Not quiet on the university front
Universities in August - a different world from the chalk and talk of term time. Those not familiar with higher education probably have an image of a large oak door firmly closed with a sign on it "...
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Quality and priority
I read with interest Ron Johnston's letter (THES, August 4) on the implications of the forthcoming Research Assessment Exercise for the funding of grade 5 departments. The Higher Education Funding...
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The relativity of theory
Mr Finney says that, far from being deleterious to academic freedom, critical theory is "about opening spaces for those who have been marginalised or disenfranchised by traditional approaches and...
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The relativity of theory
Patrick Finney's near-assertion (THES, July 28) that academics who do not jump on every theoretical bandwagon should remain unemployed was breathtaking (and I say this as someone who is happier with...
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The Asian renaissance
I note that James Boswell died 200 years ago and Robert Burns followed a year later. This leads me to reflect on something that I have always found interesting: the Scottish renaissance of the 18th...
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Don's Diary
MONDAY. I spend the first part of the day arguing with my head of department about a trip I have to make to Mutare, 600km east of Bulawayo. Two students are based there for their industrial...
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The relativity of theory
The arguments in "Sacred cows' herd instinct" (THES, July 21) were not helped by those touches of sensationalism. The author was a "former adherent" (addict? cult follower?) and remained "anonymous...
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Dr Do-lots
Though I have done the state some service (and they know't), a deep and vociferous scepticism greeted your announcement (THES, July 21) of my having been awarded an honorary degree. The DLitt...
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Ethics and the anonymous dyslexic
In a letter to the (THES, July 14) Professor Pointon used my article about dyslexia and students' undertaking of initial teacher education to advertise his work and to make some empirical assertions...
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American gripes about grades
Murray Lee Eiland looks at a case of campus consumer fraud with grade A and B rewards given for C and D work One of the explanations offered for the United States's remarkably durable economic...
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Sharp shooters in a South African bar
John Insley is wrong to accuse me of poetic licence (THES, August 4). The person I saw in a bar in the Orange Free State, South Africa (THES, July 4) was wearing the insignia of the Iron Guard of...
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Hope in Pandora's Box
French scientist Harry Bernas gives reasons for opposing the Mururoa nuclear tests The main reason French president Jacques Chirac gave for resuming nuclear tests in the Pacific during the coming...
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Science for the good life
Medicine. As we approach the next millennium, it is good to review the challenges it will bring for research, even though all good scientists know perfectly well that no discontinuities are to be...
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Hoax review of Boer book raises hackles
An apparently hoax review of a satirical South African work, published in the highly respected and very serious York University-based Journal of Southern African Studies, is causing great hilarity in...
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Hong Kong 'dissident' row hits official China visit
The Hong Kong government's top education advisers have cancelled an official visit to China, following Beijing's decision to refuse entry to one of the delegation. The chairwoman of the territory's...