Once globally preeminent, U.S. universities are sliding into decline [ The Hechinger Report ]

The flava:

The nation was distracted by other things when a quiet warning sounded: Support was diminishing for American academic research that had led to breakthroughs and innovation.

That familiar-sounding worry came not this year, but near the end of World War II, in a pivotal government study by the wartime Office of Scientific Research and Development. 

The response then: infusions of government cash that would propel the U.S. higher education system into international preeminence over the subsequent decades.

American colleges and universities rose to the ranks of the best in the world. They attracted top scholars who won a disproportionate number of Nobel Prizes. They helped drive the innovation economy. As trade deficits beset other industries, education became the sixth-largest U.S. services export. At their peak enrollment, international students brought in more than $40 billion a year.

Now, as a new academic year begins, American dominance in higher education globally is incontrovertibly in decline, according to data, international rankings and independent experts. 

The slide has been accelerated by a year and a half of funding cuts, restrictions on international students and curbs on what can be said or taught. But it began before those political challenges, with enrollment declines, lackluster returns on ever-rising prices and public mistrust. . . .      

The article:

https://hechingerreport.org/once-globally-preeminent-u-s-universities-are-sliding-into-decline/

Howard University offers buyouts amid student unenrollment controversy [ DC News Now ]

University of Michigan Drops First-Semester Grades to ‘Curb Mental Health Crisis’ [ WSJ ]

The flava:

The University of Michigan will drop grades for first-semester freshmen next year in an effort to “curb the mental health crisis unfolding among college-aged individuals,” according to the school.

Instead of a letter grade, first-semester transcripts will show “pass or no credit.” The program is designed to help students “acclimate to the demands of college and allow intrinsic motivations to guide personally meaningful academic journeys,” the school said.

The program, set to start in fall 2027, applies to students in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, which enrolls about half of Michigan’s roughly 8,000 first-year students. 

A Michigan spokesman declined to comment about how the university reached the decision to enact the pilot. Although grades won’t be recorded on student transcripts or affect grade-point averages, professors will still assign them internally to track eligibility for scholarships and academic awards.

Schools including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the California Institute of Technology have implemented similar “grade-covering” programs in past years. 

The shift at Michigan, among the nation’s largest and best-known public universities, comes as schools wrestle with grade inflation and the need for remedial instruction for freshmen ill-prepared for college-level classes. University of California math and science professors have urged UC regents to reinstate entrance exams because so many freshmen were unprepared. . . .      

The article:

https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/university-of-michigan-grades-mental-health-1a5701d4

Why did Cambridge professor Jason Arday resign? [ Channel 4 News ]

Will AI make college obsolete? [ On with Kara Swisher ]

Should you use AI for a task? Here’s a simple way to decide [ Bruce Schneier ]

"I teach public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Munk School at the University of Toronto. And it will come as no surprise to you that my students regularly use AI to complete their writing assignments. Doing so is a waste of their tuition money. But if their entire career is going to include AI writing assistants, why shouldn’t they embrace their future?

The best way I’ve found to explain the dilemma comes from the AI researcher Daniel Meissler: it’s the difference between work and the gym.

At work, if your job is to move a bunch of heavy things from one side of the room to another, you should use whatever assistive tech you have on hand: a wagon, a forklift ... even an AI-powered robot. But at the gym, it makes no sense for that robot to lift weights for you. The point of weightlifting isn’t to move heavy things across the room; it’s to actually lift those heavy things.

The same analysis holds for any task an AI can do for you. If it’s work – if the task has to be done and no one cares how – then it’s fine to use AI assistance. But if the task is more like the gym, and how the task is done is at least as important, then it probably doesn’t make sense to use AI.

This, of course, assumes that the AI is actually up for the task and that it’s trustworthy: that it can do the job well, that its mistakes are minimal and correctable, that it’s been secured from cyber-attacks that would influence its results. Those are all important, and shouldn’t be minimized. There’s no point giving an AI something that it can’t do reliably. But once you’re confident that the AI can perform the task, the work v gym distinction helps you decide if it should.

The writing assignments I give my students are gym tasks, not work tasks. I ask them to write policy memos not because the world needs more policy memos. I assign them because the very act of writing, which includes thinking and outlining and drafting and editing, making and criticizing and revising arguments, will help develop the critical thinking skills they will need in their future careers. And without this constant mental exercise, those skills will atrophy. Employers are already noticing. . . ."    

--Bruce Schneier in The Guardian

Tracking Trump's Crackdown on Higher Education [ U.S. News & World Report ]

Here's a look at the key areas of Trump’s agenda and some of the noteworthy moves he has made when it comes to higher education. . . .     

https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/trumps-higher-education-crackdown-visa-
revocations-dei-bans-lawsuits-and-funding-cuts

The ‘Fraud Squad’ at Caltech Will Catch You if You Lie on Your Application [ WSJ ]

The flava:

At California Institute of Technology, a little-known band of admissions officials is scrutinizing the fonts on science-fair certificates, checking addresses on high-school transcripts and analyzing signatures on awards.

Known as the “fraud squad,” these investigators are in charge of vetting applications to the highly selective STEM-focused school, which admitted less than 4% of its 11,400 applicants for the incoming class. Caltech created the team two years ago partly in response to a rising number of anonymous accusations of dishonest submissions.

The four-person team inspects every admitted student’s application, taking nothing for granted. They scour the internet to confirm obscurities, contact competition officials and high-school counselors and use a video-interview program to suss out students’ research claims.

At elite colleges such as Caltech, admissions have become more competitive and applications are increasingly complex. Some request long lists of accolades—research, competitions, awards and independent projects—that colleges can find harder to verify than grades and test scores.

At the same time, technology like artificial intelligence makes it easier to falsify submissions. And for young people, the stakes often feel higher than ever. . . .     

The article:

https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/college-admissions-caltech-cheating-fraud-squad-f7627aab

Monty Roberts, Horse Trainer Who Preached Kindness, Dies at 91 [ NYTimes ]

The flava:

. . .  His father, a horse trainer, was a proponent of conventional horse-breaking techniques that employed fear and punishment to bring a young mustang into submission.

Early in his life, Mr. Roberts recounted in his 1996 autobiography, “The Man Who Listens to Horses,” he recoiled at those methods. When he was just 7, he showed his father how effective it was to treat a young stallion with kindness to instill trust.

His father, he said, flew into a rage and beat him so severely with a chain that he had to be hospitalized. He vowed never to share his unconventional ideas with his father again. But he remained convinced that there was a better way to work with horses.

When he was 13, he went out to the high desert in northern Nevada alone and spent days observing herds of wild horses. He watched as the dominant mare used body language and visual cues to control young stallions. This nonverbal communication astounded him.

“In time, I would grasp just how exact a language it was,” he wrote. “There were precise messages, whole phrases and sentences that always meant the same thing, always had the same effect.”

He realized, he added, that “if I understood how to do it, I could effectively cross over the boundary between human (the ultimate fight animal) and horse (the flight animal).”

The article:

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/02/sports/monty-roberts-dead.html

Beneath the Tower | 60 Years Later [ KVUE ]