This is William Cullerne Bown's Typepad Profile.
Join Typepad and start following William Cullerne Bown's activity
William Cullerne Bown
Shoreditch
Founder and Owner of ResearchResearch.com, Research Fortnight and Research Europe.
Recent Activity
Nutt's message undermined by his own lazy evidence, say scientists
This post is from Dr Maria Viskaduraki, a biostatistician at the University of Leicester, and Diamanto Mamuneas, a PhD student at the Royal Veterniary College In October 2009, David Nutt was forced to step down from his position as head of the UK’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs after counselling the then government against reclassification of Cannabis from Class C to Class B (advice which the government ignored). Shortly after, the BBC reported Nutt's words; "If scientists are not allowed to engage in the debate at this interface (between scientific advice and policy making) then you devalue their contribution to policy making and undermine a major source of carefully considered and evidence-based advice." It is unusual to witness scientists defending the value and importance of science in the public sphere – especially when it comes to politics –... Continue reading
Posted Nov 4, 2013 at Research Blogs
Comment
1
Exactly what science do Nature think David Nutt stood up for?
David Nutt has just been awarded the 2013 John Maddox Prize for Standing up for Science. Nutt, you may recall, is famous for being sacked from his position as the chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs after disputing government decisions on the classification of cannibis and ecstacy. In my view, spelt out in detail at the time, Nutt did not so much stand up for science as use science to prop up his own worthy but thoroughly non-scientific position. So here's my question for the four judges who gave Nutt the award and for the others - from Benda Maddox to Mark Walport - who have allowed their names to be used to endorse this decision: "Exactly what science is it that you think David Nutt stood up for?" Continue reading
Posted Nov 4, 2013 at Research Blogs
Comment
1
Theresa May and Tim Montgomerie show David Willetts' ideas are becoming the new normal for Conservatives
Whether she ever gets to be Prime Minister or not, Theresa May's speech on Sunday deserves to be remembered. For 30 years, economic orthodoxy in the Conservative party has been in thrall to the convictions of Margaret Thatcher. But Sunday looks likely to be remembered as the day the party finally moved on. If so, Conservatives will have David Willetts to thank for it. For more than a year, Willetts has waged an intellectual and political campaign to slaughter the muddled yet sacred cows of the 1980s such as "no picking winners". It has taken courage, for at the beginning he understandably feared a backlash from the right of his party. Thanks to grammar schools, he knows how pitilessly any mis-step may be punished. But the backlash has not materialised and Sunday was the day his argument for an industrial... Continue reading
Posted Mar 12, 2013 at Research Blogs
Comment
0
How not to read George Osborne's big speech on science
Usually when there's a big speech on science from a minister, I sit down and read it carefully and tease out the issues it raises. But today I made the mistake of actually going to listen to the Chancellor give his first speech on science. This made a powerful impression on me and threatens to overwhelm my usual textual caution. So I thought I'd post a quick reflection now and then come back to the full speech in a day or two. The most revealing part of the morning was the Q&A at the end, because here we got a vivid impression of the man himself and how he sees science and technology fitting into his economic responsibilities. I was struck by how engaged he is. He has clearly been thinking about the issues and - at the right level... Continue reading
Posted Nov 9, 2012 at Research Blogs
Comment
0
How to read Vince Cable's big speech on industrial strategy at Imperial College
The longer growth remains elusive, the greater the pressure on the government to make us believe that they know how to get things going again. Critical to that job of persuasion is credibility in hi-tech. As Vince Cable delivers what has been billed as a major speech on growth, here's how the key players currently stand: Vince Cable - From his letter to David Cameron, leaked in February, we know he favours a strong industrial policy. David Willetts - In two long and thoughtful speeches this year, he has slaughtered the Conservative Party's scared cow of "no picking winners" and set out a moderately right-wing case for what he calls an "industrial strategy" and which the rest of us would - on the evidence so far - call a "technology strategy". George Osborne - No sign yet that he intends... Continue reading
Posted Sep 11, 2012 at Research Blogs
Comment
0
How to read David Willetts' second big speech on industrial policy
Back in February, Vince Cable set out his Liberal Democrat view of the need for a tech-oriented industrial strategy, in his famous leaked letter. Now it is David Willetts turn. Join me as I discover whether the Conservatives are ready to join Labour and the Lib Dems in backing the thing Margaret Thatcher and three decades of Treasury mandarins have abhorred - an industrial policy. *** What's the good of government? Minister of State for Universities and Science (attending Cabinet) 24 May 2012, University of East Anglia [Check against delivery] The simple action of cutting and pasting this speech into my word processor has alerted me to the sheer length of it. 5429 words I am told. This, and the title, are raising my hopes. Back in January, I described how Willetts was gently leading the Conservatives into new terrain... Continue reading
Posted Jun 3, 2012 at Research Blogs
Comment
1
Defining the front line
"So we will continue to campaign for the key recommendations of this report: government should come clean about its financial chicanery and open the books, secure the much-vaunted loan repayment terms in statute, and restore direct grant funding of universities for mainstream teaching activity. The battle for education is far from over, and these are its new fronts." These were the words of the NUS president, Liam Burns, in his foreward to the new report on the government's higher education reforms by Andrew McGettigan for the Intergenerational Foundation. They are unambiguous. The report outlines some problems and some remedies. And both the analysis and the prescription for what the government should do are being endorsed by the NUS. Some 18 months after suffering the biggest defeat in its history, the NUS has dusted itself down and worked out what the... Continue reading
Posted May 20, 2012 at Research Blogs
Comment
0
How to read Vince Cable's letter on industrial policy to David Cameron
Vince Cable's letter to David Cameron about industrial policy has stirred up a storm over the Royal Bank of Scotland. But banking was only number four on Cable's list of priorities. At the top was support for hi-tech. Join me as I decode what Cable was really trying to achieve in his letter... *** PRIME MINISTER. DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER INDUSTRY POLICY Department for Business Innovation & Skills The Rt Hon Vince Cable MP 8 February 2012 That date gives us the context - this is preparation for the Budget and its core is the age old battle for a bigger departmental budget. I know you have been giving some thought to the subject of industry policy, as I have, and I want to share my views with you. From Vince we expect that kind of thinking. But Dave? Michael Heseitine... Continue reading
Posted Mar 6, 2012 at Research Blogs
Comment
1
Fear and the HEFCE grant letter
The annual grant letter sent to HEFCE by BIS today includes the statement: "we are reiterating our overarching warning that we may transfer HEFCE grant for 2012-13 or future years back to the Department to meet unanticipated pressures, such as student support costs resulting from any over recruitment". This reminds us that, for all the measures HEFCE has in place to deter over-recruitment, BIS is concerned that too many students may still end up demanding student loans and ratcheting up the national debt. This problem of keeping total spending on undergraduates (including loans) under control may become a more pressing issue if the government does indeed scrap the promised higher education bill, for three reasons. First, as Andrew McGettigan points out, without new legislation there is nothing to stop any suitable student demanding a loan from the government. Second, as... Continue reading
Posted Jan 25, 2012 at Research Blogs
Comment
0
OK. So we make a bonfire of the higher education bill. Then what?
Posted Jan 25, 2012 at Research Blogs
Comment
5
How to read David Willetts' big speech on growth
Posted Jan 16, 2012 at Research Blogs
Comment
2
I agree with all that, except putting the root cause down to "debate". The government wants to minimise its lending to students. Hence it has a policy aimed at driving down fees. That seems much more important to me.
Now there's market pressure for you - just FOUR universities cut tuition fees
OFFA has revealed today that just FOUR universities have cut the cost of their first degrees to squeeze in under the £7,500 tuition fee threshold set by the government. The four are the University of Chester, the University of Cumbria, the Institute of Education and Teesside University. Sparsho...
Now there's market pressure for you - just FOUR universities cut tuition fees
OFFA has revealed today that just FOUR universities have cut the cost of their first degrees to squeeze in under the £7,500 tuition fee threshold set by the government. The four are the University of Chester, the University of Cumbria, the Institute of Education and Teesside University. Sparsholt College is the one college to have reduced its fees. These are the only institutions to have cut the price of their main undergradaute degrees for 2012 despite the introduction of the new "core-margin" policy intended to create a competitive market in higher education and drive down fees. While 24 universities have agreed revised access agreements with the Office for Fair Access, most of them have only cut the cost of foundation courses or revised the subsidies they offer students. Bursaries (which don't reduce average fee levels) are out, fee waivers (which... Continue reading
Posted Dec 2, 2011 at Research Blogs
Comment
4
Why almost £500m more spending in the Autumn Statement is only half Osborne's good news for science & technology
Posted Nov 29, 2011 at Research Blogs
Comment
3
I agree that the question of the persistence of policy is a big issue, for UCL here and everyone else. I suppose one question is, if UCL and local authorities spend tens of millions building a new campus, will any future government dare deprive them of the revenue they are expecting to make the sums add up? "Smoothing" comes to mind...
UCL's second campus sends a chill down the spine
The announcement by UCL that it is to open a second campus, in east London, will send a chill down the spine of other elite universities in the UK. Malcolm Grant told the FT today that the plan is for a big increase in research activity. Undergraduate numbers would increase only "at the margins"...
UCL's second campus sends a chill down the spine
The announcement by UCL that it is to open a second campus, in east London, will send a chill down the spine of other elite universities in the UK. Malcolm Grant told the FT today that the plan is for a big increase in research activity. Undergraduate numbers would increase only "at the margins". But the provoist's soothing words won't help the leaders of other Russell Group universities sleep any easier. A huge new campus in Newham could, once it is built, turn out to mean capacity for many thousands more undergraduates at UCL. And thanks to the AAB+ market initiated by the government, UCL will be able to fill all those places with students paying the full £9,000 a year. The losers will be those universities, mainly in the Russell Group, that are slightly further down the list of... Continue reading
Posted Nov 23, 2011 at Research Blogs
Comment
3
Join the dots - science and growth in the season of party conferences
Posted Oct 14, 2011 at Research Blogs
Comment
2
Shabana Mahmood is Labour's new higher education spokeswoman
Posted Oct 10, 2011 at Research Blogs
Comment
2
How to read Chuka Umanna's call for "A Better Capitalism"
Posted Oct 9, 2011 at Research Blogs
Comment
0
University Challenge for Chuka Umunna
We know you get Politics. And Law. And Rhetoric. But there are a lot of MPs like that. Do you also get Science? And Engineering? And Economics? And Social Sciences, the Arts, Humanities? Not to mention tuition fees and university finance. Because David Willetts does. And even, in a vague hifalutin I-could-if-I-had-the-time-but-the-banks-you-know sort of way does Vince Cable. And those are the two people sitting in Cabinet who you're going to have to dog it out with now if you want to win over academics. Continue reading
Posted Oct 7, 2011 at Research Blogs
Comment
0
Catalyst for growth
Posted Oct 6, 2011 at Research Blogs
Comment
2
Are voters really ready to vote for a party that puts innovation first?
Posted Oct 5, 2011 at Research Blogs
Comment
0
£50m is very good news for graphene. But it is a very bad deal for science
Posted Oct 3, 2011 at Research Blogs
Comment
1
Ed Miliband's other policy for universities
In his speech today, Ed Miliband told the Labour Party Conference: "Three thousand of our brightest young people, at state schools, get the grades to go to our most competitive universities. But they never go. That can't be right." Oxford, Cambridge and co and their admissions policies are still in Labour's crosshairs. Continue reading
Posted Sep 27, 2011 at Research Blogs
Comment
1
@Andrew It would be great if you could post some calculations on your blog of what a more realistic price tag would be for this policy.
The verdict on Miliband's £6,000 tuition fees gambit
A day on, the shape and significance of Ed Miliband's £6,000 gambit on tuition fees has become clearer. The precise form of the pledge Miliband has made gives him a lot of flexibility. He has said the cap at £6k is something he would do now. But the FT and BBC say aides are refusing to promise t...
More...
Subscribe to William Cullerne Bown’s Recent Activity