January 2015

  • Teaching a green standard

    This is Steve Martin's letter in today's THE ... A glaring omission from the People & Planet University League 2015 tables is any meaningful measure of teaching quality and how the programmes that universities offer contribute to the life chances...

  • Overturning the measuring of 'quality' – a Gibbsean revolution

    Although Graham Gibb's article in the THE last week is ostensibly about fees, ... "Higher fees should reflect an institution's quality, rather than status, so we should start measuring it, argues Graham Gibbs" ... it is actually an argument about how to measure...

  • A burning ESD 2 issue ...

    Here's some more on "energy" from waste [ EfW ].  I commented on the language difficulties around all this a week or so ago, after a recent visit to Devon's EfW plant in Exeter. Now Private Eye has a story about...

  • Interview with a Director of Sustainability

    Following the recent publication of the 2014 People & Planet (green) league tables for 2014, here's a transcript of a conversation with the Director of Sustainability at one of the successful universities. Interviewer Thank you very much for agreeing to talk about...

  • Forget the Premier League ...

    ... the new tables from People & Planet are much more colourful. I see that the usual suspects have done reasonably well again, and that many of those that do well in everything else, have all done equally badly.  My...

  • Riding along in my automobile, ...

    Sadly, it was only along the M4, and Chuck Berry wasn't there singing along, but I saw something I'd not seen before - the iconic wind turbine at the Reading business park was silent, hanging limply in the still, cold...

  • Green Capital – Student Capital: unleashing the power of Bristol Students to benefit the UK

    Bristol is the 2015 European Green Capital, and its universities have come together with a promise to make "positive and sustainable environmental changes" during 2015.  This project has been made possible by generous tax-payer funding of £249,734 c/o the Higher Education Funding Council for England...

  • Eating away at our life support systems

    The Guardian has reported on two recent research studies that it says: "... have pinpointed the key factors that ensure a livable planet for humans, with stark results.  Of nine worldwide processes that underpin life on Earth, four have exceeded...

  • No wealth but life

    I usually avoid discussions about the 'global population problem' of the 'something must be done before it's too late' variety because there are usually no sensible policy options on offer – save ' more education' and/or 'more economic growth'.  Rarely does anyone dare...

  • DfID to send emergency aid cash to Saudi Arabia

    As world-wide condemnation grows of the sentence of 10 years in jail, a fine of 1m riyals (~£175k), and 1000 lashes on blogger, Raif Badawi, DfID announced emergency development aid to Saudi Arabia yesterday following an historic agreement with the...