Following some irregularities, the UK Border Agency has revoked London Metropolitan University's visa license. Not only can the university no longer recruit overseas (non-EU) students (a major source of income for all UK universities, and one of the few things that stops them from going bankrupt), but their existing overseas students have been told ( Read more... )

Yet another Downfall parody, this time on the travails of academic publishing.

Click to view

(shamelessly pinched from lionsphil)

Unlike the rest of my friends list, I'm not (primarily) going to be posting about Terry's knighthood (although that is nonetheless very good news).

Instead, I'm posting about Wendy Hall, my former PhD supervisor, who has been made a Dame in the New Years Honours list.

Jolly good news, and much deserved.

So, what is the correct response when your senior colleague comes into your office with a half-bottle of undrinkable Cava that he then proceeds to spray over your ceiling, walls, whiteboard, chair, and floor? Especially when his response is to giggle like a maniac? This was before 9am, by the way.

My office now smells of stale cava...

Dammit. I would have got a perfect 5.0 on my teaching evaluation from my students, had one of them not given me a 4 (good) instead of a 5 (very good).

I shall have to be satisfied with a near-perfect 4.89.

This morning, it was Isobel's turn to wake up shouting at the radio. UCU have agreed to put UCEA's offer of 13.1% to their membership (and not, as the BBC put it, agreed to the increase - learn how a democratic union operates!), so the industrial action will be suspended for the duration of the balloting procedure. I can't say that I'm happy with ( Read more... )

There's nothing quite so likely to give me indigestion at lunchtime than reading about the latest antics of certain vice chancellors in the Times Higher. Today's edition has a beaut of a story: David VandeLinde, the VC of Warwick University (and formerly VC of Bath University, which is where I know of him from) is introducing US-style academic ( Read more... )

It's nice to know that your profession is held in such high esteem by the general public. The BBC has a story on the TUC's unpaid overtime survey, and the comments on "lecturers and their thirteen week paid holidays each year" are making me depressed and furious by turns.