The hottest Academic standards Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top U.S. Politics Topics

Crumbling DIEvory Towers

Postcards From Barsoom • 6999 implied HN points • 25 Oct 24
🚌 Education Higher education Academic standards Systemic Issues
  1. Many colleges, like Whittier College, are struggling with issues like low enrollment and poor management. This is leading to unhappy students and worried alumni.
  2. At some prestigious universities, standards are declining because of changes to grading and admission policies. More focus is being put on participation and homework rather than exams.
  3. The increasing role of administrators in universities is changing the focus of education. Important academic traditions are being lost as the emphasis shifts toward managing feelings rather than fostering intellectual growth.

Harvard's double standard for Gay

Heterodox STEM • 1579 implied HN points • 13 Dec 23
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Scandal Plagiarism Academic standards Freedom of Speech
  1. Harvard's president was accused of plagiarism but faced no consequences, leading to concerns about double standards.
  2. Students at Harvard face severe punishments for plagiarism, while the university seems to handle allegations against its president differently.
  3. The president's controversies have raised questions about the institution's values and reputation, affecting its students and donors.

What I Didn't Learn at the Evergreen State College

I Might Be Wrong • 15 implied HN points • 16 Jan 25
🚌 Education Higher education Pedagogy Curriculum Student life Academic standards
  1. Without grades, college can become a joke, leading many students to slack off instead of genuinely engaging with learning. It’s important to have some accountability to encourage real effort.
  2. Professors often pass students regardless of their actual participation or effort, which undermines the purpose of education and makes it hard to assess true performance.
  3. To improve education, grades need to mean something again so that employers can better understand which students truly excel and which do not. Making grades meaningful is a better alternative than removing them altogether.

Anthony Fauci Exposes Yale’s Gregg Gonsalves as Academic Activist Who Fakes Data Claims

The DisInformation Chronicle • 710 implied HN points • 17 Jan 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Health Policy Social media Media Public Trust Academic standards
  1. Fauci admitted the 6-feet social distancing guideline lacked scientific evidence.
  2. Gonsalves, an activist turned academic, has a history of diagnosing all medical crises as AIDS-related.
  3. Gonsalves made unsupported medical claims in a legal declaration, citing a news article as evidence.

Class War Behind Harvard’s Embrace Of DEI Race Pseudoscience

Public • 580 implied HN points • 03 Jan 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Higher education Pseudoscience Plagiarism Academic standards Influence
  1. Harvard University is committed to attracting and retaining top scholars, offering high salaries and benefits.
  2. Former Harvard President Claudine Gay resigned due to plagiarism accusations and a lackluster academic record.
  3. Harvard's influence and reputation make its scandals significant on a national and international scale.
Get a weekly roundup of the best Substack posts, by hacker news affinity:

What's gone wrong at university

Theory Matters • 5 implied HN points • 09 Jan 25
🚌 Education Higher education Curriculum Development Academic standards
  1. Universities are becoming more focused on producing workers rather than promoting true learning. Students are often funneled into narrow paths instead of exploring a wide range of ideas and subjects.
  2. The pressure on universities to grow is leading to bigger class sizes and less individual attention for students. This results in a decline in the quality of education and weakens the relationships between students and teachers.
  3. There's a shared responsibility between the institutions and students for the decline in education standards. Everyone needs to push for better learning experiences instead of taking the easy way out.

On academic standards, fair play and Claudine Gay, or: Why principled liberal opposition is the wrong response to unprincipled malicious problem glasses-wearing charlatans

eugyppius: a plague chronicle • 147 implied HN points • 04 Jan 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Academic standards Plagiarism Antisemitism Higher education
  1. The Associated Press backtracked on their plagiarism allegations against Claudine Gay.
  2. Some readers question the reasons behind Gay's resignation.
  3. Gay's resignation symbolizes a defeat for diversity in American higher education.

Abolish Grades

Yascha Mounk • 2 HN points • 29 Aug 24
🚌 Education Academic standards Higher education Pedagogy
  1. Grade inflation is a big problem. At top universities, students are getting higher grades, making it hard to tell who is really doing great work.
  2. A grading system should help students understand how they're doing, but if everyone's getting A's, they may think they are doing better than they really are.
  3. To fix this, universities could make grades pass-fail, which would stop misleading people about student achievements and encourage students to take harder courses.

The Censorious Society for Personality and Social Psychology

Unsafe Science • 76 implied HN points • 14 Feb 24
🔬 Science Social Psychology Academic standards Censorship
  1. At the Society for Personality and Social Psychology conference, a poster was removed for discussing Muslim support for terrorism, sparking censorship accusations.
  2. The removal of the poster led to debates on the justification for retraction, with criticisms on lack of scientific grounds and biases.
  3. While there were complaints about the removed poster, another poster lacking scientific content faced no consequences, raising questions about inconsistent standards.