Celebrating Education

 

By Morten Flate Paulsen, Professor of Online Education
(IACEHOF 2024)

After four decades immersed in online education, I have concluded that my four favourite online education words are: flexibility, cooperation, transparency, and celebration. Since the IACE Hall of Fame has organized yearly celebrations of a new class of inductees since 1996, it is fitting to reflect on the significance of celebration in education.

I advocate for celebration as a vital tool to promote quality in education, focusing on excellence and significant achievements. It enhances personal and institutional pride, attracting more attention and joy to our field.

Anniversaries provide clear opportunities for celebrations and increased visibility. Graduation ceremonies and traditions surrounding diplomas, certificates, micro-credentials, and other proofs of academic achievements are certainly worth celebrating.

Many institutions share inspiring student and teacher testimonials, often initiated by marketing staff who uncover compelling stories through celebratory activities.

Awards of excellence, such as Teacher of the Year, Best Student, and Best Paper awards, can motivate individuals to excel and provide role models to admire. Various countries, organizations, and institutions have established schemes or strategies for such awards. Looking back, my personal motivation and career got a boost when I received the Best Presentation Award for Trends in International Electronic Distance Education at the NordData 89 conference thirty-six years ago in Copenhagen.

Several organizations have established schemes to honour educators for their important contributions in the field. Among the international organizations I know best: The International Council of Open and Distance Education (ICDE) offers prizes of excellence, the European Distance and E-learning Network (EDEN) maintains a Fellowship scheme, the International Adult and Continuing Education (IACE) Hall of Fame inducts outstanding educators, and the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) designates Honorary Fellows.

Many of these educators have inspired me and numerous others. Mark Nichols has interviewed more than a hundred educators in the podcast Leaders & Legends of Online Learning. Susan Bainbridge and Norine Wark authored The Encyclopaedia of Female Pioneers in Online Learning. And I have profiled about 160 prominent colleagues in the open-access books, which constitute the chronicles My online Education World 1980-2020. We can all learn from these international role models and celebrate our local heroes.

In conclusion, I urge educators to embrace celebration, innovate celebratory practices, and incorporate them into their strategies. Many in our field deserve more recognition for their outstanding work. Celebration can inspire individual achievement, enhance institutional excellence, and lead to positive media coverage. Let us remember the power of celebration in fostering a vibrant and motivating educational environment.

 

Students Need Due Diligence

 

By William J. Rothwell, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Penn State University (IACEHOF 2023) and Aikumis Serikbayeva, Ph.D. Candidate, Penn State University

 

It has become fashionable in some political circles to sneer at the value of a college degree. Some pundits claim universities are “left‐leaning factories” and degrees are “worthless pieces of paper.” That’s nonsense. The truth is more complicated—and far more inconvenient for that simplistic narrative.

 

It is true that, at present, the unemployment rate for college graduates ages 22–27 is startling: for women, it is about 4 percent, and for men, about 6 percent (Apollo Academy, 2025). That compares to a general U.S. unemployment rate of about 4.3 percent in August 2025 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025).

 

But a degree alone is neither a magic ticket nor a silver bullet. Too many students, and their parents, drift through four years without ever asking the hard question: What will it take to be competitive after graduation? They don’t investigate job markets; they don’t seek internships; and they don’t build the skills employers demand. Then, when the job offers don’t flood in, they blame the professors, the major, the degree, or the school instead of their own lack of preparation.

 

Of course, it is also true that many school districts have defunded career counseling for secondary students. So students may arrive in college ill‐prepared to know what to do to become competitive. And many colleges and universities do not effectively integrate career planning as a requirement into academic curricula (Carnevale & Smith, 2018).

But despite challenges, the fact is that higher education can still work—if students and parents perform their due diligence. Employers overwhelmingly value degrees (Gallup & Lumina Foundation, 2023). But they also want graduates who can demonstrate more than a diploma. That means applied experience, marketable skills, and a willingness to take initiative (National Association of Colleges and Employers [NACE], 2024).

 

The attack on higher education is nothing more than a political stunt. Instead of tearing down universities, we should be telling young people: don’t just chase the paper. Use those years to set yourself apart. A business without a competitive edge will not long survive, and neither will an individual worker. A college degree remains a powerful path to opportunity—if students are willing to go beyond the paper chase.

 

References

Apollo Academy. (2025, September 14). Unemployment rate for recent college graduates: Rising for men, falling for women. The Daily Spark.  https://www.apolloacademy.com/unemployment-rate-for-recent-college-graduates-rising-for-men-falling-for-women/

Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2025, September 5). The employment situation—August 2025. U.S. Department of Labor. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf

Carnevale, A. P., & Smith, N. (2018). Balancing work and learning: Implications for low-income students. Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. https://cew.georgetown.edu

Gallup, & Lumina Foundation. (2023). The state of higher education 2023 report. Gallup. https://www.gallup.com/education

National Association of Colleges and Employers. (2024). Job outlook 2024: Attributes employers want to see on student résumés. NACE. https://www.naceweb.org

 

 

What’s Wrong With Tenure and How to Improve It

 

By William J. Rothwell, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Penn State University
(IACEHOF 2023)

 

The university tenure system is a cornerstone of higher education, intended to ensure job security, academic freedom, and the retention of high-quality faculty. But this system is under increasing scrutiny for failing to align with the evolving needs of students, institutions, and society (Sporn, 2024). Understanding and improving tenure is vital for students, parents, policymakers, and educators, as it can directly impact the quality and relevance of higher education (El Hajjar & Borna, 2025).

 

Challenges in the Tenure System

 

Research

Tenure decisions often overemphasize research output, pressuring faculty to prioritize grant acquisition and publication volume (Mutongoza, 2023). This “publish or perish” culture can compromise quality and ethics, encouraging isolated rather than collaborative efforts and diminishing focus on teaching or real-world application. Grant priorities may not align with pressing societal needs, further skewing academic efforts (Purnell, 2025).

 

Publishing

Tenure traditionally values peer-reviewed journal publications. However, this narrow definition of scholarly contribution excludes more accessible and impactful formats such as books, policy papers, or practitioner-oriented content. The peer review system, while important, can be biased, and the pressure to produce frequent articles may stifle innovation and inflate minor contributions (Sobkowicz, 2015).

 

Teaching

Teaching often receives less weight in tenure evaluations (Schimanski & Alperin, 2018). Faculty may have little motivation to improve instruction, adopt new methods, or prioritize student learning—especially when excellence in teaching is not rewarded. This neglect results in theoretically strong students with weak real-world preparation, especially if experiential learning is overlooked.

 

Advising

Advising and mentoring, critical to student development, are time-intensive and often undervalued in tenure reviews (Morrison et al., 2019). The demands of research and publishing leave faculty with limited availability for meaningful student support, particularly for those needing tailored guidance.

 

Service

Service—including committee work, faculty governance, and community engagement—is crucial to university functioning. Yet tenure reviews often treat it as a lesser duty (St. Louis University, 2022). This leads to uneven workloads, where committed faculty bear the brunt, potentially jeopardizing their research and teaching efforts.

 

How to Improve Tenure

 

A reformed tenure system should balance research, publishing, teaching, advising, and service:

 

Research Reform

• Prioritize quality, innovation, and relevance over quantity.
• Encourage interdisciplinary and collaborative projects.
• Expand definitions of scholarly output to include policy work, practitioner research, and cross-disciplinary contributions.
• Support faculty with funding, assistance, and time for meaningful research.

 

Publishing Reform

• Broaden recognition to include books, open-access journals, and digital dissemination.
• Promote in-depth, long-term research agendas.
• Improve transparency in the peer review process.
• Foster mentorship to develop thoughtful publication strategies.

 

Teaching Excellence

• Implement robust teaching evaluation methods (peer reviews, student feedback, teaching portfolios).
• Offer development programs to improve instructional quality.
• Recognize innovative pedagogies like active and experiential learning in tenure decisions.

 

Advising as a Priority

• Set clear expectations and provide training.
• Include advising effectiveness in tenure decisions, using input from advisees.
• Reward faculty who demonstrate excellence in student mentoring.

 

Valuing Service

• Distribute service duties equitably.
• Count diverse service activities (governance, outreach, leadership) in evaluations.
• Foster a culture that appreciates service as essential to academic life.

 

Other Considerations

Tenure decisions could also reflect faculty contributions to social impact and diversity, helping to combat the perception that higher education is elitist or disconnected from societal needs. Additionally, restoring faculty leadership in curriculum decisions, instead of delegating it to expanded administrative control of bureaucrats, can ensure relevance to students’ educational and professional aspirations.

 

Conclusion

Tenure should reflect the full scope of faculty responsibilities—research, teaching, advising, service, and societal contribution. Reforming the system to emphasize quality, balance, and relevance will ensure universities better serve students, faculty, and society. Such improvements can restore public trust, enhance student outcomes, and re-energize the academic profession.

 

 

References

El Hajjar, S., & Borna, S. (2025, May 5). The tenure dilemma: Stability or innovation? AACSB Insights. Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. https://www.aacsb.edu/insights/articles/2025/05/the-tenure-dilemma-stability-or-innovation

Morrison, J. A., Barthell, J. F., Boettcher, A., Bowne, D., Nixon, C., Resendes, K. K., & Strauss‑Soukup, J. (2019). Recognizing and valuing the mentoring of undergraduate research, scholarship, and creative activity by faculty members: Workload, tenure, promotion, and award systems (CUR White Paper No. 2). Council on Undergraduate Research.

Mutongoza, B. H. (2023). The negative consequences of the ‘publish or perish’ culture on academic staff in higher education. SOTL in the South, 7(2), 49–65.

Purnell, P. J. (2025). Transdisciplinary research: How much is academia heeding the call to work more closely with societal stakeholders such as industry, government, and nonprofits? Scientometrics, 130(6), Article 53. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-025-05367-2

Schimanski, L. A., & Alperin, J. P. (2018). The evaluation of scholarship in academic promotion and tenure processes: Past, present, and future. F1000Research, 7, Article 1605. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.16554.2

Sobkowicz, P. (2015). Innovation suppression and clique evolution in peer review. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 18(2), 13. https://doi.org/10.18564/jasss.2957

Sporn, B. (2024). Higher education institutions as change agents in society. Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning, 14(2), 123–142. https://doi.org/10.1080/21568235.2024.2412764

Saint Louis University, Gender Policies and Initiatives Council, & Academic Faculty Affairs Committee. (2022). Lip service? White paper on service in the personnel review process. Saint Louis University.