Our Vice-Chancellor

In the year of the bicentennial of the War of 1812, it seems appropriate to continue writing about the differences between the U.S. and British higher-education systems. Most commentators agree that the reasons for that fascinatingly odd war and who won it remain controversial. Let’s hope that I can be clearer about some of our educational disagreements—and similarities.

Universities are chock-full of novelists and poets. Indeed, the cultural life of nations would be mightily impoverished without their presence. There have of course been many studies of novelists and poets who are also academics. Perhaps it is just that I have not noticed the phenomenon before, but it does seem as though they are expanding in number now as never before.