Graduate Programme for University Leadership Now Recruiting

An outstanding programme for graduates looking to develop careers in university management. Recruitment for this year's round of Ambitious Futures, the Graduate Programme for University Leadership, has recently gone live: The university sector is one of the most innovative, vibrant and exciting environments in which to build your future career. If you're looking for a …

Honorary Degree: serious or celeb 2014

Who are this year's lucky winners? A post some time ago on Honorary Degree recipients noted that almost all of them fall clearly into one of two categories: they are either serious or celeb. Back in 2013 I provided a handy list of recent Honoraries for further analysis. Basically, if you are a serious academic, …

Betting the farm

A very big gamble The Chronicle of Higher Education has an extraordinary piece about how one investment manager gambled away $13.1 Million of her university’s money: Over a series of three contracts, Ms. Prizevoits signed over more than $8-million of the 96-year-old university’s money in 2008 to a Florida-based company called Betts and Gambles Global …

Big bucks for students with big ideas

A big prize for University of Pennsylvania graduates The Philadelphia Enquirer has a good story about an initiative at the University of Pennsylvania for graduates who want to change the world: Graduating from the University of Pennsylvania with a strong desire to change the world and an excellent plan for how to do it?A new …

Needed: More Money, Money, Money

Higher Education needs more and better fundraising. And fundraisers A new publication from HEFCE.on developing the HE fundraising workforce: This report was commissioned by HEFCE to address one of the recommendations in 'Review of Philanthropy in UK Higher Education: 2012 status report and challenges for the next decade' (the Pearce report), specifically the future development …

University of Nottingham: Gig central

The University has hosted some impressive acts down the years. It has been quite a long time since the University of Nottingham hosted really big bands. But the history, mainly from the early 70s before the advent of the Boat Club and Rock City, is surprisingly impressive: Some gigs took place in the Sports Centre, …

The Graduate Programme for University Leadership

An excellent programme for graduates looking to develop careers in university management. Recruitment for the Graduate Programme for University Leadership has recently gone live and the pitch is a good one: The university sector is one of the most innovative, vibrant and exciting environments in which to build your future career. If you're looking for …

The Imperfect University: Know Your History

Know your history. For my 700th blog post here I thought I would reflect on university histories. Given their nature it's often struck me as rather surprising that universities and their staff tend not to have a well developed sense of institutional history. Research matters to universities but they tend not to prioritise maintaining their …

‘University of Nike’ in Oregon

A huge investment in university sport.   The New York Times has a report on the opening of a hugely expensive new facility to enhance the University of Oregon's football programme. It comes courtesy of a sizeable donation from one of the founders of Nike. The Football Performance Center, which was unveiled publicly this week, …

More honoraries: serious or celeb 2013

Who are the lucky stars this year? A previous post on Honorary Degree recipients noted that almost all of them fall clearly into one of two categories: they are either serious or celeb. The former really don’t get much press coverage so it doesn't really matter if you have won a Nobel prize, discovered a …

Another dumb ranking

The universities which will make you a millionaire! Mail Online publishes this insightful piece on the "graduate rich list" which shows you "where to study to make your millions": A new graduate 'rich list' has revealed the universities where students are most likely to become multi-millionaires. Oxford comes top after producing 401 alumni worth £20million …

Yet another ranking

This time it's an alumni ranking The Chronicle of Higher Education reports on this new player in the US college rankings: If you had it to do all over again, would you choose to attend your alma mater? Do you think the education you received there was a good value? How much money do you …

The University of Nottingham at the Olympics

As has previously been noted here the University of Nottingham is very keen on the Olympics: Six University of Nottingham graduates have bagged Olympic medals for Team GB over the past 20 years, making it the UK’s 7th most successful university at the Olympics. To put this in context, 80 countries have never won an …

Nottingham Potential – a launch and an opening

Helping young people to reach their true potential I was delighted to be at an excellent event to mark the launch of Nottingham Potential and the formal opening of the IntoUniversity Nottingham West centre. It's a major programme and a central component of the University's widening participation strategy which has the aim of helping young …

Advice for prospective students – quantity and quality

High quality advice and guidance is key for delivering access An interesting piece by Tessa Stone in the Times Higher Education on the importance of clear, impartial and high quality advice for potential university students. I'd agree with a lot of what Tessa says: So, the schools that already do this well will continue to …