Tuesday

Enjoying my lunchtime egg sandwich, I have just come up with a post for the FB group Famous catchphrases sound better in Shakespearean iambic pentameter. 

"Lo, I have visited that place of yore
And have performed all the requisite acts
As my emblazoned vestment doth proclaim."

I'm quite proud of that. The underlying idea was in my head as I sat through a discussion at this morning's meeting about why the library doesn't have back issues of important journals. I have spent 25 years trying to find out who makes purchasing decisions in the library. A new colleague is experiencing the same initial bafflement that many of have experienced on this issue. I do hope he has the energy to pursue it.

An errant student finally arrived to keep a rescheduled appointment - he forgot about the last one and was late this time although he sent a friend to tell me that the bus had been held up by an accident. I was treated to a long and involved story about how the iPhone4 he brought with him from China had gone missing when he was drunk and in a taxi with friends on his way to a club. He had contacted the cab company and the police but with no result. I asked him what he thought he had learned from the experience and was treated to a lengthy analysis of how students from other countries need to learn about the culture of the host country and the role of the police. I suggested that other useful strategies might be to drink less and take more care of one's possessions.

Spent a great deal of time trying to get a definitive answer as to how much further supervision time an MSc student is entitled to when granted a medical resit for a dissertation. Recent changes in programme directors and administrators make such questions a real problem as it's not at all clear who to ask, but a new person in the postgraduate office rose to the challenge and provided me with an answer. I was impressed: when I can find out the name of her line manager I'll let him/her know but finding out that name could take another hour or so...These are the unforeseen consequences of restructuring. On second thoughts, I'll just email our new head of administration and hope he'll send the compliment down the line. Now I have to find time to read the student's latest draft and give feedback. I also have to second mark another problematic dissertation. And soon there will be a bunch of undergraduate dissertations...

Collected two more inter-library loan copies of articles and two books I'd requested from the library. (I've come to terms with the new issue system at last.) Some reading for the bus to London tomorrow.  One book does not look promising: on the first page I read "Michael Jensen has emitted similar sentiments..." Emitted? Expressed, surely. And this book is by a lawyer which means that all the references are in footnotes which I find a real pain. I suspect that neither volume will be as interesting or thought-provoking as Heffernan which I finished reading over breakfast.

Alerted by a tweet from the wonderful Robert Goddard, without whom I would never manage to keep up to date in my area, I looked at the list of the respondents to the consultation on EU corporate governance. It's always interesting to see which academics take the time to express their views to public consultations: I confess that I never manage to find time. Ian Tonks from Bath was in the list and reading his submission I saw that he has co-authored a paper on gender diversity which looks very interesting so I emailed him to ask for a copy. (In this morning's discussion about the difficulty of getting hold of back issues of journals, a colleague described having to track down a seminal paper via a contact at another university: I did wonder why he hadn't emailed the author directly but perhaps that wasn't possible. I get quite a few direct requests for copies of mine.)

Google Reader flagged up a new post on the FASRI (Financial Accounting Standards Research Initiative) web site. It's such a long time since I taught financial accounting that I am very out of touch but I do try to read the occasional article on the big issues. This is about asset impairment and refers to the "three bucket" approach. What a splendid metaphor! I remember being on a bus back from London continuing by phone a discussion about research methods after a research meeting and trying to explain an idea by referring to transferring data in and out of bins. I don't think I convinced my co-author but when the conversation ended the woman sitting across the aisle from me told me how interesting the idea was and wanted to know more about the research. 

No, chapter 6, I haven't forgotten you...

PS And an hour after I emailed my request, Ian has kindly sent me the paper.