Universities
Where’s my trigger warning?
Last week brought the news that some universities have attached more ‘trigger warnings’ to certain books, concerned that students may…
The mind virus killing academia
We lost a giant last month with E.O. Wilson’s passing. A man who stood on Darwin’s shoulders, Wilson had that…
Some (tentative) reasons to be cheerful
Someone sent me a job advert recently for a Junior Research Fellowship at Queen’s College, Oxford. It states: ‘The Queen’s…
Meeting the mob
My abiding memory of this fairly appalling year is of the face of the young student at Durham University who…
Why liberals must stand with Kathleen Stock
I know what it feels like to be bullied and vilified for expressing views with which, eventually, many right-minded people…
Roll over, Beethoven
Ian Pace on musicology’s culture wars
The rise and rise of hate hoaxing
Last week, some racist graffiti was found at Parkway North and Parkway Central schools in the Midwest American state of…
America’s campus culture wars come for St Andrews
The University of St Andrews has been keen on American imports for some time. Americans make up 16 per cent…
When will exams get back to normal?
It wouldn’t be credible to say that this year’s A-Levels grades are comparable with 2019’s: almost 45 per cent of entries…
A culture of fear has taken over at Edinburgh university
It is undeniable that the University of Edinburgh is the jewel in the crown of Scotland’s higher education system. Among…
Reading between the lines
Scarcely a day passes without a major British institution announcing it is ‘decolonising’ itself. Most recently it was the turn…
Why universities are bad for the arts
Members of the arts establishment have spent the past week outraged, following news that for the upcoming academic year funding…
Under the spell
Some universities have announced that spelling and grammar (i.e. morphology and syntax) are not all that important, but quality of…
The redemption of Flannery O’Connor
I have a thought for the students of Loyola University in Baltimore, Maryland: this Easter, why not resurrect Flannery O’Connor?…
University challenge
Conservatives are now the radicals on campus
The secret code of the ruling class
I naively hoped that last year’s statement by the Equalities Minister explaining why unconscious bias training was being phased out…
My advice for the next ‘free speech champion’
I was delighted to hear the government plans to appoint a ‘free speech champion’ to the board of the Office…
Of course there’s a free speech crisis on campus
A free speech crisis on campus? Apparently, it’s a myth, concocted by right-wing commentators and latched on to by a…
The Spectator’s Notes
‘Tencent Wykeham’ has a ring to it. It captures how easily British universities can be bought. It is the new…
On liberalism
Certain parts of academia seem to wish to turn the study of classics away from a historical, language- and evidence-based…
It isn’t always easy to give money away
I always felt sorry for my father, then president of a chronically strapped educational institution, for having ceaselessly to approach…
The next education crisis
Many institutions face the fight of their lives
The fight to defend academic freedom
About 18 months ago, I attended a debate at Policy Exchange, the think tank founded by Nick Boles, Francis Maude…
The influence game
Why do we still struggle to see Xi’s China as a threat?
Open letters have become ransom notes
In the States, the ‘open letter’ is enjoying quite the formal renaissance. Curiously, recent examples of this newly popular epistolary…
