Don's diary: A global nomad
Tuesday Setting off for an expert meeting on backpacking, I find, despite my supposed expertise in the subject, that I am overloaded. Every time I travel, I swear I will travel lighter next time. The...
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The gravy train
The Diary is pleased to announce the results of the competition to name the train that Universities UK was due to charter to transport vice-chancellors to its conference next week. The winning entry...
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Obscure pursuits
More entries have arrived in the search for the most outstandingly obscure academic journal. Suggestions include the Journal of Memetics , which contains a paper titled "The six essentials? Minimal...
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The science of profit
An interesting extra event is scheduled to take place at next week's science festival in Leicester. The British Association is advertising a talk called "The price of progress? Cashing in on the...
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An essay on deceit
The Diary wonders how many essays former lecturer Elizabeth Hall had to write to raise the sum she paid to her former employer this week. Ms Hall, who runs a business selling essays to students, is...
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Spin dry online
Students in the US need never worry that someone is interfering with their wash after the launch of a cyberlaundry service. The eSuds system uses washers and dryers linked to the internet to allow...
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True-blue boozing
Tory students at the University of Sheffield have an unusual approach to recruiting freshers. On the university's website, Richard Clough, the former president of Conservative Future Sheffield,...
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Elementary celebrity
Sherlock Holmes, Robin Hood and James Bond are among the best-known Britons in Russia, according to a poll of Russian students conducted by the British Council. While royalty and politicians...
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Why so little attention to such a big disease?
As HIV/Aids sweeps through Africa, many universities are acting as if it is business as usual, writes Alan Whiteside. HIV is probably the most studied virus of all time. Since it was identified,...
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Today's news
We are cool, Conservatives to tell students Iain Duncan Smith is to lead the Conservative Party on a 鈥渓ive and unplugged tour鈥 of Britain鈥檚 universities. Shadow ministers will try to persuade...
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Historian ditches 'naive' UK
One of Oxford's top historians, who is poised to leave for the US, has criticised the "naive egalitarian assumptions" made about higher education funding in the UK. Niall Ferguson, professor of...
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Two-slit, you are simply stunning
The most beautiful experiment in physics involves passing single electrons through a double slit in a demonstration of quantum mechanics. Readers of the magazine Physics World and the website...
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Green students scoop 拢400,000
The BP Conservation Programme, which supports student-led field projects around the world, is to treble the amount of funding it makes available, writes Steve Farrar. The scheme, which is inviting...
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Scientists round on bestselling author
The academic knives are out for Stephen Wolfram, the scientist who snubbed modern scientific convention to publish his ideas in a bestselling book. Leading figures in complexity theory have accused...
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Next week
News Vice-chancellors get to grips with the economy of British universities Features Alan Ayckbourn talks comedy with stand-up comic and lecturer Oliver Double; Stephen Court examines the role of...