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3 weeks ago | 
wonkhe.com | Hugh Jones |Mark Leach
Greetings from Oxford!Many – perhaps even most – universities have a statue or two. But few have a statute which is as troublesome as one of those belonging to Oriel College, Oxford. You can see the statue in question in the alcove directly above the door in the postcard – the one on its own at the top; not one of those along the first floor. And I bet by now you’ve guessed the statue.
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4 weeks ago | 
wonkhe.com | Hugh Jones |Mark Leach
Greetings from Oxford!As I write this blog, the spring statement is two days away, and I have no idea (although I can make a guess!) how Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves’ statement has gone down with people. Reeves studied for her first degree at New College Oxford, and so that’s where we’re going today. This being Oxford, New College is obviously a very old college. It was founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham, the Bishop of Winchester.
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1 month ago | 
wonkhe.com | Hugh Jones |Mark Leach
Greetings from Indiana!In 1862 the United States passed the first of a series of laws – known as the Morrill Land-Grant Acts – which allowed states to sell federally owned land to fund the creation of colleges. These colleges – known now as land-grant universities – form a large chunk of the US higher education system. And its important to note – as America tries to forget its history – that the land sold to fund them was often bought, granted by or stolen from Native American tribes.
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1 month ago | 
wonkhe.com | Hugh Jones |Mark Leach
Greetings from Oxford!As reported in the Oxford Times, on 21 March 1865 – which by my count is very nearly 160 years ago – a meeting was held in Oxford. This led to the establishment of the Oxford School of Art, which opened its doors to students on 22 May that year. The initial curriculum included freehand drawing, shading in chalk, perspective and model drawing, figure drawing and anatomy, and painting in oil and watercolour. There were separate classes for men, women, and children under 15.
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1 month ago | 
wonkhe.com | Hugh Jones |Mark Leach
We’re in Aberystwyth again this week, but not for an in-depth look at the university – we’ve done that before. Instead, we’re going to look into an aspect of old university governance, with an Aberystwyth artefact. This is a draft report to the University Court of Governors.
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2 months ago | 
wonkhe.com | Hugh Jones |Mark Leach
Greetings from Cairo!In 970 work started on the Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo, which had been founded on the orders of al-Mu’izz li-Din Allah, the fourth Fatimid Caliph. Work on the buildings was completed two years later. In 988 Ya’qub ibn Killis, the first vizier of the Fatimids, designated the mosque as a centre of learning, and the following year 35 scholars were hired. This marked the beginnings of the mosque as a place of learning.
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2 months ago | 
wonkhe.com | Hugh Jones |Mark Leach
It’s 31 March 1949, and Winston Churchill, now Leader of the Opposition, was visiting the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was impressed by what he saw, and thought that the UK should have its own version, a postgraduate university focusing on science and technology. Fast forward six years, and Churchill had retired after his second spell as Prime Minister. His private secretary, John Colville, sought to progress the idea, but could not make as much progress as he had hoped.
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2 months ago | 
wonkhe.com | Hugh Jones |Mark Leach
Greetings from old Castile!Let’s go back to the thirteenth century, and the Iberian peninsula. The Roman empire had collapsed a few hundred years before; Visigoths had invaded from the north and established kingdoms; the Almohads had invaded from the south; it was a time of political uncertainty, with no peace; but also intellectual ferment. Intellectual ferment because universities were being founded across Europe.
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Jan 23, 2025 | 
wonkhe.com | Hugh Jones |Mark Leach
Dartington Hall is a splendid old country house. Its great hall dates from 1388, and has a wonderful hammerbeam roof, an a porch where the arms of Richard II can still be seen. The trouble with keeping old buildings going – when you’re no longer a medieval feudal lord, and when wages have risen – is that upkeep is pretty tough. So it was fortunate that Dartington was bought, in 1925, by Leonard and Dorothy Elmhirst. The Elmhirsts were interesting.
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Jan 19, 2025 | 
varsity.co.uk | Hugh Jones
Protesters gathered outside the Cambridge Guildhall at noon today (19/01) before marching around Market Square to mark a cessation of hostilities in Gaza.
Protesters waved Palestinian and Lebanese flags, danced to Palestinian music, and displayed signs criticising Israel’s response to the 7 October attacks in 2023.
An event official said that the event was intended to celebrate both the ceasefire and Palestinian culture in general, adding that the ceasefire does not mean that things are “over”.
