A dash of polish for would-be professors

Hundreds of UK academics have signed up to a cult US e-mail service that offers to help them become "silver-tongued scientists" on course for a professorship.

"Tomorrow's Professor" subscribers receive insights into "The Perils of PowerPoint" and the traits that make a "superteacher".

Some 24,835 university employees from every level across 108 countries subscribe to the service - more than 300 of them are British.

Richard Reis, consulting professor in the electrical engineering department at Stanford University, started the mailing list seven years ago to deal with a deluge of responses to his book Tomorrow's Professor: Preparing for Careers in Science and Engineering . He said its popularity surprised him.

http//ctl.stanford.edu/Tomprof/index.shtml