Microcosmographia Academica

A reminder about or introduction to a brief and refreshing piece of summer reading. The almost timeless Microcosmographia Academica is of course the essential text for all those with a keen interest in academic politics and university management.

Latest university league table joy: a summary

Typical. You wait ages for a new set of university rankings and then several show up in just a couple of weeks. First of the latest batch (as previously reported in an earlier post) appeared in the Telegraph late July. Derived from the Good University Guide which has more detailed information than the paper. University …

IoD on university standards

The Institute of Directors (IoD) has just published its annual Education Briefing Book. Now, there are many interesting pieces of data in this briefing book relating to all sectors of education but the most eye-catching issue is of course what a 500 strong sample of the IoD's membership has to say on the subject of …

A level standards up and down

Anticipating the August ritual of handwringing about A level results Peter Wilby provides a well argued antidote in the Guardian. He rightly highlights the problems associated with making meaningful judgements about standards over time and the absurd nature of newspaper reports on the topic. However, whilst it is reasonable to argue that A levels can …

Downloads: the new student currency?

Follow up to Classic August survey Leeds University clearly believes this new research has real merit. And that you will be quids in if you choose them over, say, the University of Nottingham: During one academic year, going to Leeds could mean the average student is more than £2,238 better off– the equivalent of more …

Responding to league table comments

Follow up to Getting cross about league tables. Bernard Kingston, who compiles the table which appeared recently in the Telegraph and which was criticised by the VC of Anglia Ruskin recently has responded. Prof Thorne described the table as a "dreadful piece of work" after Anglia Ruskin University was ranked 104th in the list, published …

Another use for Facebook

Another Facebook story, this time from Wales on Sunday. There aren't many more visible places for sharing coursework really: Cardiff University has reprimanded more than 20 bio-sciences students over comments made on the social networking site Facebook. The students have been told off after making offensive remarks about [a]...lecturer...and using the site to share information …

Classic August survey

This piece in today's Guardian starts off sensibly enough: Fewer undergraduates take jobs to help fund their studies ...and shows some reasonably sensible-looking data which suggests that the number of students working in term time has dropped as have the hours worked. But then they tell you some other numbers: A survey of 2,700 full-time …

International students a good thing: official

News from the Commons education select committee as reported by the BBC: (a) International students are good news (although think it is a wee bit more than £4m they bring to the UK economy) (b) We need to work harder, here and internationally, to maintain our position (thanks) (c) Others should be providing generous scholarships …

Italy stops Honorary Degree awards

Italian HE Minister bans honoraries shock The Italian HE minister has banned the award of honarary degrees according to the Chronicle, claiming that celebrity recipients bring dishonour. Citing the need to protect the “prestige” of Italy’s university system, the country’s higher-education minister, Fabio Mussi, ordered its 66 public universities on Wednesday to stop granting honorary …

Getting cross about league tables

Nice snippet in the Cambridge Evening News on the latest league table which has just appeared in the Telegraph (note that it appears rather similar in methodology to the table which used to appear in the Times). The vice chancellor at Anglia Ruskin: has come out fighting, describing the report as a "dreadful" piece of …