Two reports and a fraught future
This year in education we will learn the truth or falsity of the Chinese aphorism that to live in interesting times is a curse rather than a benefit. Two reports awaited with interest are those from...
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Tackle lunatics over asylum
Universities should lead the fight against xenophobic EU laws governing refugees. Ghanaian Kingsley Ofusu survived to tell a gruesome story of murder at sea. His brother and seven other West African...
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Rhyme and reason for nurseries
The higher education sector must recognise that in an era of tight public spending control, the educational needs of children must take precedence, says Josh Hillman. Britain is in the foothills of...
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Nolan number-crunchers
You included two useful, and contrasting, contributions on the Nolan inquiry on standards in public life (Opinion, THES, January 5). However, two other issues about further education corporations...
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Flowers for the engineer
I had the great good fortune to visit several universities and research institutes in China, Taiwan, Japan and India this year. My university, Natal, attaches strategic importance to the development...
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In a region of error
Stephen Court claims to have discovered the next wave of universities - the regionals (THES, January 5). Citing the University of Humberside as an example, he suggests that the market scope of such...
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Re-engineering the learning business
Detlef Mueller-Boeling (World View, THES, December 22) gave an interesting account of higher education as a business, which it clearly is. We provide a service of quality for a price to a mix of...
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Chaos fans make negative positive
It was to be expected that, as one of the leading proponents of chaos and complexity theory in Britain, Ian Stewart (Letters, THES, January 5) would not take kindly to Geoff Mulgan's criticisms of...
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Sponsors' rights and wrongs
I am interested in the views of other readers on the commercial sponsorship of learned societies. The Royal Geographical Society is embroiled in a controversy because it receives Pounds 40,000...
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Nolan number-crunchers
The Nolan committee appears to be concerned with the proverbial mote and cannot see the beam in its own eye. The value system of universities is based not on money, but on academic excellence. It is...
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Auditions for TV lecturers
I was amused to read about the trials and tribulations of giving the Royal Institution Christmas lectures (THES, December 29). I was surprised, however, to read that the lecturers are "chosen by BBC...
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Bring on the procedure police
The Nolan committee on standards in public life has now turned to higher and further education, but we have been told that Lord Nolan believes that no more external regulation of either sector is...
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Net closes on rights
Copyright has survived the tape recorder and the photocopier. How it will emerge from its tangle with the computer, the Internet and the burgeoning digital media industry is still an open question....
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Cards stacked against tarot
In a country where people queue up to pay the "tax on stupidity", formally called the National Lottery, the education system has a special duty to think hard about how it copes with irrational...
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Mediterranean link-up sought
Academics from around the Mediterranean have been investigating how to build closer relations between European universities and their neighbours to the South and East. The Civil Forum, which was held...