Dear Lord Adonis, the summer is for working

Why academics feel aggrieved by Lord Adonis raising the old canard that they have too much time off in the summer“Most academics don’t teach enough,”spouted Lord Adonis, former Labour Education Minister on Twitter last week. He cites his time in Oxford as “evidence”, though I think we might more accurately call it an anecdote. Adonis is perpetuating the myth that academics are lucky so-and-sos who have three months off in the summer. Like teachers. Like MPs even. Remind me: just how longis the parliamentary summer recess?The reality is, as I ’m sure he knows from his sojourn in academia, that the summer is the moment when academics can finally breathe and do all the vital work to keep them going during the teaching year.To tweet that the “Oxford’s estate and resource woefully underused from mid-June until early Oct (3.5 months!). Teaching year far too short,” means he hasn’t set foot in a university during those months recently. They are frequently heaving with academic conferences, summer schools for students of all kinds, open days and more. These summer months are the time when, for instance, physics teaching laboratory equipment in heavy use during the year can be overhauled, maintained and updated; when academics can get into the teaching labs to prepare new experiments. To dream up new experiments that fit within the budget, with robust and (dare I say it) fool-proof equipment for tens if not hundreds of first years is no mean feat. It takes time, an...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Higher education Andrew Adonis Politics Science Source Type: news