The First World War gave war a bad name and, as the rather chilling title of this book forewarns, Leo van Bergen is keen to tell us why in grisly detail. No doubt a stroll around the battlefields of...
Martin Willis spotlights the dispiriting process of waiting to hear from funding bodies about unsuccessful bids, and highlights the lack of feedback from most of these bodies, in particular the...
I did not recognise the teaching accreditation "modulettes" that Thomas Docherty describes ("To provide teaching quality, we must get back to our roots", 9 July).Far from "demanding allegiance" to...
Kevin Sharpe's concern that academics are being forced to provide students with a diet of trite soundbite-style lectures is one that I have often heard and is a view with which I sympathise ("Teach...
Gordon Brown promises up to 10,000 extra university places to meet demand fuelled by recession and rising unemployment. Will this expansion be met by additional permanent posts for academic staff, or...
If you ask people what makes a good doctor, they will say good communication skills, empathy and trustworthiness. In the UK, such trust is earned by the display of values and attributes exemplified...
Your report featuring my views on the fitness-to-practise model outlined in the Academic Journal of Medicine contained some inaccuracies. While I agree with some initial points about "professionalism...
I'm not sure what George Watson was trying to say about the study of English literature - something about it being a vehicle for self-knowledge ("The war of the canon", 16 July).By all means promote...
Sorry to poop Paul Chapman's paramotoring party, but it takes the biscuit for selfishness ("Off-piste", 16 July). He cannot have spared a thought for those beneath him, including many seeking quiet...
Echoing The Poppletonian (9 July), the first rule of sandpit is communicate; the second rule is re-read the first rule. As a veteran of four sandpits, this communication can vary from competitive...
At the risk of resembling the sad man in William Congreve's The Way of the World who leaves messages for himself at the coffee house, I'd like to point out that my gloomy response to Ron Barnett's...
Where better than the university to pioneer a more sustainable future ("When it comes to saving the environment, academics don't practise what they preach", 2 July)? If students graduate with no...
In a recent story, I am cited as saying that Bill Brewer of the University of Warwick is co-editing with me a collection of essays on Ayn Rand's thought ("Ayn Rand revival gathers pace in US...
As a taught and research postgraduate at Queen's University Belfast, I felt compelled to respond to your story, "Capacity 'wasted' amid radical cuts" (16 July).It is not my experience that academics...
Lord Mandelson says applied science will receive "greater emphasis" ("Clouds on blue-sky horizon", 9 July). Number theory had no serious application for 2,500 years, but without it online...