V-cs' 7.9% pay rise is twice that of staff's

To quote the Times Higher.

Well I'm sure academic staff everywhere are heartened by that news. Of course not every VC got a rise but hardly time for a trip to ALDI when you're on 225k.

Full set available at the Times Higher as a PDF

e-Learning Focus Group

Yesterday I took part in an e-learning focus group as part of a national project.

One of the issues that arose was the lack of personal web spaces for staff at NTU. I say personal but I really mean professional – more "here is my research" than "here is my dog". This has been a long running sore with many academics at NTU since it was implemented.

Anyway I pointed out that like many teaching and research staff I’ve simply “jumped ship” for certain things. There are clearly some very senior people who just don’t “get” technology. One of the things I said I used was a blog so it’s only fitting that I make this blog entry on the topic….

Sunday Bloody Sunday?

Whilst it is rather pleasant in my conservatory at the moment it would be even nicer if I wasn’t about to embark on another pile of marking. I've got lots of other work related things to do, such as a backlog of audio and video clips to sort out, multimedia work for two subject centres, submissions for summer conferences, just so many Web 2.0 services to play with, and some really interesting background reading for my specialist areas.

But that will all have to wait because of the marking. I know it is really important, and is the bread and butter work, of a non-research active academic but I thought I'd have a quick gripe before settling down to get on with it… because some days, especially Sundays, you just don’t feel like it.

Gripe… gripe… gripe…