Education Diary, The Independent, 13th June 2002

Our columnist Alan Ryan is about to spend next year on a sabbatical in the New World. It is the first time ever in New College's 623 year history that the warden has had a year off from the daily admin grind and Professor Ryan had to get the college's statutes changed to secure this cogitating time. It took around 12 months to write the new statutes, get them through the college, then through the university and finally through the Privy Council. Eventually the Queen had to sign them. Wilson Sutherland, a maths tutor, will be acting warden. And Professor Ryan will have the time of his life basking in the sun and writing his magnum opus to be entitled, From Plato to NATO*. His fans will be pleased that he will be continuing his regular column from Stanford University in California**.

A fan's notes:
* There are already at least three other books in the archives whose titles exploit this tremendously exciting assonance. 2009 update: Ryan's still-awaited masterwork "on the history of western political thought" has, I understand, been renamed From the Persian Wars to the Gulf War. Snappy, Pappy?
** Stanford University is distinct from The Stanford Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioural Sciences, so there is a puzzling discrepancy here with Ryan's article of 31st May in The Times Higher Education Supplement.

Letter in The Oxford Magazine, 14th June 2002 (extract)

"OUP could be sold off (after clawing back that £100 million of reserves!) while the going is good in order to reduce our over-dependence on its over-dependence on ELT, or at least its cost-base might be pruned by banishing it to a shiny shed on a local business park (with parking-spaces and a nice canteen) and then using its current space for main-stream teaching and research (no quirky new-build!).

Yours sincerely
DAVID PALFREYMAN
Bursar, New College, Oxford

[Editor's note: Weee!]

Profile/interview of Michael Beloff QC, President of Trinity College Oxford by Marcel Berlins in The Guardian, G2 section, 18th June 2002 (extract)

Editor's note: The article was an attempt, lawyer-to-lawyer, to repair the reputation of el grizzled Presidente, recently rendered increasingly hazardous by the Philip Keevil saga, the 'level playing field' hypocrisy and the Euan Blair preferment (also see Richard Ingrams pieces). Amongst Berlins' long, greasy smarm appeared the following quote:

"In a speech at a legal dinner a few years ago, Beloff complained, tongue in cheek, that a newspaper had put his earnings at more than £500,000 a year. He paused. 'They don't know the half of it…'"

Oh can't you just hear the laughter, the laughter...

AKME EXPRESSION, MAY-JUNE 2002

The Shopfront the Descent
THE LEGAL BACKGROUND and Malcolm's Lectureship offer
THE BROAD STREET SHOP featuring the Gallery of Shame, Akme University, St. Frideswide's grotto, Akmé 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."

CLICK FOR:

THE SURPRISING TRUTH ABOUT OUP'S 'CHARITABLE STATUS'

THE OXBRIDGE COLLEGE ACCOUNTS INDEX AND OUP ACCOUNTS INDEX

THE MALCOLM vs. OXFORD CASE INDEXES: I (1984-92) AND II (2001-02)

THE HISTORY OF AKME AND OF THIS WEBSITE

THE AKME OXFORD CUTTINGS LIBRARY

THE AKME LITERARY LAW LIBRARY

THE AKME STUDENT LAW LIBRARY

ABOUT MAKING NAMES

ABOUT THE REMEDY

THE SITE INDEX

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