Freezing PhDs, Robot Dogs for Seniors, History GeoGuessr, & More
Around the College Towns: Links and commentary related to urbanism and higher ed for the week of Feb. 22 - Feb. 29
Note: This week I am traveling, so this links round-up post is going to be a bit light (especially in terms of urbanism). Sorry, I will be back in full next week. In the meantime, here are some links and commentary on higher ed and (some) urbanism for (part of) the week.
Higher Education News
Universities Pausing PhD Admissions
In light of the cuts made to NIH and other US federal government grants, universities have been pausing admissions to doctoral programs. There have even been cases of reneged admission offers. An ongoing public list of such programs can be found in this Google Doc. I expect the list to continue to grow.
Even though I have been critical of PhD programs, I truly feel sorry for those individual students who had the rug pulled from under them. I do think there might be an opportunity, though, for institutions to rethink their doctoral programs. We have simply overproduced PhDs, sending them into a world where professor jobs are limited. Perhaps a new iteration can rise out of this chaos that can match the reality of the market.
Leaving US Higher Ed for Where?
In similar news, before the 2024 election, I wrote advising people to consider moving abroad if their preferred candidate lost, either one. Well, it seems that people in my sector are now taking that heed. I have seen a wave of questions about moving abroad with the recent budget cuts from DOGE and Trump.
Unfortunately, I am not sure where my colleagues are going to go. It seems every sector in higher ed around the world is facing some kind of crisis. See some recent headlines:
The University of Edinburgh is set to make massive cuts due to a £140 million budget shortfall.
Universities in Hong Kong are seeing major budget shortfalls.
Canadian colleges are making massive cuts.
Australian universities are facing problems due to federal budget cuts and drops in international students.
So the question is, where are people going to go? Seriously, if you have an answer, let me know. I’d love to write about it.
Green Gold Card
Normally, I try to leave the Trump stuff out of these link roundups, as there is wall-to-wall coverage in pretty much every other site. But this one is directly related to international students.
Trump announced a $5 million ‘Gold Card’ visa. While the US already has some investment-type visas (EB-5), this one apparently won’t have job attachments (at least they weren’t included in the announcement). Instead, it seems that it is essentially just buying a green card. He also said these would be pathways to citizenship—US citizenship is a hot commodity in the world.
Trump joked the US could sell 10 million of these new Gold Cards (definitely true, probably more).
“For instance, you today graduate from the Wharton School of Finance, or Harvard, or Stanford, or any college, and no body knows if you can even go to work for a company. So Apple and all these companies want to get people working for them will be able to buy a card. And for the people that are number one in their class at top schools, I see that as one of the things.”
As obnoxious and too on-the-nose as the ‘Gold Card’ name is, it is an interesting tactic, I figured something like this would cost more actually if the job investment requirement is really removed. It could signal a legitimate interest in expanding high-skill immigration (an inter-fight between his coalition). But critics have questioned the legality of the Executive Order already. So we shall see.
History GeoGuesser
Over on r/historyteachers subreddit, a user created a game that is sort of like GeoGuessr but for history. It’s called Time Portal, and was made using AI to recreate different eras. I’m a big fan of GeoGuessr and have used it a bit in the classroom to teach aspects of comparative research skills. This new game gives some positive AI news in education when it’s so negative lately.
Other Education Links
A judge ruled that California adjunct profs are entitled to pay for all work outside the classroom, including lesson planning.
Nvidia’s Jen-Hsun Huang bails out dying college. California College of the Arts in San Francisco will live to see another year.
A couple of well-known international schools have closed down in Vietnam. Trouble for expats?
Ghostwriting in academia has apparently become a booming business.
Penn State system closing a bunch of smaller campuses.
Japan’s fix for falling birth rates? Slashing the cost of college for families with three or more kids.
The Japanese government has rebooted its soft power push to take advantage of anime’s popularity abroad. Expect this to attract even more international students.
Around Substack
Parental Happiness and Kids
at wonders how having children impacts happiness (or regret) in parents’ lives. He admits that the answer is “complicated.” I would be curious if the burden of the school car pickup line that I wrote about last week can add to those who regret having children.
I went on r/regretfulparents, and, God, it’s heartbreaking. Story after story of unrelenting misery, of people trapped in lives they hate. If you’ve decided not to have kids and want to feel good about your decision, this is the subreddit for you.
The Real Chinese Cities
substack has a really nice article on what Chinese cities are really like, including on-street photos. I’ve long said that Americans only get a glossy view of China through social media, so we should send more of our students abroad to see the real place. This article is a nice illustration of why this is important. 
Now, I don’t mean to be too dour. People can and should have fun with this stuff. But what China-related media and Science Fiction do have in common is that they both tend to be reflections of the anxieties of the present…
And yet, just like how 2015 in Back to the Future didn’t end up being what 2015 was like in real life, and Chinese cities are not the science fiction utopia — or dystopia, depending on your politics — that they’re sometimes presented to be online.
Automation and Birth Rates
on outlines new research that shows automation can actually lower birth rates. While the findings may seem counterintuitive, they are nonetheless important, as the world is facing a dual wave of more automation and lack of births. What can explain the relationship? 
A one standard deviation increase in robot exposure leads to a 9.4% reduction in the number of children… Manufacturing workers experienced a dramatic 27.7% reduction in fertility… Workers with lower to middle-skill levels saw greater fertility impacts than highly educated workers.
Finally… Robot Dogs for Seniors
You had to wait until the last story to see the robot dogs. A senior center in the Chinese city of Hangzhou has been using robot dogs to make deliveries and check on patience. Admittedly, this looks pretty creepy and apocalyptic. But my guess is these will become fairly standard in about a decade. I just wish that Black Mirror episode hadn’t ruined robot dogs for me.
The connection between automation and lower birth rates, doesn't make sense, unless viewed through recent research findings.
The NBER WP 'Automation, Career Values, and Political Preferences' (https://www.nber.org/papers/w32655) reveals a critical shift: after 2008, automation began decreasing workers' career values rather than enhancing them. This diminished sense of career stability and earnings correlates with both political changes (increased Trump support) and potentially, family planning decisions.
Similarly, research from Italy ('Automation and flexible labor contracts: Firm-level evidence from Italy' - https://www.econstor.eu/handle/10419/290151) demonstrates how companies leverage automation to replace stable, full-time positions with precarious contract work, despite having the demand (or even more) for workers. This transformation of the employment landscape creates precisely the kind of economic uncertainty that discourages family formation
And that's just the start!