Don's Diary
Saturday I address the Graduates Association's Annual Ball referring to our most celebrated alumnus, David Livingstone. My enjoyment of the evening is slightly marred by one colleague's disclosure of...
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Beware belly-aching
Several New York restaurants are suing Columbia University after a professor sent them letters falsely complaining of food poisoning to study how businesses respond to complaints. Francis Flynn, an...
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Is Frodo a postgrad?
A tale circulating by email draws an analogy between doing a PhD and The Lord of the Rings . Here is a shortened version, with apologies to the author. Senior professor Gandalf suggests that Frodo...
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Legal lust bust
A video cassette recovered after being stolen from the law faculty at University of Camerino in Italy was found to contain pornographic images of female graduate students. An unnamed law lecturer has...
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Supporting role
Daresbury Laboratory has cast itself in a new role as a props supplier after losing the Diamond synchrotron project to the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. It has lent two models of DNA structures to...
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It's my art, doctor
Brian Hurwitz, professor of primary health care and general practice at Imperial College, London, has been appointed professor of medicine and the arts at King's College London, based in the English...
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Made an example of
Caught in the act this week is the Royal Society, engaged in a hunt for examples of misreported research. Bureaucrat Bob Ward is pleading for "four or five" examples for Monday's You and Yours...
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New year, new hope for well-balanced Afghans
John Daniel examines how war-torn Afghanistan is rebuilding its education system with the help of donors. At last week's donors' meeting in Tokyo, the new leaders of Afghanistan proclaimed education...
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Welsh growth is good
It is good to see that the Welsh Assembly has proposed wide-ranging reforms to the structure of Welsh higher education ("Welsh 'cluster' plan attacked", THES , January 25). These broadly echo my...
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Get tough on pay
Two cheers for your leader ("Time is right for a tough stand on pay catch-up", THES , January 25). Much of the cost of university expansion has indeed been paid for by staff. A salary increase of 13...
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Welcome support
The Institute for Learning and Teaching is pleased that the Association of University Teachers is taking its members' advice and not establishing an alternative mechanism of accreditation of teaching...
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Spent conviction
Your article, "Fraudster goes unnoticed" ( THES , January 18) implies that the University of Sunderland was to blame for not having uncovered a spent conviction of a new member of staff and that...
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Unfair swipe
The University of Ulster would like to clarify its position regarding criticism of its corporate credit card ("Corporate credit card for Ulster senior staff was too lax, says assembly", THES ,...
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Sloppy thinking
Clive Christie writes that "after the second world war Anti-Americanism... migrated from the right to the left" ("US hate: a designer prejudice for our time", THES , January 18). Yet conservative...
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Invest in study for minorities or face crisis, US told
A report by corporate executives and university presidents predicts a social and economic crisis in the United States if more is not done to improve education for minorities and increase the number...