Centrally planned economies work very badly for two reasons. First, even if you had accurate data on what customers wanted and all the technical relationships between inputs and outputs, you would have a computational problem far beyond any practical solution. Second, and more profoundly, you cannot get accurate data on what people want. One of… Continue Reading
Category Archives: University of Cambridge
Cambridge beyond the University
Most Cambridge students live and study in an area of about one square mile of Cambridge. This includes the city centre and most faculties, though if you need to go to the West Cambridge site or the Biomedical campus (see below) or you live at Girton the area is quite a bit bigger. So most… Continue Reading
Who’s in charge of Cambridge University?
One of my recent dinners was at the house of the Vice Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, at his grand, official residence in Latham Road. The dinner was for speakers at the Cambridge University alumni weekend, which attracts several thousand people back each year. One of my dining companions was a professor of engineering who… Continue Reading
The role of dinners at Cambridge University
Perhaps it’s having recently re-watched the film Brideshead Revisited, which rather emphasises the food and drink aspect of student life at Oxford. Perhaps it’s the fact that I have seven official work-related dinners (and three drinks receptions) coming up in the next couple of weeks. But I’m wondering if dining is more central to life… Continue Reading
Not a bad place to work really
Early September is a pleasantly quiet time of the year in Cambridge, between the tourists and the new year of students. These pictures were all taken within five minutes walk of Cambridge Judge Business School on a short lunchtime stroll. I was hoping to get a book out of the Mill Lane library but it… Continue Reading
What I think about the Olympics..
..is perfectly expressed in yesterday’s column by the chief political commentator of The Observer newspaper, Andrew Rawnsley. The title is more negative than the rest of the article. I’m indifferent rather than hostile to the Olympics (unlike many of my London-based friends) and it is genuinely a coincidence that I will be outside the UK… Continue Reading
Brands
We have recently been through a branding exercise at Cambridge Judge Business School. That meant trying to understand how the rest of the world sees us and then designing a unified visual identity that reflects how we would like to be seen. Brand agencies and consultancies are keen to sell you the idea that you… Continue Reading
Are today’s students revolting?
Here is a letter from a US professor who is retiring after 40 years of teaching. He complains of the sense of entitlement among today’s students and says he “grew increasingly weary of all the whining, crying, excuse-making, and general lack of attention to responsibility that appear to characterize most of today’s college and university students.”… Continue Reading
Good teachers – hard to spot in advance
Thanks to a blog at The Guardian, I’ve just come across a fascinating report from the British charity The Sutton Trust, which aims to increase social mobility through education, a goal that is badly needed in the UK and US. In September 2011 they published an interim report called “Improving the impact of teachers on pupil achievement… Continue Reading
Something that money can’t buy
I’m reading a new book by the American political philosopher Michael Sandel, called “What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets”. It’s an interesting and characteristically thoughtful book on the way that market-based ideas and mechanisms have invaded areas of American life, from the naming of sports stadiums to the market for body parts.… Continue Reading
Rigour in the academic world
Recently one of my most distinguished colleagues said that the defining feature of academic research is rigour. He didn’t define it but I think his is a widely accepted view. I agree but “rigour” needs to be considered in context. I have an excellent book from my graduate economics days, when I was struggling with… Continue Reading
The practical applicability of academic management research
Following my post on teaching and research, I got a couple of comments and questions about the value of research for teaching. At a recent internal meeting, some colleagues who wanted to minimise the dilemma of whether to focus on teaching or research argued that good teaching is, in part, based on bringing recent research… Continue Reading
Teaching versus research
It is well known inside the major research-led universities but perhaps less well known outside, that the status of research is far higher than that of teaching. In a university like Cambridge, appointment, tenure, promotion and general reputation are dominated by research output. It is quite possible to have a glittering career in which you… Continue Reading
The military roots of economic theory
The Institute for New Economic Thinking was founded two years ago with funding from George Soros. It held its first ever conference here in Cambridge, where possibly the greatest combination of leading economists ever assembled for one meeting debated how to reorientate the subject so that it did a better job of predicting, understanding and… Continue Reading
New York Times poll of business leaders puts Cambridge as globally ranked no 4 university
It’s the mission of the University of Cambridge to be globally excellent in research and education. On the whole we don’t take much notice of rankings, though it is obviously nice that Cambridge is usually at or near the top of academic rankings worldwide. It’s also interesting to see that the New York Times poll… Continue Reading