N Dearing himself
IT WAS at this stage of his draft that N Dearing got up steam. How, he asked, could universities expect to charge for teaching when they were in that business less than half the year? Even this, to col- lege bursars, was a distraction from their weekday job of staging conferences. Cam- bridge has voted itself a 23-week year, but N can improve on that. He wants Cam- bridge to work two 23-week years, on a shift system. For no extra investment in plant, buildings and equipment it would teach twice as many undergraduates. Dons could, subject to contract, opt to teach one or both of these years. If they taught both they could double their stipends and still get six weeks' annual holiday, which is more than most people get. Some colleges and campuses would be surplus to requirements and could be turned over full-time to the conference trade or redeveloped as theme parks. Some dons might turn out to be redundant, too. I suspect that some aca- demic fellow-members of N Dearing's club had worked this out, and got at his solution before the final draft reached his brother. A pity, that, and another wasted opportuni- ty in higher education, which has had its share of them. Forget Ron Dearing: send for N.
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