Universities are short of money: a message that the government seems reluctant to hear, though evidence to the select committee (page 3) this week will once again have rammed home the message. Higher...
What is wrong with the National Health Service? Not much, according to health secretary Alan Milburn, who says that Labour has met its 1997 election promises on health and is moving on to yet higher...
Lord Baker is correct to highlight the chronic underfunding afflicting universities and many will agree with his analysis (Soapbox, THES, June 16). But was he not a Tory MP, secretary of state for...
One vital function of universities is to question received wisdom - of precisely the type expounded by Baroness Blackstone that the chief task of universities is to serve the needs of the economy and...
There is an overwhelming case for some form of performance measurement for all organisations. The recent Times and Financial Times exercises have produced indicators that are being developed into "...
You are right to ask if it is really impossible to crack post-qualification admission (Leader, THES, June 9). There is no doubt it would be possible. All the Department for Education and Employment...
Most students now apparently get a 2:1 of some sort. How this has come about perhaps matters less than what to do in the future. A levels are changing, and we should start looking ahead and introduce...
My faculty board is being recommended to adopt a quadratic scaling procedure in place of the present linear scaling method. The justification provided is that "the advantages of quadratic scaling...
If the Universities Superannuation Scheme is looking for a way to spend some of its (our?) surplus sensibly ("Conflicting interests in the grey market", THES June 9), then employing a few more staff...
It was disturbing to learn our colleges and universities are living "under a black cloud", submerged in "a wave of scandals", while I have been blissfully unaware of any such "cloud" or "wave" ("...
John Sutherland's article "Double your money" (THES, June 16) has one big drawback, namely that what he writes about is still moonlighting. Having recently done some teaching outwith the university...
Elaine Williams writes that when David Hockney was a student at the Royal College of Art, he was supposed to complete a written assignment, but refused ("An optical disillusion", THES, June 16) . Not...
Jeffrey Richards's article demonstrates that a confusion common in the popular press has emerged in academia (Soapbox, THES, June 16). This is encapsulated in his opening sentence: "Hollywood is at...
Parita Muktainterview accuses the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh of being a "paramilitary organisation" (Soapbox, THES, May 19). The HSS is a national organisation and has been a registered charity in...
Is Newcastle dumbing down by offering lower A-Level entrance standards to some state school pupils? No, says James Wright. It is interesting to be attacked one Friday by the deputy prime minister for...