In The News

The Great Skill Recession

Nayan Chanda December 2, 2013
The world has an unemployment problem. Most modern jobs require technological skills, and technology is supplanting increasing numbers of jobs. How this gap, first raised as a possibility by John Maynard Keynes in 1930, is addressed will shape the economic future of the United States, China, India and other nations, explains Nayan Chanda, YaleGlobal editor, in his column for Businessworld....

After-School Activities Make Educational Inequality Even Worse

Hilary Levey Friedman November 25, 2013
Leisure activities – the exposure to new ideas, projects, adults and ways of working within teams – can contribute to a child’s later status. “While we talk a lot about inequalities between the rich and the poor, and the role school quality plays in perpetuating class divisions, one often overlooked factor is the opportunities middle- and upper-middle-class kids get to strengthen their life...

A Computer Academy in France Defies Conventional Wisdom

Scott Sayare November 25, 2013
A French school is bucking national traditions in higher education, with group projects and organizers rather than lectures and teachers. The tuition-free technology academy will serve all, regardless of education background, and offers no formal degree. Instead, the three-year program aims to produce highly skilled and employable computer programmers. Telecommunications executive Xavier Niel has...

American Universities Eye Chinese Students

Hassan Siddiq November 12, 2013
Increasing numbers of Chinese choose to study abroad, and nearly half head for US institutions of higher learning. The reasons behind the exponential growth, even at the undergraduate level, are as much financial as “the emphasis on globalization and diversity touted by the universities,” explains Hassan Siddiq for YaleGlobal. US universities have active recruiting programs, and seven of the top...

Should Extremist Parties Be Banned?

Jan-Werner Mueller November 8, 2013
Some political organizations, formal or informal, often seem bent on fomenting anger, attracting attentionby excluding citizens based on race, religion, gender or other characteristics rather than practicing good governance and solving problems. “Is there a place within liberal democracies for apparently anti-democratic parties?” asks Jan-Werner Mueller for Project Syndicate. He examines the...

How Science Goes Wrong

October 25, 2013
Business interests like to think of themselves as taming science, selecting among the discoveries and presenting them to the world. Scientific research ultimately instigates new trends, comforts, life-saving treatments, new businesses and more. “But success can breed complacency,” suggests an essay in the Economist. “Modern scientists are doing too much trusting and not enough verifying – to the...

Malala’s Desire to Learn Shames Our Schools

Allison Pearson October 14, 2013
Education empowers individuals and their societies. When she was 15, Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head by Taliban extremists while traveling between school and home in Pakistan. She recovered from her wounds in England and has since been a determined global voice about education as a source of power and a right for all. She describes her lessons and the ability to read, write, calculate, and...