The number of colleges freezing faculty hiring seems to grow each week. Yet some institutions are going against the grain of the poor economy and appointing new professors. This decision has given those campuses an edge, yielding top-quality candidates who might not have been within reach in a more-competitive job market. In the nation's few flush…

Michael Garrison has earned his bachelor's and law degrees at West Virginia University, the state's flagship institution, where he was president of the student government. He rose rapidly to high-powered political posts, including chief of staff to a previous governor. Garrison then became a lobbyist with the longest client list in West Virginia,…

For at least four decades, the University of California has been the international gold standard in public higher education. The system's 10 campuses are magnets for top-notch faculty members and students. With an annual budget of $18-billion, the university includes five medical centers and three national laboratories. And one of every 10 members…

Billed as the country's first independent university, the American University of Afghanistan was established in 2004 with financial support from the highest levels of the American and Afghan governments. But its development has been rockier than anticipated, even taking into account Afghanistan's growing instability. A number of current and former…

The government of Malaysia, whose universities are battling a reputation for mediocrity, recently announced plans to revitalize its lagging university system and turn the country into a center of higher education in Southeast Asia. At an August meeting of government ministers and higher-education officials, Malaysia's prime minister, Abdullah…