October 2014

There was a small macflurry of  excitement on the Clyde this week as the University of Glasgow announced it was to sell its shares in Big Oil.  This is what the university had to say: Glasgow becomes first UK university to...

Marks and Spencer likes to talk up its green credentials saying that it has no "Plan B".  So, imagine my surprise and disappointment when I went into one of their motorway stores last week, looking for some English apples only to find...

Though it's hardly a Sydney Carton moment, it is a selfless gesture nonetheless.  I have given up a place at the launch of education for sustainable development: guidance for UK higher education providers, so that someone whose need to learn about ESD...

Section 78 of England's 2002 Education Act begins like this: 78 – General requirements in relation to curriculum (1) The curriculum for a maintained school or maintained nursery school satisfies the requirements of this section if it is a balanced and broadly...

I was reminded the other day of a piece that Elsa Lee and I wrote back in 2008: Intergenerational Learning: the case of school to home transfer.   This was written when there was something of a vogue for getting children to...

There was a piece in the Economist last week that looked at an OECD / University of Utrecht account of the conditions of life in 25 countries since 1820.   A part of this says: For the most part, the findings...

The NUS, which is an organisation that clearly does much good, is fond of citing the following outcomes of their on-going survey * of student attitudes about HE and sustainable development: Around two-thirds of students [say that they] would be willing...

My latest review essay is now published in EER: Exploring a transformative orientation to sustainability in universities: a question of loose and tight framings.  It is available here c/o Taylor & Francis. This is the Abstract: This review essay examines three...

In the Summer, the Economist's Free Exchange column had a feature on the economics of renewable energy which suggested that the costs of wind and (especially) solar power are much more problematic that thought.   The article begins: "... whereas...

I spend more time than ever in London these days experiencing the joys and thrills of grandparenting.  No matter how fulfilling, however, it always leads to a bout of SILS – Spending Time In London Syndrome. This is a deep psychological...