Author: Nola Jones

Observing a school get ready to close has a subtle unnerving quality. It was a slow, institutional exhale, neither dramatic nor abrupt. That’s what’s happening at Chapel Hill, North Carolina’s Glenwood Elementary School, which will have its final academic year in 2026–2027. The neighborhood is still figuring out how to react to the closing of a location that has hosted children’s energy and noise since 1953. It was a unanimous decision. After more than 70 years of operation, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools board unanimously decided on June 4 to close Glenwood. By all accounts, it was the conclusion of…

When discussing the financial situation of American higher education, a figure that frequently comes up is not the $1.7 trillion in outstanding student loan debt that is already widely discussed. The number is 583. Between January and May of 2025, about that number of Federal Student Aid employees vanished. These individuals were responsible for managing repayment systems, supervising loan servicers, operating borrower websites, and identifying mistakes before they became serious problems. Many in the field had suspicions but were unable to substantiate them, but a new inspector general report published on Tuesday provided actual numbers. In just a few months,…

A university that began as a mechanics classroom, produced astrophysics research, produced Olympic athletes, and once had Queen’s lead guitarist as its chancellor is quietly impressive. In UK higher education, Liverpool John Moores University doesn’t always make the biggest news. However, it’s difficult to avoid feeling that the location is somewhat underappreciated if you spend any time observing what it’s actually doing. The Liverpool Mechanics’ School of Arts, which was established in 1823, was founded on the straightforward but impactful principle that education shouldn’t be restricted to a select few. Really, that ethos has never gone away. More than 200…

Entering a university campus for the first time and attempting to envision the next three or four years of your life in a place you have never visited can be a little nerve-racking. The structures seem excessively big. The students passing by seem overconfident. Additionally, the information sessions can occasionally feel like a sales pitch disguised as advice due to their polished speeches and well-organized slides. Loughborough University appears to be aware of this, which may explain why its open days feel more like formal introductions than recruitment events. The two main September dates for Loughborough’s 2026 open days are…

Every June, there are a few days when college baseball subtly takes over and professional baseball becomes a little quieter. It all revolves around Omaha, Nebraska. The Charles Schwab Field is filled. The bracket becomes tighter. And somewhere in the mayhem of double-elimination baseball, an unexpected tale comes to light. Oklahoma was that story this year, and it’s one that’s worth telling from beginning to end. Eight teams competed in a double-elimination format during the 2026 College World Series, which took place from June 12 to June 22. The final two teams faced off in a best-of-three championship series. West…

Open days at universities are associated with a certain kind of anxious energy. Parents holding printed maps, prospective students walking a bit too cautiously, everyone acting casually while discreetly making one of the most important decisions of their lives. The same vibe permeates the University of Bristol’s open days in 2026; in fact, Bristol’s location makes them feel a little more intense than most. This year, the university has already hosted two open days, which will take place at the Tyndall Avenue campus on Friday, June 12, and Saturday, June 13, 2026, from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Subject talks,…

There has always been a certain weight associated with Manchester. It’s difficult to ignore the sense of accumulated history that permeates the Oxford Road campus on any given Tuesday. Old stone buildings coexist with sleek modern architecture, students from more than 160 countries move between lectures, and there’s a general sense of something truly global. It was therefore not totally unexpected that the University of Manchester was ranked in the top 40 worldwide in the QS World University Rankings 2027. However, it was still something to be aware of. With an overall score of 84.6, the University of Manchester QS…

There’s a specific moment when Eton College appears as you cross the Thames bridge from Windsor. Rising above the roofline, the chapel tower’s soft grey stone nearly blends in with the cloudy English sky. It doesn’t make a big announcement. The way only very old things can, it simply sits there, calm and unchanging. Situated just across the River Thames from Windsor, Eton is a small town in Berkshire, England, where Eton College is situated. The address is simple: Eton, Windsor, Berkshire, SL4 6DW, but a postcode cannot adequately convey the significance of the place. The drive to Windsor Castle…

From the outside, a gym in Shawnee, Kansas, doesn’t seem like much. Shawnee Mission Northwest High School is located in the kind of suburb where dreams of playing basketball seem both near and far away—near because the game is so popular, and far because the route to the NBA seldom passes through this area. Nevertheless, Keaton Wagler was secretly constructing something inside that building that the recruiting services weren’t giving nearly enough thought to. It’s worth taking a step back and pondering that for a while. After graduating from high school, 247Sports ranked Wagler 261st in the nation. There was…

For Ms. Frizzle, Elizabeth Banks is not the most obvious choice. However, the more you think about it, the more it starts to make an odd sense. Sharp-tongued, physically devoted, and capable of genuine warmth beneath the humor, Banks brings something to the role that a more cautious casting choice most likely wouldn’t. Having officially signed Banks to star in the live-action version of The Magic School Bus and obtained the rights to the cherished children’s franchise from Universal, Legendary Entertainment obviously feels the same way. It’s been a while. The project was initially optioned by Universal in June 2020,…