From M/C Journal, Donna Lee Brien (CQU): Unplanned Educational Obsolescence: Is the "Traditional" PhD Becoming Obsolete? The humanities are in the same state financial markets were in before they crashed, with a growing mountain of toxic intellectual debt and overvalued research. From The American Scholar, William M. Chace on the decline of the English department: How it happened and what could be done to reverse it. What's the matter with cultural studies? Michael Berube on how the popular discipline has lost its bearings. Is sociology dead? An article on exploring genetics and social structure. Waiting for the call: Sociologists confront “economist envy” and consider their relative lack of influence in Washington. From THES, a series on the seven deadly sins of the academy (and an article on a controversy: Female students are a "perk" of the job; and a response to criticism by Terence Kealey). In terms of its core mission — turning teenagers into educated college graduates — much of the American system of higher education is simply failing (and more and more and more on Crossing the Finish Line: Completing College at America's Public Universities). Welcome to Yahoo! U: The Web will dismember universities, just like newspapers. It’s the end of the university as we know it. Today, 21st-century technology carries the potential to nudge mainstream education back toward the 16th-century vision of one-to-one tutoring.
