Off Piste: Keep 'em guessing
The ability to improvise is a crucial sign of high intelligence. So why, wonders Steve Fuller, does it enjoy so little status within the academy?
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Leader: On your marks, get set ..
Despite some progress, this year's Green League reveals that universities are still failing to deliver a lead on sustainability
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Simeon Lowy, 1921-2008
Simeon Lowy, a highly regarded scholar and lecturer of Hebrew and Jewish studies, has died of old age at 87.Rabbi Dr Lowy taught at the University of Leeds for nearly 30 years in what was the Semitic...
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University of Oxford - Ethical nerve centre
The UK's first neuroethics centre will open at the University of Oxford following an award of more than £800,000 from the Wellcome Trust. The grant has been awarded to Julian Savulescu, a member of...
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Examining the examiners
Geoffrey Alderman's wishes in respect of the external examiner system are not entirely clear. He wants "a complete overhaul", but he also wants its abolition ("External examiners under pressure to...
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Alternative view 1
Robert Verkerk, chief executive of the Alliance of Natural Health, said: "You can't apply (to homoeopathy) the existing interpretation of evidence-based medicine, which says RCTs (randomised...
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Alternative view 2
The criteria for the Laing chair in complementary medicine at the University of Exeter currently held by Edzard Ernst include the following:"to provide leadership within the national scene in the...
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Taking up poll position 1
The article "Where has all the passion gone?" (26 June) is interesting but the Opinionpanel poll is certainly not "the first poll of UK university students' political affiliations", even though its...
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Taking up poll position
Reading the article on the alleged decline in student radicalism and Paul Whiteley's views on the lack of Marxists in his classes these days, I am tempted to suggest that your reporter should get out...
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Raising the alarm
Sir Colin Campbell's claim that the arrests of the "Nottingham Two" is not a matter of academic freedom (Letters, 19 June) is not acceptable. He essentially admits the charges laid at his door by...
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Looking on the bright side
I'd like to set a few matters straight in response to Duncan Wu's rather dismissive review of my book Sunshine (19 June). I could live with the jibes about the use of the first person and the "...
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Knowledge is power
The Confederation of British Industry press release embargoed until 23 June ("The week in higher education", 26 June) came as a surprise to many of us since director-general Richard Lambert was...
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No NSS flag-waving here
National Union of Students president Wes Streeting (Letters, 26 June) fails to engage with Lee Harvey's criticisms of the National Student Survey ("Jumping through hoops on a white elephant", 12 June...
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Green shoots
Galvanised by last year's inaugural league table, universities across the UK have been busily redrafting environment policies and cutting energy consumption - but there's still a long way to go....
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The state of the union
The shrinking pool of potential students is putting new pressures on US universities. But if some are learning to adapt, others seem to have a 'nascent death wish'. Jon Marcus reports