Notes in the Margins: Science, gender equality and the UK’s first for-profit university

Science Is Not Your Enemy An impassioned plea to neglected novelists, embattled professors, and tenure-less historians (New Republic)

Bringing perceptions on gender equality in the sciences closer to reality The number of women in academia is higher than most actually believe. If academics unfairly favour male scientists in recommendations, women will continue to be held back from top positions. Measures such as planned quotas of 50% for seminars and conferences may be necessary, even if they over-represent the actual number of women in science. (Impact of Social Sciences)

UK's first for-profit university still meets grade The University of Law has had its elevation to university status rubber-stamped by the government. (Times Higher Education)

Move over U.S. News, a new ranking for universities and scientific institutions Mapping Scientific Excellence, a new website out of Germany, has come up with a novel way to rank the world’s best universities and scientific institutions. It ranks an institution’s excellence by the rate at which it produces scientific papers that are most frequently cited. (The Hechinger Report)

The Plot to Rule College Sports One of the ideas I’ve come to champion is the establishment of a kind of superleague, consisting of marquee names like Kentucky, Alabama, Notre Dame, Michigan, U.C.L.A. and the like: maybe 72 or so football teams and 100-plus basketball teams. These teams would openly serve as the minor leagues for professional football and basketball. The players would get wages. They could get an education if they chose — and that would be a good thing, of course — but there would be no more pretending that football players were actually students first. (The New York Times via University Business)

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