'Too often, universities are giving in to the demands of religious lobbies, at the expense of precious principles'. The naming of furry animals, as T.S. Eliot reminds us in Old Possum's Book of...
The Government wants every secondary-school maths lesson to be taught by a teacher with a degree in maths. On the same principle, can a degree course be taught by teachers who have not practised the...
The "questions over whether the system should have a reliance on internal rotations" ("Sector fails to assist its former pro v-cs", December 7) should be asked about academic management roles...
Who has not been on the brink of staining students' work with cups of coffee ("Coffee rings are not best marks", December 7)? It is surprising it doesn't happen more often, given the need to stay...
I have many examples of the same publication being cited in four different ways (Letters, December 7). For instance, my first book, Adolescent Gambling , published in 1995, has more than 150...
Michael Bourn (Letters, December 7) suggests that the annual average earnings figure for "all professionals" from the Government's Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings is not relevant in making...
The interests of business, centring as they do on maximising shareholders' profits, have nothing in common with those embodied by Western universities in their role of creating and fostering a nation...
Good for Andrew Sparkes ("'Bollocks': RAE paper assesses the RAE", December 7). The more challenges to the research assessment exercise the better. But Sparkes isn't alone. Last May, we published our...
I was struck by the dissimilarity of the language and writing style of the side-by-side articles by Alex Danchev and David Eastwood on the research assessment exercise and the research excellence...
At Barts and the London Medical School, we have been able to put into practice a learning experience suggested by one of our students ("Students to be 'change agents'", November 30). Emma Lightbody,...
I read the article on the Higher Education Funding Council for England Leadership, Governance and Management Strategic Committee's report with much amusement ("Staff loyalty key to Hefce report",...
I disagree with Rowenna Davis ("Swapping women's rights for ladies' nights", December 7). Many years in fisheries research has taught me that acceptance of women results from participation, not from...
The handful of parochial views about China and the conclusions attributed to those quoted in the story "Expert warns ‘naive’ British", (December 7) are at odds with many colleagues working in science...
A father and son at the same university look at risk and crisis management. The Father: The keyboard of my new PC arrived with a label to the effect that prolonged use is likely to render me a...
Political cartoons of the late 18th century were obscenely vicious until tamed by 'respectability'. Vic Gatrell says political correctness could similarly neuter their modern equivalents. In 1963,...