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By Richard Taylor. The Workers' Educational Association was set up to bring the joy of learning to the masses. Never has it been more relevant. The Workers' Educational Association (WEA) formally came into existence in 1903 and soon became a strong national presence. To understand whether it is still relevant in the 21st century, it is, as always, important to look at some aspects of the WEA's early history and some of the contrasting strands of thinking which characterise it still. More...

By Carrie Dunn. Lack of job security and extra non-contracted workload traps early career academics in a vicious cycle, says Carrie Dunn. I was interested to see the research by the Universities and Colleges Union that found that universities are twice as likely to use zero-hours contracts as other industries. Well, I say interested – I was more surprised: surprised that it was only twice as likely. The casualisation of teaching staff in higher education has been a problem for years. When I first began teaching, shortly after I'd begun my PhD, I was asked to take on the entire teaching load of one of the department's senior members of staff, who was off on a research sabbatical. Of course, being young and wanting the money, I agreed. More...

By Martin Paul Eve. To sell or not to sell? The University of London row asks stickier questions of academia and its funders, says Martin Paul Eve. To sell or not to sell? That is only the smaller question. In the past week there has been uproar among the academic humanities community over the plan by Senate House library, the University of London to sell its first folio edition of Shakespeare's work. As a lecturer in literature and somebody who cares deeply about the future of academic libraries, the prospect of these irreplaceable volumes falling into private hands fills me with dread (in writing for the Higher Education Network, I have consistently opposed the privatisation of higher education and cultural assets). Conversely though, many voices in this debate are ignoring the economic realities faced by research libraries in favour of an idealised model that avoids thinking about the causes of library budget shortfalls. More...

By John Morgan. The University of Edinburgh has signed an agreement to cease all use of zero-hours contracts and replace them with “fair and equitable” deals. Times Higher Education reported yesterday that Edinburgh had been found to be the biggest user of zero-hours contracts for academic staff in a University and College Union survey of UK institutions, and had committed to stop using the contracts. Edinburgh had 2,712 academic staff on the controversial deals, which give workers no certainty on the hours they will work or on their income. 
Now the UCU has said it has signed a formal agreement with the university to ensure it meets the commitment on abolishing use of the contracts. More...

By Chris Parr. One of the first Moocs on the FutureLearn platform will be a University of Southampton web science course beginning on November 11, it has emerged. Although Southampton offers both a master’s and an undergraduate degree in web science, its massive open online course will not be a direct port of an existing module. Rather, it will be a “mini” course, designed to offer a taster of what students might experience were they to take a paid course at the university.
“It’s an introduction to web science – I think it could be studied by anyone who is interested in studying web science at master’s or undergraduate level,” said Dame Wendy Hall, professor of computer science at Southampton, who has already recorded some videos that will form part of the Mooc. More...