Agora in the News
Is Religion threatening Science and Reason?
The Guardian and Radio 4
April 2008
Can faith and reason ever be reconciled?
Prof Daniel Dennett and Lord Winston set out their stalls in The Guardian in advance of our final rethink debate on Science, Reason and Religion, to which documentary producer and director Richard Denton also gave his response.
Daniel Dennett also joined Andrew Marr on Radio 4's 'Start the Week' to discuss the issue.
Parts of the debtate were recorded and included in the The Guardian's weekly Science Podcast.
Anna Fazackerley:
University VCs should behave more like CEOs
The Independent
17 April 2008
Vice Chancellors must wise up to the demands of a market-driven Higher Education sector, writes Agora Director Anna Fazackerley.
Is the Renaissance scholar dead?
The Guardian
April 2008
Is the Renaissance scholar an anachronism? Should education be focussed only on satisfying the demands of the economy?
AC Grayling and Adrian Monck fired the opening salvos, and Kevin Fong neatly summarised Agora's penultimate rethink debate in The Guardian.
Should 'elite' be a dirty word?
The Guardian and Radio 4
March 2008
Is Britain's education system elitist? If so, does it matter?
In advance of the third debate in Agora's rethink series, David Willetts and Tessa Blackstone discussed elitism in The Guardian and on Radio 4's 'PM'. In the aftermath, Penny Egan - Executive Director of the Fulbright Commission - gave her thoughts on the issue.
Should we charge students higher fees?
The Guardian and Radio 4
March 2008
Essential source of funding or slippery slope to greater inequality?
Eric Thomas and John McDonnell set out their cases in The Guardian, and joined Agora Director Anna Fazackerley to discuss the issue with Libby Purves on Radio 4's 'The Learning Curve'.
Can we teach happiness?
The Guardian
February 2008
Can happiness be learned? If so, should we teach it?
Anthony Seldon and Frank Furedi debated the issue for Agora, and historian Richard Schoch responded.
Universities Should Be More Cautious on Chinese Ventures, British Paper Says.
The Chronicle of Higher Education, Paul Mooney
17 December 2007
Is doing business in China dangerous - or at least harder than it may appear? A British higher-education think tank raised that question, and provided some controversial answers, in a recent discussion paper.......
China a threat, academic warns.
The Australian
08 December 2007
British universities must stop courting China and start seeing the country as a threat, the former head of Nottingham University's Chinese campus has warned.......
Expert warns 'naive' British.
The Times Higher Education Supplement, Melanie Newman
07 December 2007
Professor tells universities to beware being 'sucked in' to agreements with Chinese. Melanie Newman reports. British universities should stop viewing China "through rose-tinted spectacles" and see it as a major competitive threat, the founding head of Nottingham University's Chinese campus has warned......
Academics urge caution over Chinese collaboration.
The Guardian, Anthea Lipsett
06 December 2007
In a report from the higher education think tank Agora, the founding provost of Nottingham-Ningbo, Prof Ian Gow, claimed China wants to profit from the UK's strengths in science and technology by absorbing the talent and intellectual property of its partners.....
British Universities Should Be More Cautious in Collaborating With China, Paper Says.
The Chronicle of Higher Education, Paul Mooney
06 December 2007
A discussion paper published this week by a British think tank raises serious questions about the strategies of British universities rushing to expand programs in China, arguing that there are risks as well as opportunities in the China market......
Rose-Colored Glasses on China?
Inside Higher Ed, Scott Jaschik
06 December 2007
With millions of students who want an American-style education (or an American diploma), China is a very attractive market for American colleges and universities that want to offer full degree programs abroad...But do American educators (as well as those from other Western nations) know what they are doing in China?
We need a public debate on fees - soon.
The Independent, Anna Fazackerley
11 October 2007
The precarious question of what to do with the cap on university top-up fees has been swept under institutional and political carpets for too long. It is the question that could unlock a whole array of other problems in the sector, and almost no one who matters wants to be seen considering it....
Foreign Students: Overlooked and over here.
The Independent, Lucy Hodges
22 October 2007
"Vice chancellors don't want to tackle the issue of social cohesion," says Anna Fazackerley, Agora's director, "but if we brush it under the carpet, we'll pay in the long term, when a generation of international students have returned and shared their dissatisfaction with others back home....
The long arm of the British university.
The Guardian, Jessica Shepherd
4 September 2007
Does a campus abroad give a UK university the lead, or is it more likely to be a liability? Rumour has it that overseas governments, particularly in Asia and the Middle East, are courting UK vice-chancellors with the hope that they will set up campuses in their countries....
'Second wave' of China initiatives ahead.
The Times Higher Education Supplement, Melanie Newman
21 September 2007
UK universities are exploring fresh opportunities to open campuses in China, amid signs that the country may not have closed the door on further foreign higher education ventures, as previously believed....
Science's future is an interversity challenge.
The Times Higher Education Supplement, Peter Atkins
25 May 2007
If the Government wanted to build on strength and invest in quality it would have to swallow its prejudices, invest most of its funds in Oxford and Cambridge, and watch them become paramount leaders of academic Europe....
Keep reading this extract from Agora's first book here...The Wrecking of British Science.
The Guardian, Sir Harry Kroto
22 May 2007
I think there is every likelihood that the lack of scientifically educated and aware young people in the UK will result in ever poorer performance on a global scale, and a takeover by the next generation of young Chinese and Indians, ravenous for the scientific knowledge that will free them from the shackles of present poverty levels. They are being actively encouraged by their governments, who understand that the future lies in a scientific education based on doubt and questioning, rather than on belief.
Keep reading this extract from Agora's first book here...
We are falling further and further behind.
The Guardian, Chris Patten
22 May 2007
Universities here (and indeed in most of Europe) are left in a no man's land, in which they neither get enough funding from the state nor are they allowed to raise money themselves beyond the ridiculously low limits of the tuition fee...
Keep reading this extract from Agora's first book here...
We must stop telling all these white lies.
The Independent, Boris Johnson
17 May 2007
I thought of our tendency to collective hypocrisy the other day, when a group of vice-chancellors was discussing the problems of widening access to higher education. It was a gloomy discussion. Huge efforts were being made to reach out to schools and families that did not traditionally see themselves as university feeders. Undergraduates were all out proselytising and evangelising the benefits of a university education. Yet we are still stuck on 14 per cent of Group D who make it to university, and 77 per cent from Group A, and that position has been unchanged for 20 years.
Keep reading this extract from Agora's first book here...