Category Archives: skills

Mary Wollstonecraft’s Wisdom

Posted on 24 October 2024 by Athene Donald

I came to Mary Wollstonecraft late, as it were, not even having come across her name until relatively recently. Perhaps that is a shameful admission, but I think she has become much more visible of late, not least due to … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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An Anthropological Experiment in Birmingham

Posted on 1 October 2024 by Athene Donald

I’m not sure that spending my last day as Master of Churchill College at the Conservative Party Conference would have been quite what I expected, but so it was. I was in Birmingham – just as I was in Liverpool … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Innovation: New ideas and New people

Posted on 17 June 2023 by Athene Donald

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of delivering a public lecture with the above title in the beautiful interior of Hereford Cathedral. This unusual venue, a wonderful testament to the ingenuity of medieval builders, was chosen by the Engineering … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Engineering Professors Council, Hereford, innovation, Not just for the boys, Science Culture, skills, Women in science | Comments Off on Innovation: New ideas and New people

Contrasting fates of Cambridge and Burnley

Posted on 21 February 2023 by Athene Donald

It is depressing to learn that the Treasury is essentially constraining any capital spending from the Department of Housing, Levelling Up and Communities. Whereas when Michael Gove was appointed Secretary of State there might have been some optimism that he … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Investing in People

Posted on 24 October 2022 by Athene Donald

We have all got used to the wonders of Zoom (or Teams if you prefer) over the last couple of years. It may have made academic life as we were used to it viable during the pandemic, but it has … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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The Problems of Measurement

Posted on 12 October 2021 by Athene Donald

How should we measure what is a good outcome from a university education? As David Willetts puts it in his latest report published through the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) ‘The Treasury cast their beady eye over the evidence and … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Rethinking Qualifications? It’s About Time

Posted on 8 January 2021 by Athene Donald

For the second year running our school assessment system is up in the air, for totally understandable reasons. A Levels were explicitly cancelled but the Government seemed incapable of giving a clear answer about this month’s BTec’s, the vocational equivalent. … Continue reading →

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Sausage Machines in the Academic Lab

Posted on 22 July 2019 by Athene Donald

There was a bit of a spat over Twitter last week regarding how many hours students (and postdocs) should be expected to do at the bench. This originated in a tweet from a professor of chemistry but I don’t think … Continue reading →

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Open access deposits to Europe PubMed Central – building skills

Posted on 19 September 2018 by Frank Norman

Blogpost by Kate Beeby and Frank Norman. Our funders’ open access policies mandate deposit of all primary research articles into Europe PubMed Central (ePMC). We opt for the Gold (immediate Open Access) route when we can, but if the publisher … Continue reading →

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Taking the Chair

Posted on 16 December 2017 by Athene Donald

Robert Mackintosh recently wrote an article in the THE about how to chair a meeting. This is a topic that I have dealt with before on my blog in light-hearted vein – describing those chairs you really hope you never … Continue reading →

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