Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/letters/10870609/The-damaging-bureaucracy-of-academic-peer-preview.html The damaging bureaucracy of academic peer preview Academic funding agencies should support research in unfashionable fields 10:35PM BST 02 Jun 2014 SIR – Under current policies, academic researchers must submit their proposals to a small group of their closest competitors – their peers – for consideration before they might be funded. Peers… Continue reading The damaging bureaucracy of academic peer preview – Telegraph
Ursula Mittwoch – “Be kind to colleagues”
It was a privilege and a pleasure to attend Ursula Mittwoch’s birthday reception in the Housman Room at UCL on 18 March 2014. Ursula’s contributions to genetics underly what we know and are even inclined, perhaps, to take for granted today. Interview by Peter Harper on 2 March 2004 From reading such authors as J.… Continue reading Ursula Mittwoch – “Be kind to colleagues”
What do universities actually do?
Now with comments. The question remains. “How should they do it?” makes little sense without it being answered.
A university is… | Comments welcomed
A university is a community of scholars whose purpose is to advance and disseminate knowledge. Research advances knowledge. Teaching disseminates it. Research requires freedom, supportive infrastructure, cooperation, communication, and trust. Teaching is communication and critical examination of existing knowledge within an open society where nothing is beyond question and where knowledge is thus free to… Continue reading A university is… | Comments welcomed
What do universities actually do?
Following items in Times Higher Education, good friends currently correspond on Twitter concerning first-hand experiences working in different universities in the USA, Germany, and the UK. I’ve long thought that what is missing from discussion of topics such “management” and “value for money” is an agreed description of what is a university’s output or “product”.… Continue reading What do universities actually do?
Perspective
The subject of the header photograph; you; me; the remarkable people who built and sent the camera; all our homes, history, hopes, fears, aspirations:– Bright ‘Evening Star’ Seen from Mars is Earth Fig. 1 (do view full-screen) includes the evening horizon, giving depth from perspective. Breathtaking. Wish Carl Sagan could have seen this. “The distance… Continue reading Perspective
Header Photograph taken near Parco Filisofico, Anacapri, on 28 August 2015.
Original header photograph taken at Otago Peninsula on 17 March 2007.
First things first
Prompted by a post on Robinince’s Blog I thought it’s about time I tried this, too.