Academic Diary: Or Why Higher Education Still Matters

by Les Back

Les Back has chronicled three decades of his academic career, turning his sharp and often satirical eye to the everyday aspects of life on campus and the larger forces that are reshaping it.
Presented as a collection of entries from a single academic year, the diary moves from the local to the global, from PowerPoint to the halls of power. With entries like Ivory Towers and The Library Angel, these smart, humorous, and sometimes absurd campus tales not only demystify the opaque rituals of scholarship, they offer a personal route into the far-reaching issues of university life.

From the impact of commercialisation and fee increases to measurement and auditing research, the diary offers a critical diagnosis of higher education today. At the same time it is a passionate argument for the life of the mind, the importance of collaborative thinking and why scholarship and writing are still vital for making sense of our troubled and divided world.

Genres: Nonfiction, Academia, Philosophy

258 pages, Paperback

Published March 25, 2016

Reviews

[Karolína · Rating 5 out of 5]

Les Back - profesor sociologie na londýnské univerzitě Goldsmiths - sepsal poznatky z univerzitního a akademického života, vytvořil časový rámec jak z pohledu studenta, tak i profesora. Je to takové kompendium dvaceti let strávených v akademickém prostředí, které roztřídil podle cyklu semestrů a jejich událostí. Píše tak o licenčních právech autorů a nakladatelství, rigorozní zkoušce PhD, co dělá z profesora dobrého supervizora, jak být dobrý student apod., ale také o tématech jako je oblíbené pero, nebo o tracení oblíbeného zápisníku.

Existuje i jako online verze: http://www.academic-diary.co.uk/ nebo ke stažení jako pdf na webu Goldsmiths.

[Axel Dalman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this in the hope of settling my inner conflict of doing a PhD vs not doing a PhD. Although it turned out not to really address that issue at all, it gave me renewed inspiration about the excitement of curiosity and learning.

[Roland Harrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it! We (academics) should talk more about what it means to be one.

[inception333 · Rating 3 out of 5]

It provides a good insight into the inner working of higher education and what demands academia puts on academics. The short chapters make it easy to read the book in bursts.

[Gauhar · Rating 3 out of 5]

It provides a good insight into the inner working of higher education and what demands academia puts on academics. The short chapters make it easy to read the book in bursts.

[Owen Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

After having this book written down in my 'want to read' notebook for well over a year, the madness, brought upon us by the current COVID-19 situation meant that I finally got around to reading it. In some respects it was a novel way of living out the remainder of my academic year.
As a student reading this book, I imagine that I got something rather different out of it than I would have as an academic. It is warm, funny and delightful. I don't think any sociology student could read this and not wish that Back was their teacher.
The love of academia, the thoughtful critiques, the absurdity and the mundane all seep off of the pages. It will have you laugh, cry and learn a lesson all at once. In a genius way, the book is a comment on the academy, yet itself includes some brilliant sociological observation. It really does leave you wanting more.

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

The University is good because it pays the salary of so many bureaucrats like Les Back. But PowerPoint?

[Frank Karioris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Buy this book now. Read it. All people in academia should read this book before entering the 'hallowed' halls. Honestly, haven't read a better book this year.