The Secret Lecturer

‘You don’t have to read too many pages of this sizzling personal account of day-to-day life as a university lecturer to appreciate why the author has chosen to remain anonymous…’ – Dennis Sherwood, Author, Missing the Mark ‘There’s incredible impact in this book because the nonsensical administration, the casual acceptance of corrupt or lazy practice, and the sheer frustration of those doing their best to counteract such things all feel sadly all too familiar. Reading The Secret Lecturer reinforces the feeling that we have lost our integrity in order to retain wealth and our own status and self-importance. But if this sounds unremittingly negative, then don’t be misled. The Secret Lecturer (both book and author) conveys a dry, ironic and often self-deprecating humour and considerable humanity, particularly through consideration of mental health, sexism and racism… I found The Secret Lecturer fascinating. It’s pithy, political and revealing. It’s a book that will astonish some and feel all too familiar to others. I urge you to read it too.’ Linda Hill, Linda’s Book Bag ‘Beyond the often amusing accounts of interactions with difficult people, there are also numerous moments where the author offers a glimpse into what reads as more systemic issues such as grade inflation and student cheating, institutional relationships with the arms trade (an issue the author is especially morally outraged by) and the wider influence of corporate interests on academic research, the struggle for research time and pressure to produce, casual instances of prejudice that appear to go unremarked and unchecked, and a particularly poignant account of advising a disabled student who is struggling to get the support they are entitled to from their institution. Many of these issues are all too familiar to anyone working in or around the sector, and the effect of seeing them all in one account is, as the author intends, to push the reader towards the conclusion that higher education is on an “intellectual, moral, ideological and administrative precipice”.’ Debbie McVitty, Ediro, WONKE * Dennis Sherwood. Author, Missing the Mark *

An anonymous UK academic exposes what really goes on inside British universities: debt, grade inflation, burnout, racism – while still believing in the power of education. Sharp, funny campus nonfiction for parents and students.