Leader: Tightening up or dumbing down?
When is a move to improve courses an incitement to dumb down assessment standards? Answer: when academics think it is. On the face of it, Middlesex University's policy of instituting a review and...
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Leader: UK faces testing times
Cambridge's tests of thinking skills (TSAs) are too new for anyone to be certain that they are a better predictor of subsequent academic success than A levels, but the early signs are promising....
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US lessons and Laura Spence 1
You rightly say that British universities are competing with their US counterparts ("Global rivalry is good for students", Leader, August 6). But the contest is an unequal one. Harvard University's...
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US lessons and Laura Spence 2
I grow increasingly weary of ploughing through acres of newsprint devoted to what is fast becoming an annual event - the furore surrounding the latest Oxbridge rejectee who claims their mistreatment...
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US lessons and Laura Spence 3
I am pleased to hear that Laura Spence has decided to pursue further studies at a British university. I would, however, have been happier if you had made clear that the Commons Education Select...
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US lessons and Laura Spence 4
Your article on the advantages of studying at US universities ("The lure of the broad horizon", August 6) stresses the appeal of a diverse curriculum. Many North American universities were modelled...
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A sneer is no solution
Frank Furedi's protestations about plagiarism would carry more weight if he were prepared to cite his university's policies as evidence (for or against) rather than jibing at distant institutions,...
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Quelling QAA myths
Alan Ryan uses his silly season column (Opinion, August 6) to rail against the Quality Assurance Agency and to express astonishment that one of his former students should wish to become its chairman...
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High-handed attack
The situation at Nottingham University is another example of high-handed management in place of cooperation, arrogance in place of compromise, and imposition in place of negotiation ("Local pay plan...
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No bias in BA
Your report "BA criticised over handling of £2m award" (July 30) was misleading and presented a distorted picture of the National Audit Office's findings on the award of the British Academy Centenary...
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Make a stand
George Martin (Soapbox, August 6) is to be congratulated for supporting the boycott of London Metropolitan, but boycotts are not the only answer. How can external examiners be asked to refuse to mark...
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Hard look at hardship
Your article on the abuse of hardship funds ("Hardship cash funds 'sprees'", July 23) was unbalanced and unfair. Most students who apply for hardship funds do so because of genuine financial...
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Talk of a truce
Perhaps I can take issue with Jack Cohen's statement that Hamas and Islamic Jihad oppose peace with Israel (Letters, July 30). Abdul Aziz al-Rantissi, Hamas' leader after the murder of Sheikh Ahmed...
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Gloves off for 'thinking man's Michael Moore'
The Bush Administration is a joke, guilty of 'crony capitalism' and 'world-class mendacity', but Paul Krugman is not laughing, says Stephen Phillips. Paul Krugman has a day off from his biweekly...
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Can those who lit the flame for democracy carry it?
As the Olympics kick off, Huw Richards looks at the birthplace of the modern state in the last of our series. The Greeks certainly had a word for it - indeed the word for it - since "democracy", like...