NEW WARDEN QUITS TOWN

Alan Ryan, Warden of New College and among Oxford's most prominent academics, has sensationally written that "no rational person" would any longer wish to work in British higher education.

The current director of the Rothermere American Institute launched a blistering attack on a system of ill-paid academics teaching "ill-qualified students filling crumbling, ill-equipped institutions" and announced that he was heading to Stanford University for a year of academic leave. He will return from "the academic paradise of Stanford" after a year - but only because of his unique affiliation to New College.

Ryan is a leading supporter of a more market-driven approach to higher education and has frequently criticised the government's higher education policy. In an article for The Times Higher Education Supplement this week, he said that modern academic life "has lost just about everything that made it worth pursuing forty years ago" and that lecturers were "put upon by their principals and departmental chairs, by the chairmen of education committees and managers of very modest abilities."

It is unlear whether this departure has been planned for longer than first appears,. Ryan was involved in the creation of a new administrative system for the University earlier this year, saying at the time that he would "go into exile if it doesn't work for the colleges". Andrew Malcolm, who has previously been involved in a long-running legal dispute with Ryan and the University about the publication of a book, referred to the latest episode of the case and commented that, "Obviously, the timing of his departure has nothing to do with his recent breach of our contract, it is just a splendid coincidence."

Ryan's remarks may have a discouraging impact on Oxford's graduates, many of whom are considering academic careers. Jeff Williams, OUSU V-P Graduates, told Cherwell, "I applaud the efforts of University leaders to offer compelling arguments on why higher education needs to be funded properly. However, I think 'irrational' or 'peculiar' may overstate the mindset of somebody who chooses to begin academic service in Oxford or in Britain".

AKME EXPRESSION, MAY-JUNE 2002 THE LEGAL BACKGROUND and Malcolm's Lectureship offer THE BROAD STREET SHOP featuring the Gallery of Shame, Akme University, St. Frideswide's grotto, Akme Ball etc. Reports: LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS Oxford Times 21/6 THES 26/4, Oxford Times 26/4, Guardian 30/4, Oxford Star 2/5, Oxford Student 2/5, Cherwell 3/5, Publishing News 10/5, Private Eye 17/5, Guardian 25/6, South China Morning Post 11/5, Change (US H.E. journal), Philosophers' Magazine, Autumn. Alan Ryan quits, ranting: THES 31/5, Cherwell 7/6, other quotes Rave review of Making Names in Oxford Student 30/5: "One of the most powerful statements of the human condition written in the past century."