ABOUT
These are interesting times in many parts of the world. Uncertainty has become a feature of higher education in more than the usual ways, and, as we have found recently in the U.K., uncertainty breeds a multitude of opinions and initiatives which then add to the uncertainty in a seemingly endless feedback loop. Of course, opinions are bound to flow freely in such a period of uncertainty since no one can be quite sure what is going on: I often think that there must be a conference in the U.K. most weeks pronouncing on the state of higher education, often with many of the same luminaries in attendance. Consultancies and think tanks add their opinions in to the brew. So be it. But it is a different matter when it comes to actual initiatives. If they multiply at the same rate as opinions, the process can be insidious, even destructive. What British higher education needs most now is a period of a year or two in which it can take in the extensive changes that have been made and ...