Jacob Christensen

Brad deLong has more:

Let me put it this way: in 1960, the University of California–then overwhelmingly UCB and UCSF and UCLA–was about four times the size of Harvard, 5000 vs. 1200 undergraduates a year, with graduate students and faculty roughly in proportion. Clark Kerr, as president of the University of California in the 1960s, took a look at space constraints in Berkeley and Westwood, took a look at the rising population of California, took a look at increasing wealth, took a look at increasing educational attainment, took a look at the increasing attractiveness of American universities to people abroad, and conclude that the number of undergraduate students who could and would want to take full advantage of a UC education was going to grow eightfold over the next fifty years. So he decided to go all-out to clone UCB and UCLA.

And he did it.

Today we have UC Davis, UC Merced, UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Cruz, UC Sunnydale, UC Irvine, UC Riverside, UC San Diego which together with UCB and UCLA graduate 40,000 undergraduates a year. Quality of education at UCB and UCLA has suffered a little bit as this cloning process has diverted resources away from us–but only by a very little bit. And the other UCs are damned good–with Davis and UCSD now being, I think, equal to the flagship campuses (although we don’t admit it in bureaucratic system wars). And the Cal States do an impressive job as well. And the community colleges provide remarkable educational value for the money. The high administrators of the University of California starting with Clark Kerr have an extraordinary, remarkable accomplishment to look back upon. And they should be very proud–especially as they have accomplished it in the face of declining relative levels of support from the state legislature in Sacramento.

Harvard, over the same fifty-year time span… Harvard has gone from 1200 undergraduates a year to 1600, and has done so in spite of starting with a substantial endowment and receiving $15B of private charitable gifts. Harvard does a great many things well–and I am impressed by the fact that Larry Summers’s presidency seems to have had the effect of creating a large brand-new science building on every block. But it is hard to think that the production function from resources to outcomes is an efficient one or something to be particularly proud of: I think presidents Pusey, Bok, Rudenstine, Summers, and Bok again were beaten by the system. At meetings of high academic administrators Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau and his ilk can hold their heads up high as proud successors to a highly capable group of administrators who made a lot of lemonade out of the lemons that they were handed, but I don’t think Harvard president Faust can do the same.

As they say, read the whole piece.

Topic for discussion: Should institutions of higher education be a) market-driven, b) worker-managed, c) politically managed?

Gwladys Fouché (yes, her name is spelled like that) says that now is the time to visit Stockholm:

In May the Swedish capital comes back to life after its long winter hibernation. The moment the sun is shining, locals pack the terraces of cafes and restaurants.

Interestingly, her colleague Andy Turner visited Copenhagen in November and found the timing just right:

The sun may be in short supply at this time of year but the Danish capital is still a perfect winter getaway. The festive season is celebrated in style – bars and restaurants become snug candlelit affairs, ice rinks pop up across the city, and you’re never too far from a steaming cup of glogg (think mulled wine on steroids) or a warming aquavit (Danish schnapps).

My take on this is that both cities are, well, cities and that means that something is happening all year round. Visit Copenhagen in November and December and the place is full of Spanish and Italian tourists (!).

One tip for the rugged individualist could be to check out Stockholmtown.com which among other things has a very practical booking service for hotels. Visit Copenhagen has a similar service but since I’ve never used that, then I can’t say how good it is.

• Scientists Know Better Than You–Even When They’re Wrong – Scientific American
  My view as a sociologist is that expertise is located in more or less specialized social groups. If you want to know what counts as secure knowledge in a field like gravitational wave detection, you have to become part of the social group.
  (tags: science journalism)

The David Lynch film, that is. I saw it in Copenhagen in 2002 when it first ran in Denmark (on a hot August day, no less). A very strange experience but one of those films I remember seeing.

I’ve had the DVD standing around for ages and finally got around to watching it last night. Still a very strange experience but it actually made me want to see it again. And when you watch the film, note Naomi Watts’s double performance.