Category: Teaching

  • 18/03/2021
    Via John Naughton’s newsletter, I learned that Jonathan Sternberg died. I did not know him, having only come across his…
  • 31/07/2020
    No Mercy / No Malice / Killer whales The killer whales (cash cows) of high-tuition prestige universities are international students.…
  • 30/07/2020
    More accurately, late night thoughts from 26 years ago. I have no written record of my Edinburgh inaugural, but my…
  • 06/07/2020
    Meliorism certified In 1947, Hobsbawm had excused his acceptance of the Birkbeck post by explaining that teaching preparations never took…
  • 28/10/2019
    I am generally nervous about doctors or academics working for the government. Not that I think the roles are unnecessary,…
  • 26/08/2019
     Size matters Pace my earlier post, The Economist writes about the increase in student numbers at many UK universities (and…
  • 03/07/2019
    Statistics and empathy An economist may have strong views on the benefits of vaccination, for example, but is still no…
  • 24/06/2019
    TEF or REF? Smith was supported by earnings from his professorship at Glasgow, where a university teacher’s earnings depended on…
  • 10/04/2019
    [University] teaching awards seemed to have been added like sticking plasters to organisations whose values lay elsewhere. Graham Gibbs, Item…
  • 13/02/2019
    This is from an article in the THE. Catherine Heymans is a physicist at the University of Edinburgh, who works…