Who has time for books when there¡¯s an image to be maintained on Facebook, witticisms to be dispensed to Twitter, and selfies dispatched via Snapchat?
Teenagers, we¡¯re told, are so consumed by digital that they struggle to fit in face-to-face social lives (note the declining teen pregnancy rate), let alone read novels.
It¡¯s not only teens who face greater digital demands on their time. Take the most prolific tweeter among UK vice-chancellors: Dominic Shellard, of De Montfort University, has tweeted almost 40,000 times, which equates to about 600,000 words ¨C more, apparently, than in War and Peace. Whatever your age or position, such digital dedication is bound to eat into time to do other things (and I speak as someone who has tweeted 8,000 times myself).
So in our cover story this week, we ask academics to suggest one title they¡¯d urge undergraduates to read before they head off to university.
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In a similar vein, and knowing how pressed for time vice-chancellors are, I conducted a straw poll of university leaders, asking what single book they would recommend to prospective v-cs to prepare them for the rigours of the top job.
Shellard¡¯s choice isn¡¯t Tolstoy but John Kotter¡¯s Leading Change, which he says was recommended to him by Sir Keith Burnett, his old boss at the University of Sheffield, ¡°with a mischievous, knowing smile which said that this would save me months of false moves. It was a revelation. Clear, accessible and appealingly persuasive, it steadied my nerves for the task ahead.¡±
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- Scholars choose ¡®essential¡¯ texts to introduce sixth-formers to the academy
As a former head of the Arts and Humanities Research Council, Sir David Eastwood¡¯s choice is less obviously from the management canon: he recommends Alexis de Tocqueville¡¯s L¡¯Ancien R¨¦gime et la R¨¦volution, and suggests that it¡¯s OK to read it in translation, ¡°but try to quote from it in French¡±.
It is, he says, ¡°a truly great book and a profound exploration of the interplay between ideas, political culture, and structures. It explains how a regime worked, modernised, atrophied and collapsed. It warns against the dangers of over-centralisation, and memorably concludes that ¡®the most dangerous time for a bad government is when it seeks to reform itself¡¯.¡± John Cater, vice-chancellor of Edge Hill University, says that his advice would be ¡°no 1970s management theory, no business process re-engineering, and as few operating objectives and performance measures as you can sensibly get away with¡±.
¡°Rather, vision, communication, culture, ethos, strategy. Go back 2,300 years and try Philip Freeman¡¯s 2011 biography of Alexander the Great, the glory not the dirt, the civilising not the brutalising. And avoid the tainted wine. You¡¯ll only ever be Alexandr(a) the Tolerable, but at least you¡¯ve lived past 32.¡±
For Dame Nancy Rothwell, of the University of Manchester, Stefan Collini¡¯s What Are Universities For? is a must-read ¨C so much so that she gave a copy to each of her governors. ¡°Thoughtful, provocative and amusing, I don¡¯t agree with all of Stefan¡¯s conclusions, but I fully agree with his answer to the question in the title, which is that universities are basically for the public good. This is something that a new v-c should be mindful of,¡± she advises.
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Finally, Christina Slade, vice-chancellor of Bath Spa University, has two options to prepare future v-cs for their game of thrones: ¡°My choice is Machiavelli, The Prince,¡± she says. ¡°If you need another, Hilary Mantel¡¯s Bring up the Bodies.¡±
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