Censored papers on bird flu, which could help terrorists, have critics wondering if academic scientists can police their own work. The near-publication has brought out general critics of the federal panel, the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity, and the voluntary self-policing approach that it embraces instead of regulation. Members…

Foreign students applying to graduate schools in the United States are increasingly favoring the doctoral institutions that were already popular among them, while losing some interest in other types of colleges, according to a survey released last week by the Council of Graduate Schools. Over all, foreign applications for graduate programs are up…

College governing boards are becoming more effective and engaged but continue to fall short in some areas, according to survey results released today by the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges. The association's survey of almost 700 public and private colleges, conducted last year and described as the first detailed…

According to a new survey conducted by the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, about 80% of the governing boards of public universities say they are dealing with state budget cuts this year. Trustees also said they are working extra hours to cope with the financial strains on their universities, and they have enacted or…

What are the best ways to organize the mass quantities of data that researchers generate, and to share those data to engender new research? Scott Carlson, a senior reporter at "The Chronicle", asked Michael C. Witt, an assistant professor of library science and an interdisciplinary research librarian at Purdue University Libraries and its…

The pursuit of institutional prestige has done little to improve the reputations of most colleges, and it may be causing many of them to become less distinguishable from their competitors, new research shows. In one study presented at the annual conference of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, Kyle V. Sweitzer, a data-resource…

More colleges are making sustainability programs a high priority, putting more resources into energy-conservation efforts, and setting goals to reduce carbon emissions, according to survey results released by the National Wildlife Federation. Given the popularity of all things green, that is not surprising. The surprising part of the federation's…

Starting salaries for newly minted professors are highest in Canada, but for the best prospects of raising earnings over an academic career, one should look to Saudi Arabian universities. These are some of the findings of a new study that looks at faculty pay across international borders, examining salary data in 15 countries, among them the…

Administrators at West Virginia University violated procedures and displayed poor judgment in their "seriously flawed" response to an inquiry about a high-profile academic transcript, according to a report issued last week by an independent panel. The harshly worded report found that when the "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette" raised…

The number of foreign students admitted to graduate schools at American colleges and universities grew in 2008 for the fourth straight year, but the rate of increase over the previous year declined for the third consecutive year, according to survey results released by the Council of Graduate Schools. Based on previous years' data, this year's…

Publishing research is more critical than ever to a university's mission, but too many institutions fail to recognize and support it adequately, even as their presses struggle to find their footing in a fast-changing online world. That's the message driven home by a report called "University Publishing in a Digital Age," released by "Ithaka", a…

Innovative digital scholarship now takes place across disciplines, but much digital publishing still operates by the rules of traditional scholarly culture, even as new genres and behaviors are appearing. These are some of the chief findings of a report released on November 10 by the Association of Research Libraries and the Ithaka group, a…

This paper discusses a report released by the Education Department's Office of Inspector General regarding problems in the administration of the government's Reading First Program. Reading First is a $900-million-a-year program that was designed to improve reading instruction in low-income schools in kindergarten through third grade. According to…

One after another at this time of year, elite colleges trumpet the outstanding SAT scores of the applicants they have admitted. The question often raised by such announcements is just how much those scores matter. Two recent studies conclude that they matter quite a lot. This article reports that researchers assert that selective colleges give…

In the years since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the federal government's policies that deal with national security have changed significantly. In an effort to prevent the results of science and engineering research from being misused or falling into the wrong hands, government agencies that support studies are placing restrictions on…