University Times

Pitt was included among the nation's top graduate schools in several disciplines and subspecialties in U.S. News & World Report's annual rankings of America's best graduate schools. Each year, the magazine measures grad programs in five major disciplines (business, education, engineering, law and medicine), using measures such as entering students' test scores and faculty/student ratios […]

Pitt's English Language Institute (ELI) was recently accredited for five years by the Commission on English Language Program Accreditation. National accreditation of intensive English as a second language programs is new in the United States, and Pitt's English Language Institute is among the first 30 such programs to be accredited. ELI is part of the […]

"There has been a steady increase in high grades (A's and B's) over the past eight years at the University of Pittsburgh and at most universities in the United States….High grades should be used only to symbolize outstanding academic achievement and not to reward students for satisfactory work or to compensate for a variety of […]

April 22 at 5 p.m. is the deadline for voter registration for the Pennsylvania primary. The election will be held May 21. Candidates for the following offices will be on the ballot: governor, lieutenant governor, U.S. House of Representatives, Pennsylvania state senators in even-numbered districts and state representatives. Eligible voters not registered, whose legal name […]

Are college students smarter than they used to be, or are A's and B's just easier to get these days? It's the latter, according to national study. A report by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS) offers clear evidence of grade inflation — defined as an upward shift in grade-point averages without a […]

The College of General Studies' Computer Learning Center (CLC) is offering two new certificate programs in database development and business software usage. In addition, the center has become an approved education provider under Pennsylvania Act 48, which requires an educator to set aside 180 hours for professional development activities every five years in order to […]

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences study said that grade inflation appeared most noticeably at Ivy League institutions, particularly Harvard. A study of undergraduate grades at Harvard, released last November by that university's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, showed that almost half of all grades were A or A-minus. The report details 16 years […]

A campus memorial service was held this week for John K. Hall II, a lecturer in the Department of Psychology, who died April 2, 2002, at his parents' home in Elizabeth, Pa. He was 37. Hall was teaching three courses this semester — Introduction to Clinical Psychology, Introduction to Psychology, and Abnormal Psychology — to […]

As Pitt recruits more undergraduates with sky-high SAT scores and hypertrophic high school QPA's, some professors have noticed increasing shock, disbelief and anger among students who earn lower-than-A grades in their courses. Indirectly, the profs say, students' indignation can translate into grade inflation, as faculty face the choice: Appease students by awarding high grades, or […]

In an interview this week, Provost James Maher talked about Pitt grading policies and practices. "I don't think there would be anything to be gained from my office accusing certain professors or academic units of inflating grades," Pitt's chief academic officer said. "My approach is to press faculty, generally, to keep looking at their grading, […]