Given the furore that often attends university rankings, here’s what ought to be an uncontroversial table in which every university ought to seek to do well. The Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) and the people & planet campaign have come together to rank the UK’s universities according to their environment performance. In the light of our new government, I wonder how Irish universities might fare on a similar assessment (my employer, TCD, has its green pages here).

From the THES story by Rebecca Attwood:

Leeds Met tops first UK green rankings

Universities are ranked according to their environmental performance for the first time in a new “green” league table.

Published exclusively in The Times Higher to coincide with World Environment Day, the Green League 2007 aims to applaud progress and expose inaction, according to the student campaign group People & Planet, which compiled the data in part by using the Freedom of Information Act.

The table, which ranks universities based on factors such as their record on recycling, CO₂ emissions and in purchasing renewable energy, declares Leeds Metropolitan University the UK’s “greenest“.

A total of 15 universities gain a “first”, with a score of 40/50 or above.

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A pretty basic question, it would seem, for and from an academic, in quest for answers to which I regularly read the Times Higher Education Supplement (THES). This week’s has an entertaining piece by Gary Day headlined “Oi Ofsted, leave them kids alone” (available here (THES; sub req’d) and here), reviewing Martin Allen and Patrick Ainley Education Make you Fick, Innit? (The Tufnell Press, 2007). The Introduction is available to download here here (pdf). The subtitle, “What’s gone wrong in England’s schools, colleges and universities and how to start putting it right”, pretty much explains the book. …

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I can resist everything, Oscar Wilde said, except temptation. And the temptation to post this has proved too great to resist, even though I’ve tried exceedingly hard to do so.

From John Naughton’s Memex:

Quote of the day

Lecturer: What’s the difference between ignorance and apathy?

Class: Zzzzzzzz…..

Lecturer: Oh come on — surely someone knows the difference!

Bored student: I don’t know and I don’t care.

From a talk given by Jeremy Hunt MP at the launch of the Open University’s Ethics Centre.

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