Author Archives: Athene Donald

We’ve Come a Long Way But…..

When Rita Colwell was born in 1934, neither Oxford nor Cambridge Universities had yet appointed a female professor in any discipline; Dorothy Garrod, the first woman to hold such a chair (the Disney Chair of Archaeology at Cambridge), was not … Continue reading

Posted in Equality, Women in Science | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Feeling the Fear

Readers of the Guardian may, over the years, have had reason to dip into Oliver Burkeman’s columns. As he hangs up his metaphorical boots, he summarised what he had personally learned from the exercise of writing these ‘self-help’ articles. In … Continue reading

Posted in Science Culture | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Investing in Education and the Levelling Up Agenda

Early years provision has suffered during austerity, and is continuing to see cutbacks, as Polly Toynbee pointed out last week. Yet children who fall behind at the outset of their education will find it very difficult to catch up later. … Continue reading

Posted in Education | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Investing in Education and the Levelling Up Agenda

Pandemic Staycationing

As far as I’m concerned, this is not a year for travelling for a holiday. Indeed, given some of the recent events, there hasn’t even been time to take any sort of extended break. However, we have been taking days … Continue reading

Posted in Cambridge life | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Pandemic Staycationing

Reflections on a Mad Week in Higher Education

Readers from the UK can hardly fail to have noticed the confusion across the HE sector caused by last week’s A level ‘results’.  I recall how many people had been voicing fears during the past months that the disadvantaged would … Continue reading

Posted in Education | Tagged , , | 2 Comments