Crump - P.J. Vanston

Kevin Crump is happy – he’s just got his dream job as a lecturer at a British university and is looking forward to introducing his new students to a first class education.Yet, as the academic year progresses, all is not what it at first seemed. Shockingly, he discovers that the former polytechnic of Thames Metropolitan University, in common with other universities, is not very much interested in ‘education’ at all. Instead, it is engaged in a process of dumbing down, grade inflation and turning a blind eye to plagiarism and cheating. It is also obsessed with its place in the league tables and attracting as many fee-paying students as possible – especially cash cow foreigners – and to encourage them further has recently closed its science departments in order to replace them with ‘exciting’ and ‘relevant’ ones, such as the Department of Islamic Studies. This will eventually have more serious repercussions than anyone ever intended or imagined.Befriended by senior lecturer Dr Sandy Buttery, who tells him all about the ‘game’ of modern university life, and with the support of fellow new lecturers Athena and Rajdeep, Crump finds himself fighting for survival in the face of manipulative managers, accusations of racism and sexism from students and colleagues alike, and insane policies of political correctness and positive action which result in division and inequality rather than the harmony and equality they supposedly intend to promote.Crump is a darkly comic and scathing satire about life at a modern British university and is a must-read for anyone involved with the British higher education system.

P.J. Vanston has been a teacher and lecturer at schools and colleges in the UK and mainland Europe. He was born and brought up in Kent, but now lives in Swansea and runs his own academic editing company, as well as writing feature articles for various publications and scripts for radio, TV and film.