Education

Academic freedom in crisis

/ Chhay Lin Lim / Leave a comment

Stylized facts:

  1. Academia has always been predominantly left, but has become more and more so over time. This imbalance is stronger in Social Science and Humanities (SSH) than in STEM, but even in STEM the faculty are predominantly left of center relative to the general population.
  2. Leftists are becoming more and more intolerant of opposing views.
  3. Young academics (PhD students and junior faculty) are the least tolerant of all.

In my opinion the unique importance of research universiites originates from their commitment to the search for Truth. This commitment is being supplanted by a focus on social justice, with extremely negative consequences.

Figure 1. Note: Excludes STEM academics. Labels refer to hypothetical scenarios in which respondents are asked whether they would support a campaign to dismiss a staff member who found the respective conclusions in their research. Brackets denote sample size.

Figure 2. Note: Includes STEM academics. Based on a direct question rather than a concealed list technique.

Figure 3. Note: SSH refers to social sciences and humanities. Sample size in brackets. STEM share of survey responses: US and Canada academic: 10%; UK mailout: zero; UK YouGov SSH active: zero; UK YouGov All: 53%; UK PhDs: 55%; North American PhDs: 63%.

Source: https://infoproc.blogspot.com/2021/04/academic-freedom-in-crisis-punishment.html

Educational attainment among 2nd generation South-East-Asians in the USA

/ Chhay Lin Lim / Leave a comment

Just went through some educational statistics of 2nd generation South-East-Asians in the USA, who either entered the USA as refugees at a very young age or were born there.

If you split South-East-Asian males in Cambodians, Hmong, Laotians, Vietnamese, and compare these groups with Black and White males, it’s remarkable to see the Vietnamese far outperform all groups, even Whites:

  • 41% of the Vietnamese have at least a Bachelor’s degree
  • 26% of the Whites have at least a Bachelor’s degree
  • 24% of the Cambodians have at least a Bachelor’s degree
  • 12% of the Blacks have at least a Bachelor’s degree

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If you look at the total years of schooling, again the Vietnamese outperform all groups. Cambodians remarkably, score just slightly higher than Blacks, but show a much higher standard deviation. In sum, the mean years of schooling is similar for Cambodians and Blacks, but the distribution of school years is more dispersed for Cambodians and Vietnamese:

  • 14.73 years of schooling for the Vietnamese with a SD of 2.87
  • 13.77 years of schooling for Whites with a SD of 2.27
  • 12.92 years of schooling for Cambodians with a SD of 2.73
  • 12.95 years of schooling for Blacks with a SD of 2.10

I wonder why the mean years of schooling is so dispersed for Cambodian (and other South-East-Asian) males, and why the Vietnamese perform so well. Does anyone have a clue?

The above statistics come from this paper. The paper has many other interesting findings for you to read.