Cue the Billy Bragg. The University of California's postdocs have unionized. The unionization of the University of Connecticut's postdocs seems to have gone smoothly. I'll be curious to hear what the ultimate contract will look like for the University of California. There's more about the union here. read more

What Helps New Ph.D.s Land Jobs in Academia? A Passport says an article in today's Wall Street Journal. > While hiring freezes and budgets cuts pervade U.S. higher education, universities in Asia and the Middle East are hungry for candidates, often amid a dearth of native applicants. Although most advertise their... read more

A former Clemson institutional researcher has just given an eye-opening presentation that described how the US News college rankings drove the agenda of Clemson's administration. The measures taken ranged from promising (decreases in class sizes and increases in admissions standards) to unethical (allegations that ... read more

There's an op-ed in yesterday's Times with a great opening paragraph: > Graduate education is the Detroit of higher learning. Most graduate programs in American universities produce a product for which there is no market (candidates for teaching positions that do not exist) and develop skills for which there is d... read more

The NY Times reports that undergraduate enrollments in computer science programs are back up. The explanation: competing alternatives for people with the required skill set have gotten less attractive. Investment banking is no longer luring people away. It's further supporting evidence for Richard Freeman's work ... read more