Master has lot of bottle
The master of Birkbeck College, London, has a plan to raise the college's profile. Each time one of his staff features in the papers or on the airways, Tim O'Shea invites them to choose a bottle from...
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Norwich's dark arts site
Oh dear. Visitors to the Norwich School of Art and Design's website may well decide that if it's design they want, Norwich is not the place. Not only do the navigation buttons appear as black text on...
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A tale from Middle Earth
A reader points out that Frodo's story, as told in last week's diary, does not end with his departure from his native shores. In the new land, he misses being Gandalf's protégé, and the people he...
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Blair should restate his mission for universities
Nobody knows what Tony Blair meant when he made his now-famous commitment to 50 per cent participation in higher education. There is also doubt about where the percentage stood when he said it, and...
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Overpaid and toothless - fat cat v-cs must go
The amounts vice-chancellors are now being paid is outrageous - and most offensive of all is the practice of bumping up salaries in the year before retirement, thereby sticking a large bill on the...
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Money, money makes Labour's world go round
First university fees, next school and hospital fees? Tony Benn asks how much more Labour will make us pay for. One option is conspicuously lacking from the government's highly publicised review of...
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Cambridge dilutes democratic governance
Cambridge University is to beef up the powers of its vice-chancellor and water down the traditional democratic role of its community of scholars as part of major constitutional reform. "The...
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'Darling,I simply loved your buttocks'
Drama students at Queen Margaret University College in Edinburgh will this month stage the world premiere of local author Irvine Welsh's first musical, writes Olga Wojtas. The publicity material...
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ILAs require watchdog
Any revamped version of the individual learning account should be monitored by a super-regulator to prevent fraud and misuse of public funds, MPs were told this week. The regulator should act like a...
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Students barred over bank error
More than a dozen students have been thrown out of Innsbruck University for paying €4 (£2.44) too little for their €410 a semester tuition fees. The students thought they had paid their fees by money...
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A cloud in blue skies
The funding of the RAE will undermine cutting-edge research, argue Harry Kroto and Tony Stace. Now that the dust has settled on the results from the 2001 research assessment exercise, it is clear...
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This policy's just not working
Processing hordes of semi-interested young people in teaching factories is no way to promote economic growth, argues Joe Bone. At Northern New University, I ask politics students what a civil servant...
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Why I... believe taking deep breaths does nothing for stammering
Everyone makes mistakes when they speak. Up to 15 per cent of an average person's speech can contain dysfluencies. By listening to ourselves as we talk, auditing our output for hesitations,...
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Brit favourite has the edge
If the national anthem plays when Alex Coomber collects a gold medal in the forthcoming Winter Olympics, a London academic will be justified in claiming some of the glory, writes Steve Farrar. Peter...
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Union fury as v-c pay hits £309k
The public spending watchdog is being urged to investigate possible abuse of public funds after some former vice-chancellors doubled their incomes last year. Sir John Daniel, former vice-chancellor...