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Q&A with John Bercow

We speak to the Speaker of the House of Commons and chancellor of the University of Bedfordshire

World in brief - 10 April 2014

TurkeyAlleged appointment interferenceTurkey’s prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan interfered in the selection of two university leaders, it has been alleged after the leaking of audio files. Posted...

News in brief - 10 April 2014

InternationalisationHopes and fears, globally speakingUniversities around the world fear the “commodification and commercialization of education”, according to a survey. The International Association...

Grant winners - 10 April 2014

Leverhulme TrustResearch Project GrantsHumanitiesAward winner: Clive GambleInstitution: University of SouthamptonValue: £163,228Seasonality, mobility and storage in Palaeolithic hunting...

Removal in progress

“What is the value of pro vice-chancellors?” asked Jamie Targett rhetorically in The Poppletonian (3 April). Glyndwr University agrees: its restructuring plan removes the remaining pro v-cs, and the...

Memorable monikers

One gets the impression that the QM(U)L staff’s view of management would include a number of highly memorable four-letter “phonetics” (“Short shrift for QML’s short form”, 3 April). Perhaps they...

Alternative reality

Three cheers for Mary Midgley (“I am more than the sum of my parts”, 3 April) and her campaign to insist on common sense truths such as that we have free will. Philosophers like Midgley are needed...

Gilded pages

As a new junior lecturer 10 years ago, a colleague commented that she had visions of me secretly squirrelling pots of money away. In that spirit, I was wondering whether anyone else noticed the...

Channelling talent

“Look at any real population of academic staff…you’ll see not a uniform group of similarly capable, functionally equivalent individuals, but a tremendous diversity of strengths, working styles and...

Lost in house of mirrors

Sir David Watson is right about the divisive effect of the “Russellers” (“‘Russellers’ are not all they claim, senior scholar warns”, 3 April). While there is something boorishly predictable about a...

Your salary can make you sick

It seems clear that vice-chancellors in the UK are catching a bad case of what the Americans call “CEO disease” (“The big business of remuneration”, 3 April). A search on Google for “CEO disease”...

Piled Higher and Deeper, by Jorge Cham - 10 April 2014

The week in higher education - 10 April 2014

The compelling saga of how Queen Mary University of London (no comma, remember) should be abbreviated has reached a conclusion. In an email to staff on 4 April, principal Simon Gaskell said he had...

Budgeting rules adjusted to manage costs of student loans

Change in guidance meant to ‘incentivise’ BIS to check long-term costs

Schools must work with universities to ensure optimal teacher training

School Direct needs collaborations, not a ‘them and us’ attitude, forum hears