Education Resources

Your readers will emerge much better informed about the Boston College-Belfast Project case having read Peter Geoghegan's informed piece rather than John Brewer's speculative letter on the subject (respectively, "If trust is lost, future...

In June last year, Sally Hunt, general secretary of the University and College Union, wrote in the New Statesman that "the prospect of 800,000 teachers in schools, colleges and universities being on strike should concentrate government minds"....

It was the students who pushed for anonymous marking at the University of East Anglia, brought in, as I understand it, due to the "fairness" argument ("Attributive justice", 26 January). However, the recent introduction of more formative...

Jane Hardy claims to write in a personal capacity ("Pension protection", Letters, 26 January), yet she is standing at the forthcoming UCU national executive committee elections as a member of the Socialist Workers Party-dominated UCU Left....

"Lean" approaches to cost reduction work best when an organisation has clear objectives with clear ideas on how specific activities contribute (or fail to contribute) to achieving them ("In hungry times, post-92s grow keen on Lean", 12 January).

The touchingly recurrent motif of a university core executive afflicted by incipient narcolepsy informs Peter Hill's assessment of the divergent purposes of the art school and the university ("The art of the matter", 19 January).

Has Peter B. Baker not heard of alpha particles ("Compound the error", Letters, 26 January)? These are helium nuclei. Just add electrons. No need for chemistry, alchemy or nuclear fusion: radioactive fission can do the job. University College...

Am I alone in my profound discomfort regarding middle-aged men employing substantially younger women in advisory roles, whose main job seems to be to tell them how inspirational and visionary they are ("Who let them in?", 19 January)?

I read with interest Peter Geoghegan's tale of the Boston College-Belfast Project tapes. While the case has been covered extensively in serious newspapers and blogs, readers relying on his account alone will be left ill-informed ("If trust...

Keith Vaz is right: the government needs to do everything in its power to reassure international students that we value their presence at our universities - and take their safety when in the UK seriously ("Visitors deserve the best", 12...

In response to the shortage of helium for his research, Ray Dolan, a professor at University College London's Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, suggests that in the long run it might be possible to synthesise the gas at much greater...

At its special meeting last Friday, the national executive committee of the University and College Union rejected the government's heads-of-agreement offer on the Teachers' Pension Scheme. The offer made no significant changes to the coalition's...

It would be surprising if many academics believed that there was a "silver bullet" that would eliminate plagiarism through a detection system alone ("Don't count on a 'silver bullet'", 19 January). Experience and good practice would indicate...

The University of Sussex's proposal to close its Centre for Community Engagement seems to conflict with the institution's stated aims to widen access and to engage more with the local community. The proposed closure comes at a time when...

The anonymous writer of "Poverty of vision pays well" (Letters, 19 January) underestimates the depth of each vice-chancellor's vision, which today far exceeds a mere preoccupation with league tables.

Four profiles of vice-chancellors' policy advisers ("Who let them in?", 19 January): all young[ish] and female. Hardly a scientific sample, I admit, but the typical UK vice-chancellor: old[er] and male.

The Harvard University report on the appalling record of for-profit companies in the US is timely ("US for-profits leave students worse off", 12 January).

The recent (and recurring) debate regarding the state-independent divide in Oxbridge admissions ("Super-selection creates a monoculture that does not benefit society", 15 December, and the subsequent letters in response) reminded me yet...

Call me a desiccated husk if you like, but vice-chancellors all have the same vision - and it invariably comes to nothing ("V-cs, it might be time for us to have a talk about a pay review", 12 January).

George Fieldman says that it would be unfair to penalise privately educated schoolchildren by imposing a quota system on Oxbridge in proportion to the number of such children in the education sector generally ("Simply pick the best", Letters,...