The Breathless Pursuit of Excellence

'Excellence of physique': soon to be a REF category (Image: Wellcome CC BY)

The rhetoric of excellence has become all pervasive in higher education and beyond. We all aspire to excellence, but what does it actually mean? It's become an empty phrase that can mean anything to anyone - and that's its appeal.

In the 1962 political thriller The Manchurian Candidate Laurence Harvey plays an