Most vice-chancellors managed to make it to Warwick this week for the annual Universities UK conference, even without the private railway carriage that was promised last year. One evening, three coachloads of them set off to an undisclosed location for dinner. But a major accident led to a two-hour wait in a traffic jam. In a remarkable show of unity, there was no attempt by the Russell Group to break away or by the Coalition of Modern Universities to hold them back.
Belfast, in contrast, proved just that bit too far for many v-cs. Only 19 registered for the Association of Commonwealth Universities'
conference at Queen's University last week - two fewer than came from the much smaller Australian sector. Might the roles be reversed when the ACU meets in the warmer climes of Adelaide in 2006?