California Polytechnic State University’s campus in San Luis Obispo has an odd-sounding new major: liberal arts and engineering studies. What’s next, chemistry and philosophy? Statistics and mythology (“lies, damned lies and myths”)? Although “odd couple” majors have been around for a while, interdisciplinary studies is especially hot today, particularly related to engineering and other technology […]
Norman Matloff
Norman Matloff ,an occasional Bloomberg View contributor, is a professor of computer science at the University of California, Davis.
Posted inEducation, Higher Education
Dumbed-Down Math and Other Perils of Online College
For the first time, state legislators in the U.S. may require their public universities to grant students credit for online courses given by outside providers. A bill introduced in the California Senate would extend this concession only when a required class is full and not offered online at the college. The legislation, which is expected […]
Posted inEducation, Higher Education
How Foreign Students Hurt U.S. Innovation
In the old days, the U.S. program for foreign-student visas helped developing nations and brought diversity to then white-bread American campuses. Today, the F-1 program, as it is known, has become a profit center for universities and a wage-suppression tool for the technology industry. International students are attractive to strapped colleges because they tend to […]
