So, what’s your name? It’s Marta. Oh, Magda! I have a friend… No, that would be another popular Polish name. But mine is Marta. Manga? Well that sounds Japanese! No, actually it’s Marta. M-A-R-T-A Oh! Ma-ta! You know what? Just call me Martha. …and that’s even before we get to my last name: Wróblewska (oh […] … learn more→
Monthly Archives: July 2016
What’s in a name? Introducing yourself in academia
Maximise your chances of passing MRCP – Part 1
As a medical student, you are probably used to exams and having to revise, but sometimes you might need a little helping hand. Whether you have already figured out which revision technique works best for you, or you’re not quite sure where to start, medical school can be taxing at times. With so much knowledge […] … learn more→
Your part time PhD doesn’t have to be your life
I am reading an HBR article on LinkedIn when I spot an opportunity to work from home 2 days a week. It is a volunteering Marketing Director role with a social enterprise. I quickly email the CEO of the company and I make my interest known. I tell him I’m currently doing my doctorate part […] … learn more→
Pension funds officially doomed
I’ve touched on this before as regards higher education, but more needs to be said. Majority of Pensions Headed for Bankruptcy I mostly talk about higher education, but something’s been bugging me, and higher education is usually pretty quiet over the summer (which is why we don’t need legions of highly paid full time administrators, […] … learn more→
How we are working to help wipe out modern slavery
It is all too easy to assume that slavery has been consigned to the history books given that slavery was abolished in this country 200 years ago. The reality is that it continues to this day and is much closer to our everyday lives than we might imagine or like to acknowledge. In most towns […] … learn more→
Why universities’ ‘academic English’ courses should be valued, not vilified
Every year hundreds of thousands of applicants from China, Brazil, Angola, Iran and other non-English speaking countries vie fiercely for places on universities’ English for Academic Purposes courses. They know that successfully completing these programmes will help them get into universities around the world that use English as their medium of instruction. There is no […] … learn more→
John Gatto And Higher Ed
“The computer business is exclusively the work of school dropouts…” —John Taylor Gatto, who then goes on to list every single luminary in the computer business…and tells us when each luminary dropped out. John Taylor Gatto is, or should be, a national treasure. He won many teaching awards, but then walked away from the profession […] … learn more→
The untold story of Middle America’s regional universities
Take exit 272 off Nebraska’s interstate highway, Route 80, and you will soon be in the city of Kearney in the Platte River Valley. Renowned as the best place in the world to see migratory sandhill cranes, Kearney (population 30,000) is also home to an arm of the state university system. With 5,200 undergraduates and […] … learn more→
“Thucydides” on “Right to work”
Moose McGillicuddy had just opened his tavern on a quiet weekday morning, wanting to do some cleaning before people began to stop in for lunch. He was having a hot cup of coffee sitting at the bar and reading the Daily Standard. A headline caught his eye: “Legislator introduces RTW bill.” It was Rep. John […] … learn more→
What’s at stake in China’s claims to the South China Sea?
It’s now official: the South China Sea does not belong to China. Official, that is, according to a new ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Not so official, however, for China itself, which has summarily rejected the ruling, saying it “will neither […] … learn more→