Me and my PhD supervisor: tales of love and loathing
Academics discuss how supervisors shaped their teaching

Academics discuss how supervisors shaped their teaching

To: All University StaffFrom: The Office of Jamie Targett, Director of Corporate AffairsAt last week’s meeting of the University Marketing and Branding Committee, concern was expressed at the overuse...

It felt as though this was the week the world of front-line politics finally caught up with the stark warnings that have been detailed in these pages for some time – that the £9,000 fee system is...

The five local authorities with the highest percentage of residents holding a degree are in London
The feature “The rise of the route masters” (20 March) gives a partial picture of what it terms the pre-degree pathways “industry” by assuming that private providers have created and now monopolise a...
Your editorial “Got value, or taken for a ride?” (20 March) claims that “cab drivers’ views notwithstanding, university applications have held up”. If I were driving your cab, I might contest that...

Royal SocietyWolfson Research Merit AwardsAwards are worth £10,000-£30,000 a year, which is a salary enhancementAward winner: Damon TeagleInstitution: University of SouthamptonThe timing and duration...
I concur with most of the views expressed by those who spoke at the “Why Isn’t My Professor Black?” event (“Shades of racism blight the academy”, News, 20 March).One speaker is absolutely right about...

Australia‘Poor standards’ a fictionThere is no evidence that some Australian universities are softer markers or have lower academic standards than others, a study has found. The four-year “Office for...
I was unsurprised to read about the increase in marketing spend by post-1992 universities (“It’s spend, spend, spend to attract students, but does anyone notice?”, News, 20 March).Recent research by...
Omar Malik writes a good knock-about review of Matthias Beck and Beth Kewell’s Risk: A Study of its Origins, History and Politics (Books, 13 March), but he clearly read a different text from the one...
The news that the government’s loan scheme is likely to be as expensive as the system it replaced because of the amount of student debt that may never be repaid (“New fees regime edges close to cost...

Weekly transmissions from the blogosphere

We speak to the new professor of economics at the University of Manchester

A leading researcher in thermodynamics has died