America's University Newspaper

Finding some good reading material relating to higher education is not an easy task. Education, while often stressed by politicians, the media, and most everyone else in America as a critical component of individual development, is not very well- represented in magazine form. There are a decent number of magazines available for teachers at the K-8 level; a few less at the high school level; and even fewer at the college level. And the few that are available are not very popular and are often difficult to find.

I teach part- time at a local university, and I’m always looking for things to read that relate to the world of higher education. Probably the best- known among these is the Chronicle of Higher Education, a weekly newspaper publication that covers the latest happenings at the university level.

Features of This Magazine:

Each issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education is broken into three main sections which are completely separate from each other, just like a local newspaper. They are:

Main Section- This is the front section of each weekly edition, and it ranges in length from about 35 pages to 50 pages. It’s broken down into nine subsections which are included in every issue: The Faculty, Research, Government & Politics, Money & Management, Information Technology, Students, Athletics, International, and Gazette. Most of these are self- explanatory, except for the last section, Gazette. This is the last part of Section “A”, and it includes listings of facts relating in some way to the realm of higher ed. Some of the lists include recent appointments and resignations at the nation’s universities, upcoming events, deaths, private giving, and deadlines for obtaining grants, publishing works, applying for fellowships, and signing up to attend workshops.

Chronicle Review- Section “B” of the Chronicle covers about 20 pages and includes things such as Letters to the Editor, book reviews, and articles about different collegiate topics and issues. Instead of being a “news” section (like the main section), this part is more thoughtful and philosophical in nature, with articles about subjects like education in the Far East, historical perspectives of 19th century educators, etc. There are also a few helpful advice articles on occasion, covering topics like speaking in the classroom, effective research, and so forth.

Career Network- This is the last section of each weekly issue and it’s about 30 to 40 pages in length. Here, you will find a few articles relating to career issues for educators, like tenure and job satisfaction. But the bulk of “Career Network” is devoted to job seekers and classified advertisements. After a few pages of opening articles, the rest of the paper focuses on job opportunities, with positions available listed in alphabetical order in the classified ads at the bottom, with larger, university- specific ads scattered around the top of each page, and this includes job opportunities in other parts of the world. To help make your search for employment a little easier, there’s an index in the back that will show you which pages contain job offers in your chosen field (History, Psychology, Accounting, etc.) or in a specific state.

Costs to Purchase/Subscribe:

Chronicle of Higher Education carries a cover price of $3.75 and it’s published weekly. The standard subscription rate for one year is $82.50 for a total of 49 issues (a few weeks are combined into one issue, which is why there are only 49 per year, not 52). This works out to about $1.68 per issue, which is a savings of about 55 percent from the cover price. If you want a shorter subscription, you can purchase a six- month deal for $45 or buy a month- to- month subscription for $7.25 per month. For longer subscriptions, the cost is $140 for 2 years and $203 for three years.

There are a few (very few!) places on the world wide web to shop for this magazine. The only lower- priced offer I could find was in brandsmall.com, which offers a one- year subscription for $75. Other popular sites to purchase magazines (Amazon.com, Valuemags.com, etc.) do not offer this publication at all.

Final Thoughts:

The Chronicle of Higher Education is a pretty good magazine/newspaper publication for those who have an interest in teaching and educating at the college/university level. I teach only one university class myself, but I have always had an active interest in this subject. The problem is finding something to read that relates to higher ed. There just aren’t many magazines or newspapers available on this subject. The Chronicle of Higher Education is the only university- related publication that I have ever read. I’m sure there are a few others available, but they are very difficult to find.

This newspaper has some good, timely advice that relates to higher education. I have been subscribing to this magazine for several weeks now, having been first introduced to it many years ago when I found some copies lying on a table in a university admission office. The paper is published every week, which ensures that it will have the most up- to- date information available about colleges and universities.

Unlike other newspapers, Chronicle of Higher Education includes more than just long- winded articles about problems at universities presented in bland, black and white text. Instead, this publication covers a wide range of articles with color photos, graphs, tables, maps, and other visual aids that help in one’s understanding of the information presented. In this respect, it’s like a USA Today for colleges. It’s also a little larger than a standard magazine (Epinions lists this as a magazine, but it’s really a newspaper), measuring about 15 inches in height and 11.5 inches in width.

I respect the fact that this paper presents more positive stories than negative ones. I think most people will agree that reading the daily papers in most areas of the country can be a real downer. The majority of the stories are negative in nature, and this seems to be especially true when local papers talk about universities. The positive aspects of higher ed (which is the vast majority of what goes on every day) are rarely covered in general newspapers. Only when something bad happens do the local papers want to print a story. But with the Chronicle of Higher Education, there are plenty of positive articles to read each week. I’m not saying that the Chronicle doesn’t include any negative stories, because it does. But it manages to keep things balanced and in perspective. And when there is something negative to talk about (like racism, hazing incidents, drug problems among students, etc.), this publication deals with them in a much more detailed way and with a more balanced approach that avoids the finger- pointing that is commonplace in local papers.

The career section is a very popular part of this paper among educators. I know many professors who get their weekly issue and turn straight to Section “C” to find out what positions are available in their chosen field of expertise. You can find all sorts of teaching jobs available here, including vacancies at relatively unknown schools like Mays College, Wayland University, Tri- County Technical School, and others. The better- known universities advertise here, too, including the most prestigious schools like Yale, MIT, Princeton, etc. Other job opportunities are covered also, like university administration, student affairs positions, deans of students, etc.

One bad thing about the Chronicle of Higher Education is that it’s often very difficult to find. As I stated above, this paper is not sold through most on- line retailers, and it’s also not offered for individual sale in most magazine stores. It’s a tough publication to find, and I often wonder if the newspaper’s ownership intends it to be that way. They could easily increase the subscription base by expanding the availability to more merchants, like Amazon.com and others. But they seem content with things the way they are. It seems to me that they want to keep this an exclusive magazine. Total circulation for the Chronicle is only about 40,000, which is further proof of this theory.

University teachers, researchers, and others who have an active interest in higher education have very few magazines/newspapers to turn to for reading and general information. The Chronicle of Higher Education is one of the few publications in existence that brings the world of higher education to your mailbox every week. It presents stories, facts, tables, graphs, articles, and classified advertisements for employment opportunities in every issue, to help keep you abreast of the latest happenings at universities across the land. It offers some great reading material on higher education and it makes a good gift selection for those who have an interest in this subject. Educators, in particular, will enjoy it very much!