Tongue-tied 1
Recent weeks have seen a fresh wave of anxiety concerning the health of modern languages in the UK at all levels of education.How comforting it is, therefore, to read in the "education strategy" of...
Recent weeks have seen a fresh wave of anxiety concerning the health of modern languages in the UK at all levels of education.How comforting it is, therefore, to read in the "education strategy" of...
Futurologist Ian Pearson ("Wisdom received, over and out", 18 June) suggests that "more rapid reverse engineering of brain processes" coupled with an alleged exponential progress in technology will...
Deborah Rogers' view of Facebook is unnecessarily negative ("I poke dead people: the paradox of Facebook", 18 June). The amusement to be found in poking, joining frivolous "interest" groups and...
It was amusing to see Deborah Rogers suggest that Facebook may have "jumped the shark".The phrase originated from an episode of the US television series Happy Days in which, allegedly, the...
I want to correct Sian Moore's continued inaccuracies (Letters, 18 June) concerning Trade Unions in a Neoliberal World, which I co-edited with John McIlroy. Moore claims that we present "an...
For Richard Austen-Baker's proposal (Letters, 18 June) to really work, surely all academic appointments should also be half administration? Much better, surely, for all concerned to recognise that...
The consultation that is now demanded over the future of the University of London's institute libraries (Letters, 4 and 18 June) has already been done, in Sir Ivor Crewe's 2008 Review of Hefce...
Thank you, Michael W. Thomas (Letters, 18 June), for drawing readers' attention to my "innings" of letters. If there's one thing worse than being talked about, etc etc. However, I know I can trust...
Academic takes job but shows reluctance to appear in the building ("The visiting fellow who will not visit", 18 June). You report this as if it were a new phenomenon.Neil Badmington, Penarth.

The UK's external examiner system is supposed to uphold standards across the sector. Rebecca Attwood asks if it still does the job
By cutting print stocks, university libraries can provide student-friendly services like wired-up work areas and social spaces. Are academics right to fear a loss of scholarly resources? asks Hannah...
Astronomy arouses passion in both scientific and religious circles. Few spend their lives studying the Universe, but Brother Guy Consolmagno hopes the International Year of Astronomy will bring out...

Critical heat - Can external examiners still keep standards from going up in smoke?
Review spurs action with warning that sector needs more investment. Melanie Newman reports
Minister stresses importance of the humanities to democracy. Rebecca Attwood reports