When I fly with, say, Air New Zealand, I am paying to arrive at my destination. My flight, depending on the direction, departure point and destination may well have significant subsidies both governmental and, de facto, from other flyers. However, if I had Ryanair service for 40 hours I'd be a little upset, and quite possibly in need of medical help on landing. While the whole point of the air journey is to arrive, I'm flying with AirNZ because (IMO) they provide a much better experience over that trip than the alternatives, for similar money. Multiply up to three years.

So, yes, the taxpayer does subsidize the average public university to a significant degree. The university makes many expenditures on the life-style of admin, faculty, postgrads and students, whether that is the odd kitchenette, subsized cafeteria prices, subsized health care, etc. There is no guarantee that these actually contribute to the productivity of the individual, but they do contribute to morale and quality of life.

I'm not going to say that Facebook access at University is fundamental to happiness, that'd be bizarre, but the suggestion that students aren't paying enough to have a say in their environment is a little odd.

Ultimately, if students are unwilling to participate by learning, there isn't, and shouldn't be, anything that tutors can do to force them. If a tutor can't convince a student, who has chosen to sign up, why they should be interested enough to pass the course, there is an underlying problem with the attitude of either the tutor, or far more likely, the student. Overuse of the internet is a symptom, not a cause. While there is a valid point in terms of disruption, many lectures will be filled with students note-taking on laptops. Unless someone's just found a new Youtube gem and everybody else is crowding around, same difference. If so, see above. Bandwidth, fine, but do you expect students outside the lecture not to use social media? Can the cost of access incorporated in the student fees really be justified solely by the unblocked websites? Corralling them into the exam room, blocking internet access, etc. only masks the problem and raises the question - what do their marks signify? Capacity to work when coerced? Not much use for an employer, not much use as a life skill.

As a Brit in NZ, I can confirm that this makes you very far away indeed. In fact, I am almost exactly (with a decent walk of) 19,000km from where I was born, so I guess that's close enough to 47.5%. As such, I felt at liberty, amongst other things, to eat macaroni cheese for lunch, sunbathe and watch three movies on Christmas Day. In fact, as well as being in the furthest city in the world from where I was born, I'm doing postgrad at the farthest university from my undergrad. While I know this can easily be surpassed (e.g. any Kiwis in Spain or v.v.), I'd be interested to know how frequently it is - anybody else 19,000km or more?

The front page of The Times yesterday alerted readers to an 'unprecedented assault' on downloading by the UK gaming industry.

All harbingers of things to come, I reckon. Feel it in the water.