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Apologists for Andrew Wakefield at Southampton University: a Russell group...
Jump to follow-up Almost all the revelations about what’s taught on university courses in alternative medicine have come from post-1992 universities. (For readers not in the UK, post-1992 universities...
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Professor Geoffrey Petts of the University of Westminster says they “are not...
Jump to follow-up On 23rd May 2008 a letter was sent to the vice-chancellor of the University of Westminster, Professor Geoffrey Petts Dear Professor Petts You may be aware an article by Zoe Corbyn,...
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Is Queen Mary University of London trying to commit scientific suicide?
Jump to follow-up Academic staff are going to be fired at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). It’s possible that universities may have to contract a bit in hard times, so what’s wrong? What’s wrong...
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Queen Mary, University of London in The Times. Does Simon Gaskell care?
Jump to follow-up A lot of people from around the world ready my last post, Is Queen Mary University of London trying to commit scientific suicide?. Nonetheless, the mainstream media reach a different...
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Ben Goldacre’s Bad Pharma. Buy it now. Then do something.
Jump to follow-up This is a very important book. Buy it now (that link is to Waterstone’s Amazon don’t pay tax in the UK, so don’t use them). When you’ve read it, do something about it. The book has...
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Blogs lead in critical thinking, but newspapers still matter
Jump to follow-up Here is a record of a couple of recent newspaper pieces. Who says the mainstream media don’t matter any longer? Blogs may be in the lead now when it comes to critical analysis. The...
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Science is harmed by hype. How to live for 969 years.
Jump to follow-up [This an update of a 2006 post on my old blog] The New York Times (17 January 2006) published a beautiful spoof that illustrates only too clearly some of the bad practices that have...
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UCL’s senior common room and the Boston marathon: emancipation in the 1960s,...
Jump to follow-up I have always been insanely proud to work at UCL. My first job was as an assistant lecturer. The famous pharmacologist, Heinz Otto Schild gave me that job in 1964, and apart from nine...
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Publish and perish at Imperial College London: the death of Stefan Grimm
Jump to follow-up This week’s Times Higher Education carried a report of the death, at age 51, of Professor Stefan Grimm: Imperial College London to ‘review procedures’ after death of academic. He was...
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Some experiences of life at Imperial College London. An external inquiry is...
Jump to follow-up The tragedy of the apparent suicide of Stefan Grimm is now known worldwide. His last email has been read by more than 160,000 people from over 200 countries. This post gathers...
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What to do about research assessment (the REF)? A proposal for two-stage...
Jump to follow-up DOI: 10.15200/winn.142809.94999 The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is the latest in a series of 6-yearly attempts to assess the quality of research in UK universities. It’s used...
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The University of Warwick brings itself into disrepute -four times. Watch...
Jump to follow-up The University of Warwick seems determined to wrest the title of worst employer from Imperial College London and Queen Mary College London. In little over a year, Warwick has had four...
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Are women still at a disadvantage in science?
Jump to follow-up There can be no doubt that the situation for women has improved hugely since I started at UCL, 50 years ago. At that time women were not allowed in the senior common room. It’s...
View ArticleThere are powerful currents whipping up the metric tide. The HEFCE metrics...
This is very quick synopsis of the 500 pages of a report on the use of metrics in the assessment of research. It’s by far the most thorough bit of work I’ve seen on the topic. It was written by a...
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Stefan Grimm (1963 – 2014). A memorial to a victim of managerialism
Jump to follow-up Today, 25 September, is the first anniversary of the needless death of Stefan Grimm. This post is intended as a memorial. He should be remembered, in the hope that some good can come...
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