Sitting target

Here is a cautionary tale about the perils of online chat. The appearance of the dear, departed John Randall, former head of the Quality Assurance Agency, live on the EducationGuardian website led to a slagging match.

Yassa Kram called the QAA "bogus and useless" saying "if Retardville Poly teaches how to add two plus two and does, it gains 24 out of 24, but if Oxford teaches stuff right at the edge of the envelope and fails slightly, it doesn't." Mr Randall countered: "Try signing up for a philosophy degree. You will find that logical argument will always serve you better than cheap abuse."

A scrum of other contributors soon waded in. The resulting melee has since been removed.