Latest news with #professors
Forbes
3 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Graduate School—Who Should Foot The Bill?
Graduate students hold nearly half of all federal student loan debt—but receive the least attention in education policy. It's time for a shared solution. getty Higher education is dominating the headlines, whether federal funding cuts, DEI policies, research restrictions, or student debt. However, there is little focus on one student population being hit the hardest—graduate students. Students earning master's and doctoral degrees are essential to the academic ecosystem—they lead research, teach undergraduates, and advance innovation. Yet, graduate students are seeing their work and positions being stripped away. With fewer opportunities and the current administration along with Congress seeking to shift the burden of financing higher education away from the government and towards the private sector, individual colleges or the individual, concern is growing about the future of essential professions that require advanced degrees—doctors, scientists, lawyers, professors, and business leaders. Graduate students make up 16% of all borrowers, but they account for 47% of all loans provided by the federal government. This is roughly $39 billion in one year. So, who should be footing the bill for these advanced degrees: the government and taxpayers, corporations, or the individual? The answer depends on your rationale for education. If you believe education exists to enrich society and strengthen Democracy, graduate degrees clearly play a role. Those with advanced degrees are more likely to vote, volunteer, and be more civically involved. In fact, 64% of House members, 79% of Senators, and 20% of their staff hold graduate degrees. In 2023, 21% of all Federal workers held advanced degrees. As of this year at the state level, approximately 85% of those with the highest positions (Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, and Secretary of State) held advanced degrees. In sum, those with this graduate-level education attainment are highly represented in the most influential offices of our Democracy and are among the most civically engaged citizens. Under this rationale, the government and taxpayers should share in the cost of graduate education. If you view education attainment primarily as a means for personal mobility, then graduate school plays a significant part in that outcome. The median salary for those with Master's, a Professional (Law, Medicine, etc.) or Doctoral (PhD) degrees in 2024 was approximately between $95,600-$123,000 a year compared to only $80,236 for bachelor's degree holders. While this varies by field, experience, and location, the premium for a graduate degree tends to be higher. Under this rationale, the benefit is primarily for the individual, and they should share in the cost of education. The third rationale is a bit more complex. As employers demand higher credentials, graduate education becomes less a personal choice and more a professional requirement. 16% of jobs will require a graduate degree by 2031 compared to 8% in 1983. If employers adhere to this educational ideology and desire workers to have graduate credentials instead of developing those skills internally, then, under this rationale, corporate America should share the cost of education. The truth is that we as a society expect education to do it all—advance individuals, strengthen Democracy, and power the economy. Yet we often forget the cost of preparing future generations. If we collectively want to share education's rewards, then we must also share the costs.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Before the bump: Can pre-pregnancy planning affect child development?
Anticipating the conception of a child can be accompanied by a lot of uncertainty about how to plan for pregnancy and parenthood. But relatively few people are aware that the things they do months or years before conceiving can influence the development of their future children. The preconception period is often overlooked by prospective parents, but is crucial as it sets the foundation for healthy pregnancies and, ultimately, thriving children. Optimizing the physical and mental health of both parents during this time can help create an environment that gives their offspring the best possible start in life. While it's well known that exposure to adverse physical or psychological conditions during pregnancy can powerfully affect child development, emerging evidence suggests that factors occurring before conception can also have lasting effects on offspring. As professors of child development and perinatal psychiatry, our work is aimed at identifying which preconception factors have the potential to influence offspring outcomes, and how to intervene to reduce their effects to give all children the best chance to succeed and thrive. The period of pregnancy planning represents a critical opportunity for future parents to optimize the lives of their children. While some physical and mental health factors shift over time, others are relatively stable. Regardless, enhancing physical and psychological health months or even weeks before conception may have powerful positive effects on offspring. For example, public health authorities recommend that women of childbearing age take a folic acid supplement, as this can prevent neural tube defects and enhance the long-term verbal and social skills of offspring. Maintaining a healthy diet (for example, eating plenty of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and protein) and a healthy weight before pregnancy is also associated with a lower risk of behavioural problems, improved motor and communication skills and better academic achievement. Ultimately, optimizing one's physical health has many benefits for parents and their children and paves the way for improving their mental health as well. Even though planning a pregnancy may be stressful for some, optimizing one's mental health has benefits not only for parents, but also for their future children. For example, children whose mothers experience a worsening of depression from preconception to postpartum were less able to control their behaviour and attention. Furthermore, high levels of stress in mothers pre-conceptually are linked to more negative emotionality and impulsivity in children. As a result, increasing the focus of public health efforts on the mental health of parents could be crucial to enhancing child development as well. Even though the health of mothers and birthing parents can have an important impact on the development of future offspring, healthy partners can also help promote positive long-term outcomes in children. For example, paternal mental health problems present prior to pregnancy increase the risk of pre-term delivery, which is linked to a higher likelihood of behavioural problems and academic difficulties in children later in life. Partners can also provide support and motivation to improve and/or maintain the healthy habits of mothers and birthing parents, which can help optimize offspring development. A number of practical steps can be taken by parents when planning a pregnancy to help enhance child development. Eating a healthy diet and engaging in regular exercise can improve your physical health. Optimizing mental health through exercise, nurturing relationships, building social networks, managing stress and seeking counselling and other help when needed can promote well-being during this important time. Research aimed at understanding the long-term effects of preconception conditions on later child development is still relatively new. Our work is attempting to expand this knowledge base by developing a cohort study that begins in the preconception phase and follows parents throughout pregnancy and into the postpartum period. So far, more than 500 women across Canada have joined the study, and we are continuing to enrol new participants until the end of August 2025. Please note that the web page is in French, but English speakers are welcome to join the study. However, since all research materials are in French, participants must be able to understand written French to take part in the study. Our work will examine how parents' mental health evolves across the perinatal period. This study is intended to help us understand the transition to parenthood and how factors present before conception can influence children's development. The pregnancy planning period is a time when parents can make positive changes in their lives that can benefit their health and the development of their future children. Investing in the physical and mental health of both parents is critical for preparing them to welcome a healthy child and can benefit both their family and society. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organisation bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Sabrina Faleschini, Université Laval and Ryan Van Lieshout, McMaster University Read more: What to expect when you're expecting: How will your sex life change during pregnancy and postpartum? Planning for a baby? Why both men and women should consider quitting alcohol before and during pregnancy Returning to exercise postpartum: Supporting women's physical activity after the birth of a child Sabrina Faleschini receives funding from the Fonds de recherche du Québec - Société et culture. Ryan Van Lieshout does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
National Post
21-05-2025
- Politics
- National Post
Peter MacKinnon: Dissenting UBC professors offer hope for ending university politicization
On April 7, four professors at the University of British Columbia filed a petition in the B.C. Supreme Court seeking a determination that the university has become politicized and is in violation of Section 66(1) of the province's University Act requiring it to be non-political. This petition, co-signed by a former graduate student, brings to mind the University of Chicago's 1967 Kalven Report, which insisted that universities must remain neutral on political issues. This neutrality 'arises out of respect for free inquiry and the obligation to cherish a variety of viewpoints. And this neutrality as an institution has its complement in the fullest freedom for its faculty and students as individuals to participate in political action and social protest. It provides its complement, too, in the obligation of the university to provide a forum for the most searching and candid discussion of public issues.' Article content Article content Article content The issues here are clear and important. Broad support for our universities depends on their neutrality in the eyes of governments and citizens. Those who work in them as faculty, students or staff are free, as individuals or in groups, to be active in political causes, but they must do so in their own names without attributing their views to their universities. Senior university officers do not have the same freedom. When they publicly align with political causes, their endorsement is widely attributed to their universities thereby jeopardizing the non-partisan support on which they depend. Article content Article content The UBC professors are petitioning the Supreme Court to find that their university is taking political positions and is thereby violating the requirement of neutrality: first, by repeatedly acknowledging that the university is on unceded land; second, by taking a 'naked, political' position against Israel in its war with Hamas; and third, through requirements that job applicants pledge support for the political agenda of DEI. Article content Article content In making the first and second claims, universities are entering contestable political space. With respect to the first, land acknowledgments have become incantations that have more than one potential meaning. On one level, they are acceptances of a connection between an Indigenous history and presence, and the lands on which a university sits, the nature of which is unspecified. On another level, they are sometimes the basis of claims that the land on which a university sits has been stolen from Indigenous peoples; because they are unceded the legitimacy of the university's presence on them is in doubt. Exploring the issues raises questions of a political nature. Article content Article content At first contact between Indigenous peoples and European newcomers, the Indigenous population of the 10 million square kilometres that are now Canada was estimated (as reported by Britannica) to be about 200,000. The estimate may be on the low side but, if close, the numbers mean that in what is now the second largest country on Earth, only small parts of this land were inhabited by humans. Numbers and locations have changed over the centuries since, but many of the claims routinely made by the 97 universities in Canada, that they are located on Indigenous lands, are potentially contentious. The issue here is not the adjudication of these claims; it is to recognize that some at least are challengeable, which brings us back to the UBC professors' claim that UBC is on political ground in its explicit and public acknowledgment that it is located on unceded Indigenous lands.
CBC
20-05-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Why Canadian academics are being urged not to travel to the U.S.
The Canadian Association of University Teachers is advising professors to avoid non-essential travel to the U.S. because of the current political landscape. Association president Robin Whitaker says academics on both sides of the border are affected.
Times
19-05-2025
- General
- Times
How we downsized with a 9,000-book collection
Downsizing is never easy, but when you own 9,000 books, it is a feat of literary proportions. Married professors Dan Healey, 68, and Mark Cornwall, 67, swapped their four-bedroom detached 1930s house in Southampton for a smaller four-bedroom new-build in the Cotswolds. Healey says: 'It has a lot of space but we've downsized in the sense that we don't have a garage or a loft any more, so we needed to get rid of a lot of stuff.' Getting rid of old furniture that didn't fit into the new house was the simplest part of the move. It was the couple's book collection that presented the biggest problem. The great book shedding started in 2022 in anticipation of retirement. Cornwall was a professor of modern
