Category Archives: maybe politics

dangerous stuff?

HEFCE and open access

Posted on 01/05/2013 by

I read the HEFCE document that Ursula drew attention to in her comment on my recent post about the LMS and open access. There are a couple of things we should be aware of. It is a consultation document, released … Continue reading →

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The LMS and open access

Posted on 25/04/2013 by

The London Mathematical Society is launching a new open-access journal, to be called the Transactions of the London Mathematical Society, to stand alongside their Bulletin, Journal and Proceedings. Apart from the obvious reason (that nobody knows what is going to … Continue reading →

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The future of universities

Posted on 13/03/2013 by

Film was one of the great inventions of the nineteenth century. For a century and a half, it was developed and improved, innovations such as colour and moving pictures were made, and photographers used it in artistic and creative ways. … Continue reading →

Posted in maybe politics, teaching, technology | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

Another portrait of decline

Posted on 10/01/2013 by

It’s hard not to believe there is some deep unease in Australian universities when two books come along at once; after Donald Meyers’ Australian Universities: a Portrait of Decline comes Richard Hil’s Whackademia, or rather WHACKADEMIA, as the cover has … Continue reading →

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A portrait of decline

Posted on 27/12/2012 by

Some books are so splendidly angry that, even as you read them and get sad and depressed by what they reveal, you can’t help enjoying the sight of the baddies getting what they deserve. One such book, which I read … Continue reading →

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Council for the Defence of British Universities

Posted on 12/11/2012 by

For decades, UK universities have been bound by increasingly restrictive management practices, loaded with endlessly augmented administrative burdens, and stretched virtually to breaking point. Now, in the two years since the publication of the Browne Review, “a radical reform of … Continue reading →

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If enough people say it …

Posted on 25/10/2012 by

… will they listen? City AM is a London free paper addressed to the business community. I don’t usually read the business pages of the papers, and this free sheet confirms my prejudices. The vast majority of its content consists … Continue reading →

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Irish interlude

Posted on 28/08/2012 by

I have been at the Irish Mathematical Society September meeting (no, this is not an Irish joke) in Tallaght, just outside Dublin. I learned some interesting mathematics at the meeting. But I was quite struck by the interest and discussion … Continue reading →

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Brief update on publishing

Posted on 13/07/2012 by

A couple of quick things about publishing. First, some good news. The court case between Nature and its reporter Quirin Schiermeier, on one side, and Mohamed El Naschie, the editor of the dodgy Elsevier journal Chaos, Solitons and Fractals, on … Continue reading →

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Open access, again

Posted on 25/06/2012 by

I had not intended to come back to this so soon. But a government-sponsored report of a committee on the subject, chaired by Dame Janet Finch CBE and including probabilist and statistician Peter Donnelly, appeared earlier this month, and it … Continue reading →

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