From 007 to Registrar

A distinctive new approach to the campus novel Unlikely as it may seem this brief book offers the most exciting representation of a Registrar since Lucky Jim. Set in a real university (York) but with fictional (we hope) characters there is plenty to enjoy here: The present and past lives of James Kerr, university senior manager …

The best book ever written about university life?

Cornford's Microcosmographia Academica A reminder about or introduction to a brief and essential piece of reading for everyone working in higher education. The almost timeless (well, apart from the fact it only features blokes and has an ever so slightly Oxbridge feel) Microcosmographia Academica is of course the essential text for all those with a …

Brainy

The Great Brain Race by Ben Wildavsky I read this some months ago but, inexplicably, failed to note the fact. Wildavsky is a clear, cogent and persuasive writer. He provides a good review of the global higher education picture and many of the key issues facing nations and universities. There is, unsurprisingly, plenty of coverage …

Scandals of Higher Education

Is this the future for UK HE? Scandals of Higher Education - The New York Review of Books A really interesting and hard-hitting review article from the New York Review of Books of a set of recent publications on US higher education. Two fundamental questions here: what is higher education actually for? And who is …

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.

Faddish behaviour…

Management Fads in Higher Education: Where They Come From, What They Do, Why They Fail by Robert Birnbaum This is just an outstanding book. Although the focus is on the USA, the messages are eminently translatable to the UK context. Birnbaum carefully analyses and deconstructs the big management fads to have hit US universities including: …