V-cs tell faculties to fend for themselves
ߣߣÊÓƵn universities have begun a desperate search for alternative sources of funding from federal government. The incoming conservative administration in Canberra has vowed to slash spending by...
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Exploding the myth of a PFI panacea
The Government's plans to involve the private sector in the construction and operation of large projects through the Private Finance Initiative has made little impact in higher education. Despite the...
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The battle for quality
If news of plans emerging from the joint planning group for Britain's new higher education quality agency are correct - and if wiser counsels do not prevail before they are finalised - a hard-won...
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Handle with great care
The next contentious issue to surface in higher education looks likely to be the future of higher level General National Vocational Qualifications. An apparently innocuous consultation paper is the...
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Universities for what?
The few clues as to how Sir Ron Dearing expects his forthcoming review of UK higher education to shape up include strong indications that he will be looking to see what contribution new technologies...
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Labour group deserts student interests
National Union of Students president Jim Murphy has done his utmost to undermine the NUS policy of free education policy over the past year. And at the annual conference in Blackpool last week, he...
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Time for a new policy
Richard Clogg's article on Cambridge University Press (THES, March 29) raises questions about the consultations made in the course of rejecting Dr Karakasidou's manuscript. These consultations were...
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Media dons spread the word
In a recent editorial ( THES, March 15) the view was given that genetic research must not be reported in a vacuum and that different disciplines rarely met to discuss their work. The debate about...
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How to catch a cultural cold
I am interested that the director of the British Council in Dubai believes he is fighting a "battle" against the United States for a "market" there, and that he hopes to be more "aggressive in...
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No desire for single union
John Akker (THES, March 29) seems to have got himself caught in a logical cleft stick. On the one hand he argues for a single educational union but wishes it to be confined to postschool education....
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Wise incomprehension
Colin McGinn (THES, April 5) believes that "the only way to avoid being checkmated by consciousness is to assume you do not understand it". He means: what is not understood is that, although we all...
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Intelligence contested
Mono-savants like Christopher, (THES, March 29) show very specialised, narrow abilities, low on abstract reasoning and linked to intense practice. Christopher may shed light on language learning, but...
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On the wrong road to Malay
Bill Watson bemoans the arrogance displayed by British academics and the business community towards Malaysia. When the prime minister of Malaysia speaks British business executives listen nervously,...
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Back to Slovak future
Universities the world over have their own problems, worries and joys. In Slovakia we not only have to tackle financial problems (who hasn't?) but also have to live under the threat of losing...
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Commonwealth trips on red tape
Whenever I meet fellow Commonwealth vice chancellors, as happened recently at the Association of Commonwealth Universities conference in Malta, I feel humbled by the severity of the problems faced by...