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Category - universities

  • 27 Jan 2013
    Research Excellence Framework (REF) and the changing face of academia

    What sort of work can any academic department achieve when it is fenced into a little box with no room to manoeuvre of its own accord? Jonathan Tuckett, who is doing research in phenomenology at the University of Stirling, asks the question with regard to an appraisal of issues and dilemmas related to the Research Excellence Framework (REF) and the culture of - often imprecise - measurement and categorisation increasingly imposed upon universities and colleges.

  • 18 Dec 2012
    Creativity, academia and Critical Religion

    It is widely acknowledged among those who still care that academia in the UK is in very serious trouble, says Dr Michael Marten from the University of Stirling. The most infamous embodiment of the current malaise is a mechanism imposed upon universities by successive Westminster governments: a system of ‘research assessment’ driven by an ideology of neo-liberal commodification. Alternative perspectives and mechanisms are badly needed, he says.

  • 31 Aug 2012
    Government treatment of overseas students undermines UK universities

    Withdrawal of London Metropolitan University’s right to accept non-European Union students threatens both individuals and higher education in the UK.

  • 31 Jan 2012
    Christian students to explore education cuts with faith and activism

    The Student Christian Movement are inviting students to join the debate about education cuts and tuition fees at their annual conference next month.

  • 2 Sep 2011
    Musicology and philosophy, religion and political science

    Why it is that so few ‘secular’ scholars engage meaningfully with ‘religion’, wonders Michael Marten. Or to put it another way: why is it that so many religion scholars depend upon and practice disciplinary heterogeneity, whereas many of the scholars they use do not appear to engage substantially with what they write?

  • 23 Jun 2011
    The role of the university amplified

    Pursuing the topic of the role of the university in an age of economic constraint and multiple other social and political pressures, Dr Andrew Hass from the University of Stirling proposes a fourfold way of rethinking universities and their purpose beyond the restrictive, and ultimately self-defeating, parameters set by the economic and business paradigms.

  • 6 Jun 2011
    Richard Dawkins under pressure over support for private university

    Richard Dawkins is under pressure over his commitment to teach in a new private university that has been branded as elitist by equality campaigners.

  • 4 Jun 2011
    Academics debate the future of the University in a hostile climate

    Economic pressure on tertiary education needs to be addressed with proper critical thinking rather than simply complied with or ignored, professors say.

  • 4 Jun 2011
    What is a University for?

    The breadth and quality of education universities once offered is now being seriously eroded by underfunding, says Dr Andrew W. Hass from the University of Stirling. But funding is not where the deeper crisis lies, he suggests. Cutbacks are just the symptom of a greater underlying problem. The real problem is an identity crisis. What is 'the university' for?

  • 22 May 2011
    Government warned over dangers of moneymaking in higher education

    A report from a government-funded body has warned of the dangers of the coalition's policy of encouraging ‘for-profit’ providers in the higher education sector.