20 years ago

University departments guilty of consistently poor teaching may be publicly identified, the head of the academic standards unit set up by vice-chancellors has warned. Professor Stewart Sutherland, principal of King's College, London, who is to head the unit, said: "The time will come when names will be named because universities involved in best practice will wish this to happen."

A recruitment drive to attract more graduates into accountancy was launched this week by the Institute of Chartered Accountants at Manchester University and Oxford Polytechnic. The exercise, which is designed to hit institutions and their students before the milkround starts, will cover a total of universities and polytechnics. According to the institute, the shortage of high-quality recruits that has hit small firms is now beginning to affect medium-sized firms. The institute's presentations are designed to present an attractive but realistic picture of the profession and help students decide whether they could become chartered accountants or "business professionals".