You can hear the UCEA being told off and apologising for their dodgy reporting of the select committee meeting on the dispute at parliamentlive

You need to click 'this week' then 'wednesday' then 'committees' then 'listen from start'.

Would be great to have students analyse it.

B-)

Education Guardian - lecturers and employers called to select committee

Mmm, wonder where this is heading....

Among other things, I'm refereeing a journal article and working on a book proposal today, two things that would be struggling for my attention if I had my usual pile of marking to do. I'm trying to make as much use of this time as I can but I'm also hoping the dispute ends soon. I don't want to be marking through the summer (or later).

There seems to be quite a bit of variation around the country just now. Some universities are getting very nasty - threatening to dock or even stop pay. I've also met some people whose departments aren't going to be affected much. But it does look like most students will not be having their work marked at the moment. So far, I have three assessment boards at two institutions booked as provisional (only happening if the dispute is over in time) and some marking at one institution which will be going on as normal (the union's position being that we should do any external work but not do anything internal).

In between the work, I nipped down to the bike shop to get lights for the kids' bikes and enjoyed watching someone test-driving a brompton on Lamb's Conduit Street (she seemed sceptical but was being persuaded by an enthusiastic pal - I resisted telling her about Erica's broken arm sustained while pulling a glove on with her teeth while bromptoning). Lamb's Conduit Street used to be famous for being the only street in London that's one-way for cars and two-way for bikes (as well as for the water supply, of course). Picked up Apoa's 'what I need for food tech tomorrow' text while I was there and was delighted to see that we already have everything she needs, including, somewhat unexpectedly, a pineapple.

B-)

mai's blog - mai and mr. right

Well, she kept us in suspense for a while but I'm sure we were all guessing more or less the same thing. Looking forward to hearing more details...

B-)

The server is back and the emails we've missed from the past week are slowly coming through. The timelag is a bit weird. The library has just warned me that some books will become overdue if I don't return them by yesterday and Jon Snow emailed to say that Downing Street says Blunkett won't resign but that I shouldn't faint if he does. On that topic, I have to say that I find it impressive that Blair and Blunkett can keep straight faces when they offer their comments on his resignation, and surprising that journalists let them finish their utterances without falling about laughing. Is there any other walk of life where you respond like this when you mess up?

Slightly relatedly... Despite being a bit of a gooner, I'm being tempted at the moment to look at Arsene Wenger's latest comments in class. In the context of questions about Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho, he said 'When you give success to stupid people, it makes them more stupid sometimes and not more intelligent'. He is now angry that journalists suggested he implied Mourinho was stupid. Doing! (Picked this expression up from students yesterday, so not sure whether I'm using it properly, but it is a beautiful word).

Unrelatedly... Mai just dropped by with some delicious-looking sweet food which I'm going to try when I have a coffee with her later on. I feel a bit guilty as these are traditional things to eat for eid and I haven't spent the last month fasting to prepare for them.

B-)

PS Just received another email from Jon Snow. The pressure is increasing on Blunkett, it seems. I'm betting he'll resign before the end of the week...

Went to teach this morning and found another class in our room. After checking that it was indeed our room, we decided to allow the other class to use it this once seeing as they had a PowerPoint set up and a visiting speaker and stuff. After scrabbling around, the timetabling person managed to get permission for us to use the executive boardroom (provided we were 'very quiet'). The students really enjoyed getting past the combination-locked door next to the Vice-Chancellor's office and checking out the portraits of honorary graduands (including at least one graduate from our programme) on the way to the room. Quite odd, though, to have a seminar in the kind of room you expect to see high-powered executives making their presentations in and stuff.

B-)

Just enjoyed receiving this from a university staff email list:

Illustration have lost their skeleton! If you know where it is please phone me

B-)

Looks like we're not happy that [name of rival university ommitted] is outdoing us on the confusion front. So far, everyone seems to be fairly good-humoured in the middle of it all, though. I'm off now to project the module outline which got lost somewhere between here and the print room.

B-)