I was making small talk with a medical technician during a health check a few months ago. After hearing I was a senior lecturer teaching Chinese politics at the University of Sydney, she commented: “It must be very hard for you.” My first thought was that she meant it must have been hard to teach […] … learn more→
Blog Archives
Teaching Chinese politics in Australia: polarised views leave academics between a rock and a hard place
With campus co-operatives, universities could model new ways of living after COVID-19
Even before COVID-19, things weren’t going all that well on post-secondary campuses across Canada. Research before and during the pandemic has revealed that food and housing insecurity are a major problem for many students and staff. There has been an acceleration towards commercial and branded spaces on public university campuses, which has come at the detriment of the very […] … learn more→
Does the UK need medical schools?
Clinical academics also flee to their labs from the lecture theatres. They know that involvement in undergraduate teaching – and its administration – early in their careers does not pay off. Better to concentrate on research – or else the postgraduate taught courses that bring in additional revenue. Explaining to non-medical colleagues how clinical undergraduate […] … learn more→
Book publishing sidelined in the game of university measurement and rankings
Academic book publishing is under threat. Global university rankings and competition for funding and international student enrolments are reshaping the research landscape. Academics are under more pressure to win grant funding and publish journal articles, rather than books, and be more strategic in their publishing. With universities losing billions in revenue due to the impacts of COVID-19, […] … learn more→
The return of in-person exams will be a relief – including to invigilators
The UK government’s announcement that all universities in England can resume in-person teaching from today will give a welcome boost not only to students but also to exam invigilators like me. Online exams were the only sensible option during the height of the pandemic – although it took some university departments quite a while to […] … learn more→
The thesis discussion – making the move work
This post comes back again at the discussion “chapter”. It seems you can never say too much about this tricky bit of the thesis. A caveat before I start. This post is written from a social science perspective and offers a fairly orthodox view of what a thesis has to do. I think it has […] … learn more→
Universities need a better menu of defences against cyber-vultures
Creating a learn-at-home experience in just a few weeks last year was an incredible achievement for universities. But this rapid shift created a problem: cyber-criminals have been gifted the perfect opportunity to target them. The University of Northampton’s recent experience shows how much damage these attacks can cause: its IT services – including email and […] … learn more→
Female leaders, throw those ‘boys’ undermining you a curveball
Most university senior women I know have had “the style” conversation at least once in their career. It goes something like this. The line manager of the female staff member asks for a meeting, or raises the matter during a performance-review meeting. There has been “feedback” about her, and it’s not positive, unfortunately. There is […] … learn more→
Other professions don’t tolerate public rudeness. Why do academics?
A few years ago, when conferences were still public events, I was midway through giving a paper when someone shouted out “You’re wrong!” – but offered no further elaboration. When I tell this tale to non-academic friends, they are typically horrified. Such public rudeness would not be tolerated in their workplaces, they say. Yet some […] … learn more→
How China has been transforming international education to become a leading host of students
When Australians think of international education and China, they typically consider the country as a source of international students — Australia’s largest. But China is now one of the leading host countries of international students in the world. China’s level of international education policymaking over the past decade, backed up by strategic priorities, has been unprecedented. My recently published research shows Chinese […] … learn more→
