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#HEhustings: Tories, Labour, Lib Dems show off their party lines

The UK sector gathers to hear and debate the major parties’ poll positions on higher education

News in brief – 12 March 2015

Gender biasHistory departments in dockConditions for female academics in some history departments “smack of the 1970s”, according to a new report. The Royal Historical Society research finds that an...

Rise in teaching-only contracts

The proportion of part-time staff on teaching-only contracts is now more than 60 per cent after climbing almost 4 percentage points in a year, according to a report

Guess who’s watching you now!

“Well done, Liverpool!”That was how Louise Bimpson, our corporate director of HR, reacted to the news that the University of Liverpool now requires every member of its academic staff to be observed...

The week in higher education – 12 March 2015

The vice-chancellor of the University of Bolton has written to all staff to reassure them of the value of Bolton’s “development programme”, which will involve all 700 employees being put up in a...

Strong ties are best defence

University terror inquiries flag the vital role of strong pastoral care and good tutoring in guarding against disengagement

Piled Higher and Deeper, by Jorge Cham – 12 March 2015

Salaries made simple

According to Sir Ian Diamond’s efficiencies report, many universities are moving towards “nuanced and responsive systems of pay and reward” (“Performance-related pay ‘is way forward’ ”, News, 26...

Passing the baton

I was fascinated to learn David Eastwood’s thoughts on being a vice-chancellor, although like many, I suspect, of your musician readers, slightly doubtful about his allusion to sonata form (“Know the...

Secret support

Hannah Arendt apparently said “goodbye to philosophy once and for all” and instead preferred “thinking without bannisters” (“A worldly thinker”, Features, 26 February). However, a bannister does...

Open eyes to field skills

The loss of field skills and, in particular, identification skills, is an issue of deep concern that has been highlighted by select committees and reports by the Natural Environment Research Council...

Flexibility? It’s already here

I was interested to read “Flexible study emerges as cross-party concern” (News, 5 March), but, sadly, my interest was more in the evident chasm between the understanding of politicians and what...

Regulation regret

It is a great pity that once again a Universities UK working group has delivered a mouse.The report Quality, Equity, Sustainability: the future of higher education regulation by the UUK Regulation...

Exams with merit

Why do medical faculties have such a problem with multiple choice questions? (“Campus Hunger Games”, Opinion, 5 March).A chicken pecking randomly at four possible answers will score 25 per cent on...

Light and shade in OU student numbers

As academics at the Open University, we were interested in the report on the OU’s student numbers, which raised important questions. However, we feel that some of the OU spokesman’s statements are...