Description
'You don't have to read too many pages of this sizzling personal account of day-to-day life as a university lecturer to appreciate why the author has chosen to remain anonymous...' - Dennis Sherwood, Author, Missing the Mark
'It's pithy, political and revealing. It's a book that will astonish some and feel all too familiar to others... I urge you to read it too.' Linda Hill, Linda's Book Bag
Odd students, racist colleagues and inept administrators.
Rising business influence and crumbling academic freedom.
Absurdly wasteful corporate schemes and broken toilets.
Low student welfare, an unwillingness to fail anyone and an A+ explosion in cheating...
For more than a decade, the deteriorating state of the higher education sector in the UK has been largely hidden from view.
Now, after years of cutbacks, an academic who must remain anonymous is presenting a candid and no-holds-barred account of life on campus.
The Secret Lecturer takes you into the seminar room (a repurposed store cupboard, as it happens), the cranky staff meetings, the botched disciplinary meetings, a complicated town vs gown relationship and the secrets of lecturer relationahips with professors.
If you've ever wondered what it's like to study or work at many British universities in the 2020s, The Secret Lecturer will have you rattling through a book faster than a panicked undergraduate on an essay deadline.
Whether you are filling in your UCAS form, moving into a university hall of residence, or just want to know what life is like in a modern college, this book has the low-down. The Secret Lecturer does for higher education in the UK what The Secret Barrister did for the law courts: reveal the unedifying, sometimes strange truth about a system we think we all know.
Reviews
'Beyond the often amusing accounts of interactions with difficult people, there are also numerous moments where the author offers a glimpse into what reads as more systemic issues such as grade inflation and student cheating, the struggle for research time, casual instances of prejudice that appear to go unchecked, and a particularly poignant account of advising a disabled student who is struggling to get support... I found it an engaging read.' Debbie McVitty, Editor, WONKHE
'The Secret Lecturer conveys a dry, ironic and often self-deprecating humour and considerable humanity, particularly through consideration of mental health, sexism and racism.There's a real feeling that we ordinary folk are all in this together and if we support one another in subverting the ineffective status quo within institutions, not just HE, we can, and will, make a difference.' Linda Hill, Linda's Book Bag
Extract
The UK public seem to think a university lecturer is an idle, sherry-swigging stereotype out of a 1970s campus novel. Perceptions of students are frozen in the 1980s - they're either idle, undernourished wimps a la Neil from the BBC sitcom The Young Ones or like his housemates Rick (naively militant blowhard) or Vyvyan (shouty, intoxicated hooligan). Many of the students I teach are well-behaved, eat healthily and aren't uniformly obsessed with getting smashed. Some of them even vote Conservative. But an even more disturbing development that few in the '80s could have predicted is the epidemic of mental illness among students - and staff. Readers may be surprised to find out that legions of lecturers are overworked and underpaid, and on casual contracts.
As you will also see, academic standards are slowly being obliterated, though that has more to do with financing than with a slide into 'wokery.' The conversion of students into customers we can't afford to upset has resulted in an upsurge in grades, non-attendance, abusive behaviour and plagiarism. Hardly anyone ever fails no matter how badly they perform. Not to be left out, lecturers can plagiarise, too - usually each other's lecture notes and research ideas. A mania about external funding has destroyed research ethics.
Buy the book and carry on reading
About the Author
Reviews
'You don't have to read too many pages of this sizzling personal account of day-to-day life as a university lecturer to appreciate why the author has chosen to remain anonymous...' - Dennis Sherwood, Author, Missing the Mark
'There's incredible impact in this book because the nonsensical administration, the casual acceptance of corrupt or lazy practice, and the sheer frustration of those doing their best to counteract such things all feel sadly all too familiar. Reading The Secret Lecturer reinforces the feeling that we have lost our integrity in order to retain wealth and our own status and self-importance. But if this sounds unremittingly negative, then don't be misled. The Secret Lecturer (both book and author) conveys a dry, ironic and often self-deprecating humour and considerable humanity, particularly through consideration of mental health, sexism and racism... I found The Secret Lecturer fascinating. It's pithy, political and revealing. It's a book that will astonish some and feel all too familiar to others. I urge you to read it too.' Linda Hill, Linda's Book Bag
'Beyond the often amusing accounts of interactions with difficult people, there are also numerous moments where the author offers a glimpse into what reads as more systemic issues such as grade inflation and student cheating, institutional relationships with the arms trade (an issue the author is especially morally outraged by) and the wider influence of corporate interests on academic research, the struggle for research time and pressure to produce, casual instances of prejudice that appear to go unremarked and unchecked, and a particularly poignant account of advising a disabled student who is struggling to get the support they are entitled to from their institution. Many of these issues are all too familiar to anyone working in or around the sector, and the effect of seeing them all in one account is, as the author intends, to push the reader towards the conclusion that higher education is on an "intellectual, moral, ideological and administrative precipice".' Debbie McVitty, Ediro, WONKE * Dennis Sherwood. Author, Missing the Mark *
Book Information
ISBN 9781914487217
Author Secret Lecturer
Format Paperback
Page Count 224
Imprint Canbury
Publisher Canbury Press
Dimensions(mm) 216mm * 135mm * 20mm
'It's pithy, political and revealing. It's a book that will astonish some and feel all too familiar to others... I urge you to read it too.' Linda Hill, Linda's Book Bag
Odd students, racist colleagues and inept administrators.
Rising business influence and crumbling academic freedom.
Absurdly wasteful corporate schemes and broken toilets.
Low student welfare, an unwillingness to fail anyone and an A+ explosion in cheating...
For more than a decade, the deteriorating state of the higher education sector in the UK has been largely hidden from view.
Now, after years of cutbacks, an academic who must remain anonymous is presenting a candid and no-holds-barred account of life on campus.
The Secret Lecturer takes you into the seminar room (a repurposed store cupboard, as it happens), the cranky staff meetings, the botched disciplinary meetings, a complicated town vs gown relationship and the secrets of lecturer relationahips with professors.
If you've ever wondered what it's like to study or work at many British universities in the 2020s, The Secret Lecturer will have you rattling through a book faster than a panicked undergraduate on an essay deadline.
Whether you are filling in your UCAS form, moving into a university hall of residence, or just want to know what life is like in a modern college, this book has the low-down. The Secret Lecturer does for higher education in the UK what The Secret Barrister did for the law courts: reveal the unedifying, sometimes strange truth about a system we think we all know.
Reviews
'Beyond the often amusing accounts of interactions with difficult people, there are also numerous moments where the author offers a glimpse into what reads as more systemic issues such as grade inflation and student cheating, the struggle for research time, casual instances of prejudice that appear to go unchecked, and a particularly poignant account of advising a disabled student who is struggling to get support... I found it an engaging read.' Debbie McVitty, Editor, WONKHE
'The Secret Lecturer conveys a dry, ironic and often self-deprecating humour and considerable humanity, particularly through consideration of mental health, sexism and racism.There's a real feeling that we ordinary folk are all in this together and if we support one another in subverting the ineffective status quo within institutions, not just HE, we can, and will, make a difference.' Linda Hill, Linda's Book Bag
Extract
The UK public seem to think a university lecturer is an idle, sherry-swigging stereotype out of a 1970s campus novel. Perceptions of students are frozen in the 1980s - they're either idle, undernourished wimps a la Neil from the BBC sitcom The Young Ones or like his housemates Rick (naively militant blowhard) or Vyvyan (shouty, intoxicated hooligan). Many of the students I teach are well-behaved, eat healthily and aren't uniformly obsessed with getting smashed. Some of them even vote Conservative. But an even more disturbing development that few in the '80s could have predicted is the epidemic of mental illness among students - and staff. Readers may be surprised to find out that legions of lecturers are overworked and underpaid, and on casual contracts.
As you will also see, academic standards are slowly being obliterated, though that has more to do with financing than with a slide into 'wokery.' The conversion of students into customers we can't afford to upset has resulted in an upsurge in grades, non-attendance, abusive behaviour and plagiarism. Hardly anyone ever fails no matter how badly they perform. Not to be left out, lecturers can plagiarise, too - usually each other's lecture notes and research ideas. A mania about external funding has destroyed research ethics.
Buy the book and carry on reading
About the Author
The Secret Lecturer works in higher education at an undisclosed university in the UK. They've written this account to paint an accurate picture of university life and to question whether the status quo is in the long-term interests of students, staff, and the country.
Reviews
'You don't have to read too many pages of this sizzling personal account of day-to-day life as a university lecturer to appreciate why the author has chosen to remain anonymous...' - Dennis Sherwood, Author, Missing the Mark
'There's incredible impact in this book because the nonsensical administration, the casual acceptance of corrupt or lazy practice, and the sheer frustration of those doing their best to counteract such things all feel sadly all too familiar. Reading The Secret Lecturer reinforces the feeling that we have lost our integrity in order to retain wealth and our own status and self-importance. But if this sounds unremittingly negative, then don't be misled. The Secret Lecturer (both book and author) conveys a dry, ironic and often self-deprecating humour and considerable humanity, particularly through consideration of mental health, sexism and racism... I found The Secret Lecturer fascinating. It's pithy, political and revealing. It's a book that will astonish some and feel all too familiar to others. I urge you to read it too.' Linda Hill, Linda's Book Bag
'Beyond the often amusing accounts of interactions with difficult people, there are also numerous moments where the author offers a glimpse into what reads as more systemic issues such as grade inflation and student cheating, institutional relationships with the arms trade (an issue the author is especially morally outraged by) and the wider influence of corporate interests on academic research, the struggle for research time and pressure to produce, casual instances of prejudice that appear to go unremarked and unchecked, and a particularly poignant account of advising a disabled student who is struggling to get the support they are entitled to from their institution. Many of these issues are all too familiar to anyone working in or around the sector, and the effect of seeing them all in one account is, as the author intends, to push the reader towards the conclusion that higher education is on an "intellectual, moral, ideological and administrative precipice".' Debbie McVitty, Ediro, WONKE * Dennis Sherwood. Author, Missing the Mark *
Book Information
ISBN 9781914487217
Author Secret Lecturer
Format Paperback
Page Count 224
Imprint Canbury
Publisher Canbury Press
Dimensions(mm) 216mm * 135mm * 20mm
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