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Teachers criticise plans for A-level alternative A new pre-university qualification to rival A levels and the increasingly popular International Baccalaureate would prevent pupils from poorer...
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Laurie Taylor Column
"When academics go to a dinner party they don't know how to answer the 'what do you do' question" - Lesley-Jane Eales-Reynolds at the Higher Education Academy's annual conference, July 2006. Another...
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Leader: It's time for a fifty per cent solution
Higher education is being feminised, and not before time. For too long, higher education resembled the priesthood, ignoring the intelligence and talents of more than half of humanity. But as the...
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Leader: Summertime blues
The fact that academics are not taking their full holiday entitlements may shatter popular illusions about academic life. But it will come as little surprise to our readers. It is merely the latest...
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'Sellout' pay deal sours relations 1
As someone who has been talking of "sellouts and betrayal" in the higher education pay dispute, I feel moved to respond to Susan Bassnett (Working Knowledge, July 7). She states that of the e-mails...
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'Sellout' pay deal sours relations 2
It is difficult to tell whether Susan Bassnett really has a grasp of figures, since there are none in her column. So, following the title's exhortation ("It's time for us all to do the maths"), let...
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'Sellout' pay deal sours relations 3
Having retired not long ago, I looked at the pay deal from the perspective of staff thinking of retiring in the near future. Someone retiring onJAugust 1, 2007, will have about 3.5 per cent for their...
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Fairer not lower entry
I agree with Maria Misra that forcing universities to admit students from non-privileged backgrounds through a quota system is the wrong way to reverse the trend of declining social mobility in...
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Hardly positive policy
As someone who makes rapid transitions between being a foreigner (of Sri Lankan origin) and an ethnic minority Brit (I gained UK citizenship two years ago), I find the report on Manchester University...
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Let Sally speak for us
Women make up almost half of the new University and College Union. Former Association of University Teachers members voted on a merger document that showed Sally Hunt as having lead responsibility...
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Historic innovation
At the end of the seminar the tutor asked: "What questions would you like in your finals? Some years I ask students what questions they want, some years I ask them to choose from a list, some years I...
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Not fit for purpose 1
I am appalled at the implications of Ruth Kelly's statement on employer-led provision of higher education ("Here's Bob the builder to show you the ropes", July 7). Traditionally, colleges and...
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Not fit for purpose 2
While academics face changes to working practices, of much greater concern is the establishment of foundation (two- year) degrees. Surely these would lie outside the conditions of the mandatory...
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Ups and downs at Ucea
I learnt with joy that Geoffrey Copland had stepped down as chair of the Universities and Colleges Employers' Association. Here was an acknowledgement of the need to rebuild relationships with the...
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Reality check 1
Jeremy Ireland seems to have his own "fluffy bunny fantasy" about students (Letters, July 7). If "socially responsible" students have brought such regeneration to Belfast, Glasgow and Leeds, one...