Dartmouth was ranked fourth on Newsweek's 2012 Most Rigorous Schools List, according to The Daily Beast. To rank the schools, Newsweek used selectivity, standardized test scores, student-to-faculty ratios and the College Prowler a website where students can rate their own colleges and provide illustrative anecdotes score out of 10 for the "workload manageability" at each of the schools. On the list, Columbia University was deemed most rigorous, and Princeton University, Yale University and Harvard University placed sixth, seventh and 17th, respectively. Newsweek released 11 other rankings in addition to the assessment of rigor, including most affordable, top party schools and happiest colleges, according to The Daily Beast. Dartmouth also placed 11th on Newsweek's Most Stressful schools list.
The American Bar Association's decision against opening its accreditation process to law schools outside of the United States will prevent four-year-old Peking University School of Transnational Law from becoming ABA accredited, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported. The ABA made the decision at its annual meeting in Chicago after two advisory committees could not reach an agreement and the vote was delayed twice. In 2010, a panel of law professors, lawyers, deans and judges recommended that the council consider extending its accreditation process, but a second committee in 2011 denied the proposal after considering public opinion. The school is China's first to offer an American-style Juris Doctor and allows graduates to earn a JD degree and a Juris Master degree in Chinese law in four years instead of the usual three needed to complete law school. Supporters of ABA accreditation for the schools said it was logical given the globalization of law practice, whereas critics said it would be difficult for the ABA and create unnecessary competition for American students, according to The Chronicle.
In response to deep budget cuts, the University of New Orleans has fired the director of its university press and will put its publishing operation on "hiatus," according to Inside Higher Ed. The financial woes of the University of New Orleans press is the latest in a string of blows to academic publishing institutions, including the most recent elimination of the University of Missouri press in May. Budget constraints have been a common explanation for the recent trend, Inside Higher Ed reported. Because of its size, the press is relatively inexpensive for a publishing operation and generally publishes 12 titles a year. Skip Fox, a poet who has been published by the press, told Inside Higher Ed that he was surprised by the decision and that a press is as central to those in academia as a football team is to sports fans.
