A century from now, observers may well identify the last months of 2011 as the start of higher education’s Great Disruption.

By keeping the focus on better health for real people, perhaps we’ll develop both the humility to recognize how little we still understand as well as the drive to ensure — and emphatically demand — that our advances ultimately wind up not only in papers, but also in patients.

Over the past decade, a number of remarkable organizations have cropped up that dramatically shape twenty-first century education reform. Joining this influx of groundbreaking, reform-minded organizations is Rice University’s Education Entrepreneurship Program (REEP), housed at the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University.

There are new twists to in the ever-entertaining faux debate over the dangers of shale gas. The New York Times, which turned obscure Cornell University marine ecologist Robert Howarth into an anti-fracking rock star in its questionable spring series on shale gas, and got hammered for it by its own public editor—I‘ll take some of the credit—is finally getting on the science bandwagon.

Prospective college students lack basic information about college costs and quality--and how they vary across institutions--on which to base their investment decisions. This lack of information handicaps the ability of students to be the savvy consumers that a well-functioning market requires, freeing poor-performing institutions to operate at will.

The Venezuelan opposition must begin to prepare for a future without Hugo Chávez. The same is true for the U.S.government, which has been all but ignoring Venezuela for the last five years.

The Balkanization of Kurdistan impacted university development. As a result many universities in Kurdistan have suffered and are not providing a quality education to their students.

We are now living through another critical period. The country is broke, and our political institutions seem incapable of finding solutions. And as always, federalism is playing a prominent role in a heated political debate.