Star-crossed physicists
Proof that Nobel laureates read The Diary arrived this week in the form of an email from Anthony Hewish, who won the 1974 prize for physics for the discovery of pulsars. He wrote about a Diary item...
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70 years on PhD track
Seventy years after graduating from his first degree, a 92-year-old Australian has been awarded a PhD. Ron Fitch, who was South Australia state's railway commissioner, was presented with his...
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Crap birthday party
A Leeds University student has been treated to a surprise 21st birthday party at one the country's largest sewage works. Colin Pitts, a course tutor in environmental bio-geoscience, organised the...
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Major players grab jobs
A company in Thailand is using a 4,000-year-old Chinese board game to decide whether to employ applicants for graduate jobs. The convenience-store chain 7-11 is using Go - a strategy game - to...
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Beer storm brewing
The University of Bradford has defended its curriculum after being accused of offering a "course on beer drinking" in the House of Lords this week. Former Tory minister Lord Trefgarne said that...
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Speaking in tongues
C. P. Snow's "two cultures" concept has been most eloquently illustrated by BBC quizmaster Robert Robertson's attempt to pronounce the name of a group of chemical elements during this week's edition...
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Umist should abandon boycott 'witch-hunt'
The university should stop hounding Mona Baker and defend scholarly freedom, say Michael Cohen and Colwyn Williamson. Translation studies is a discipline that does not normally attract attention, but...
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Why I...I believe academics should avoid the mass media
To have an academic reputation is increasingly less to do with research and knowledge development and more to do with having a media presence. For the mass media, experts provide a sense of...
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Top-up plan falls down
A hike in tuition fees will damage efforts to widen participation and restrict the growth of key subject areas, argues Timothy O'Shea The University of Edinburgh and Imperial College, London, both...
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Free us from the public sector
Any changes in fees should be part of a general 'deregulation' of the university sector, argues Peter Knight. More drivel has been talked on the subject of top-up fees over the past few weeks on...
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V-cs' fury over 'at risk' list
Vice-chancellors have accused the Association of University Teachers of damaging the international reputation of British higher education and putting academics' jobs at risk by wrongly claiming that...
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Election win could spell end of scarf ban
Turkey's ban on religious dress in universities could end after the victory of the Islamic-rooted AK party in last Sunday's general election. Party leader Tayyip Erdogan said the ban "would be...
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Scientists call for bio-research safeguards
Academic scientists have a vital role in tackling the threat from biological weapons, according to leading UK scientists in the Royal Society. They called for a universal set of standards for...
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In-fighting blurs Scots vision of flexibility
All Scots should have an educational entitlement to be used how and when they wish, according to a report to be debated in parliament at the end of this month. But the proposals have received a wary...
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Ministers plan to teach v-cs leadership skills
Vice-chancellors will be taught how to run universities under plans being developed by the English funding council, Universities UK and the Standing Conference of Principals. The government's higher...