Letters: universities have always been a little crazy
Universities’ challenge Sir: I have spent more than three decades in academia and so Lara Brown (‘Alma madder’, 15 August) struck a chord. The craziness is not a new phenomenon. In the mid-1990s my employer, Thames Valley University, offered a half-module in kite-flying. Students spent half a day each week on Hampstead Heath, learning how to fly their silk and bamboo contraptions. I have often wondered how the students used the transferable skills they gained in later life. More recently, I was taken to task by a bureaucrat for not stating my preferred pronouns in my email signature block. When informed it was ‘university policy’, I capitulated. Thereafter, my preferred pronoun was ‘Dr’. I assumed this was acceptable, as I was troubled no further.
