The Plashing Vole

The annals of junk science are long and storied: one only has to look at the work of Ben Goldacre , David Colquhoun and Edzard Ernst ...

Like most academics right now, I'm marking: dissertations, essays, presentations, performances and online collaborative work. Unlike man...

Apologies – if any are necessary – for absence for the last couple of weeks. It's been the end of semester, so I've been marking pre...

Things that have really ground my gears this week : Unpromising election results; The most outrageous bullying from management (apparently...

Good Friday! You catch me in a mood of unaccustomed indeterminacy. On the one hand, my wonderful students voted to give me an award yesterd...

Good afternoon from what is surely the only university that simultaneously threatens the entire teaching staff of c. 750 people with discipl...

I'm back in the office - have been for a couple of days, after popping over to see the mother and assorted siblings and their children o...

Today's my last day in the office before I take an Easter break, which is no doubt a relief for all concerned. I've had the place to...

I imagine you are as bored of my anguished rants about the twists and turns of Higher Education as I am, and I fully planned to turn to ligh...

My friends in the refined universities are all on strike and having a great time - they're losing a lot of money but they're reconne...

One of the things that I find difficult is focus, particularly around work. I am, as you may have noticed, intensely interested in politics,...