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Q&A with Dame Nicola Brewer

We speak to the new vice-provost (international) at University College London, a former High Commissioner to South Africa

THE Scholarly Web - 8 May 2014

Weekly transmissions from the blogosphere

News in brief - 8 May 2014

Teacher trainingGove announces reviewMichael Gove, the education secretary, has announced an independent review of the quality and effectiveness of initial teacher training courses. The review, which...

Different corners

Robert Gellately’s review of Richard Evans’ Altered Pasts: Counterfactuals in History (Books, March) suggests that the author’s critique of the “what if” genre throws the baby out with the bathwater...

Needling your neighbour

Thanks to William Poole for his useful review (Books, 24 April) of Notebooks, English Virtuosi, and Early Modern Science by Richard Yeo.I now realise that Thomas Harrison’s arca studiorum, “a kind of...

Tax returns

Australia invented the “income contingent contribution” concept, a much better way to see the student contribution.When the Dearing Committee first debated the principle in 1996, the lifetime...

Taking the crash on board

I write in response to the article “Manchester students take on economics curriculum in report”, News, www.timeshighereducation.co.uk, 22 April, and from the vantage point of having just organised a...

Speaking up for TFs

It is worth considering the pay of teaching fellows – frequently with PhDs, with a great deal of expertise in teaching and who carry at least some, if not all, of the responsibilities of curriculum...

Select a language

Thank you for raising the old/new debate on the language of instruction in Arab universities (“Allow us to learn in our own language, Algerian says”, News, 17 April).The article essentially points to...

Animal research: will secrecy end?

What an extraordinarily one-sided piece (“Nothing to be ashamed of”, Features, 1 May).In a lengthy article, there is not a single quote from an animal welfare organisation. The British Union for the...

Piled Higher and Deeper, by Jorge Cham - 8 May 2014

The week in higher education - 8 May 2014

More than 600 past and present students from the University of Derby have been put at risk of contracting HIV and hepatitis after a healthcare worker failed to change parts of a syringe during blood...

Skills, yes, but what of the thrills?

Universities have to balance meeting students’ pragmatic expectations with delivering a satisfyingly rounded experience

Horses for courses

Details of a vacancy at Warwickshire College have triggered a major curriculum controversy.According to well-informed sources, the trouble began when Janet Fluellen, Poppleton’s Director of...

Britain’s share of papers indexed falls

Great Britain and the US are losing their world share of papers published on the citation database Web of Science to emerging economies, according to a report of research metrics published by Thomson...