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Employment issues

A US professor who Tweeted that if overweight PhD applicants ā€œdidn’t have the willpower to stop eating carbsā€ then they ā€œwon’t have the willpower to do a dissertationā€ has been formally censured by his university.

7 August

A Tweet sent by a University of New Mexico psychologist, which suggested that obese people do not have the willpower to complete a PhD, was not, as its author had claimed, ā€œpart of a research projectā€, the institution has concluded.

2 July

In the US, the Rate My Professors website has been used by students to dish out a ā€œpublic scoldingā€ to their lecturers – and now the UK has its own equivalent, possibly bringing a shiver of dread to academics and universities.

The latest round of job cuts at the University of Salford could see up to 87 professional service staff made redundant, with the institution blaming a fall in student numbers under the new system.