It’s official: the people of Great Britain have lost faith. New research from the British Social Attitudes survey reveals that 71% of young people are not religious. Overall, 53% of the population in England and Wales are non-religious. It is the first time that following a religion has been a minority position. Only 18% of […] … learn more→

  It’s fair to say that the UK was always ambivalent about Europe. The primary reason for European Economic Community and European Union membership was the economic benefits, and the sensible centre of British politics took the view that, in essence, “we can take the benefits of EU membership without becoming European”. The UK attitude […] … learn more→

It really is amazing the level of scrutiny Trump gets. Every action, no matter how trivial, gets blown up and represented as negatively as possible. Even when he got a second scoop of ice cream, the media did what they could represent his getting a bit extra as yet another sign that he’s literally Hitler. […] … learn more→

Canada’s recent results in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) have been celebrated widely. In August 2017, the BBC marked Canada as an “education superpower” because we were one of the top-ranking countries. In fact, in-depth analysis indicates that our high school students’ performance has remained stagnant over the past decade. Even more troubling, […] … learn more→

If you step on to a university campus in any town or city across the UK, chances are that most of the students you will see will all be of a similar age. Yes, there may be the odd “mature student”, but for the most part, a lot of the students look to be in […] … learn more→

Let me begin by saying I’m not a poet. And when I commenced my PhD a year ago I certainly didn’t set out to document my PhD journey using an ancient Japanese form of poetry known as haiku. And yet, here I am, 15 months in, confirmed and about to analyse the data from my […] … learn more→

It’s troubling to think that at any moment you might open an email that looks like it comes from your employer, a relative or your bank, only to fall for a phishing scam. Any one of the endless stream of innocent-looking emails you receive throughout the day could be trying to con you into handing […] … learn more→

In our last posts, we gave recommendations for the Department of Education as it heads into the first year of granting forgiveness to public service employees who fulfill the requirements of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, and recommendations to improve outreach, including tips for borrowers. But those questions are only a part of the […] … learn more→

Perhaps our academic departments aren’t as useful or even practical as they seem. We’re used to them, they’re certainly convenient, and we sometimes cling to them to offer protection, identity and a physical location – but they can be more of a barrier than a benefit. One of our challenges as academics is that we’re […] … learn more→

The “Horse Whisperer” and “Dog Whisperer” are amazing people, and I encourage the gentle reader to watch at least a few of their shows, as they demonstrate both the individual capability of those people, and the ability of humanity to handle and control animals in ways that you simply do not see in the other […] … learn more→