'I Doubleplusbellyfeel the Notion of Unobstacles'

In March the University of Warwick published 'Warwick Tone of Voice: Full Guidelines.' Now read on. Thank you to my colleague Andrew Massoura for highlighting this gem.

Dr Winston Smith on his way to the University's Newspeak Committee

'2084'

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.

Dr Winston Smith, a young lecturer, hurried across the Goodwarwick University campus, and slipped quietly through the glass doors of the 'DoubleplusgoodREFResults' Administrative Building. He was already late for the meeting as he passed a poster depicting an enormous face, more than a metre wide. Its eyes followed Winston as he made for the Central Committee Room. THE VC IS WATCHING YOU, the caption beneath it ran.

The Danger of Management by Metrics

The Metric-Measured Man

There was depressing news from Kings earlier this month. The University plans to cut 120 academic posts in the Schools of Medicine and Biomedicine (from a total of 777)  in order to fund new building. Chillingly, the redundancies will be decided by two metrics: research income and teaching hours.

Using metrics is somewhat fraught at the best of times, but is positively toxic when jobs depend on it. The idea of having stated targets is something that all universities have toyed with and many have implemented. There are clear examples where these targets have had a real effect, focussing minds and ratcheting up activity. But at what cost? Anecdotally the morale in these metric-driven universities makes Airstrip One look positively Arcadian.