AKA Review– May 20, 2022

From The Washington Post:
How Popular Merit College Scholarships Have Perpetuated Racial Inequities
By Naomi Harris
A generation ago politicians across the South pivoted from the long-standing practice of providing financial assistance for college based on family income to offering aid based on academic achievement, with a goal of keeping "the best and the brightest" in state. While on a surface level, merit-based scholarships may seem accessible to all, they do more to influence where students go to college than who actually goes. A deeper look reveals that they disproportionately benefit the white middle class. Read this article

From University World News:
Cultural Higher Education: A New Driver of Branch Campuses?
By John Anderson and Daniel C Kent
Despite slowing growth of new US and UK based international branch campuses (IBCs), a shift in focus to cultural higher education position them for rapid growth. As Asian and Middle Eastern countries continue to transition to diversified knowledge- and skills-based economies, they are increasingly supplementing employment-focused higher education with a broader set of cultural and artistic academic institutions—evidenced by over $13 billion in announced or completed cultural capital spending in 2020. Read this article

From PittWire:
Volodymyr Zelenskyy Spoke to University Leaders about Rebuilding Ukraine’s Higher Education Sector
By Nichole Faina
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently spoke with university leaders from the Association of American Universities about how the path to a better, stronger Ukraine lies in rebuilding its higher education system through partnerships with world-class research universities. He emphasized the important role of universities in growing the nation’s health care, economy, and cultural vibrancy, and how essential meaningful partnerships with US universities are. Read this article

From WIRED:
These Nanobots Can Swim Around a Wound and Kill Bacteria
By Max G. Levy
Nanobots—essentially robots thousands of times thinner than a human hair—sound like the stuff of science fiction. A model of making complicated STEM concepts readily accessible to non-scientists, this article describes the work of bioengineers developing nanobots able to navigate the body’s fluids to heal wounds, break up blood clots, and treat cancers in the body’s tightest spaces. Much work remains but "nanobots still have a way of making people dream about ideas on the border of reality." Read this article

From The New Yorker:
A Guide to Thesis Writing That Is a Guide to Life
By Hau Hsu
Italian semiologist and novelist, Umberto Eco, published "How to Write a Thesis" in 1977, compiling practical advice he offered his students annually. This review, published on the book’s first English translation in 2015, argues Eco was not just offering instructions for "mastering the fusty old thesis." Forty five years after publication, his book remains presciently relevant for its encouragement to engage difference, attempt a seemingly impossible project, and reckon with "the knowledge that anyone can teach us something." Read this article