Leon Breeden, 1921-2010
A clarinettist and composer who played a pivotal role in establishing jazz studies as a serious academic discipline has died.Leon Breeden was born in Guthrie, Oklahoma, on 3 October 1921 but moved to...

A clarinettist and composer who played a pivotal role in establishing jazz studies as a serious academic discipline has died.Leon Breeden was born in Guthrie, Oklahoma, on 3 October 1921 but moved to...

Kevin Fong’s inability to resist his smartphone threatens his family vacation
Researchers of all stripes should consider the implications of sharing their data. Cat Davies reports
As the many critics of your article "The appliance of extra science is no economic panacea" (26 August) have pointed out, the analysis used by the University of Essex's Paul Whiteley to "refute" the...
The basic problem with the UK academy stems from the fact that it has mostly abandoned its traditional role of educating people and in its stead has adopted a business model of research, training and...
Although Swansea University's decision to cut the number of academics in its modern languages department from 22 to 12 at least has the redeeming feature of not relegating the institution to hick...
In the article "Overseas growth exposes Brits to knowledge vacuum" (2 September), it was implied that I believe that lecturers at Newcastle University are being asked to prepare material beyond their...
The story of the "lost encyclical" (Books, Pope and Devil: The Vatican's Archives and the Third Reich, 19 August) is an oft-revived one, with the suggestion that an encyclical drafted for Pope Pius...
ߣߣÊÓÆµ's cover line "Graduate take-off" (2 September) caught my eye, but its appeal to me as a new graduate was negated by the accompanying image. Why present a phallically suggestive...
I write to protest the article that cited David Colquhoun on systems biology and traditional Chinese medicine ("A bridge too far? Western life science and Chinese medicine 'ludicrous' bedfellows", 26...
As a linguist, I was delighted to read about Bernard Lamb's campaign to raise the standard of students' English ("Gobbledegook and ghastly grammar cast a murky spell on coherence", 2 September). But...
Since the 1980s, one of my institution's most important services has been called variously (but rarely by its users) "AIS", "ILS" and "ISD". Now the library is to be renamed The Library!Sue Powell,...

BPP may have been awarded university college status, but the regulatory system will have to be drastically overhauled if for-profit higher education is to thrive in Britain, says Simon Baker
Hitler and Stalin may have put paid to Thomas More's vision of hope, but Fred Inglis knows he can always rely on The Clangers
Cash counts, sometimes, but does it motivate academics to increase their research-paper output? Adrian Furnham weighs up the pros and cons