeliest result is to devalue the “education” component.

Glenn Reynolds “The Higher Education Bubble, and What Comes Next” lecture at Clemson (video).

The skyrocketing cost of tuition makes it harder for students to justify getting a liberal arts education rather than training for a high paying job.

Boston University and Northeastern have found that there is life after football. Shouldn’t most schools follow their lead?

Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell has a history of embellishing her educational history.

For the first time ever, white students do not make up a majority among freshmen at the University of Texas at Austin.

David Brooks blames our economic woes on a change from a culture that valued productive work to one of gentility. And Bill Cosby.

Bryan Caplan argues that the fact so many kids in the developing world don’t go to school proves that education isn’t very valuable.

President Obama will be giving an address to schoolkids again this year. Stay tuned for the cries of “indoctrination !”

Should universities be able to force students to buy meal plans for the cafeteria? Alabama students are suing to end the practice.

An essay claiming that the TED talks are “the new Harvard” is gaining some traction from a lot of people who ought know better.

Under pressure from the Feds, the NCAA is cracking down on colleges who put women’s games ahead of men’s games, which some say relegates them to “warm-up act” status.

For-profit universities are defrauding their students. Indeed, it’s their business model.

A college degree is becoming a virtual necessity to making a good living in America, yet most still aren’t pursuing higher education.

The concentration of policy wonks in the Washington-New York-Boston corridor produces skewed analysis.

Reports of Barack Obama’s political death are greatly exaggerated and wildly premature.

LSU is facing some potential deep cuts in its budget.