Blog

The Florida governor’s control over the make-up of public universities’ boards makes recent controversies unsurprising, says Mei Lan Frame

The financial effects of Covid may cause disadvantaged college applicants to panic, unclear how to apply for aid or too ashamed to do so, says Amy Glynn

Deep cuts may be reversed, but the Brazilian president’s anti-science rhetoric will do lasting damage, says John Aubrey Douglass

Negative connotations attached to ‘liberal’ and ‘arts’ have created a misleading perception of a transformative education model that delivers for students, say Barbara Altmann and Jeffrey Nesteruk

The effects of gentrification and displacement as neighbourhoods are transformed into vibrant hubs of creativity shouldn’t be ignored, says Costas Spirou

The silence of other universities about an apparent clampdown on lawful speech is a betrayal of their mission, says Jonathan Rosenhead

Amid another round of strikes, the pension scheme chair’s assertion that changes are unavoidable cannot stand unchallenged, says Neil Davies

Both dropout rates and attainment have held steady since Abertay radically reduced entry grades for disadvantaged applicants, says Nigel Seaton

The country’s conservative government is wary of academia’s social influence and values, but a ministerial letter offers hope, says Agnieszka Piotrowska

Both researchers and journalists should adopt a more agnostic lens when confronted with novel findings, says Anne-Laure Sellier

The UK’s whole-genome sequencing project could spark a global step change in the treatment of rare diseases, says Damian Smedley

More training, greater recognition and a wider geographical purview would help expand the reviewer pool, says Miriam Maus

The latest USS valuation may have been conducted amid crashing markets, but there is no escaping the need for changes, says Kate Barker

Inviting people to share their full selves on campus promotes mental health, diversity and intellectual stimulation, says Kyle Sebastian Vitale

Research that is neither rigorous nor insightful serves no one, say Stefan Stremersch, Nuno Camacho and Russell Winer

Meeting the Confucian approach halfway will protect student recruitment and might even stimulate a new politics of mutual benefit, says Paul Breen

Graduate networks are the perfect launch vehicle for systemic voluntary efforts to improve society, say Michael Madison and Martin Skladany

A major new survey underlines the value that students derived from flipped learning during the pandemic, says Harriet Dunbar-Morris

Other value frameworks, such as those implicit in indigenous knowledges, must be better heard, says Ronald Barnett

Erasmus funding rules should be rewritten to compensate students for the higher cost of travelling by rail, says Connie Hedegaard

The embrace of those values by the UAE’s higher education institutions has been key to the nation’s success, says Zaki Nusseibeh 

Shifting fields takes courage, but if a tenured professor can’t take the leap to address the ecological emergency, who can, asks Adam Aron

Inequality, Covid exhaustion, sympathy for students, fear of public opinion and frustration with UCU tactics are all factors, says Glen O’Hara

The brain drain from academia to industry is just one of the glitches that need addressing, says Greg Slabaugh

A public exhibition during COP26 hopes to engage policymakers with the slow-burn issues that science doesn’t address, says Gerald Taylor Aiken

The new wave of violence targeting female students across the UK requires urgent redress, says Nicole Westmarland

The pandemic has demonstrated that air miles are not a prerequisite for building international partnerships, says Aimee Ambrose

Social scientists have an opportunity to advise on reorienting the traditional public inquiry towards focused lesson-learning, says Matthew Flinders

Spending commitments on Aria, Horizon Europe and UKRI should be welcomed – as should the Treasury’s growing scrutiny of UK and EU research structures, says John Womersley

The UK government’s £300 million funding pledge must be confirmed in the spending review, and departmental closures must stop, says Jon Keating

The pandemic revealed that in-person teaching generates greater satisfaction and sense of belonging, say Leonard Saxe and Graham Wright

As another legal ruling cements the concept of student athletes as employees, institutions need to react, say Harry Johnson and Nicole Buffalano

The targeting such researchers face raises serious questions about universities’ moral responsibilities towards them, say five researchers

As COP26 looms, universities’ vital place in the UK’s environmental armoury must be recognised in the spending review, says Judith Petts 

Compulsory modules on good conduct risk causing more problems than they solve, says Binoy Kampmark

Gavin Reddin’s long business career allows him to supplement academic models with myriad real-life exceptions to the rules

The half-hearted pursuit of dust bunnies was less scary than teaching online, but it was no match for life on campus, says Jeffrey Susla

A more liberal visa regime could also help fill skills gaps as Australia looks to recover from the pandemic, says James Cauchy

The David Miller and Kathleen Stock cases underline the growing threat to human rights, say Alison Assiter and Miriam David

Questioning and rethinking how and where we live will determine whether we go on living at all, says Ulrich Loening

In the absence of an express prohibition of class discrimination, a new code offers a beginning for dialogue, says Geraldine Van Bueren

The tactful approach can be effective but it risks obscuring the necessity and urgency of improvements, says Chris Moore

Lotteries for viable funding applications may be one way forward, say Lisette Jong, Thomas Franssen, Stephen Pinfield and James Wilsdon

The Covid-enforced pause to in-person visits has been a relief to BAME academics, says Aymen Idris

In a digital era, academics’ time would be far better spent on assessment, curation and mentoring, says Terry Young

An enlightened university should offer all accused students expert representation, advice and support, says Daniel Sokol

Schools should be hubs of interdisciplinarity, co-producing research and solutions with key stakeholder groups, says Ansgar Richter

Institutions need to do all they can to stay visible and be ready to welcome students back when borders reopen, says Stephen Connelly

New Cambridge guidance will help academics avoid collaborations that pose a threat to security or academic freedom, says Stephen Toope

Google Translate’s limitations spell out why we must revisit old questions about artificial intelligence, says Lionel Tarassenko

One university’s strenuous efforts to eradicate cheating by students and academics point the way for the whole sector, says Július Kravjar

Increased digital literacy will also help boost employability and finally end the crisis narrative, says Jo Fox

The UK archaeology programme, which is being revived on YouTube, represents an ideal to which other disciplines can aspire, says Keith Frankish

A new consortium will embody the spread of liberal arts beyond the West, say Bryan Penprase and Thomas Schneider 

Vaccines notwithstandiing, mitigations are needed to avoid a repeat of last year’s campus Covid wave, say Simon Williams and Gavin Yamey

Universities typically generate much more income from industry contracts than from spinning out companies, says Calum Drummond

All students, regardless of subject, need meaningful opportunities to engage with the democratic process, say Meg Little Reilly and Richard Watts

If it all goes wrong, universities will not be able to avert truly disastrous consequences, says Rama Thirunamachandran 

Writing, speaking and advising offer the rewards of scholarly life without the constraints and contradictions of universities, says Harvey Graff

Academics have acclaimed the Netflix series. But how many have noticed the absence of non-tenure-track faculty, asks Tian An Wong