A STORM in a beer mug blew up yesterday as Yorkshire university bosses were accused of wasting public money on an "absurd course" on beer drinking in the region.

Bradford University found itself under fire in the House of Lords over a part-time "Drink and Society" course focusing on the history of alcoholic drinks both locally and across the country.
Tory peer Lord Trefgarne demanded to know whether public money was going on funding a course "relating to beer drinking in Yorkshire".
And the peer, a Minister in the Thatcher Government of the 1980s, raised the suspicion that Bradford University had dreamt up the course to maintain its student numbers.
He demanded to know whether the Government was satisfied that "in general terms, universities are not packing their prospectuses with absurd courses such as this one just to keep up their numbers and the public funding that goes with it".
The university last night hit back by insisting it was not funding students to go on a glorified pub crawl.
It was asking them to "examine the place and significance of alcoholic drinks in society in the period 1750 to 1920, principally in England" as part of Bradford's local and regional studies degree course at the university's Pennines and Yorkshire Studies Unit.
And Education Minister Baroness Ashton sprang to the university's defence. She confirmed that with 15 students expected to take the option, the course would cost the Higher Education Funding Council about £5,700 but was also funded by the students' own tuition fees.
Prompted by Liberal Democrat peer Lord Shutt of Greetland, Lady Ashton praised Bradford for being one of the top 10 universities for getting graduates into work – with 95 per cent of year 2000 graduates in employment within six months.
Lord Shutt himself saluted the "virtues and quality" of Bradford University by highlighting its Department of Peace Studies.
But fellow Liberal Democrat Lord Wallace of Saltaire insisted local universities should be encouraging the study of local Yorkshire breweries and rural pubs at a time when employment in the Dales was badly hit by the farming decline.
To laughter, crossbench peer Baroness Strange claimed that "the yeast contained in beer is very good in alleviating acne, pimples and spots and that beer drinking is also very good for nursing mothers".
Retired economics professor and Labour peer Lord Peston said the Bradford course was a "very serious topic" which could interest students.

04 November 2002