"The reorganisation will succeed in the aim of making a once great institution manifestly mediocre.”

Academics from University College London weigh in on plans to cut over 200 jobs at nearby King’s College London. The proposals include turning the School of Physical Sciences and Engineering into a school of natural and mathematical sciences, meaning the university would no longer teach engineering. (The Times Higher Education)

“Criticise any field of science these days and you grow accustomed to such gentilities of academic discourse from the laboratory cloister as, ‘How dare you’, ‘Get off our patch’ and ‘Jenkins, you are a grade-one ­arsehole’.”

Simon Jenkins of The Guardian prompts scientists to get off their pedestals and be more self-critcal in the aftermath of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Himalayan glacier claim and the University of East Anglia email affair. Annoyance and discussion on Nature Network.