Why Aren’t There More Apprentices in America?
Within the fractious realm of higher education policy, one of the few ideas to gain bipartisan support is the expansion of technical training for young workers, largely through apprenticeships. Both…
Howling Cow Ice Cream: An NC State Experiment in Hands-On Learning
In the past, I’ve been critical of commercial activity on North Carolina’s public university campuses. It competes with private business, attracts unfair tax advantages, and may (in some cases) violate…
Easing the Transition from Soldier to Scholar
The college diploma has long been regarded as the ticket to the good life. And most well-paid jobs require some kind of academic credential. But academia is not the only…
Cevro: An Interdisciplinary Czech College Run by Libertarians
For the past year, I was enrolled in a small graduate-level Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) program at the Cevro Institute in Prague, Czech Republic. To my knowledge, it’s one…
Dual-Enrollment: a Head Start on College or Empty Credentialing?
Shortly after I moved to North Carolina in 2015, I learned about a dual-enrollment program for students to attend high school and Wake Technical Community College simultaneously. At the time,…
Copying Australia’s Student Loan System Won’t Save American Higher Ed
The American student loan system is a mess, weighing down more than 40 million borrowers with $1.3 trillion of debt. As a result, analysts and journalists in search of alternative…
An Innovative Guide Through the Higher Ed Landscape
Increasingly, the old model of earning a college degree by simply choosing a school, paying cash to cover room, board, and tuition, and graduating within four years (with summers off)…
Are Students Addicted to Distraction?
A few years ago, something changed in class. I customarily taught classes where my students read multiple books, wrote thoughtful reflective essays, and came to class prepared to engage in…
The Uncertain Future of Coding Boot Camps
Students are enrolling in coding “boot camps” at record rates, with the number of graduates increasing from about 2,200 in 2013 to an estimated 23,000 in 2017. However, the booming…
What’s the Alternative to a Mountain of College Debt?
Meet Sarah, a very bright student in her junior year in high school. She excels in math and science and thinks that an engineering career of some kind would be…