The week in higher education – 25 May 2023

The news that “Long Boi” – the University of York’s campus-based duck famed for its gargantuan, giraffe-like neck – had gone missing left the whole of UK higher education in shock earlier this month. While still only “presumed dead”, plans to honour his legacy were well under way.  A fundraising campaign has begun to construct a life-sized statue next to the lake where he once quacked, BBC News (yes, really) reported. Long Boi – estimated to measure 70cm from beak to flipper – rose to transatlantic stardom after his prodigious body length was discussed on BBC Radio 1 and US television. Students’ Union president Pierrick Roger told the BBC he had been “inundated with requests from students and the wider ‘Long community’ to preserve the memory of Long Boi for all past, present and future”. The nobility of this sentiment calls to mind the rousing speech by Otter in the 1978 American comedy film Animal House: “This situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody’s part.”

Speaking of university mascots immortalised in stone, The University of Maryland has had to take evasive action after Testudo, a sculpture of a terrapin, was inundated with offerings during finals. What started as a wholesome university tradition to bring good luck has led to multiple thefts, property damage and an increased police presence on campus. Inside Higher Ed reported that dean of students Andrea J. Goodwin has been forced to send an email warning after rubbish, alcohol, road signs and several electric scooters and street lamps were placed by the sanctified reptile. The collection had grown so large it blocked the pavement and Dr Goodwin told students those responsible for damaging property would be penalised and that university police presence around the statue would increase. The dean also said clearing and repairing the area placed an additional burden on the university’s hard-working facilities staff.

Since exploding into public consciousness in recent months, the use of AI has sparked countless debates within higher education, and a lot of headaches for academics trying to decide how to grade assessment tasks fairly in the ChatGPT world. One instructor at Texas A&M University, Jared Mumm, reportedly tried to outwit the students he suspected of cheating by asking the AI itself whether it had generated several essay answers, the Washington Post reported. ChatGPT promptly confessed and claimed to have written all the papers. Dr Mumm, a campus rodeo instructor and teacher of agricultural classes, then threatened to fail most of the class, despite evidence that the tool is not exactly reliable at identifying its own work. When shown evidence from students that they had written their own papers, Dr Mumm reportedly said: “I don’t grade AI bullshit.”

If philanthropy used to lead to immortality, now it only seems to guarantee controversy – particularly when your name is linked to an estimated 500,000 deaths from the US’ opioid epidemic. The University of Oxford has finally decided to strip the names of the Sackler family from its buildings and staff posts, after previously taking a more conservative line than other UK institutions that benefited from the pharmaceutical dynasty’s largesse. In its U-turn, Oxford’s governing council found consensus by dropping the names but keeping the money – although said no more had been forthcoming since 2019. For those concerned for the historical record, the university has promised to keep the Sackler name on an arch and the Ashmolean Museum’s donor board. A fittingly small monument to a period most would, no doubt, rather forget.

The UK’s student housing crisis is well documented – with some students forced to live miles away from campus, and prices rising across many cities. Thankfully, rooms at the University of Hertfordshire that were listed for more than £1,500 per night turned out to be a mistake. Several student lets at the institution’s de Havilland Campus were advertised on Airbnb by an external company at prices that would make the Ritz blush. Hertfordshire said an error with external tech firm Staykeeper Homes’ system was at fault. A spokeswoman for the university told the Welwyn Hatfield Times that, unsurprisingly, no one had ever paid this new price and that the rooms had previously been made available to commuting students for between £30 and £50 per night.