Universities should try and teach wisdom, not just knowledge

Should a university provide a moral or spiritual education to its students? The idea seems ridiculous in the age of the mega-university. Universities today are enormous corporations, employing tens of thousands of academics and staff, with anything from 5000 to … Continue reading

John Clare’s Address to Health

This is a guest post by Erin Lafford and the fourth, and final, in this week’s ‘Romantic Voices’ series. Erin is a final-year DPhil student (AHRC funded) at the University of Oxford, writing a thesis on ‘Forms of Health in John Clare’s Poetics’.  Her … Continue reading

Bhutan’s well-being measurements (or ‘how Buddhist are you?’)

The UN Happiness Conference last week looks to have been a fascinating event. The Prime Minister of Bhutan sent me a giant Willy Wonka-esque invitation, for which I’m grateful, but wouldn’t pay my air-fare, for which I’m lingeringly resentful (not … Continue reading