Idealism dead in universities, says Lib Dem MP
Liberal Democrat higher education spokesman David Rendel has bemoaned the loss of idealism in universities as they struggle with the pressures of entrepreneurialism and expansion. At a Universities UK fringe meeting at the Liberal Democrat conference in Bournemouth, Mr Rendel said: “Universities are about the love of knowledge for its own sake and secondly they are about thought, debate, imagination, the freedom to annoy and provoke and the freedom to question.”
Deal prevents lecturers' strike
Further education college chiefs and lecturers’ union leaders have come to an 11th-hour agreement over pay to avoid a two-day strike next week. Both sides are hoping that the deal will release an extra £5 million offered by the government to overcome months of negotiation deadlock.
Call for joint planning to prevent another Alder Hey
Universities and their National Health Service partners in medical education and research must set up joint planning bodies and appraisal schemes if they are to avoid another body parts scandal such as that at Alder Hey Hospital, according to a government review out this week.