Mobility Really Matters

The Imperfect University: Staff getting on their bikes (an updated version of a post from a while back) One of the things professional services colleagues sometimes complain about is that whereas  academic staff can be promoted in post - and indeed can progress all the way from lecturer to professor in the same academic department …

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 …

Knowing Your History

Know your history. Given the current running of The Changing University: Inside Nottingham NOOC 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 …

It’s started – the Nottingham professional services NOOC

The Changing University: Inside Nottingham is underway   The University of Nottingham professional services NOOC (Nottingham Open Online Course) is underway. Thanks to a great deal of work by many colleagues a first four week course is now open and over 400 members of staff have signed up. The NOOC has been designed especially for …

True Crime on Campus §38: back to school

Autumn brings even more True Crime on Campus As autumn arrives and students return to campus our outstanding Security staff are ready for any eventuality: 2315 Patrol Security Officers spoke to a member of the Public who had fallen off his bike while cycling on a footpath adjacent to the Orchard Hotel. The male stated …

Launch of the university professional services NOOC

The Changing University: Inside Nottingham - a post just for University Nottingham (UK, China and Malaysia) colleagues An earlier post invited views on the possibility of a University of Nottingham professional services NOOC (Nottingham Open Online Course). Following much discussion and a great deal of work by many colleagues a first four week course is …

Chemical Reaction

Fire! Reflections on a major incident In the evening of Friday September 12 I received a call from our Deputy Head of Security to alert me to a major fire at the University's Jubilee Campus. The building ablaze was the unfinished GlaxoSmithKline Carbon Neutral Laboratory for Sustainable Chemistry and, during the hours that followed, it …

Times and Sunday Times 2015 University League Table Top Placings

The Times and Sunday Times League Table 2015 A quick look at the top 25 in the all new Times/Sunday Times Good University Guide ranking for 2015. Full details can be found on the Sunday Times website (£). (Last year's position in brackets.) 1= (1) Cambridge 1= (2) Oxford 3 (4) St Andrews 4 (5) Imperial …

New 2014/15 QS World University Rankings

The latest QS world league table is out Full details of the rankings can be found at the QS website. A summary of the world top 10 follows where we find MIT retaining the top spot for a third consecutive year but really not a lot to grab the headlines here: Global top ten 1 …

True Crime on Campus §37: long hot summer

Even More True Crime on Campus It may be summer but our always vigilant Security staff are still on duty to ensure that every unlikely situation is dealt with: 08:05 Security reported an altercation between a driver and a cyclist at the end of the road leading up to the West Entrance Gatehouse on University …

2014 Academic Ranking of World Universities: Top 20 and UK placings

2014 ARWU University World Rankings: Top 20 and UK placings It feels like a strange time to publish a world ranking but ideal holiday reading for many. Anyway, as in previous years there is not a huge amount to get excited about as this is a league table where little changes. The full rankings have been published and …

More on Beyoncé and Ghostbusting courses

The Telegraph seems to have a bit of a thing about courses featuring popular music and musicians. Especialy Beyoncé. Recently they published this story about Beyoncé and Miley Cyrus studies being offered at US colleges: It will focus on the growth of the star’s media empire, with an emphasis on her roles as a “black …

Singalonga Higher Ed

Lyrical challenges at the University of Utah   Inside Higher Ed has a diverting piece on the changes being made to the University of Utah's 'fight song' to address some of the lyrical challenges of the original: The line “our coeds are the fairest” will be replaced with “our students are the finest” and the …

It’s graduation time again

It's gown and mortar board season Having realised that I've written quite a few posts on graduation in the past, and being short of something new to say as our graduation season kicks off this week, I thought I would bring together a few recent pieces on this most special of university occasions. So, here …

Celebrating Student Success

We really do have an outstanding Students' Union A nice new website publicising the University of Nottingham Students' Union's successes over the past year and its centenary celebrations: For the last week of the semester, your officers decided it was time to celebrate the things we’d achieved. So, we launched our very first Celebration Week. …