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Grant winners - 19 September 2013

Royal SocietyLeverhulme Trust Senior Research FellowshipsThe scheme is designed for scientists who would benefit from a period of full-time research without teaching and administrative duties....

News in brief - 19 September 2013

TaiwanWrong formula for libelA court has dismissed a libel case against an academic whose research suggested that emissions from an industrial conglomerate’s chemical plants had raised cancer rates...

David Barker, 1938-2013

A researcher who revolutionised the study of fetal development and its long-term impact on health has died

Appointments - 19 September 2013

University of WolverhamptonGary Sheffield“I’ve been interested in military history for almost as long as I can remember,” said Gary Sheffield, who has been appointed professor of war studies at the...

THE Scholarly Web - 19 September 2013

Weekly transmissions from the blogosphere

Open society

John Kaag is not up to speed with meetings culture (“Short is sweet”, Opinion, 12 September). It is not rude to have your laptop or tablet open during a meeting: in the era of the paperless office,...

Plucky, blameless Belgians

In his review of July 1914: Countdown to War by Sean McMeekin, A. W. Purdue says: “The question of which, if any, nation was responsible for the First World War remains open.” In 1919, someone said...

Two years? Yes we can

In the article “In UK, two-year courses still too short a season” (News, 12 September), you mention a report by Ella Ritchie, former pro vice-chancellor for teaching and learning at Newcastle...

Actually existing solution

Alessandra Lopez y Royo argues that “free market principles have changed and ruined the academy” (Opinion, 22 August), and states that she would “think long and hard” before advising others to carve...

Practical lessons

I was disappointed with “Failure analysis” (From where I sit, 5 September). Failure anticipation and analysis in higher education teaching and learning, a part of what in engineering might be termed...

Light or dark, still blue

Siana Bangura defends a “holistic” Oxbridge application process but offers no evidence to support her claims (Letters, 29 August). Peter Millican serves up a flawed thesis on the benefits of...

Philistine spirit of today’s political age

When Joe Hockey, the Liberal Party opposition Treasury spokesman, ridiculed an Australian Research Council-funded project on the German philosopher G. W. F. Hegel (“The God of Hegel’s Post-Kantian...

Piled Higher and Deeper, by Jorge Cham - 19 September 2013

National strike ballot called on pay but Liverpool dispute resolved

Union members in higher education will be balloted for industrial action over the employers’ 1 per cent pay offer

FutureLearn Moocs unveiled

Registration on the UK’s first massive open online course platform has opened following a launch at the British Library.