This article draws attention to local and global attendance monitoring in higher education. The paper outlines benefits of attendance monitoring for both the individual learner and university, and compares traditional paper-based attendance monitoring systems with an electronic system piloted in the Business School and School of Technology at the University of Glamorgan. Typical problems associated with attendance monitoring are examined, and both attendance monitoring approaches are evaluated in terms of quantity and quality of data capture. Finally, student views on having attendance closely monitored are evaluated. This paper is of interest to anyone who uses attendance data, particularly for those who work in the field of student retention.

Purpose -To provide an overview of how environmental management systems (EMSs) are becoming sporadically employed within higher educational institutions. Design/methodology/approach -An overview of international developments in sustainable education and within UK universities. Focuses specifically on the University of Glamorgan, Wales. Findings -EMSs have been historically perceived as of little importance within most of the UK higher educational sector. Documents how the University of Glamorgan, Wales became the first university in the UK to have all of its operations accredited to ISO 14001. Originality/value -Provides a summary of a higher education institution's path to ISO 14001 accreditation.

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The American, Charles Brush is often credited with being the first person to use a wind powered machine to generate electricity, which operated for the first time during the winter of 1887. However, earlier in July 1887, Professor James Blyth, a Scottish academic of Anderson's College, Glasgow (which later became Strathclyde University) was undertaking very similar experiments to Brush, which culminated in a UK patent in 1891. Likewise the Dane, Poul La Cour, is known to have constructed relatively advanced wind turbines throughout the 1890s, which were also used to generate electricity which was then used to produce hydrogen. This paper investigates Professor Blyth's life, seeking to understand his motivation to generate electricity from the wind and his association with contemporaries, including Lord Kelvin. The paper argues that it was Blyth and not Brush, who was the first to produce wind-powered electricity.

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