Small colleges daunted by the prospect of PFI
As the Standing Conference of Principals' representative on the Department for Education and Employment Private Finance Initiative committee, I must take issue with your reporter(s) who consistently...
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Robin robbed
The impact of cuts concerns us all, but few have yet changed nationality for that reason. Such, however, was the fate of Robin Hood (THES, April 12). By removing a reference to his opponent Gilbert,...
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Grade inflation: true or false?
As the academies warn that research capability is under threat, Colin Lawson suggests ways to protect standards in teaching. In the past 20 years the most likely degree grade has risen in many...
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Complex Christopher
Our article "Shards of Genius" (THES, March 29) was both truncated and garbled in the sub-editorial process. Christopher's genius for learning languages is in marked contrast with his poor...
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Fears over school pupils on courses
I write to place your front page article, "Colleges plan to enrol children" (THES, April 5) in perspective. The initial enquiry (to me) related to the Dearing report and in particular my attitude...
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Triffid compulsion to reference
Sarah Nelson's article "Best footnote forward" (THES, April 12), seems to me to be based on cultural misunderstandings between the world of journalism and the world of academic writing. I frequently...
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Triffid compulsion to reference
Sarah Nelson's antipathy to the excessive use of references in social science publications commands sympathy. Could I point out that aspiring postgraduates (however much they may agree with her), if...
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Science base rocked to core
As the academies warn that research capability is under threat, Tony Trinci puts flesh on the bones they rattle. The November 1995 Budget represents a defining moment for university education and...
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Masterly nonsense
What a lovely spoof ("All-year study is inevitable", THES, April 12)! But a little over the top. The evidently fictitious "Lady Blackstone" (nice touch) was clearly too remote from the realities of...
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Don's Diary
SATURDAY. Heathrow. LOT flight to Warsaw. A strange journey indeed. Read Primo Levi. Reflect on his words about being so preoccupied by power and money that we forget our essential fragility - "...
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Mergers in times of emergency
There can be few industries in which both the employers' bodies and the trade unions are simultaneously contemplating their futures. Further education is one of them. John Akker (THES, March 29)...
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Crumbling certainties
Deng Xiaoping, the so-called "paramount leader" of China, is still presumed to be alive. However, recent reports from Beijing have revealed that any utterance of the patriarch must be "interpreted"...
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Blue wails in sight
Will the Tories, as before, stage an eleventh-hour recovery and snatch victory from Labour's grasp? Ivor Crewe thinks not Last week's emphatic Labour win in the prosperous, middle England...
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From 'Ugg' to an exchange of ideas
How did early man learn to talk? James Hurford discovers that psychologists, anthropologists, linguists and neurologists all have something to say on the subject. What was the origin of human...
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GNVQ success
The number of students aiming for General National Vocational Qualifications and places in higher education grew by 4 per cent last year, a report from the Universities and Colleges Admissions...