Bill Scott
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Bill Scott17 February 2014
For want of a dissemination strategy
I understand that QAAHEA’s guidance to universities on ESD is nearly complete, and that it will soon shift into the QAA & HEA bureaucracies for approval and eventual publication. It seems that there is also talk of a launch, although...
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Bill Scott13 February 2014
Simple thinking about complex questions
I had an email the other day which assumed that just because I favour alternative technologies – I engaged in some mild-mannered activism in relation to Wiltshire Council's policies on (that is to say, against) wind farms – I must,...
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Bill Scott12 February 2014
What a difference a year makes
It's the time of year that Hefce gets to hear about money (and other things) from government. The grant letter arrived on Monday, and was not good news. Here it is: Dear Tim, HIGHER EDUCATION FUNDING 2014-15 We are writing with...
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Bill Scott11 February 2014
Ofscoff alert – flagrant contravention of taste laws in Bath
In a press release today 11 02 14, the South West Office for Strictures and Control on Food and Fodder ( Ofscoff ) [1] ordered the confiscation of marmalade illicitly produced by unqualified persons at an unregistered site in Bath. A...
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Bill Scott10 February 2014
Another edict from Caesar Augustus
The HEAQAA's expert team is busy reacting to comments received on its draft materials. Tensions abound, I hear, especially about (1) continuing uncertainty as to who all this is for, and (2) a persistence of the idea that it's ESD...
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Bill Scott7 February 2014
What’s a badger worth?
This was the question posed on Tuesday at a University of Bath I-SEE seminar by Gordon McGlone, an ecologist who spent his career working with the Wildlife Trusts and now runs a consultancy ‘Thinking Naturally’. Gordon was CEO of Gloucestershire...
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Bill Scott6 February 2014
Building the neo-Neolithic
I've written before about English Heritage's interest in having some "authentic" Neolithic – neo-Neolithic, that is – houses at the new Stonehenge visitor centre. Well, here they are, emergent ... The new centre is the building in the background...
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Bill Scott5 February 2014
An education in a lunchbox
An English school suspended a 6-year old boy for 4 days recently. What was his crime do you suppose? Was he abusive? Was he violent? Was he a bully? Did he have Class A drugs down his trousers? Pornography up...
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Bill Scott4 February 2014
Levelling Somerset
If you live where I do, it's currently hard to avoid local and national media stories about the recurrent flooding of the Somerset Levels, and the hardships of entire villages now marooned in the floods for weeks. The Army was...
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Bill Scott3 February 2014
Hefce Redux
After the excitement of Thursday's consultation meeting in London, Hefce will be sifting through all those tweets, emails, comments, questions, videos, and post-it notes – and waiting for the deadline (on Friday) of its formal consultation period about its proposals. I've...