Is the grass greener at Warwick University?

Just a few thoughts after a long day including plenty of travelling to Warwick University and back - how can 300 miles take 8 hours in a car round trip? The M1 is a disaster zone. Anyway a good tour of the campus including SU, University House, Learning Grid etc - today was first year results day at 3pm with all the results issued at the same time by the central "hub" equivalent and then posted by departments - very carefully choreographed it seemed as we were in the Humanities Department at the time. Also a degree ceremony and the Arts Festival week celebrating the last week of the session. Last year, the English Lit course had over 1400 applications for 100 places in the first year and not only shortlists (round one) but then interviews (round two) every potential applicant. Must be nice to be a selecting versus recruiting University. Had a very interesting meeting with the new IT Director who has been in post for 3 months. The priorities sound quite familiar including writing a five year strategy/plan. The first eighteen months will focus on customer service (not technology), more robust infrastructure (network and email), getting a new management structure including co-location of staff sorted out, and finally building process review (and 6 sigma!) into the department and into the broader University culture. Key objective of new corporate plan for Warwick is doubling research in five years to break into top 50 worldwide Universities. A couple of nuggets about gartner and research made the trip worthwhile of their own accord. Always good to get out and see whether the grass is greener on the other side.