Nicholas C. Burbules is a Gutgsell Endowed Professor of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership and an affiliate of the Unit for Criticism and Interpretative Theory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

[citation needed] Nicholas Burbules has been a professor in the Department of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership since 1989 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Technological as well as social, cultural, and institutional changes mean that learning is a continuous possibility across spatial and temporal barriers.

"[citation needed] Burbules opposes the unionization of tenure track faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and is a contributing author at the blog “No Faculty Union at Illinois.”[1] In an August 2014 op-ed piece, Burbules and Joyce Tolliver expressed opposition toward critics of the University of Illinois's decision not to fulfill its commitment to hire Dr. Steven Salaita, a scholar known to be sympathetic to Palestinians and critical of the Israeli government.

[citation needed] Burbules and Tolliver contended that critics of the decision did not wait until all information about the case was available.