Anthony (Tony) Harris’ Post

Over the next few weeks, our entries from the #Encyclopedia of #University Terms will cover terms that relate to when a university was established. These kinds of terms are useful to know as they are frequently used when discussing universities or the higher education sector. This week's term is: Ancient University. These are the UK's oldest universities. One interesting fact about them is that they confer an undergraduate degree as a Master of Arts (MA). This can become very confusing when trying to compare with postgraduate master's degrees, which at many universities may also be a Master of Arts (MA). How this is handled at the ancient universities, is that master's degrees are given different names. This generally is Master of Science for taught degrees and Master of Research (MRes) or Master of Philosophy (MPhil) for research degrees. There are of course other master's degrees that exist at many different universities, which can include Master of Literature (MLitt), Master of Business Administration (MBA), Master of Law (LLM), and Master of Education (MEd). #StudentSupport #StudentSuccess #UniversityLife #Terminology I studied for my first master's degree at the University of Edinburgh, so I have an MSc in Medieval History. I then did my second master's degree at Texas State University, for which I have an MA in Adult Education. Both of my master's degrees contained taught components and are equivalent degrees. I hope this information helps you and the student in your life better understand discussions about universities and the university environment. You can find more information on the My Academic Family, CIC website at https://lnkd.in/eQPdW2Zp

Understanding terminology used when universities are discussed can be very helpful in reducing barriers that can make understanding the university environment harder. Our founder, Carly, shared some useful information on ancient universities today, check it out!

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Embarking on a doctoral journey often feels like facing a towering mountain, and there's profound meaning in that ascent. Recognize that you've been entrusted with this climb not just for personal growth but as a testament to inspire others navigating their academic landscapes. In the face of daunting challenges, showcase the strength within you. Your mountain is not insurmountable; it's a platform for exhibiting the tenacity required to overcome academic hurdles. Share your experiences, triumphs, and even the stumbling blocks with your peers. As you conquer your academic peaks, you illuminate the path for those who may be daunted by their own scholarly summits. Your journey is more than personal achievement; it's a narrative that resonates with others undertaking their academic odysseys. Embrace the belief that moving this mountain isn't just about personal triumph but a profound demonstration that challenges are conquerable. Your journey has the potential to inspire and uplift, turning your academic climb into a beacon of hope for fellow scholars. #doctoralsupportteam #gradschool #graduate #masters #graduatestudent #phd #phdlife #edd #schoollife #thesis #dissertation #gradlife #gradschoollife #gradschoolproblems #gradstudent #graduateschool #mastersdegree #phdstudent #timemanagement #dissertating #doctoratedegree #eddjourney #academiclife #academicwriting #doctoralstudent #doctorate #gradschoolprobs #phdjourney #phdproblems #thesislife

#ABOUT #HARVARD #UNIVERSITY Dating back to 1636, Harvard University is the oldest university in the US and is regarded as one of the most prestigious in the world. It was named after its first benefactor, John Harvard, who left his library and half his estate to the institution when he died in 1638. The private Ivy League institution has connections to more than 45 Nobel laureates, over 30 heads of state and 48 Pulitzer prizewinners. It has more than 323,000 living alumni, including over 271,000 in the US and nearly 52,000 in 201 other countries. Thirteen US presidents have honorary degrees from the institution; the most recent of these was awarded to John F. Kennedy in 1956. Faculty members who have been awarded a Nobel prize in recent years include chemist Martin Karplus and economist Alvin Roth, while notable alumni who were given the honour include former US vice-president Al Gore, who won the Peace Prize in 2007, and poet Seamus Heaney, who was a professor at Harvard from 1981 to 1997. Situated in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard’s 5,000-acre campus houses 12 degree-granting schools in addition to the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, two theatres and five museums. It is also home to the largest academic library in the world, with 20.4 million volumes, 180,000 serial titles, an estimated 400 million manuscript items, 10 million photographs, 124 million archived web pages and 5.4 terabytes of born-digital archives and manuscripts. There are more than 400 student organisations on campus, and Harvard’s medical school is connected to 10 hospitals. The university receives one of the largest financial endowments of any higher education institution in the world; it created $1.5 billion in the fiscal year ended June 2013 – more than a third of Harvard’s total operating revenue in that year. Harvard’s official colour is crimson, following a vote in 1910, after two student rowers provided crimson scarves to their teammates so that spectators could differentiate the university’s team during a regatta in 1858. #worldtopUniversity #topmostcollege #engg #bestUniversity

Will Cambridge support free speech? The academic world will be watching what happens in researcher's dismissal inquiry PETER SINGER PROJECT SYNDICATE May 7, 2024 In January, Cofnas published a post called “Why We Need to Talk about the Right’s Stupidity Problem.” No one at Cambridge seems to have been bothered by his argument that people on the political right have, on average, lower intelligence than those on the left. Some people at Cambridge were, however, very much bothered by Cofnas’s February post, “A Guide for the Hereditarian Revolution.” To follow Cofnas’s “guide,” one must accept “race realism”: the view that heredity plays a role in the existing social and economic differences between different demographic groups. Only by challenging the taboo against race realism, Cofnas believes, can conservatives overcome “wokism,” which he sees as a barrier to understanding the causes of inequality and to allowing people to succeed on the basis of merit. If Harvard University admitted students “under a colorblind system that judged applicants only by academic qualifications,” Cofnas asserted, Black people “would make up 0.7% of Harvard students.” He also wrote that in a meritocracy, the number of black professors at Harvard “would approach 0%.” That post gave rise to a petition from Cambridge students demanding that the university dismiss Cofnas. The petition currently has about 1,200 signatures. The university’s inquiry and that of the trust are, at the time of writing, ongoing, but on April 5 Cofnas received a letter notifying him that Emmanuel College had decided to terminate its association with him. In justifying that decision, the letter informed Cofnas of the views of a committee that had been asked to consider his blog: “The Committee first considered the meaning of the blog and concluded that it amounted to, or could reasonably be construed as amounting to, a rejection of Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DEI and EDI) policies.... The Committee concluded that the core mission of the College was to achieve educational excellence and that diversity and inclusion were inseparable from that. The ideas promoted by the blog therefore represented a challenge to the College’s core values and mission.” These sentences imply that at Emmanuel College, freedom of expression does not include the freedom to challenge its DEI policies and that challenging them may be grounds for dismissal. That is an extraordinary statement for a tertiary institution to make. It is even more surprising given that the adoption of DEI policies is a relatively recent phenomenon. The academic world will be watching what happens. Were the University of Cambridge to dismiss Cofnas, it would sound a warning to students and academics everywhere: When it comes to controversial topics, even the world’s most renowned universities can no longer be relied upon to stand by their commitment to defend freedom of thought and discussion.

"In the first quarter of my Ph.D., I enrolled in indoor cycling classes at the university gym. One evening, the instructor delivered a motivational phrase that, though meant to encourage us to break out in a sweat, has shaped my Ph.D. journey to this day: “You are here to improve, not to impress.” In the humanities and social sciences, many people believe that completing a Ph.D. involves spending years conducting research to write a dissertation that “extends the boundary of human knowledge.” But the real story is quite different from that. Although key, fulfilling your research project is the least important aspect of your Ph.D. Most of your energy should be focused on three other areas: improving your skills as a researcher, building a community and engaging in professional hands-on activities. As a doctoral student, you should take advantage of these years to acquire new skills and develop the abilities you will need as an academic." By Maria P. Angel at @insidehighered https://lnkd.in/ed6xYBRC

As President Peter Salovey prepares to return to the faculty, Yale News is looking back on his transformative legacy. In the story below, we examine how the university’s commitment to the humanities has led to faculty expansion, magnificent spaces, and new resources. #Yale

Glad to share that my 2nd doctoral paper is out now at Globalisation, Societies, and Education open access! The paper uses historical data on unis and 197 countries to infer factors that led to the global spread of this distinctive form. Results suggest that the national university is an indigenous response to internal stability and external competition by newly-established states. Besides the Humboldtian and Napoleonic traditions, it presents another form of the university in the early modern period. https://lnkd.in/emJFTgDh

Higher Eductation World Building bridges: The University of Oxford has launched a cross-disciplinary course that aims to bridge the “divide” between science and humanities students. Oxford v-c’s course seeks to bridge science-humanities ‘divide’ Professors from different disciplines will join forces to tackle big societal questions