Universities
The tangled story of dreadlocks, from Milton to YouTube
‘Why are you filming this?’ ‘For everyone’s safety.’ Those are the last words in a 46-second video that was watched…
Stepford students’ new target: other Stepford students
Politically correct students are now falling victim to the censorious climate they helped create
In defence of discrimination
David Cameron has accused universities of being xenophobic, racist and prejudiced against the poor. He is too much of a…
Corbyn's purge of the Oxbridge set
Labour was once the clever party. Under Jeremy Corbyn, its front bench is purged of Oxbridge intellectuals
There’s too much bunkum talked about the arts and education
At the last minute, a friend invited me to a ‘Distinguished Speakers Dinner’ at the Oxford and Cambridge Club earlier…
What Scottish professors have to fear from Nicola Sturgeon’s power grab
What Scotland’s professors have to fear from the SNP’s latest bright idea
Edmund de Waal’s diary: Selling nothing, and why writers need ping-pong
On the top landing of the Royal Academy is the Sackler Sculpture Corridor, a long stony shelf of torsos of…
What I’ve learned helping to found a specialist free school
Lessons from the first year of our specialist maths school
Tony Hall’s diary: the Proms, my walking obsession, and why the BBC is like James Bond
There’s nothing quite like a First Night — and last Friday we launched the Proms, the most celebrated classical music…
How British universities spread misery around the world
From Greece to Kenya, the worst economic ideas come from alumni of British universities
What Aristotle would have made of Cambridge’s Lego-sponsored professor
So Cambridge University has accepted £4 million from the makers of Lego (snort) to fund a Lego chair (Argos sells…
The best way to end the ‘poshness test’
There’s a warning buried in the detail of the new report by the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission on…
How come our cash-strapped universities can afford so many administrators?
At Oxford and elsewhere, university administration is out of control
My part in a masterpiece of political correctness
Damien Hirst, Grayson Perry, James Delingpole: all winners of major art prizes. I was awarded mine last week by Anglia…
Wines to toast a warrior saint
Towards the chimes at midnight, a few of us left a — respectable — establishment near Leicester Square. Eight or…
As a republican, I used to look forward to Charles III. Now I’m scared
The Prince of Wales has shown himself too vain to accept the limits of constitutional monarchy
The war on frat culture
An unruly American tradition may be coming to an end
Left-handed people are stupid (and everyone who worries about immigration is a bigot)
Thoroughly cheering news emerged this week that left-handed people are likely to earn between 10 and 12 per cent less…
If you want an argument against state-school-only Oxbridge colleges, just look at me
I read with some interest the proposal for Oxford and Cambridge to set up state-school-only colleges in the Guardian this…
Free speech is so last century. Today’s students want the ‘right to be comfortable’
Free speech is so last century. Today’s undergraduates demand the ‘right to be comfortable’
I believe in animal research. But it’s time to draw a line
I believe in animal research. But is there really a justification for using animals in biology lessons?
Spectator letters: A defence of nursing assistants, a mystery shotgun, and a response to Melanie Phillips
Poor treatment Sir: Jane Kelly’s article (‘No tea or sympathy’, 2 August) on the lack of empathy and emotional support…
Tread carefully! Your garden is saturated with racial meaning – and so is Ikea
Is your life saturated with racial meaning? The most common answer to this question, when I ask friends and acquaintances,…
Ian Buruma’s notebook: Teenagers discover Montaigne the blogger
Bard College in upstate New York, where I teach in the spring semester, is an interesting institution, once better known…
Ancient Rome’s fraudulent foreign students
Foreign students getting on to courses under false pretences, overstaying their welcome and so on are nothing new. Ask the Romans.…
