More than 6,000 hate crimes were reported to U.S. law enforcement agencies in 2011 — a 6% decrease from 2010, the FBI said Monday. But crimes based on the victim’s sexual orientation increased slightly.  

Economic changes exacerbated by post-crash weakness have really whacked high school dropouts here, with only a third of dropouts aged 20 to 24 in the metropolitan area reporting that they have jobs. But perhaps surprisingly, young adults who finished high school but not college have been very badly hit in the Chicago area, too. So […]

Although leading US business schools appear to have weathered the recession, there are real question marks about the sustainability of less prestigious US institutions, particularly those that are state-funded. Most leading business schools saw the value of their endowment funds fall sharply during the stock market decline in 2008. Among US schools that have featured […]

Presidents at several private Massachusetts colleges saw significant pay increases between 2009 and 2010, according to a new survey of compensation by the Chronicle of Higher Education.

When we asked Globe readers and staffers to tell us about people who deserve recognition for promoting diversity in Massachusetts, the nominations came flooding in for passionate, dedicated folks in almost every field. From the scores of worthy candidates, we singled out 12 who in very different ways — from encouraging women and people of […]

As I write this, I’m staring at a half-packed duffle bag that’s ready to ship my roommate’s belongings back from London, England to his hometown in Somerville, Massachusetts. After spending nearly four months studying abroad across the pond, time has whizzed by and I find myself, along with 75 classmates, preparing to re-immerse ourselves in […]

Gay athletes are used to being singled out. When it’s in a good way, it comes as a pleasant surprise. Northeastern Athletics Director Peter Roby recently made it clear just exactly what the athletics department at one of Boston’s largest universities thinks of them: “If you are a young LGBT athlete looking for a place […]

Governor Deval Patrick blamed political gridlock in Washington and the so-called fiscal cliff as a “direct cause” of the economic slowdown that has tamped state tax collections and created a $500 million budget shortfall. But economists say other factors deserve more blame. A weak national recovery and global economic slowdown have weighed on the Massachusetts […]

Vitamin D and calcium supplements taken together in low doses offered no protection against dementia in a large U.S. study of older women, but scientists are still holding out hope for vitamin D alone.

According to findings based on the responses of 1,300 people in the US, a generational divide is emerging on how online courses are perceived, with 61 per cent of those aged between 18 and 30 saying they believe that a virtual degree provides a similar quality of learning to those offered in traditional settings. The […]

Personal experience can drive scholars to push the boundaries in their chosen field, writes Jon Marcus. After losing a close relative to cancer, Thomas Webster, chair of chemical engineering at Northeastern University, turned his attention to nanomaterials that could be used to lessen cancer cell function without the use of pharmaceutical agents. Aside from illness, […]

Pity the bright young minds considering law school today. By this point, they’ve heard the narrative propagated in voluminous news articles, op-eds, and a growing number of books, all playing variations on the theme that the suckers who enter law school in 2013 will graduate with burdensome debt, few relevant skills, and no job prospects. […]