Marc van Oostendorp

"The student population got smaller and smaller while fancy new buildings appeared."

West Virginia University, waar onder andere een van 's werelds belangrijkste deskundigen over de relatie tussen taal en muziek werkt, sluit alle talenopleidingen, en ook bijvoorbeeld wiskunde.

https://slate.com/human-interest/2023/08/west-virginia-university-cuts-programs.html

Everyone at West Virginia University Knew Something Was Up. I Hate That We Were Right.

The student population got smaller and smaller while fancy new buildings appeared.

Slate
Aug 20, 2023 at 8:00amWeb
Show threadMartin HaspelmathAug 20, 2023
@fonolog The article is quite open about the role of the lockdowns and the war in making the student numbers drop. When such big policy errors are made by the society, linguists can do little.
Show threadMarc van OostendorpAug 20, 2023
@haspelmath I think there is very little we can do indeed. And as linguists we can do nothing. But it needs to be noted as part of a trend.
Show threadMartin HaspelmathAug 20, 2023
@fonolog I‘ve thought that we need a lot more distance-learning universities. Remote studying was very popular for a while among both students and teachers. I don’t understand why nobody talks about the great advantages of remote anymore.
Show threadMarc van OostendorpAug 20, 2023
@haspelmath as you know, I made a MOOC and I regret that my current university does not pursue this avenue further. But I also believe that there is something happening in in person meetings that is hard to describe precisely or to measure, but that is of great value. And that involves teacher-student interaction but also student-student interaction.
Show threadMartin HaspelmathAug 20, 2023
@fonolog So maybe you should try to find investors to start a completely new online university, research-oriented and catering specifically to the needs of ambitious Europeans who don’t need the in-person experience? That would be a pretty sure bet, I‘d think.
Show threadMarc van OostendorpAug 20, 2023
@haspelmath That would be a great experiment. An important question would be whether the university would also need to require teachers to be in a specific place (when they do not need to be in a lab with specific equipment).
Show threadMarianne de Heer KlootsAug 20, 2023
@fonolog wie is die deskundige?
Show threadMarc van OostendorpAug 20, 2023
@mdhk Jonah Katz.
Show threadMarianne de Heer KlootsAug 20, 2023
@fonolog oh ja! bedankt!