The authors say: “This report does not prove that the degree classification system is flawed, but it certainly raises questions that need to be addressed.” They note that 60.9 per cent of students of physical sciences at Plymouth University receive a 2:1 or first-class degree for working 20 hours a week.

At Cambridge, where students may have twice the A-level points, they work 45 hours a week for the same class of degree.   more »

The Vatican agency first instituted the prize in 2002, to counteract the general decline in appreciation for Latin and Greek. The prize is offered to journalists in an attempt to bring appreciation for the ancient languages out of the realm of scholarship and into the public understanding.   more »

A nice turn of phrase in a travel piece about Provence:   more »

It is fascinating that the internet should in this way be assisting in a modest revival of Latin even if only for hearing an audio of Aesop's fables or taking Latin-speaking holidays. You can't keep a good dead language down.   more »

The idea of naming a Latin Teacher of the Year may seem strange to us in the UK, but why not?   more »

If French priests are agin it, apparently American faithful are for it.   more »

Quite a long piece from The Conservative Voice about argument about the Latin Mass.   more »

It looks as if the Sunday Telegraph is running a series on Latin by Harry Mount. At any rate they have this article today, and promise: Next week, everyday Latin.   more »

One of the excellent series on the ancient agora published by the American School of Classical Studies in Athens is now on line as pdf, with all the pictures.   more »

Unlike many of these pieces, mainly from different places in the USA, this one from the Palm Beach Post gives the opinions of those who don't think much of the Tridentine Mass.   more »

This news item reminded me of a bee in my bonnet:   more »

Although the title sounds exclusively Classical, the piece is about the entrance interview at Cambridge. Worth reading, for any teacher advising Oxbridge hopefuls.   more »

An interesting comparison in the middle of an article about computer programming languages in Tech News World.   more »

I very highly recommend that anyone interested in the Latin language should pick up the following broadcast before its seven days life expires:   more »

Having just watched the final episode of the BBC1 series on the Roman Empire I am jumping up and down wanting to tell everyone, "Yes, no doubt it happened just as we saw on the screen, but the reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire go way back and are far more complex."   more »

Interesting blog about the extramural appearances of Mary Beard.   more »

While school enrollment has dipped slightly, Latin teacher Mat Olkovikas said the school had to add classes to accommodate the program's 50 to 75 new students. Between 200 to 250 Pinkerton students are now enrolled in Latin.   more »

As noted in my last blog, more people have signed up for the EU news in Latin than for the news in French. So here is the latest bulletin.   more »

Lurking within the world of EU Latin, which is only marginally more difficult to comprehend than EU English, is one delightful statistic - more people subscribe to the newsletter in Latin than to the one in French.   more »

It's an interesting article about some wonderful Roman silver that I knew nothing about.    more »

Yes, OK, I have cheated. I admit it. It was only once, I was about 15, and I justified it to my conscience on the grounds that the wheeze was simply brilliant.   more »

Agetur ibi de rationibus qualitatem vitae operariae et efficaciam mercatus laborum in Europa meliorandi, quae competitione gravescente et consenescente populatione insigniuntur.   more »

Father Foster, who has translated documents into Latin for four popes, told Catholic News Service Oct. 17 that his popular Latin courses at the university had been canceled.   more »

Does anyone know who wrote the words, which are in Latin? Are they new for the occasion, or quotes, say, from the Vulgate or Liturgy?   more »

But as early as 1989, Cardinal Ratzinger, now Benedict XVI, wrote that the current liturgy "has become ever more distant from what was intended by Vatican II. We have a liturgy that has degenerated into a show, in which there is an attempt to make religion interesting with the help of fashionable follies and seductive moralizing maxims."   more »

This day, for students of Classics, Classical Studies, Ancient History and Archaeology, uses the collections of the British Museum to enhance understanding of ancient Greece and Rome. From imperial politics to daily life, architecture to pottery, get to grips with the material evidence.   more »

In England and Wales, there is not much demand for the Tridentine Rite. But that may be because the bishops, who favour folk liturgies, disapprove of it so strongly. Very few English priests have gone through the long and complicated business of learning to say the old Mass.   more »

This from yesterday's Guardian tgells how modern languages may be assessed by means of students sitting at computers. The argument for trying the method on mod lang ("because all the components - reading, writing, speaking and listening - could potentially be done with the use of the "common media" of a computer") would be even stronger for Latin, where there is no oral or aural element.   more »

THE Pope is taking steps to revive the ancient tradition of the Latin Tridentine Mass in Catholic churches worldwide, according to sources in Rome.   more »

Please see the invitation to the memorial service for Charles Craddock.   more »

Mr Cairns said Brighton's classics department is running the lessons because "they know that there can be no progress in Latin or Greek unless there is a grasp of the linguistic building blocks of each language. In the classics, grammar cannot be taken for granted."   more »

Yesterday was my second outing to London to prepare for the Language Show Latin and Greek stall.

The train went from Templecombe station in the rural heart of the West Country. The station is a gem. It twice won Best Station of the Year, and no wonder.   more »

'Radically new' Greek dictionary on course for completion from PhysOrg.com   more »

Classics teachers might be interested in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography survey of school founders and patrons.   more »

Secundus and Aggripina visited Paston Ridings Primary School, in Paston, on Monday and were met with a sea of wide-eyed grins from more than 60 seven and eight-year-olds.   more »

WHOEVER said Latin was a dead language never shopped at Morrisons.

To the delight of classicists everywhere, the supermarket chain announced yesterday that it is to include the Latin binomial nomenclature on the packaging of all fish it sells.   more »

A list of recommended books for teachers, younger children, and older students, was compiled during the ARLT Summer School.   more »

As I think back to my teaching days, it seems to me that the following item from the Finnish government, as president of the EU, in their Latin news service, could provoke classroom discussion. Women's rights were a hot issue among my students, so "Feminae et potestas" might be debated in Latin; "Viri et aequalitas" could also get the little grey cells working.   more »

Helen Fields of the British School at Athens have asked if we can spread the word that there are currently still c 10 places left on the BSA/JACT teaching course (and bursary help also still available)   more »

A study based on a 2000-year old recipe for hair dye has shown that ancient Greeks and Romans used nanotechnology to permanently colour grey hair black.   more »

Picture of leisure accessories for a Greek.   more »