- University Challenge quizmaster Jeremy Paxman has entered the perennial dumbing down debate by claiming that todays students are cleverer than their predecessors. Mr Paxman, who has hosted the BBC Two quiz show for almost 20 years, told the Radio Times that the quality of contestants is proof that there is nothing wrong with the next generation of graduates, The Times reported on 9 July. In fact, students may be getting brighter because questions have become harder over the years, he said. However, their capabilities may be more cerebral than practical. Students were stumped by a round of questions on clothes-label washing instructions, Mr Paxman said, [getting] every single one wrong
- Eyebrows were raised after the University of Reading managed to find almost 瞿1 million for a Samuel Beckett manuscript. The Daily Telegraphs Tom Chivers wondered whether the doodle-strewn notebooks containing the first draft of Becketts 1938 novel Murphy were worth 瞿962,500. Writing on 12 July, Mr Chivers asked: What can we learn about Beckett from the fact that he liked to draw half-formed spirals or what looks like a gorilla in a baseball cap? Students also queried the purchase. So thats where all the tuition fees are going, Badal Naik, outgoing president of Reading students union, told the Daily Mail. Readings vice-chancellor, Sir David Bell, said the acquisition would provide unparalleled opportunities to learn more about one of the greatest writers in living memory and was funded by the sale of less significant assets from the universitys 瞿40 million art portfolio.
- Academics from the university that discovered the remains of Richard III have criticised an exploitative and insensitive artwork by Damien Hirst that shows the artist posing with the head of a corpse, The Independent reported on 13 July. With Dead Head - a photograph of a grinning 16-year- old Hirst taken at the anatomy school in Leeds where he used to sketch body parts - is on display at the New Art Gallery Walsall. But Sarah Tarlow and Matthew Beamish - scholars in the University of Leicesters archaeology department - say the artists 1991 work is an abuse of power and breaches all professional standards of those who regularly deal with the bodies of the dead. The pair contrast it with Leicesters treatment of Richard IIIs bones. We wouldnt dream of多olding his skull and grinning. Or putting a silly hat on him, Mr Beamish said.
- 啦堯硃勳梭硃紳餃s Chulalongkorn University has apologised for a student mural depicting Adolf Hitler among a group of superheroes, the Bangkok Post reported on 15 July. The university received complaints about an image of Hitler giving a Nazi salute in a graduation mural outside the universitys arts faculty building alongside Superman, Batman, the Incredible Hulk and other superheroes, all featured below a large banner with the word Congratulations. According to Supakorn Dispan, the faculty dean, students intended to show that superheroes are there to protect the world and that there are both good and evil people. They were unaware of the offence that the work might cause, he added. The university has apologised after complaints by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which said it was outraged and disgusted by the mural.
- The fate of David Willetts was still to be decided in an expected reshuffle looming as 51勛圖 went to press. The universities and science minister had been said to be vulnerable on 12 July by Isabel Hardman, editor of the Spectators Coffee House blog. On 14 July, the Mail on Sunday reported that senior sources had predicted that Elizabeth Truss - a junior minister in the Department for Education - would be promoted to a job just outside the Cabinet, which fits the bill for the universities and science brief. But on the same day, Matthew dAncona warned in The Sunday Telegraph against removing Mr Willetts, saying that a government that ejects a politician of Willetts calibre, intellect and experience simply to make space for (say) an Etonian with a full head of hair is practising self-harm. That must have delighted Mr Willetts even if it drew unwarranted attention to his almost imperceptible bald spot.
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