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Cambridge University and me
How the world's best university changed my life
This time 16 years ago I sat at the kitchen table and, with a lurch in my gut, opened a brochure that had arrived in the post. Written in the archaic language of bedders, boaties and bops, it described life at Cambridge University. This forbidding account of colleges, clubs and societies merged with my expectations of the teddy-bear-clutching Sebastian Flytes I would meet punting on the river, and I suddenly felt very small.
Cambridge University has this week taken Harvard's place as the world's top university, at least according to a survey of 15,000 academics who judged the quality of its research to be the best in the world. This will go down well in the ivory towers of what would otherwise be a nondescript Fenland town – it's the kind of publicity that may reinforce the hauteur and arrogance of Cambridge, but also adds to its mystique. But this top ranking for research tells the world almost nothing about how good a place it is for young people to spend their university years in. Is Cambridge really so special and if it is, what makes it so?
It was a dark and wet October morning when I arrived at what resembled a multistorey carpark on a hill far beyond where the fine old stone buildings peter out. Fitzwilliam College is one of the newer colleges in Cambridge. Unlike at most other universities, undergraduates join one of 31 university colleges. Each is an institution on a human scale, in "Fitz's" case with about 475 undergraduates. College was where we ate, made friends and socialised; then we joined students from other colleges at lectures and attended unique supervisions – almost one-to-one tuition – with "fellows" who were often based at other colleges.
I was certainly privileged: I had a teacher and a university lecturer for parents. But I was not posh. I had attended an ordinary state school in the sticks, which hadn't sent anyone to Oxbridge for years. None of my friends from home were going to Cambridge. I was on my own.
Fitz was not posh either. At the time, 70% of its intake was from state schools. None of the six of us randomly housed together on "Bottom M", a male-only corridor of small rooms with a shared bathroom, were public school boys. But as I gazed at Fitz's immaculately tended gardens, I figured that this was what boarding school was like. Within minutes, I met people of a type I had never encountered before: supremely confident hooray Henrys and spectacularly geeky geeks, including a child prodigy who studied maths and appeared to be albino.
I didn't really notice at the time, but we were quickly sorted by a subtle social apartheid. The gilded youths from the public schools already seemed to know their half of the university. For them, Cambridge was more of the same. Supremely at home, they took their big hair and big voices straight to formal hall, where you wore your gown and the fellows sat on "high table". They joined drinking societies – Bullingdon Club-style operations with special ties, arcane rituals and group photographs snapped in sepia – and when they had chundered their way down the River Cam, they retired for the summer to friends' châteaux in southern France.
The public schools kids kept themselves to themselves and so did we. I befriended other gauche products of state schools who lacked a classical education, as well as much sexual experience. We became as raucous as anyone but we were never invited to join a drinking society. We pretended to abhor them, but were secretly envious of their poise and exclusivity. When my best female friend joined the women's drinking society (that there was a women's drinking society was hailed as progress), it seemed a betrayal.
I was young for my age. I was self-conscious, shy and still looked 12, but even so I felt I was regressing. I sold my car, I stopped paid employment, I no longer cooked for myself; I enthusiastically embraced the cloistered world of college, library, canteen and bar.
That dark first day was virtually the only one in my first term. Cambridge may be scoured by winds straight from the Urals, as the cliche goes, but its autumns are sharp and sunny. Everyone bought a bike. A few, mostly public school alumni, purchased college scarves, and every morning we would freewheel down the hill in the sunshine, past golden-leaved plane trees, and on to our lectures. Then we would drink coffee in an atrocious cafe and retreat to a library. We could choose from dozens: the magnificent, intimidating "UL", the University Library with its architecture reminiscent of the Third Reich; the homely library for social and political science (my subject); the red-brick 1970s history library (a favoured choice for girls on account of the handsome toffs who loitered there with jumpers around their shoulders).
When we attended supervisions, we would climb twisty staircases to a fellow's rooms. This was real Cambridge. Every room was lined with books. Some had roaring log fires. We would sit in battered armchairs and discuss our work for an hour. A few of our supervisors were famous media dons, who penned popular history pieces for the Daily Mail, or seemed to know Tony Blair personally, like the charismatic, leather-jacket wearing sociologist Tony Giddens, whose lectures we loved, and loved to parody. Others were anachronistic old sorts who seemed to have no place in the 1990s but still boasted a dozen learned tomes to their name. It felt glamorous, touching the hem of such knowledge.
Plenty of students around the world work hard. All I know is that when I visited friends at other universities I believed I worked harder than them. At Cambridge we churned out a couple of essays a week, skimming half-a-dozen books for each one. There was no lounging around in shared houses watching daytime telly. Hard work was fetishised. With a frission of competition and an eye for melodrama, we regaled each other with tales of "essay crises", how stressed we were, how we worked through the night, how we were surely destined for a "Desmond" (Tutu, a 2:2).
But, quickly loyal to the warm hug of the establishment, I would insist to mates at other universities that we still had as much fun as they did. I claimed there were still normal people at Cambridge; I defined it as 40% posh, 40% geeks, 20% normal. I was a well-organised plodder and worked intensely during the day but still found the time to go to plenty of parties at night.
Once in a while, we'd go to Cindy's, the club in town, which was called something else in the real world. But most of our parties were confined to colleges. These were called bops or ents (as in entertainment). Despite the language, a few, especially those run by King's College students (who had a reputation for being hipper-than-thou), were genuinely cool. Most, however, were cocktail parties. Every student club and society held one. Sometimes these were fancy-dress; toga parties were a favourite. Most were formal. Girls wore evening dresses; boys were virtually compelled to buy a dinner jacket. In old photos, it looks like we were living in the 1950s. Only the hairstyles (terrible curtains for the boys) tell you it was the 1990s.
I never found an entrance into the even more cosseted world of Cambridge's public-school class. I always felt I did not quite belong at the university. But that didn't matter: Cambridge still bequeathed me a key to the British establishment. In just 72 weeks of study, I was more profoundly transformed than I could have ever expected. By the time I graduated, gothic halls no longer intimidated me; nor did walking into an oak-panelled room full of folk in dinner jackets; nor did small talk with drunk rugby players destined for a job in their uncle's merchant bank. I didn't feel chippy or cowed by anything, anyone or any job. Perhaps foolishly, I felt well-educated.
Cambridge is a prodigiously powerful brand. It may be rightly feted for its research and intellectual achievements, but the fact is that it is an extremely effective conveyor belt into the professions that rule us – and that remains a shameful comment on the rigidity of British society. Seventy-two weeks at Cambridge makes you comfortable for life in the Palace of Westminster or the Royal Courts of Justice. My three years were hardly vintage ones, but my contemporaries from Cambridge, only in their early to mid-30s, now include MPs, private secretaries to government ministers, top corporate lawyers and millionaire merchant bankers with homes in Hampstead; not to mention Zadie Smith, Konnie Huq, David Mitchell, Robert Webb and an embarrassing number of people working at the BBC, the Financial Times and, yes, the Guardian.
Cambridge insiders may claim much is different now, 13 years after I departed. When I paid a rare return visit to the university earlier this year, however, I was struck by how eerily unchanged it was. The buildings, of course, were the same. But so were the students, and their conversations. And the fellows were every bit as intellectual, tribal and faintly dismissive of the outside world as ever. Only one thing was different. Cambridge always had the knack of making you feel, quite rightly, very small. Except now, looked on from the outside world, it seemed to me that this beautiful little city and the university that dominates it, was, for better and for worse, a tiny golden bubble.
Patrick Barkhamguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Is Cambridge the best university in the world?
As Cambridge tops the QS world university rankings, one graduate asks if it is worthy of the accolade
This week Cambridge University took Harvard's place at the top of the QS world university rankings. According to the survey of 15,000 academics, it is the best place for research in the world. But what is it like for the students who study there?
I have written for G2 today about my experience of a Cambridge education when I studied social and political sciences there back in the late 1990s.
If you went to Cambridge, did you think it was unique, and did you think it gave you the best education you could get? If you didn't go there, do you find Cambridge graduates insufferably smug or more confident than their "education" merits? Or are you just chippy?
And does it matter that Cambridge graduates continue to feature prominently in the professions that rule over us in Britain?
• Share your thoughts below, or read Patrick Barkham's full feature here
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'Superhead' Mark Elms defends plans to convert school to academy
Concerns raised over 'lack of transparency' surrounding pay, but Elms cites flexibility and freedom as advantages
A headteacher who was criticised for being paid more than £240,000 last year has defended controversial plans to convert his primary school to academy status.
When parents discovered in July that Mark Elms' pay package had reached almost £250,000, many defended him for transforming the fortunes of a school which has been rated "outstanding" under his leadership.
But since then, some parents have launched a campaign against proposals to turn Tidemill primary into an academy – which would be free from local authority control and able to set its own pay rates.
Concern has been fuelled by what one campaigner claimed was a "lack of transparency" over Elms' pay. He is thought to be the most well paid headteacher in Britain.
Elms said today that converting to an academy would enable the school to be more flexible in helping children who spoke English as a second language.
Speaking for the first time since the pay controversy, he said it would also free the school to set salaries at a level that would attract the best teachers.
"There are obviously lots of freedoms; there's the freedom to design your own curriculum. We have very unique characteristics, 65% [are non-native English speakers], 45% free school meals… lots of refugees."
"We need to make sure the curriculum is designed to match their needs, to reflect their background and experience."
Tidemill, in Lewisham, south-east London, has a high proportion of children who do not speak English at home. The school itself estimates that 30 languages are spoken there, including Somali, Farsi, French and Yoruba.
Elms declined to comment on his pay, but said: "Finances are very important. You can do an awful lot in terms of recruiting highly qualified, suitable staff."
Elms earned a basic salary of just over £82,700 in the last financial year. He also received payments totalling £102,955 for work he did over two years as part of Labour's City Challenge programme, which aims to use proven success stories to help underachieving schools.
His pay package reached nearly £250,000 with the inclusion of £10,000 for out-of-hours work, arrears of £9,317 for 2008-09, an employer's pension contribution of £16,700 and an "appointment and retention" payment of £26,413.
One of the parents campaigning against the proposals, Leila Galloway, said she was seeking greater transparency over the head's pay. She has asked for minutes of financial discussions at governors' meetings. Galloway, who has two daughters at the school, said she was concerned that the expansion of academies under the coalition government would create a two-tier education system.
"I believe in comprehensive education. Labour kickstarted [academies] but they've turned into a totally different beast. It drains funding from all the other schools. Personally, I think it will devastate the country. It's a huge social experiment," she said.
Galloway said she had organised a petition and a public meeting to campaign against the proposals.
Elms insisted that a broad consultation was taking place. He said the school had asked in its annual questionnaire whether parents would like more information, and 70% had said yes.The school is also carrying out a telephone survey of 8-10% of parents and held a public meeting yesterday to explain the plans.
"It's a very complicated, very controversal new policy, and we're not wanting to rush into it," he said.A total of 32 schools opened as academies this month out of 2,000 that had expressed interest since May
Over 140 schools are expected to convert to academy status in the coming school year after the government passed a new law to allow every school in England to opt out of local authority control.
Schools like Tidemill that are rated "outstanding" by Ofsted were pre-approved, meaning that those who applied immediately are the most likely to open as academies first.
The speed at which the legislation moved through parliament led to accusations that ministers rushed the reforms using a timetable usually reserved for emergency laws, such as anti-terror powers.
Jeevan Vasagarguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
World's most expensive book comes up for sale
Sotheby's to auction Audubon's Birds of America and Shakespeare's First Folio from estate of late Lord Hesketh
By any standards they form part of a truly extraordinary library: a rare copy of the world's most expensive book, perhaps the most important book in English literature, a fascinating cache of letters from Elizabeth I to the jailor of Mary Queen of Scots, and more besides.
Sotheby's will today announce it is to sell items from the collection of the late Lord Hesketh, including a stunning copy of John James Audubon's Birds of America, a book that grabbed the world-record auction price of $8.8m 10 years ago.
David Goldthorpe, a senior specialist in Sotheby's books and manuscripts department, said: "To have all these items in one sale is remarkable; it's certainly never happened in my time, 15 years, and people who've been here longer can't recall it."
Frederick Fermor-Hesketh, 2nd Baron Hesketh, belonged to a family that had collected books from the 19th century onwards and was an obsessive. He was an example of what is known as "high spot collecting" in that he did not specialise but needed to have the very best of the best and, with a big splurge of collecting in the early 1950s, he achieved it. Now, 55 years after his death, trustees of his will are selling books, manuscripts and letters with an estimated total worth of £8m to £10m.
One of the highlights is a copy of Birds of America valued at £4m to £6m. The book is bound on a huge scale – a "double elephant" folio – because Haiti-born Audubon wanted to paint the birds life size. He would travel across America, shooting the birds before carefully hanging them on bits of wire to paint them.
Not only was Audubon a skilled artist, he was also a persuasive seller, travelling to Britain to print the volumes and then offering Birds of America to the very rich as a prestige product. The copy being sold was first bought by an early paleobotanist, Henry Witham, "subscriber number 11", after an apparently very boozy dinner. Audubon writes in his ledger: "I determined in an instant that this gentleman was a gentleman indeed … We all talked much, for I believe the good wine of Mr Witham had a most direct effect."
Only 119 complete copies of Birds of America are known to exist today and 108 of those are owned by museums, libraries and universities.
A copy of Shakespeare's First Folio included in the sale is almost as rare and has been valued at £1m to £1.5m. The volume of 36 of Shakespeare's plays was published in 1623, and, of the 750 that were probably printed, 219 are known to exist today, most in institutions and most in America. Goldthorpe said there were very few good copies in private hands and only two other textually complete copies with such an early binding. "To have it in this state of preservation is really quite extraordinary," he said.
The Elizabethan letters date from 1584-85 and were all written to Ralph Sadler – a name familiar to readers of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall – who was being asked to take over from a fed-up Lord Shrewsbury as jailor of Mary Queen of Scots. "It was a completely thankless job, to be honest," said Sotheby's specialist Gabriel Heaton.
The letters give detailed instructions, such as where guards should be placed, how many women she could have, the circumstances in which she was allowed outside, and so on.
They are signed by Elizabeth – with her recognisably grand, flourishing signature – but are otherwise mostly in the hand of scribes. One letter does contain a handwritten message from the Queen, to "use but old trust and new diligence".
Other letters – about 180 pages, which could fetch £150,000-£200,000 – include some written by her chief minister, Lord Burghley, and her spymaster, Francis Walsingham. "As far as we know, this cache of letters has not been studied by historians," said Heaton. "It is really quite exceptional to get a group of letters like this."
Further highlights of the sale on 7 December include a copy of William Caxton's Polychronicon, a stunningly illustrated copy of Plutarch's Lives of Romulus and Cato the Younger, and many original drawings from Pierre-Joseph Redouté's Les Roses.
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Dr Dre or The Cure? Study into music on prescription
Nutrient clue to common disorder
Letters: Schools Network
The news that only 16 "free schools" are set to open next year (Report, 6 September) should again focus attention on the New Schools Network, the campaign group hired by Michael Gove to promote the new schools and assist with applications. NSN, run by a former adviser to Gove, is being paid £500,000. Four of the group's trustees and advisers are also involved in Ark, the company launched by City hedge fund speculators to run academies, and it is notable that two of the schools announced this week are Ark projects. What we don't know, however, is who, other than the government, subsidises NSN, and whether its funders include organisations with a more rapacious interest in free schools than the not-for-profit Ark. My freedom of information requests – aimed at finding out more about the education department's relationship with NSN and seeking assurance that there is no scope for a conflict of interest – have so far been stonewalled, as have parliamentary questions asked by Labour MP Lisa Nandy.
Clifford Singer
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Vitamin B 'puts off Alzheimer's'
Vitamin B 'puts off Alzheimer's'
Vitamin B supplements could delay onset of Alzheimer's, says study
Some participants in Oxford University trial see their neurological decline reduce by as much as 50% after using vitamin B tablets
Taking daily supplements of B vitamins may delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease, scientists have claimed.
The discovery that people in the early stages of failing memory can retain more of their mental faculties for longer if they take the tablets regularly could lead to treatments for the condition. Some participants in the Oxford University trial saw their neurological decline reduced by as much as half after using B vitamins.
That breakthrough has raised hopes that the vitamins, which are sold in chemists and health food stores, could at least slow down, if not prevent, the shrinkage that affects many older people's brains.
Vitamin B tablets are popular among vegans, who do not receive it because they shun the foods in which it is found – fish, meat and milk – and among sufferers of pernicious anaemia.
"It is our hope that this simple and safe treatment will delay the development of Alzheimer's in many people who suffer from mild memory problems," said David Smith, a professor emeritus in Oxford University's pharmacology department and co-leader of the study. About 1.5m people over 70 in the UK who suffer from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) – who have a 50/50 chance of going on to develop full-blown dementia within five years – could benefit from the discovery, Smith added. But while the results were "immensely promising", it was not yet certain, he stressed, if B vitamins could slow or prevent the development of Alzheimer's.
Healthy middle-aged people hoping to avoid dementia and older people exhibiting early signs of memory loss might now be tempted to start routinely taking the vitamins, he said. But they should not do without first talking to their doctor, as the tablets could help stimulate the growth of early-stage cancer, he warned.
Chris Kennard, chair of the neurosciences and mental health board at the Medical Research Council, said the findings "bring us a step closer to unravelling the complex neurobiology of ageing and cognitive decline and hold the key to the development of future treatments for conditions like Alzheimer's disease."
Rebecca Wood, chief executive of the Alzheimer's Research Trust, said: "These are very important results, with B vitamins now showing a prospect of protecting some people from Alzheimer's in old age. The strong findings must inspire an expanded trial to follow people expected to develop Alzheimer's, and we must hope for further success."
Some 820,000 people in the UK have dementia, predominantly Alzheimer's, and their numbers are expected to soar as the population ages.
Smith and his colleagues at the Oxford Project to Investigate Memory and Ageing gave one group of people with MCI daily tablets comprising folic acid, vitamin B6 and vitamin B12, and another group a placebo. The vitamins were chosen because they control the amounts of an amino acid called homocysteine in the blood. High levels of homocysteine have been linked to a greater risk of Alzheimer's.
After two years participants' brains were examined using MRI scanners and their mental faculties assessed using tests of cognition. They found that those who had been receiving the supplements had experienced on average 30% less brain atrophy than those receiving the dummy pills. The former saw their brains shrink by 0.76% a year, while the placebo group saw theirs reduce by 1.08%. Those who started the trial with the highest levels of homocysteine experienced the greatest benefit – 50% less brain shrinkage.
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Christopher Freeman obituary
He was a pioneer in science and technology studies
Christopher Freeman, who has died aged 88, pioneered the subject of science and technology studies. Throughout his life, he was deeply concerned about the failure of social scientists, especially economists, to recognise the importance of technical innovation in explaining economic and social cycles. His work laid the basis for what could be described as a new school of neo-Schumpeterian economics – a set of ideas that are as important for understanding the current economic crisis as those of John Maynard Keynes were to the crisis of the 1930s.
One of Chris's most influential intellectual contributions was the notion of systems of innovation. In his view, new technologies are not isolated inventions. They involve a constellation of inter-related technological and organisational innovations. He proposed the concept of "national systems of innovation" to refer to all the elements – firms, universities and other actors, together with traditions, accumulated expertise and policy context – that produce technical change in each national economy.
This idea led to his enrichment of Joseph Schumpeter's theory of long waves and technology. He argued that distinct periods in economic history (around 50 years) are shaped by the bunching together of a set of technological innovations that profoundly reshape patterns of production and consumption. In the early stages, the introduction of the new technologies and their diffusion display dramatic increases in productivity, but in the later stages are subject to diminishing returns. The introduction of what came to be called a new technological paradigm or style tends to be bumpy as the new technologies come up against institutional and social obstacles.
Chris was born in Sheffield and attended Abbotsholme school in Staffordshire. His studies at the London School of Economics were interrupted by army service during the second world war, including a stint at Balmoral, guarding the royal family. He took part in the allied advance across Europe, where he witnessed the horror and devastation of war. While still at school, he had joined the Communist party and, like many of his generation, left after the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956. However, he remained committed to the Marxist idea that it was possible to uncover scientific theories of society and to combine theory and practice. In particular, he was greatly influenced by the work of JD Bernal on the nature of science and social science.
During the 1950s and 60s, while working for the National Institute for Economic and Social Research, Chris began to undertake detailed empirical studies of innovation in different sectors. This resulted in his first book, The Economics of Industrial Innovation (1974), a standard text in the field which has been republished in several editions and translated into many languages. Also during this period, he was the author of the report that led to the Frascati Manual, developed under the auspices of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which set the standard definitions for statistics on research and development.
In 1966 he became the founder and first director of the Science and Technology Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex. There, he developed a unique inter-disciplinary collaborative method of research. Indeed, the unit – with its teams of researchers working on issues such as informatics, energy and climate change, industrial innovation, development, food and agriculture or military technology – became the nurturing ground for a generation of creative people who continued his ideas and ways of working in other places. I was privileged to work at the unit during the 1970s and 80s and have been deeply influenced by what I learned there. We participated in ambitious projects such as the critique of the Club of Rome's report The Limits to Growth (1972) and its follow-on, World Futures: The Great Debate (1978), edited by Chris and Marie Jahoda. The unit continues to develop Chris's work, housed in a new building, the Freeman Centre, named after him. It also became the seed for several other similar centres, including the United Nations University centre in Maastricht, the Netherlands, co-founded by Chris and Luc Soete.
By the early 1980s, Chris was already arguing that we were experiencing the birth pangs of a new technological paradigm based on information and communications technology, destined to replace the late 20th-century paradigm based on automobiles and mass production. In the 1990s, Chris was writing about a new environmental techno-economic paradigm, where spending on environmental protection, poverty reduction and other global goods would supplant excessive private consumption as drivers of economic growth. In his article A Hard Landing for the "New Economy"? (2000), he was remarkably prescient about the current crisis, arguing that the diffusion of the new economy requires far-reaching changes in the institutional and social framework on a worldwide scale. The article ended with the phrase "fasten your seatbelts".
He argued for economic growth that is sustainable in an economic and social sense, not just an environmental sense. We need a new environmental paradigm because that is the only way we can achieve the productivity increases that will reproduce economic growth. In a brilliant short essay entitled If I Ruled the World (2001), Chris imagined himself as the first female president of the US, succeeding George W Bush, and laid out a programme for global recovery that included a new family of global taxes, including the Tobin tax (levied on foreign exchange transactions and designed to discourage speculators) and the decriminalisation, regulation and taxation of recreational drugs, new rules for employment so that the mobility of labour can match the mobility of capital, new programmes for the environment, global security, health and education, and social redistribution, as well as investment in research worldwide. As he put it, all of these measures "are designed for practical implementation. All are quite feasible, but they are designed also to restore hope to the beleaguered world and, especially, to the wretched and poor of the world. To restore hope and belief in the future is the most essential measure in overcoming world depression."
Chris was an inspiration to everyone who knew him. He was modest and unassuming, shunning publicity and fame. His lectures were mesmerising – delivered clearly and simply without a single note. He was always kind and encouraging, especially to children and younger colleagues. He was passionate about football, cricket and birdwatching.
Chris had two sons and two daughters by his first wife, Peggotty Selson, who died in 1974, and a daughter by his second wife, Margaret Young. He is survived by his children and by Carlota Perez, his longtime collaborator and partner, whom he married in 2007.
• Christopher Freeman, economist and social scientist, born 11 September 1921; died 16 August 2010
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Oxburgh: UEA vice-chancellor was wrong to tell MPs he would investigate climate research
Edward Acton gave 'inaccurate' information to MPs by telling them the university would reassess key scientific papers following the UEA climate emails controversy
The vice-chancellor of the University of East Anglia gave "inaccurate" information to MPs when he told them that the university was setting up an inquiry into the reliability of key scientific climate change papers produced by his researchers, according to the man who led the inquiry.
Lord Oxburgh told MPs on the science and technology select committee today that Edward Acton had been wrong to tell the same committee in March that his inquiry would look into the science itself.
"I think that was inaccurate," he told the MPs. "This had to be done rapidly. This was their concern. They really wanted something within a month. There was no way our panel could evaluate the science."
Committee member Graham Stringer MP said this went against what the university had said at the time.
"We were told very clearly both by press releases and by Acton when he came [before the committee] that this was going to be an investigation into the science. Oxburgh made it very clear that it was an investigation into the integrity of the scientists," he said.
Oxburgh was appointed in March to head the second of two inquiries initiated by the university to look into the fallout from the online release of emails and documents from its Climatic Research Unit (CRU).
When announcing that inquiry during a grilling by MPs on 1 March, Acton said "[The main inquiry led by Sir Muir Russell] is not looking at the science. It is looking at allegations about malpractice. I am hoping later this week to announce the chair of a panel to reassess the science and make sure there's nothing wrong."
When it was formally announced, Professor Trevor Davies, the university's pro-vice-chancellor for research, described the Oxburgh inquiry as an "independent assessment of CRU's key publications in the areas which have been most subject to comment".
Dr Evan Harris, who was on the science and technology select committee before losing his seat as a Lib Dem MP in May, said that a full evaluation of the science produced by the CRU was impractical.
"I don't think it's reasonable to expect that inquiry to repeat a peer review analysis of the papers themselves," he said.
"That is the responsibility of the journals that published them. I think the science community is satisfied and therefore parliament should be as well that the scientific reputations of the individuals and the unit remain intact."
Oxburgh defended the inquiry from MPs' suggestions that the nine-page report which took less than a month to complete was superficial or rushed.
"I don't think we could have done usefully any more than we did to answer the question that we were set," he said.
"We worked very hard and I'm afraid I worked the panel very hard. They were very experienced people. Given our limited remit I don't think we in fact needed any more time."
He also denied that the panel was biased in favour of the scientists and said that complaints about lack of openness were wide of the mark. He said that contrary to speculation, one of the panel members was sceptical about climate change – but he refused to say who.
"I think the views of individuals are their own," he said.
MPs also asked whether the expert panel had looked specifically at a paper on Chinese weather stations published by Prof Phil Jones the head of the unit that has been the subject of an allegation of fraud by the amateur climate analyst and former City banker Dough Keenan. Oxburgh said it had not.
Stringer asked why Oxburgh had decided not to publish the notes made by committee members during their deliberations.
Oxburgh, who has been unwell and sometimes erupted into violent bouts of coughing during the evidence session, said that he did not think that the notes would have added to the report.
Stringer disagreed. "If you put [comments from panel-member Professor Michael Kelly] next to the conclusions in the Oxburgh report then they look strange," he said.
"I think people would read the Oxburgh report differently if the minutes of the meetings that had taken place and the comments of the professorial investigators were also there."
- Hacked climate science emails
- Climate change scepticism
- Climate change
- Climate change
- University of East Anglia
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Legionnaires' source sought
Vince Cable's science cuts under fire
Scientist line up to condemn government budgets cuts, thought to be as high as 25%
Scientists lined up today to criticise the coalition government's proposals to cut public funds for research, calling the ideas "sad" and "depressing".
In his first major speech on science and research, business secretary Vince Cable called for scientists to build links with industry, commercialise more research and abandon work that was "neither commercially useful nor theoretically outstanding" as part of the UK's austerity drive. The speech comes at a critical time in the decision-making process for the government's comprehensive spending review (CSR) and is being seen by many in the scientific community as foreshadowing major cuts of 25% or more in some research areas.
"Science, research and innovation are vital to this country's future economic growth," Cable said. "But we have to operate in a financially constrained environment."
He said the "lazy, traditional way to make spending cuts is to shave a bit of everything: salami slicing. This produces less for less: a shrinkage of quantity and quality – I have no intention of going there".
Instead, he proposed identifying and building up areas where the UK was a world leader, including stem cells and regenerative medicine, plastic electronics, satellite communications, fuel cells, advanced manufacturing and composite materials. In the last Research Assessment Exercise, he said, 54% of work in UK universities was defined as world-class and this was the area where funding should be concentrated in future.
Cable also stressed the importance of international collaboration, though he recognised the potential conflict with the government's wider proposal to place a cap on immigration. "On the immigration cap, I've already expressed concerns for activities like big international companies and also the scientific community, where the movement of people is an essential part of the way they operate," he said. "I understand that universities do need people to come and go. This is an international community and the immigration system has got to reflect that, otherwise it'll cause a lot of damage."
Martin Rees, president of the Royal Society, pointed out that science was an enterprise in which the UK was strong. "Other nations, including the US, are raising their expenditure at the same time as our government plans to cut ours. This will make the UK less attractive to mobile talent. And it risks sending a signal to young people that the UK is no longer a country that aspires to scientific leadership. A cut by x% would lead to a decline of much more than x% in top-grade scientific output. It is sad that this government appears willing to risk one of the few areas where the UK has a genuine competitive economic advantage – one which, when lost, could not be readily recovered. The question should not be can we afford the investment – it should be can we afford the cuts."
Imran Khan, the director of the Campaign for Science and Engineering, said: "It's depressing that in one of the most exciting scientific eras humanity has ever seen, Vince Cable had nothing exciting or inspiring to say about government policy in this area. Direct investment in science and engineering pays huge dividends, and makes up less than 1% of total public spending. The government has yet to demonstrate that they have either a vision or a plan for how to make the most of the extraordinary scientific legacy they have inherited."
In his speech, Cable said he supported the idea of blue-skies research, but argued that was no justification for taxpayers' money being used to support work which was "neither commercially useful nor theoretically outstanding". Bob May, the former government chief scientific adviser and president of the Royal Society, dismissed the claim to ration funding in this way as "just plain stupid".
Richard Horton, editor of the Lancet, said that the scale of the UK's public investment in science and its universities was what made Britain punch well above its technological, economic and political weight in global affairs. "Any contraction in the UK's science and higher education budgets will signal a narrowing of this country's vision for its role in the world, a withdrawal from its current international leadership role in science. Our universities are second only to the US in terms of their contribution to knowledge creation and innovation. A reduction in the government's investment in science will damage our ability to shape our national and international futures. It would be a cut too far."
Khan added: "At a time when politicians should be looking to science and engineering to help rebalance the economy, they are instead focusing on erecting barriers to scientific collaboration by capping immigration, and damaging our reputation as a global research hub by cutting investment – just as our competitors are increasing theirs."
There were also some words of welcome. Richard Barker, director general of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, said he welcomed some key aspects of the speech, particularly the focus on international collaborations and links with industry. "The life sciences represent one of Britain's best hopes for turning excellent research into economic growth."
Alok Jhaguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Mother condemns hammer attack school
Report finds Swindon school failed to recognise racist incidents before assault that left Henry Webster brain damaged
The mother of a white 15-year-old boy who was left with brain damage after a hammer attack by a gang of British Asian pupils blamed his school today after a report found it failed to recognise a series of racist incidents prior to the assault.
Henry Webster was repeatedly punched, kicked and hit with the sharp end of a claw hammer in an assault by the gang on the tennis courts at Ridgeway school in Wroughton, near Swindon, Wiltshire, in January 2007.
His mother, Liz, said the serious case review (SCR) showed the school was responsible. "This review has confirmed our belief that the Ridgeway school was responsible for the horrific, devastating assault on our son which has left him with permanent injuries," she said.
Mrs Webster claimed the local authority had got off lightly in the report. "The criticism of the local authority is tantamount to a whitewash as it is so minimal and limited.
"The review doesn't mention what needs to be done to improve race relations in Swindon, which is an urgent concern considering the considerable increase in the vote for the BNP."
She accused the school and the local authority of being "excessively defensive" and claimed there had been an attempt to "deflect blame from the school and the local authority".
Her son had agreed to fight a boy "one on one" to end the harassment that he felt he and his friends were experiencing.
The ensuing attack happened when four boys pointed him out to three Asian men who had arrived in cars. It took about one minute. Henry Webster suffered six blows from a hammer produced by one of the intruders and was left with a depressed skull fracture.
Henry, who is now 18, has recovered sufficiently to return to part-time education but still has short-term memory loss.
The attack led to the conviction in 2008 of seven young men for wounding Henry with intent to cause him grievous bodily harm, with a further five men being convicted of conspiracy. Another admitted violent disorder.
They were given custodial sentences ranging from eight years to eight months, with others receiving suspended sentences of up to 18 months. Four were pupils at the school.
Mrs Webster said the school's race relations policy "was not worth the paper it was written on", adding: "There was no cohesive approach to dealing with matters of race.
"Whilst Henry has been the primary victim, we are and always have been of the firm belief that this school also let down the young Asian pupils who were eventually prosecuted for this attack.
"They have been criminalised and demonised. Had their integration been properly handled we are certain this attack would not have happened."
Mrs Webster said she and her family were "very concerned" that the report had failed to address many of the failings surrounding their treatment, saying: "Our faith in the justice system and the establishment has been severely damaged. We feel badly let down."
Last year, Henry, of Wroughton, and his family launched a high court challenge claiming that the school had been negligent, failed to maintain proper discipline and failed to deal with racial tension. The school denied liability.
In February this year Mr Justice Nicol rejected their claims and said the school did not breach its duty to take reasonable care to keep Henry reasonably safe while on its premises.
Following the high court ruling, the Swindon Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) commissioned a serious case review to examine the facts and allow professional agencies to learn lessons.
The executive summary, published today, says the school, despite knowing in advance, did not prepare for the arrival of a significant number of British Asian students in 2005.
Some incidents between white and British Asian pupils were not recognised as racist by the school and by dealing with these incidents itself, it missed the opportunity to gain a better understanding of what was actually going on through external intervention, the review says.
Other agencies did not challenge robustly the school's approach or its procedures, the report says.
Mike Howard, independent chair of the Swindon LSCB, said: "I am sorry that what was already an extremely distressing experience was made worse by the lack of co-ordinated support they received from some agencies.
"The attack took place over three and a half years ago and, despite the regrettable delay in concluding the SCR process, many of the measures made in the recommendations have already been identified and acted upon by individual agencies.
"Swindon has made significant progress in many areas of safeguarding. Most importantly I hope that Henry will be able to move on from this tragic and protracted incident and be able to achieve his ambitions in life."
Steve Allsopp, the president of the Swindon Race Equality Council, said that the saga had not increased racial tension in the area. He also refuted Mrs Webster's claim that the attack had resulted in an increase in votes or support for the BNP.
The school said it could not have "forseen or prevented" the attack.
In a statement it added: "We are sorry that the family feel that they were not supported adequately following the attack. We have noted the recommendations contained within the report."
Steven Morrisguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
ResearchGATE brings in strong funding round for 'scientific Facebook'
Social network has 2,600 groups covering various projects and lab methods, and is backed by experienced investors
There was a time, before the Facebook reign truly began, when specialist networks seemed to be the direction in which social networks were headed. Although a handful of big-name sites now dominate the space, there are still opportunities, now the marker has matured a little, for a well-executed niche network to build a strong business.
That's exactly what ResearchGATE has done for the scientific research community by building a site that crowdsources research. With an impressive set of experienced investors, the Berlin and Massachusetts-based site is announcing its first major funding round today. Medical doctor and PhD Ijad Madisch founded the site two years ago to build a community around scientific research but also to capture what he describes as "research redundancy".
"People only report positive results, whereas research is really often based on what didn't work," he said. ResearchGATE has 2,600 groups covering various projects and lab methods, with those communities replacing what had traditionally been published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at seminars. It's about presenting work in progress and sharing practical research tips.
Madisch said scientists and researchers from 196 countries and principalities are contributing to the site, with users in the US, UK, Germany and India making up the bulk of the 500,000 registered users. Madisch said the undisclosed amount of funding will be used to expand the staff team in Berlin and accelerate growth of the company and audience base.
The round was led by Benchmark, with Accel and various UK superangels including Bebo founder Michael Birch, Accel's Simon Levene and Rolf Christof Dienst of Wellington. Scout24 founder Joachim Schoss, idealo.com co-founder Martin Sinner, Sedo.com co-founder Ulrich Essmann and MyVideo.de found Christian Vollmann have all joined the funding round. It's like buses. Benchmark's Matt Cohler, with Leven and Schoss, join the board.
Is this is threat to UK research startup Mendeley? Madisch doesn't think so. "I believe in more diverse apps. Mendeley is more about literature - we cover literature but also collaboration, events, jobs... I want to be very diversified because everyone needs something different." Different, but also with every chance of making a real difference. This is where the promise of crowdsourcing and collaboration could really be fulfilled.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Inquiry to hear from HIV victims
Outbreak probe at industry sites
Who sends their sick child to school?
Half of parents admit they make their kids go to school even if they're not feeling well, according to a new study. Do you?
Half of Britain's parents admit they send their children to school when they are unwell – a fifth even do so when they have a contagious illness.In fact, not even full-blown fever, diarrhoea and vomiting will stop some mums and dads packing their little darlings off to lessons, according to a report today from the private medical insurer Bupa.
As the new school year begins, Bupa's research shows parents are unsure which illnesses are unacceptable at school or nursery. Six out of 10 would keep their children home if they had conjunctivitis – not strictly necessary – but, worryingly, one in seven would send them in with diarrhoea.
Bupa's How Are You Britain? report reveals that 13% of parents believe vomiting is no reason to keep a child at home.
Many of us, as working parents, have been there. We've felt the stab of irritation at the prospect of having to stay at home and juggle working with caring for a sick child, only to witness a Lazarus-like recovery once the call to the school is made and the TV is switched on. It makes you think twice the next time a temperature is slightly raised and you hear the tearful cry: "But Mummy, I'm too ill to go to school!"
The pressure from schools to keep pupil absence levels as low as possible and the drag of having to catch up missed work may also be factors driving parents to insist their sick children turn up at the school gate.
Not surprisingly, the number one reason cited by two-thirds of parents for sending poorly kids to school was the belief they would start to perk up once there, followed by one in five not having other childcare options, and then work commitments (18 %).
Bupa health and wellbeing director, Dr Annabel Bentley, said: "Parents should keep children with vomiting and diarrhoea off school or nursery for 48 hours to protect other children's health. For conjunctivitis, which is usually viral, medical guidance is that a child can go to school or nursery."
What is your experience, either as a parent or a teacher or even both? Are parents acting selfishly and should they think much harder about the ramifications of despatching a sick child to school?
Rebecca Smithersguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
George Bernard Shaw photographs uncover the larky private man
Shaw's huge collection of photographs, many showing him in a new light, are to be made available online
The beard, whiskers and glare to camera from under bushy eyebrows are familiar. It's the stripy one-piece bathing costume that makes the image of George Bernard Shaw, playwright, critic, socialist and Nobel laureate, terrifyingly memorable.
The Dublin-born writer died aged 94 in 1950 when he fell out of an apple tree at his home in Ayot St Lawrence, Hertfordshire, having got fed up with waiting for the gardener to prune a rotten branch. He left the house, Shaw's Corner, and its contents to the National Trust complete with an enormous photographic collection of more than 20,000 prints, negatives and glass plates. These will become available for the first time to scholars and enthusiasts as the images are digitised and put online.
Shaw was an enthusiastic photographer, at least from 1898. The collection includes formal studio portraits and thousands of his own photographs, ranging from holiday snaps to records of the hordes of friends, admirers and visitors to the house.
Among the photographed celebrities are the beautiful actor Mrs Patrick Campbell, with whom Shaw conducted a passionate relationship almost entirely through letters – she worried that a child of theirs might inherit her brains and his looks – the composer Edward Elgar, whom he revered, the artists Augustus John and Dame Laura Knight, and the Antarctic explorers Captain Scott and his neighbour Apsley Cherry-Garrard. Much detective work remains to be done to identify all the subjects.
Many photographs were taken by TE Lawrence, Lawrence of Arabia, who regarded Shaw and his wife Charlotte as surrogate parents and brought the draft of Seven Pillars of Wisdom to them for advice. Images of fellow leftwing thinkers such as Beatrice and Sidney Webb are there and, more surprisingly, a photograph of Shaw chatting with the Prince of Wales and Mrs Simpson.
The collection was moved in 1979 on loan to the archives of the London School of Economics, which the Shaws and the Webbs were involved in founding. Digitising it is a joint National Trust and LSE project.
The National Trust curator Fiona Hall is already struck by the contrast between the grave public figure, carefully posed and immaculately dressed, and the larky private man.
"The shots of GBS the celebrity show him unsmiling, dressed smartly, and holding a prop such as a cane. More intimate shots show him relaxed, surfing, picnicking, and striking poses from famous sculptures including Rodin's Thinker."
Fans can look forward to further revelations about the great man: eventually the entire archive will be available, including photographs in which the stripy bathing costume has vanished and Shaw is naked on the beach.
Maev Kennedyguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
