Interview conducted by Sean McMahon Academic staff do the work that defines a university: teaching, scholarship and research. But too often in British universities the voices of academics are marginalised by undemocratic forms of governance. Top-down, unaccountable, corporate-style management has increasingly replaced collegial decision-making, stifling the autonomy of academics and impeding rather than facilitating academic...Read More

Words by G.R Evans, Emeritus Professor of Medieval Theology, University of Cambridge and author of discussions of university governance and Histories of Oxford and Cambridge. Unvisited information? Staff and students may not ask themselves how their university or other provider of their higher education is run until they encounter a difficulty.  In many years of...Read More

The Council for the Defence of British Universities is pleased to announce the launch of a new blog series on the topic of university governance. We are currently seeking contributors who can offer insights from all aspects of the university. If you would like to contribute to this series, please get in touch at cdbupress@gmail.com...Read More

We are pleased to report that Martin Wolf’s lecture: Uses and Abuses of Economics in the Debate on Universities is now available for download here: Wolf_CDBU_lecture_26Jan2017. For a synopsis, see previous post.Read More

Opinion piece by Howard Hotson, October 29th 2014 Professor Thomas Docherty ‘Professor suspended from top university for giving off “negative vibes”.’ Thus read the headline in The Telegraph on Friday 24 October.  ‘Professor at top university was suspended for nine months after he was accused of sighing and being sarcastic during job interviews’: this was...Read More