8 February 2018Times Higher Education 3CONTENTS
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THE WEEK IN HIGHER EDUCATION
English universities that
fail to offer degree apprentice-
ships should lose a significant
part of their public funding,
a former minister has argued.
Robert Halfon, who chairs
the Commons Education
Committee, used a speech
in London on 5 February to
call for an end to the “UK’s
obsession with academic
degrees” and to demand a
dramatic increase in the deliv-
ery of technical training at
universities. Speaking at the
Centre for Social Justice, Mr
Halfon said that the UK had
become “obsessed with full
academic degrees” even
though many graduates
earned only “paltry returns”
despite racking up £50,
in debt at university. A large
portion of universities’ public
subsidy should instead be
ring-fenced to ensure that
they offer degree apprentice-
ships, thereby “rebalancing”
the UK’s system towards high-
quality technical education,
said Mr Halfon, whose sug-
gestion will probably not go
down well with champions
of university autonomy.A Swiss university is
giving students the chance to
study yodelling to degree level
for the first time, The Local
news website reported on
30 January. Lucerne University
of Applied Sciences and Arts
will offer both undergraduate
and master’s degrees in the
traditional alpine singing
style from next autumn, with
students required not only to
master the practice but also
to study its theory, history and
business, the site said. The
degree will be taught by Nadja
Räss, a Swiss yodelling star
who runs her own yodelling
academy in Zurich, who pre-
dicted that the “whole yodelling
scene” would benefit from the
new graduates’ skills. That only
“three or four” students are
expected to enrol on the course
this year, however, suggests
that the “yodelling scene”
has some way to go before
it eclipses Taylor Swift and
Ed Sheeran in the charts.New universities minister
Sam Gyimah was quick to wade
into an incident in Bristol
marked by arch-Brexiteer JacobRees-Mogg getting caught up
in a scuffle with protesters at
a student event. “Extremely
disappointed that a genuine
opportunity to engage in debate
was nearly thwarted by thuggish
behaviour,” Mr Gyimah tweeted
on 2 February after footage
emerged of the MP trying to
break up a fracas at the Uni-
versity of West of England earl-
ier that day. He was quickly
outdone by his predecessor,
Jo Johnson, who used Twitter
to condemn the footage of what
he called “balaclava-wearing
thugs no-platforming Jacob
Rees-Mogg”. However, this
tweet was soon picked apart
by critics, several of whom
noted that Mr Rees-Mogg had
given his speech after perhaps
unwisely involving himself in
the melee. The uninvited ex-
students were booted out of
the hall by university-employed
security, they added, while
others wondered if Mr Rees-
Mogg’s entourage had inflamed
the situation. Far from shutting
down free speech, it seems
that UWE did a decent job
of ensuring that the pro-Brexit
MP received a fair hearing.Being physically attract-
ive is more likely to make
people lean rightwards in their
political beliefs, research has
suggested. A study in theJour-
nal of Public Economicscon-
cludes that, because those who
are good-looking face fewer hur-
dles and are treated better by
those around them, they
develop a cognitive bias that
prevents them from understand-
ing others’ hardship,The Guard-
ianreported. The authors, Rolfe
Daus Peterson of Susquehanna
University and Carl Palmer of
Illinois State University, used
data from US studies and a lon-
gitudinal study of high schoolstudents for the work. For those
perplexed by the sight of some
members of the UK’s Cabinet,
Professor Peterson had some
reassurance. “All attractive
people are not conservative,
and not all unattractive people
are liberals,” although attractive-
ness gave people “a small push
in the conservativedirection”.A society for Labour stu-
dents at the University of Liver-
pool had to issue a statement
insisting that it was not in favour
of killing the Queen after a
“tongue-in-cheek” Twitter post
on the anniversary of Charles I’s
execution. The tweet – which
carried an engraving illustrating
Charles’ beheading in 1649- wished followers a “Happy
#RegicideDay, comrades!”
before declaring “we did it once,
we can do it again”, The Inde-
pendent reported. However,
the society later deleted the
post and apologised after an
inevitable social media back-
lash ensued. “It was intended
as a tongue-in-cheek comment.
We obviously do not advocate
regicide. We apologise for any
offence caused,” the club said.
News
8 Plans to divulge details of
staff paid £150K+ get thumbs
down from Russell Group13 Desire for higher rankings
driving Europe’s merger-mania,
analysis finds14 Mini-Macrons: students
flock to president’s alma mater16 Research councils to call
funding shots under UKRI, says
MRC nominee20 Mature plans: universities
accepting more older and non-
traditional students22 Civilisation: Beard and
Schama reboot iconic TV seriesOpinion
28 Unfair suspension kills
careers and invites vengeance,
writes a wronged scholar28 Why do academics stint with
collegial praise? asks Terri Apter30 Books’ bounty can’t be
bound in bytes, say Al Martinich
and Tom PalaimaFeatures
34 Satisfied? Our first
worldwide work-life balance
survey explores the hours
put in by academics and
professional staff, work’s
impact on family life and
friendships and much moreBooks
50 Brain teaser: how
grey matter drives sexual
attractiveness52 ‘Landscapes of knowledge’
in the urban jungle53 Shelf life: Joan Taylor1330227
Proxy war
UKbodiesjoinfightagainstuseof
impact factor as quality measure10
China’s surge
THEAsia University Rankings 2018
32 Identity issue
Working-class scholars still sidelined48
It’s all yours now...
When Britain handed the world
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