Letters to THE

We have the brains to diversify funding

Thu, 4 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

I welcome David Greenaway's more realistic appraisal of the way forward for university financing ("We did it before ...", 28 January). The higher education sector has done well over the past decade in terms of public funding, but thanks...

Search for a positive signal

Thu, 4 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

The UK needs to produce more physicists, according to Sir Brian Follett, chair of the STEM Advisory Forum. Yet this is being undermined by severe funding cuts to fundamental physics and astronomy that predate the economic downturn.

Antidote for toxic cuts 1

Thu, 4 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

If UK universities now operate in a global market for staff and students, then a concern with excellence would seem to make it sensible to revisit the issue of tenure, which was abolished in 1988.

Antidote for toxic cuts 2

Thu, 4 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Your report on the proposed redundancies in history at the University of Sussex omits one significant wrinkle ("Despite colleagues' support, cuts cause deep traumas", 21 January). The cuts have been justified by managers to the teaching...

Doth protest too much

Thu, 4 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Much as one regrets Lancaster University's loss ("Researchers fear that early end to collection loan will hit REF standing", 28 January), Robert Appelbaum is too pessimistic when he suggests that students in northern universities won't have...

Sign of desperation

Thu, 4 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

The notion of "recycled news" reached previously unheard-of temporal dimensions with your disappointingly sensationalist report on a therapist's unconventional work nearly three decades ago ("Stark facts exposed about anti-regulation therapist",...

Killing 'jokes'

Thu, 4 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

It is hardly surprising that the University of Nottingham's complaints procedures have absolved one professor of offending a gay colleague in an email containing a flaccid joke about "faggots" ("Inquiry cleared astronomer over RAE 'faggot'...

Prophetic outlook

Thu, 4 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

PricewaterhouseCoopers reports on university finances in Weathering the storm: Coping with the financial challenge in the higher education sector ("As the good times rolled, a quarter of universities ended up in the red", 21 January). Ten...

Free at lunch

Thu, 4 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

I would agree with Ron Johnston that lunches with colleagues, networking at conferences and discussion and collaboration with other researchers can help provoke eureka moments ("Small places matter more than big ones", 28 January).

Symbols crashing

Thu, 4 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

As the online version of the article about Ken Pounds ("Eternal explorer", 28 January) gave his name as Ken£ for most of Thursday, I look forward to future articles about the poet Robert `s, the comedians Hinge and ( or even the #emite Kingdom...

Grit and miss

Thu, 4 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

I was a pale and anxious steward at Millwall Football Club in the glory days of the late 1980s, and I'm sure there were a couple of extra syllables in their supporters' defiant chant ("The news industry won't survive if self-censorship gains...

Teachers must tune in to student diversity 1

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

In the golden, privileged days when university students were the brightest and best, Eric Sotto's views about the training of lecturers may have had more validity ("You can lecture, but can you teach?", 21 January).

Teachers must tune in to student diversity 2

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

There is much to agree with in Eric Sotto's piece, yet he errs by conflating an evidence-based approach to teaching with gaining teaching qualifications, and I am unconvinced by his call to make them compulsory. If qualifications made us...

Teachers must tune in to student diversity 3

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Three cheers for Eric Sotto. His article provides a refreshing change of focus from the research excellence framework and was an intelligent contribution to the debate about teacher training for academics. Sotto's plea is that teaching should...

'Breaking' the code

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

In his letter last week, Adam Afriyie, the Conservative Shadow Science Minister, explains that when he said that ministers have the right to sack independent science advisers "because they don't like them or for any other reason", he did...

Careless talk

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Constantine Sandis is to be applauded for his rejection of the notion that academics have an absolute right to free speech ("Free speech within reason", 21 January). Academic freedom is too important to be brought into disrepute. In my legal...

Feel as you're told 1

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

The manifestation of mushrooming wellbeing initiatives across the academic landscape may be rooted in a number of factors, and I applaud those colleagues who question their altruism ("Get happy, and get on with it", 21 January).

Feel as you're told 2

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Although the website for the Higher Education Funding Council for England says that our project, Creating Success through Wellbeing in Higher Education, received £174,000, which you report, the funding was in fact £74,000. This money was...

Feel as you're told 3

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Members of the Abrahamic religions know that wellbeing initiatives in education are doomed to fail. Ecclesiastes 1:18 - "He who increases knowledge increases sorrow."

Cutters' creed

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Hefce's proposal to "require the governing body to take steps to rectify the position" if it considers that the "accountable officer cannot be relied upon" could indeed lead to the enforced removal of vice-chancellors ("Funding council seeks...

Statistics, damned statistics

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Your latest student satisfaction survey contains glaring methodological shortcomings ("It's all about them", 14 January). Most striking is the minute sample size (in our university's case, 0.16 per cent - 41 students out of 24,000). The...

Quantity surveying

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Reportedly, University of Leeds research shows that 5.5 billion packed lunches with poor nutritional content are eaten by British children each year (Campus round-up, 21 January). But there were only 9.7 million full or part-time pupils...

No one's at the wheel!

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

I'm worried about 11 February. It's a perfect day to take over your university, as it's likely that the senior managers will be out. The THE is sponsoring the Leadership Foundation's HE Leadership Summit in London and the Lord Dearing memorial...

In research ethics, one size doesn't fit all 1

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

In his article "Do the right thing - unite" (14 January), Ron Iphofen says that all the social sciences have to do to overcome the apparently endless debate about research ethics is to agree on a single common framework that we could all...

In research ethics, one size doesn't fit all 2

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

I broadly agree with Ron Iphofen, particularly his thought that the various disciplines within the social sciences should come together to discuss research ethics. This is probably no surprise as I am a fellow member of the Academy of Social...

Spreading resistance

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

As Malcolm Grant puts it, the recent discussion about the prevention of violent extremism in universities centred on the issue that "intellectual freedom on campus cannot be compromised" ("Freedom of thought is all we foment", www.timeshighereducation.co.uk,...

Editorial support

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Following your report on the Medical Hypotheses affair ("Unclear outlook for radical journal as HIV/Aids deniers evoke outrage", 14 January), I wrote to many of the people who have published in the journal recently. I have so far received...

'Best in show' is useless

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

It was interesting to read that the RAND Europe report on research impact favours the ill-fated Australian Research Quality Framework (RQF) as the "best fit" for such a model here ("Global impact tasters show REF will be no picnic", 14 January)....

Ministerial clarification

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

You kindly reported my comment that ministers should have the discretion to choose and replace their own advisers ("We 'just don't like them' is adequate reason to dismiss advisers, claims shadow science minister", www.timeshighereducation.co.uk,...

Do it yourself 1

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

While the Times Higher Education Student Experience Survey results always exert a certain morbid fascination for many of us, this sadly deflects us from the real issue, which is how we can improve the student experience ("It's all about...

Do it yourself 2

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Congratulations are due to Canterbury Christ Church University on its considerably improved performance in the Student Experience Survey. Your report on the poll rightly gives credit to the university for the support it provides to part-time...

Unfairly unflattering

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

As a scholar who has used the Colindale Newspaper Library for nearly 20 years, I do not recognise the negative portrait painted of it in the article by Huw Richards ("Moving words", 7 January). Will the new location in St Pancras have a...

Responsible management

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

In recent times, people have rightly questioned the role that business schools play in societal and economic development ("The bottom line is not enough: how business schools fail their students", 7 January). The United Nations initiative...

Silly season

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Anyone in any doubt that a "general culture of masculinity in the academy" persists need only look at the derision of women/feminist academics as "silly" to find a perfect illustration ("Still second-class in words and pictures", 7 January).

Do the maths to solve pensions time-bomb 1

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Your article on final-salary pensions does not inspire confidence in those undertaking the Universities Superannuation Scheme review.

Do the maths to solve pensions time-bomb 2

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Regretfully, many staff in higher education have already witnessed the end of final-salary pension schemes ("Warning sounded on final-salary pensions", 7 January).

Do the maths to solve pensions time-bomb 3

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

It is important to clarify a number of points as the predictable scaremongering about the USS pension scheme appears to be increasing. First, such scaremongering is unhelpful. The University and College Union has always maintained that sensitive...

Longer odds for Palestine

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Bahram Bekhradnia's account of his experiences as an observer of Palestinian universities,"Battered but unbowed" (31 December), concludes by acknowledging the "extraordinary determination" of those involved in the Palestinian academy to...

Paradoxical petard

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Your reports on the challenges to business schools and their curriculums to become more ethically and critically minded highlight the way in which the nature of management theory has been misunderstood in business, political and academic...

Not abolished, improved

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Whatever the overall merits of your glum piece on the future of the humanities, "The core connection" (7 January), it is certainly wrong about one thing. It is untrue that the Arts and Humanities Research Council has "almost abolished" its...

Confederacy of dunces

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Kevin Sharpe ("La Triviata: public discourse is trapped in a downward spiral", 7 January) is dead right: the interests and mentality of today's students offer a clear reflection of the anti-thinking nature of modern discourse.

Apples and oranges

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

With reference to your article "Union 'incensed' by staff research profiles" (7 January), the University of Leeds is exploring the feasibility of developing sets of metrics that describe academic activity for each member of staff. The metrics...

The language trap

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Duncan Shaw is mistaken (Letters, 7 January): in my letter of 17 December, I did not call on university teachers to pay more attention to Luce Irigaray. Rather, I said that I had drawn on her work. And yes, this is the same Luce Irigaray...

Picture perfect

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

I was perplexed to see a photograph of a juggler appearing to set fire to his genitals in THE ("A fine balance - but not all can manage it", 31 December). Then I read the attached article concerning the hazards of being the head of a university...

Some assembly required

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

In last week's THE, there's a senior appointment at Linnaeus University, Sweden for the Ikea professorship of life at home. Is this particular professorial chair flat-packed?

Cuts are inevitable, so let's join the debate 1

Thu, 7 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Civil servants always complain about funding cuts. Police are the "thin blue line" between peace and anarchy. Without firemen, our cities would burn to the ground. Doctors keep us alive. And universities provide the education necessary to...

Cuts are inevitable, so let's join the debate 2

Thu, 7 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Your coverage of the proposed cuts to higher education funding tends towards an acceptance that they will happen ("Hefce budget to be slashed by £915m over three years", 31 December). Why?

Social promise

Thu, 7 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

An open letter to Andy Burnham, Secretary of State for Health, from the social work higher education sector in response to the Social Work Task Force's final report.

Past must not derail future

Thu, 7 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

London Metropolitan University makes great things happen for students who don't get a chance elsewhere. There is some prospect of a fresh start now that the present board of governors has agreed to go ("Staff promised bright new year as...

Masters and servants 1

Thu, 7 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

I was delighted to read the article about Elizabeth Hoult's paper, the presentation of which I chaired at the Society for Research into Higher Education conference in South Wales ("Let feminine side of learning thrive", 10 December). I was...

Masters and servants 2

Thu, 7 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Sue Jackson would like university teachers to pay more attention to the likes of Luce Irigaray (Letters, 17 December). Is this the same Luce Irigaray who wrote that physicists prefer to study the dynamics of hard "male" objects rather than...

Arise, Sir Bob

Thu, 7 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Congratulations to Professor Sir Bob Burgess on his knighthood (www.timeshighereducation.co.uk, 31 December). He has done a tremendous job as vice-chancellor of the University of Leicester, which won the Times Higher Education University...

Viral jargon

Thu, 7 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

In 1974, I wrote a program that produced whole paragraphs consisting of grammatically correct education jargon ("Jargon generator offers a reality check on language", 31 December). This "exposition" was followed by questions requiring long...

Input-output questions

Thu, 7 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Your article "In research, small is just as beautiful" (26 November 2009) made some interesting points. However, it focused on outputs. One area that could be worthy of further investigation is to see whether there is any difference in the...

They crack you up

Thu, 7 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Gary Day sees Victoria Wood as "Larkin with a sense of humour" ("Bend me over", 31 December). Has your resident lecturer in English overlooked Larkin's correspondence with Kingsley Amis, not to mention an appreciable handful of his poems?

Rankings must reflect teaching's importance

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

I wholeheartedly applaud your efforts to refocus the methodology for the Times Higher Education World University Rankings ("Redrawing ranking rules for clarity, reliability and sense", 10 December).

Differential impact 1

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The latest Times Higher Education devoted an editorial and two articles to concerns about the proposal to include "impact" as a factor in assessing the quality of research and scholarship under the research excellence framework...

Hoary argument

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Alan Ryan has got it completely wrong ("Offing the cap", 17/24 December). The idea of tuition fees was originally sold to us as a way of permitting 50 per cent of all pupils leaving secondary school to enter higher education; in other words,...

Teaching hypocrisy

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Is it very surprising that a study states that research-driven universities are just paying lip service to the recognition of good teaching ("Pedagogy a poor second in promotions", 10 December)? For years, the Higher Education Funding Council...

Religious tensions

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Your article "Something rotten? Row over Wales' validation of 'fundamentalist' BAs" (10 December) raises some interesting questions about the Danish university system, theological training and not least the meaning of the term "fundamentalism".

Making a rehash of it

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Sally Feldman may regret the passing of local newspapers, but if people wanted to read about "frying eggs on pavements, confronting noisy neighbours and tackling trespassing tree-huggers", local newspapers wouldn't be in decline ("Go find...

Same old tune

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

With all due respect to Jeremy Dibble ("Alternative sheep music", 17/24 December), it is hardly news that While Shepherds Watched their Flocks has been - and sometimes still is - sung to the tune of Ilkley Moor. The tune is one of a number...

Apology redux

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

All I have to say to Robert Segal ("All apologies", 17/24 December) is that I'm sorry you feel that way.

Stephen Kukureka, Worcester.

Differential impact 2

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

While very much in favour of the resistance to the impact agenda as any kind of rational measure of research, am I the only one who finds the term “curiosity-driven” research naive, self-defeating and inaccurate? Naive because it makes serious...

Slash funding red tape to deliver real 'impact' 1

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

I note the following variously expressed views in your 10 December issue: i) the impact of some research is more obvious to gauge or imagine than others; ii) most research is likely to have an impact of some kind and at some (not necessarily...

Slash funding red tape to deliver real 'impact' 2

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

My colleague at the University of Sheffield Tim Birkhead (who I do not know personally) has highlighted a major problem in academia - grant application and reviewing processes. However, the solution he offers - giving scholars research money...

Slash funding red tape to deliver real 'impact' 3

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Last week I gave a one-hour talk at a British university. To be paid for my time, I have to complete six separate forms and take my passport in person back to the university, some 60 miles from where I live, to have an official photocopy...

Profit and loss

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Coming from a commercial background into higher education, the ongoing argument about impact reminds me of similar ones about profit ("REF rivals square off over value of impact proposal", 10 December).

Scientific method 1

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Martin Cohen's article "Beyond debate?" (10 December) deserves some comment. The author's logic and judgment of things scientific can be read from his comment: "how rational is it to pass laws banning one kind of light bulb ... in order...

Scientific method 2

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

I would ask the politicians queuing up to criticise University of East Anglia scientists in the wake of the "Climategate" incident to take a long, hard look in the mirror before proceeding further with their ludicrous and hypocritical statements...

Women's work

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Elizabeth Hoult is quite right to argue that learning needs to be reconceptualised in order for all students to gain the best possible experience ("Let feminine side of learning thrive", 10 December). In my doctorate, "Of spinsters and mistresses:...

Long wait for instructions

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Your excellent piece on teaching rewards is both timely and useful ("Pedagogy a poor second in promotions", 10 December). Clearly, very few academics would challenge the fact that good-quality research and teaching are mutually supportive....

Czech facts

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

"The mythbuster", your article on Mary Heimann's new book about 20th-century Czechoslovakia, itself contains myths (3 December). From it, readers may assume that since 1978 there has been no work by British or American historians that sought...

No such thing as free study

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

According to Edward Dutton, one of the many good qualities of higher education in Finland is the fact that it is still free ("Finns, they are a-changin'", 10 December). Sadly, there never has been and never will be free higher education....

Economic model

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Oh dear. In the book review "Out of nowhere into the limelight" (12 November), Natalie Gold claims that: "In Economics Is a Serious Subject (1932), (Joan Robinson) argued that economists should use tractable assumptions, at the expense of...

Private income does not equal tyranny 1

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

It is certainly true that there is a "Global revolution" in private provision (26 November), notably in Central and Eastern Europe. As someone who has planned, managed and is now chairing the governing body of a public-private not-for-profit...

Private income does not equal tyranny 2

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

A critical component of UK government policy towards private providers of higher education must be to ensure that boards of directors (and the shareholders who appoint them) have no say in academic decision-making, so that impenetrable firewalls...

Evidence, not assertion 1

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

If Sally Hunt's article "The worst of all worlds" (3 December) and the University and College Union petition were my only sources of information about the research excellence framework, I'd want to sign up myself. The Higher Education Funding...

Evidence, not assertion 2

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

In the powerful revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the Novello Theatre, one word between Brick and Big Daddy signals the turning point in the drama: "mendacity".

Evidence, not assertion 3

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Dave Delpy "reminds us that research is ultimately about offering solutions to society's challenges" ("They're not unreasonable", 26 November). Odd, that; I've spent my research career thinking I was ultimately trying to find out how the...

Level doctoral field

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Aldwyn Cooper intones the familiar - and boring - jeremiad that to suppose that "a first-class degree from one (institution) has the same value as from another ... is absurd" ("It's time to set fees free", 19 November). As usual, no evidence...

This is no corporate model

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Some of the views expressed by commentators in your article on the University of Oxford/National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship's Entrepreneurial University Leadership Programme constitute a considerable misinterpretation of its concept...

Support your support staff?

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

As a significant part of their workforce, universities employ two groups of people: administrators, who have a single-tier workload - administration; and academics, who have a workload consisting of not one, not two, but three tiers - teaching,...

Facts, not fiction

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

I hardly think that John Nash was "immortalised in the Hollywood film A Beautiful Mind" ("Beautiful minds converge to inspire Nobel prizewinners of the future", 12 November). Rather, I think it is his contribution to game theory that renders...

Existential design

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The top edge of the "People" section in your publication usually consists of a row of 11 bright-faced, bushy-tailed individuals ("Appointments"), followed by one rather more sombre photograph at the end ("Disappointments"?) of someone who...

Still time to influence the impact agenda 1

Thu, 3 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The research impact debate has already run a lively course. Impact is an integral part of the proposed research excellence framework - a fact that has caused concern in some quarters of the academic community ("Managers and scholars divided...

Still time to influence the impact agenda 2

Thu, 3 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

"Impact statements are intended ultimately to benefit society," argues Dave Delpy, "not interfere with funding" ("They're not unreasonable", 26 November). However, he seems to be unaware of the basic issue we scientists and innovators have...

Still time to influence the impact agenda 3

Thu, 3 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

In defending impact statements, Dave Delpy, RCUK's "champion for economic impact", neatly destroys his own argument. If he believes that as a non-expert he "could write a statement indicating potential impact for any proposal", one wonders...

Still time to influence the impact agenda 4

Thu, 3 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Dave Delpy claims that the petition I posted on the Number 10 website contains a "significant misrepresentation" when it refers to the policy of both the research councils and the research excellence framework to direct funds to projects...

Still time to influence the impact agenda 5

Thu, 3 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

I really enjoyed Dave Delpy's piece, in which he sends up RCUK's policy on impact statements by pretending to be a hopelessly ignorant quangocrat with no understanding of the nature and role of pure research. I particularly liked the part...

Terms of concealment 1

Thu, 3 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Your article on philosophy cutbacks in UK universities calls for a wider debate ("Being philosophical may be limited to 'leisured' classes", 26 November). Terms such as "vocational" and "academic" are widely used in public discourse, but...

Terms of concealment 2

Thu, 3 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Your piece tells only half the story. The study of philosophy, as part of the philosophy and ethics component of A level religious studies, is thriving nationally, with large, documented and well-publicised increases in numbers. This trend...

Next chapter or nothing

Thu, 3 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

As an information professional, I'd like to add to the responses to Kevin Sharpe's article on the modern library ("Quiet, please", 5 November). He raises some good points about the lack of a scholarly atmosphere driving people away from...

Ivy view is incomplete

Thu, 3 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

In "The American lesson: How to be top" (26 November), Terence Kealey suggests that UK universities should emulate the American Ivy League by detaching themselves from state support, as if the problem were excessive regulation rather than...

Pauline conversion

Thu, 3 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

So Peter Williams, former chief executive of the Quality Assurance Agency, told a World Innovation Summit for Education in Qatar that "Quality systems 'stifle' innovation" (26 November)? Sounds like he flew there via Damascus.

William...

Divided academy won't boost quality 1

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

How disappointing it was to read Peter Williams' comments in your magazine ("Engage with quality assurance or face state takeover, scholars told", 19 November).

Divided academy won't boost quality 2

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The Government's approach to quality is to remove support from courses regarded as unsatisfactory. Such a policy seems destructive. A more positive approach would be to use metrics of quality to identify where improvement is required and...

Priorities aren't working

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Academics are concerned about the objectivity of a £4.4 million Economic and Social Research Council call, with additional support from the Medical Research Council, for bids to study the happiness of the unemployed and those in unfulfilling...

Missing members 1

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Your article on higher education mission groups sets out to provide a complete picture of the bodies representing institutions in a diverse higher education ecology ("Do you want to be in my gang?", 19 November). It is not clear, therefore,...

Missing members 2

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

In your piece on the groups representing UK universities, you include the recently renamed University Alliance. Historically, it consisted of all those and only those institutions that were not members of a group. A more appropriate name...

Undervalued exports

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

In 2007, the British Council published an estimate of the value of the education-export sector to the UK in a publication called Global Value - The Value of UK Education and Training Exports: An Update. If you extrapolate its values to 2008,...

Open and shut case

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Your article on open-access journals, "Learning to share" (12 November), focuses on the sciences, where research is funded; university libraries that want to save on subscriptions and storage; and commercial publishers that operate for profit....

For the record

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

While Sandra Kemp might like to clarify what she calls "inaccuracies" about the situation at the London College of Communication (Letters, 19 November), on behalf of more than 115 students enrolled on the BA in public relations, we would...

Free at last?

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

It's a long time since I worked in England, but I was delighted to read John Beddington's remark that "universities in the UK are justly proud of their independence from government" ("Long-overdue policy points", 22 October). Does this mean...

Apt metaphor

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The academic community's sympathetic response to the unmasking of "high-class hooker" "Belle de Jour" should come as no surprise ("Prostitution did not finance Belle de Jour's PhD", 19 November). Her plight, and the way she overcame it,...

Flawed Trac delivers only garbage

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills patently believes its own business-derived propaganda ("FEC scrutinised as deficit lingers", 12 November).

Emperor's new impact 1

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

It is something of a relief that an academic as eminent as Vernon Bogdanor is willing to question the link between good universities and economic growth ("Misguided philistines in a relationship that is doomed to failure", 12 November)....

Emperor's new impact 2

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

I propose a simple measure of attitude to "impact" in the form of a questionnaire. The research excellence framework rating corresponding to each answer shall be referred to as the "L-index" of the respondent. The ratings are given in brackets,...

Aussie battlers

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Although Steve Smith, the president of Universities UK, may be right that "countries such as China will continue to invest heavily in their higher education systems" ("UK boosts standing but Asian countries 'snap at our heels'?", 8 October),...

Beyond the headlines

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Michael MacNeil's description of Keith Burnett "attacking the unions in the press" (Letters, 12 November) is unfair and short-sighted, with eyes only for the article's headline ("Hanging tough", 29 October). Those who read the piece in its...

Fully supported

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

I would like to clarify a number of inaccuracies in your article "PR lecturer resigns in protest over lack of staff" (5 November). In anticipation of the departure of Paul Simpson, an acting course co-ordinator for our BA in public relations...

Targeted fees

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

When Lord Browne and his colleagues are considering the appropriate level for student fees in the future, I hope they will take careful account of where the money goes ("Review 'will keep hike in fees off the agenda until after general election'?",...

Openly flexible

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Whatever the merits of open-access journals ("Put all the results out in the open", 12 November), the current system is by no means inflexible. Some colleagues and I have a paper featured in the latest issue of Current Biology. It concludes...

Virtual insanity

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The popularity of video games among young people has been growing for years, and although Generation Y's "successors" have contributed to this, it is doubtful that they have acquired skills making them more suited to the "new economic reality"...

An indecent proposition?

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Alan McKee asks if a social scientist can say "titwank" ("When it comes to pornography, vulgar humanities are happy to talk turkey", 12 November). As a humanities scholar, I can't really answer, but it is a shame that McKee works in Australia,...

Impact is created in immeasurable ways 1

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

How ironic that the "senior sector figures" should be protected by Chatham House rules, when the powerful rulers single me out as a powerless ordinary academic ("Managers and scholars divided as resistance grows to impact agenda", 5 November).

Impact is created in immeasurable ways 2

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

In their open letter to Research Councils UK, Donald Braben and his co-signatories urge peer reviewers to stage a "modest revolt" by declining to "assess" potential economic impact. It is worth being clear about what RCUK is asking applicants...

Impact is created in immeasurable ways 3

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

In an attempt to make opposition to the "impact agenda" seem foolish, a panellist is quoted as inviting academics to raise their hand if they would want their work to have no impact whatsoever: "I have yet to see a hand," the speaker is...

Named and/or shamed?

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The article on citation counting ("A measure of humanities?", 5 November) mentions two reasons why this method is ill-suited to assessing the quality of work produced in the arts and humanities: disregard for non-English publications, and...

Unequal treatment

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Keith Burnett's appointment as the new chair of the Universities and Colleges Employers Association comes at a critical time for the sector. We had hoped that a new face at the helm would usher in a new approach to industrial relations....

Giving them space 1

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

With reference to Kevin Sharpe's opinion piece "Quiet, please" (5 November), we'd like to make a number of points.

Giving them space 2

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Have librarians gone too far trying to shrug off their "Shhh!" image? As Kevin Sharpe acknowledges, the traditional library needed to change. Many readers now prefer to consult our resources online in their studies, labs and halls.

As simple as ABC ..

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Michael Worton finds a lack of a "clear and compelling identity for modern foreign languages" ("Speak up to keep languages alive, review says", 22 October). He also notes a recent change of identity, with the traditional focus on ancient...

Visas and scholarships

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

I thought that Melanie Newman's article "A funny sort of welcome" (29 October) did an excellent job of highlighting many issues around the new visa system. "A parent's story" particularly rang true since I have seen the same issue with a...

Philosophical hurdles

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

I look forward to reading Socrates in the Boardroom ("Captains of the academic enterprise", 15 October) although its title puzzles me just a little. If we follow Pierre Hadot's argument in What Is Ancient Philosophy?, it...