First Impressions
This week's competition, in which you have to identify a book from its opening sentence, is from a story of three generations: "At the age of fifteen my grandmother became the concubine of a warlord...
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Spars & Gripes: Ear for the death rattle of an empire
Emmanuel Todd has endured severe flak for his views on the US. Laurie Taylor invited the author of bestseller After the Empire to defend his stance in the first of a series of controversial opinions...
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Banking on more reliable evidence
Despite the conviction of a Libyan intelligence agent for the Lockerbie bombing, Robert Black QC, who helped bring the case to trial, has doubts about the outcome, as he tells Adam James Academics do...
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Will game end on foul play?
Stephen Phillips reports on how scandal has damaged the status of US college sports Murray Sperber thought it prudent to go check out the house he'd inherited in Montreal and to make himself scarce...
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'It's no whitewash but it shows why we work here'
Do TV portrayals of university life do more harm than good? Anna Fazackerley reports on what happened when Bristol let the cameras in With political debates on top-up fees and access to higher...
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Hit all the right buttons or just flash the cash
One-off bursaries and highly focused marketing are two ways in which courses are attracting students in the battle to stay viable. Harriet Swain reports Top-up fee-fuelled debates about the...
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Laurie Taylor column
UNIVERSITY OF POPPLETON Dear Georgina Middleton, It gives me great pleasure to invite you to receive your degree certificate at the graduation ceremony to be held in the university's Monsanto Hall at...
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'Superstar' rating is not the issue
The Association of University Teachers, like many organisations and academics, is unable to distinguish the wood from the trees as far as the research assessment exercise is concerned ("Union puts...
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No disservice
Anthony Glees ("Scholars thwart spies", April 9) is right to "accuse" academics of scepticism about the claims of western security services that they are the defenders of democracy. If they are doing...
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European brief
Nancy Rothwell is right to raise the large number of European issues that directly affect the higher education sector (Opinion, April 2). Policy emerging from both the European Parliament and the...
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Expert at fault
It matters not that the so-called Meadow's law was taken from previous research ("'Incensed' Southall attacks press slurs", April 9). As an expert witness in the Sally Clark case, Sir Roy Meadow was...
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Trade imbalance
I was astonished by Michael Derham's prediction that graduates will feel increasing anger and envy that "welders, steel erectors and plumbers continue to earn and live better" ("No real degree of...
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Drug culture 1
Simon Festing claims that if we want new treatments and cures, then animal research is necessary (Soapbox, April 9). It is impossible to study human diseases in any other species. Emotive claims of...
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Drug culture 2
I was concerned to see you describe the self-styled Coalition for Medical Progress as "an umbrella group of research funders that promotes public dialogue about animal research" ("Anger at centre for...
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Out of form
The fear of failure among fine art students, lamented by Joanne Lee ("Why I", April 2), may be a consequence of the comparative formlessness of their fine art courses. Is there any other degree...