Higher Education News

The Many Virtues of a Virtual Writing Group

Scholars of writing have known the value of participating in writing groups for productivity, accountability and motivation since the 1980s!

Humanities Graduates Are Happy With Their Lives

Humanities graduates work in a wide variety of fields, counter to “the stereotype of humanities majors as baristas. And articles suggesting that humanities graduates are poor or unhappy are abundant. But the opposite is true.

UIC named 2021 HSI leader by Fulbright Program

The University of Illinois Chicago is among a select group of Hispanic-Serving Institutions recognized as a Fulbright HSI Leader by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs for its…

Editorship as mentoring, collaboration and peer support

I was in the third year of my PhD. I’d earned an A+ on a term paper I really liked, and the prof had scrawled, simply, “publish this” alongside the grade. I sent it to the top journal in my field. Shortly afterward I got a kind but curt rejection.

Resist the Triage Approach to Academic Writing

If you’re already overwhelmed by a troublesome chapter, giving yourself yet another overwhelming first task is a one-way ticket to Procrastination Station. I’ve recently developed a workaround....

‘Teaching Tidbits’

Have you been wondering how you can help your students become more engaged or how to encourage more active discussions in your classes?

Change Comes to Public Service Loan Forgiveness

A federal loan forgiveness program known for its ineffectiveness will undergo major reforms over the next year, the Department of Education announced Wednesday.

UIC Doctoral Student is 2021 NAEd/Spencer Fellow

Caterina Scalvedi is a doctoral student in History at the University of Illinois, Chicago. Born and raised in Rome, Italy, she earned both her B.A. and M.A. in Early Modern and Contemporary History…

UIC announces students, alumni offered Fulbright awards for 2021-2022

Four UIC students and alumni are among a select group of U.S. citizens offered the opportunity to study, conduct research and teach abroad for the 2021-2022 academic year through the Fulbright U.S. Student Program.

Preparing for an Insightful Professional Life

Ph.D.s have been moving in significant numbers into other nonacademic roles for decades, but it is a recent suggestion that the Ph.D. degree, like a college humanities concentration, is a good grounding for…

What We Learned in the Pandemic About Graduate Training

The pandemic forced many graduate schools to innovate on the fly — revising longstanding policies and creating new procedures — to keep their students on track. In reflecting on what all of those…

Latest PIF recipient

Monique Schlichtman, a rising second-year doctoral student in Public Administration, has been selected for the PIF fellowship.

Transition Q & A: Sunny Chan, co-op program specialist

Sunny Chan earned her PhD in English literary studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is currently a co-op program specialist at Ryerson University’s Career and Co-op Centre, and also works as a…

Why Ph.D. Students Should Think Like Entrepreneurs

Most doctoral students don’t think they have much in common with entrepreneurs. That’s a shame. Getting a Ph.D. is a lot more rewarding if you stop trying to be a good student and start acting like you are running your own business.

MUSE Student wins Critical Language Scholarship

Erika Holum, a student in the Museum & Exhibition Studies master’s program, has been selected for a U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarship to study Indonesian during the summer of 2021.  Undergraduate…

8 Tips for Balancing Grad School and Full-Time Work

“How do you balance full-time work and graduate school?” is a hard question. The answer is subjective, personal and dynamic. There is no one-size-fits-all, formulaic approach, but here are eight strategies.

5 Ways to Make the Most of Your Doctoral Studies

So, you got accepted to a Ph.D. program. Congratulations! Here are five suggestions as you embark on this new adventure.

Building Self-Efficacy for Ph.D. Success

Your Ph.D. program will focus a lot on the academic expertise, competencies and skills you need to develop during training. But we would like to suggest focus on career and professional advancement.

Recipients of Spring 2021 Funding

The Graduate College is pleased to announce the winners of five internal competitions: the Access Fellowship (retention); Award for Graduate Research (spring competition); the Dean’s Scholar Fellowship; the Graduate Mentoring Award; and the…

Who’s Responsible for a Ph.D. Student’s Success?

The institutional structures endemic to all research universities render ongoing, timely communication difficult. And in some quarters of the professoriate, there remains a residual degree of skepticism about potentially “outsourcing" advising...