It would be churlish not to applaud Ulster University which has been named ‘University of the Year’ by the Times Higher Education magazine.

So congratulations to the students and staff who put in the hard work that grabbed the judges’ attention. They deserve their moment in the spotlight.

The world of higher education today is a challenging one – not least for staff on the frontline. They are no longer just educators, they are administrators, therapists, mental health workers, social workers and social entrepreneurs among many other things. And that is not good.

Over the course of my lifetime, university has gone from being a mentoring experience with small classes to a system of mass education.

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Fewer and fewer staff, with heavier and heavier workloads, try to manage large numbers of students – each with their own set of needs.

Workflow models devised by university bosses don’t reflect the effort which goes into preparing lectures, seminars and tutorials; nor include the huge emotional energy many academics expend dealing with students with increasingly complex needs.

While the expansion of........

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