Latest news with #academia
CBC
2 days ago
- General
- CBC
Yale historian says it's easier to teach in Canada
For The National, CBC's Eli Glasner met up with history professor Timothy Snyder to ask him about the impact of the Trump administration's policies on academia and the potential fallout for education in the U.S.
Independent Singapore
3 days ago
- Business
- Independent Singapore
Jamus Lim criticises Trump administration's move to bar Harvard from enrolling international students
SINGAPORE: Workers' Party MP Associate Professor Jamus Lim has criticised the Trump administration's recent decision to revoke Harvard University's ability to enrol international students, calling the move 'utterly wrongheaded and counterproductive.' In a Facebook post on Friday morning, Lim weighed in on the unfolding controversy between the U.S. government and the Ivy League institution. The decision comes after Harvard reportedly resisted demands to furnish information on certain foreign students. U.S. authorities responded by framing international enrollment as a 'privilege, not a right,' and accused the university of fostering a hostile and racially biased environment. Lim, an economics professor by training and long-time advocate of balancing foreign and local student intake in Singapore, expressed concern over what such coercive policy signals for education systems globally. While reiterating his support for prioritising Singaporean enrolment in local universities, especially in high-demand sectors like technology, he warned against 'extreme, self-defeating policies' that isolate institutions from the international academic community. 'Shutting out top global talent will ultimately undermine competitiveness, deprive students of diverse perspectives, and break the cycles of mutual knowledge exchange,' he wrote. 'For any institution whose objective is to advance the frontiers of human understanding, this is not only detrimental; it is destructive.' Lim emphasised the importance of maintaining a 'reasonable balance' between foreign and local presence in schools and workplaces, cautioning against adopting exclusionary measures driven by political expediency. He cited ongoing legal developments in the U.S., including a temporary injunction granted by a court, as reasons to continue monitoring the situation. 'There is always more to learn from the ideas of those that are different from us, and we shut those out at our peril,' Lim added.
South China Morning Post
14-05-2025
- Science
- South China Morning Post
Prestige vs progress: what stops China's researchers from chasing big new ideas?
When artificial intelligence (AI) researcher Shen left a lucrative job at a major tech firm three years ago to pursue his passion for research, he was unaware of the reality waiting for him in academia. Now, as an associate professor at an elite university in eastern China, Shen spends less than a third of his time on actual research, as other duties such as supervising student projects, keep cutting into time for his own projects. Young researchers like Shen are also under pressure to produce more immediate results, instead of pursuing bold, exploratory projects, because of a competitive tenure and funding system based on factors such as awards. 'I had expected connections and reputation to matter,' said Shen, whose grant applications have repeatedly fallen through. 'But they turned out to be even more important than I thought.' 'To pursue truly original ideas, you need to invest a huge amount of time and effort,' he said, declining to be identified by his full name. 'But because of these practical constraints, I don't really dare to go all in.' Shen's frustrations reflect a deeper concern.
Times
12-05-2025
- Science
- Times
TikTok and AI are junk food — start dieting
A few weeks ago a widely circulated blog by an anonymous university professor featured the discouraging observation that 'most of our students are functionally illiterate'. 'This,' the writer added, 'is not a joke.' Literacy, one might optimistically have assumed, is a basic consequence (or even cause) of a university education. But this is the age of universal, non-stop digital distraction. A similar report in the Atlantic magazine found that many undergraduates at even prestigious institutions are incapable of reading books all the way through (a complaint regularly echoed by acquaintances working in academia). And last week an investigation into students using ChatGPT to write their essays (the practice is now basically ubiquitous), published in New York magazine, quoted the opinion of one professor that 'massive
Malay Mail
08-05-2025
- Science
- Malay Mail
From ‘publish or perish' to ‘be visible or vanish': What's next? — Mohammad Tariqur Rahman
MAY 8 — Amidst the dictum 'publish or perish,' a new vibe has emerged in academia: 'be visible or vanish'. The new dictum is introduced in the book 'Engage, Influence and Ensure Your Research Has Impact' by Inger Mewburn and Simon Clews in 2023. The survival of academics in their profession is largely dependent upon the number of papers they publish. An increasing number of papers in their bags adds credit to their reputation. To have a higher prestige, the number of papers alone does not suffice. Papers need to be published in journals with high impact factors. Arguably, the race to increase the number of papers resulted in a number of scientific misconducts, namely, but not limited to, the unethical practice in authorship assignments e.g., guest and honorary authorship; emergence of paper mills; and publishing unauthenticated or manipulated results. The trend of scientific misconduct has been condemned, yet no practical measures have been taken either to control or to decrease it. Rather, the increasing number of retracted papers every year attest the ongoing 'pandemic' of scientific misconduct. Will the new dictum 'be visible or vanish' then add to the pandemic? Visibility in academia is generally measured by the number of citations received by the papers of an academic. Indeed, the number of citations increases with the number of publications. However, some may have more citations than others, with less papers. Nevertheless, researching a popular topic increases the chance of higher citations. Self-citation, i.e., when authors cite their own papers, can be monitored by most of the bibliometric databases such as Scopus or Web of Science. However, the practice of self-citation is not acceptable when the authors cite their own papers, especially if they are not relevant and important. Using Scopus records, a PLOS One paper in December 2023 identified Colombia, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Malaysia, Pakistan, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, and Ukraine among the top anomalous self-citing countries (i.e., academics from those countries) in the world. Citing existing literature is an academic norm that reflects the relevance of new research findings, i.e., portrays its rationality, validity, and importance in academic publications. Furthermore, the number of citations provides the impact (and popularity) of the published paper. Albeit, while the 'number' of citations provides the visa for visibility of the paper among the global audience, it does not necessarily represent the paper's importance. For example, one of the most cited papers (>305,000 in 2014) in the history of academia goes to a paper describing how to quantify proteins in a solution. Even one of the most groundbreaking publications in the field of life science, i.e., the DNA sequencing method (>65000 in 2014) that claimed the Nobel prize and led to complete human genome sequencing, did not have any match to the citation of the protein quantification paper. Needless to say, a large number of research publications remain behind the curtain without being cited. Former Harvard president Derek Bok, in his book 'Higher Education in America' (published in 2015) noted that a majority of articles published in the arts and humanities (98 per cent) and social sciences (75 per cent) are never cited by another researcher. The current trend is not expected to be very different from this. A researcher might be interested (or find it important) to research a very rare disease affecting less than 0.1 per cent of the global population. Compared to cancer research, research on such a rare disease will have very low citations. — File pic That brings an imperative question to answer, does a low (or no) citation make a research less (or not) useful? Say, a researcher might be interested (or find it important) to research a very rare disease affecting less than 0.1 per cent of the global population. Compared to cancer research, research on such a rare disease will have very low citations. Again, receiving a high number of citations will be unlikely for a research publication addressing a national issue than a global issue. Those two examples suffice to endorse that the number of citations would fail to reflect the importance of research publications. Rather, it would be wrong if citation is used as a measure to evaluate the impact of such research publications. Going back to the clock, one will find that the dictum 'publish or perish' in academia was introduced in 1942 in Logan Wilson's book, "The Academic Man: A Study in the Sociology of a Profession" - says Eugene Garfield, the founder of Institute for Scientific Information's (ISI). Then, the measurement of journal Impact Factor (IF) was introduced in 1975 by Eugene Garfield as part of the Journal Citation Reports. Eventually, academics were motivated (read forced) not only to publish more and more papers but also to publish their papers in higher-ranking journals measured by higher IF. Eventually, having a higher number of papers and publishing in the 'high' ranking journals became the requirements in academia for appointment, promotion, and even grant approval. Now, in less than 100 years, academia is experiencing a new survival dictum — be visible or vanish. Amidst the logical criticism, academic policy makers will continue to impose the new dictum for appointment, promotion, and even approval. I wonder if the 'inventors' of new knowledge, i.e., academics at universities, know what is next? Prof Mohammad is the Deputy Executive Director (Development, Research & Innovation) at International Institute of Public Policy and Management (INPUMA), Universiti Malaya, and can be reached at [email protected] • This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
