Education: Word Of mouth

Beeb's big boob

This time Auntie has really messed up. It is 54 years since Sir Henry Wood died, and since his marvellous Promenade concerts were transferred from the rubble of the Queen's Hall to the Royal Albert Hall. Surprisingly, it has taken the BBC until now to think of registering the Proms as a trademark. And guess what? They are too late. Someone got there before them. Larry Westland, who founded Music for Youth 26 years ago, had already registered School Proms as a trademark. So now we have the ludicrous situation of the Beeb's solicitors having to seek Westland's permission to register the Proms. Castle International, the last word in trademarks, patents, designs and copyright, wrote to Westland's solicitor, Charles Russell, pointing out that it was up to School Proms to give the BBC a yea or nay. Castle's representative hoped (a trifle pompously, perhaps) that "peaceful co-existence in the market-place could extend to co-existence on the Trade Mark Register". It was a nail-biting situation, equalled only by The Archers' most recent tragic cliff-hanger. But I can disclose that Larry Westland has reacted generously. "I'm only too happy to help Auntie out of this predicament," he told me with a beatific smile. Now, I'm willing to bet that, had the string been on the BBC's bow instead of on Westland's, Auntie would not have plucked so jolly a pizzicato. Still, I hope we shall continue to enjoy both the Proms and the School Proms at the RAH for many more years to come.

The new masters

Baroness Blackstone's successor as Master of Birkbeck College was among the first to gain an A-level in computer science. That's when Tim O'Shea was sweet 18, back in the Sixties. Now at 48, he is one of the youngest vice-chancellors and has educational technology gushing from every pore. He joined the Open University 20 years ago, became its professor of information technology and, since 1994, its pro-vice-chancellor. Professor O'Shea is an all-rounder, who loves research and actually enjoys administration. Teaching comes as a bonus. Another new boss to welcome is Professor David Rhind, 54, director-general and chief executive of Ordnance Survey. He is to succeed Raoul Franklin, 62, when he retires this summer as the country's longest-serving vice-chancellor. Professor Franklin took up the reins of City University in 1978, just as Professor O'Shea joined the OU. O'Shea was then a mere lad of 28 and Franklin 42, one of the youngest to head a university this century. Prof Rhind may find a number of similarities between Ordnance Survey, the nation's formidable mapping agency, and City University, when he arrives in September. City has a turnover of pounds 70m a year and a staff of 1,300, while OS has an pounds 80m turnover and 1,800 staff.

Clean action:

There was a cheering twist to last week's Student Day of Action. This usually means a day of inaction - but not so in Yorkshire. About 100 University of Leeds students occupied the entire Roger Stevens Lecture Theatre, a block of 25 lecture rooms, from Tuesday afternoon until Wednesday evening, all as part of the national protest against the Government's pounds 1,000 tuition fee.A team was voted to march to the university's cleaning services unit and confront its astounded manager. "Give us the tools and we'll finish the job", they might have said in Churchillian style (but probably didn't). Back to Roger Stevens they marched, armed with buckets, brooms and besoms to clean the place from top to bottom - ready for Thursday's lectures. Clearly not the dirty layabouts students are made out to be.

North Circular

North Circular is 25 years old. No, not the road that slices its way across London, but the newspaper which faithfully reports the happenings among staff and students at Middlesex University. Now in gloriously glossy colour, this newsletter owes a great debt to three people: first Dr Ray (later Sir Raymond) Rickett, first director of Middlesex Polytechnic, who gave North Circular a free rein from the start; then Bobby de Joia, its first editor, later to become the polytechnic's and the university's external relations chief; and Mike Brown, who took over from her to remain editor until recently. Sir Raymond, alas, did not live to see its current glory (he died on Easter Saturday, 1996); both Bobby and Mike have retired, but still keep their hands in. The newspaper has never pulled its punches, and has reported campus happenings good and bad. Would that more in-house journals did likewise. Congratulations to those who brought it along that lengthy road and to Suzi Clark, the present editor, who is upholding the fine tradition.

Science circus

As a curtain-raiser to National Science Week, which kicks off tomorrow, one of the world's greatest living scientists delivered a lecture on "Science in the next millennium". But not here. Professor Stephen Hawking, Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge University (a chair originally held by Sir Isaac Newton) was the guest of that odd couple, Bill and Hillary Clinton, at the White House last Friday. The man who discovered that black holes emit radiation, and wrote A Brief History of Time (wow!), told 160 carefully selected guests, including the Cambridge vice-chancellor Professor Sir Alec Broers, that biological and electronic complexity will increase ever more rapidly. Hawking must be the most eminent professor in a wheelchair. He suffers from motor neurone disease, yet manages to strike blow after blow for British science. I can think of no one more deserving of a knighthood. But what of our annual science circus? More and more universities are producing centre-of-the-ring events. Cambridge is again throwing open its doors to the public, with lectures, lab demonstrations and activities (last year, 11,000 attended its many events). Another curtain-raiser was staged at the weekend at the Avery Hill campus of Greenwich University, where scores of youngsters aged nine to 13 attended the "Children's University", making pinhole cameras, producing an electronic newspaper and learning about fossils and bridge-building. Now, with such goodies on offer, how come science at schools and universities is still in the doldrums?