Educational attainment and income inequality

On the Vox economics blog, explaining the rise in US income inequality as a function of stalled progress in educational attainment.

Learning the wrong lessons from the crisis

Niall Ferguson writes in the New York Times Magazine about social psychology and financial crises.  Why they are never anticipated, and why we may be learning the wrong lessons.

Invasion of the “alpha dads”

Former “masters of the universe” laid off from their investment banking jobs are invading the PTAs and soccer fields of affluent New York suburbs, according to the New York Times. Via Economist Free Exchange.

Financial crisis hits universities

In the New York Review of Books, Andrew Delblanco says that the fallout from the current economic downturn has combined with longer-term trends in higher education financing to make college less affordable for lower-income students, and to degrade the university experience at the institutions where the less affluent are likely to go.

Globalization of higher education

This Economist article provides perspectives on the globalization of higher education. With the total number studying abroad on the rise, and a diversification in source countries, institutions and destination countries are angling to attract international students.

Professors on video change lecture approaches

This article from Chronicle of Higher Education confirms the common sense expectation that professors will watch what they say and otherwise be more careful in their lectures when they know the video cameras are on.

Google and access to knowledge

Just got around to reading Robert Darnton’s recent article in the New York Review of Books, “Google & the Future of Books.”  The piece explores the recent settlement between Google and publishers with regard to Google Book Search, and whether the settlement will ultimately serve the public interest in expanding access to the world’s knowledge.

Driven to digital distraction?

Wired interviews Maggie Jackson, author of Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age.

Applications surge at Cooper Union

An interesting article in the NY Times about Cooper Union, the university in Lower Manhattan that specializes in engineering, architecture, and the arts, and offers free tuition to all those admitted, regardless of need. Cooper Union is seeing a surge in applications with the economy tanking and average tuition having risen at rates far above inflation in recent years.

I remember reading that the endowment was in trouble several years back, but the Times article explains that the school made some shrewd real estate deals in the years after 9/11, and is now in pretty good shape, even with the big declines in the stock market.