Professors value YouTube as a professional and teaching tool far more than they do Twitter and Facebook, according to a study released by the Babson Survey Research Group, Inside Higher Ed reported. The study used feedback from 1,920 faculty members who assigned online videos as homework, and 73 percent of professors said YouTube videos were important to the classroom. Of the faculty surveyed, 15 percent conceded that Facebook is "at least somewhat valuable" to the classroom, while only 2 percent agreed that Twitter was valuable for class, according to Inside Higher Education. Approximately half of the professors surveyed said Twitter and Facebook were not only unproductive for teaching, but also detrimental to learning, Inside Higher Ed reported.
American graduate schools experienced a rise in international applications receiving 9 percent more than last year with most applicants coming from China, India and South Korea, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. Foreign student applicants from China have increased by 18 percent, keeping with a pattern of a double-digit rise in applications from that country in the last six years. Applications from India, which barely increased last year, rose 7 percent this year, while applications from South Korea, which did not increase last year and fell 9 percent the year before, rose 2 percent this year. A survey of international applications, which was released April 12 by the Council of Graduate Schools, also found that while schools with more international students saw a greater number of applications, foreign student applications increased in three-quarters of all American graduate schools, The Chronicle reported.
The University of New Hampshire may be forced to eliminate over 200 jobs if the New Hampshire state Senate agrees with the state House of Representatives' proposal to diminish funding for UNH by $30 million, according to The Boston Globe. Facing a reduction in staff support, UNH has been working with the union which represents 633 workers at UNH and a fact finder who was hired as a neutral party to assess the dispute between UNH and the union. The fact finder recommended that the faculty salary increase by 8.75 percent a compromise between the 12.5 percent originally proposed by the faculty and the 6.5 percent that UNH suggested. Candace Corvey, the head negotiator for the university, rejected the fact finder's proposed salary increase but agreed with the fact finder on faculty health benefits, according to The Globe.
