Blog

Discussions about how the UK’s largest pension scheme covers its deficit ought to consider whether all employers and members should pay the same rate, argues Paul Hamilton

Coronavirus will not stop China’s growing and ambitious middle class from seeking a Western university education for their children, says Sabrina Wang

Ministers’ eagerness to launch yet another review when so many others remain unpublished is testing the patience of universities, says Andrew McRae

UK minister Kemi Badenoch’s disavowal of the theory plays into a misleading right-wing narrative, says Hannah Robbins

The pandemic underlines the need for executives to be instilled with a more radical approach to sustainability, say Lars Moratis and Frans Melissen

Supporting pure open access publishers can save money and help cement the transition to full open access, says Helen Dobson

With many students still obliged to learn from their bedrooms, focusing on their well-being and social development is vital, says Benjamin Tak Yuen Chan

Online courses should be easily adaptable to post-Covid circumstances – whatever they may be, says An Jacobs

Tackling bias by urging writers to avoid stereotypically female descriptors undervalues qualities such as cooperation and care, says Davina Cooper

Done properly, teaching in front of a webcam is more effective than teaching from behind a visor, says an anonymous academic

An honest national conversation about the murky origins of Greek life is a prerequisite for a better future, says Taulby Edmondson

The BJP’s permeation of every aspect of higher education will hamper India’s ambitions to be a world leader in research and innovation, says Aditya Sharma

The government’s illogical restrictions deny the country a potential source of post-Brexit growth, argues Dylan Jones-Evans

No matter how hard they work, thousands will be dumped out of the labour market during the pandemic, say Harry Pettit and Alexandra Dales

With the right visa offering, the UK could eat into the US’ market share, say Sanam Arora and Vignesh Karthik KR

The economics are murky but the damage that closing departments will do to universities’ missions is crystal clear, says Peter Tregear

Urgent action is needed to help doctoral candidates whose research has been halted by Covid-related travel bans, says Lorena Gazzotti

If governments commit extra funding and researchers accept the growing industrial emphasis, the European Research Area can fly, says Jan Palmowski

Chinese universities’ pursuit of excellence with socialist characteristics aims to put them in the company of Harvard and Oxford, says Futao Huang

Those temporarily plucked from the academic ranks would have no motivation or ability to wreak havoc and then move on, argues Bruce Krajewski

Patience will be required to bring along those who refuse to embrace racial equality or recognise it as a priority, says Jason Arday

Universities must accept a level of risk and implement measures to minimise the transmission of infections, says Andrew Lee 

The pandemic’s demolition of barriers and bureaucracy clears the way for a better higher education sector, says Pat Tissington 

A large ongoing survey at King’s College London is informing the institution’s approach to Covid-19, say Gabriella Bergin-Cartwright and Sharon Stevelink

History reminds us that freedom of speech also implies the right to vocally object to and demonstrate against speakers, says Evan Smith

Ransomware victims must either line the pockets of criminals or face the financial penalties and PR disaster of a data breach, says Chris Cobb

The UK, in particular, could find itself gasping for breath by 2024 if it does not take the currents into account, warns Louise Nicol

We must move away from small-scale mitigation efforts and think on a larger scale about how to radically revamp teaching and research, says Joy Carter

The modern university should be an honest broker who sets self-interest aside and works for the common good across all areas of its activity, says Sally Kift

The readers’ editors employed by some quality newspapers offer a model for how to protect and promote universities’ core values, argues Priya Rajasekar

To deflect political attacks, universities should emphasise the transformative effects of engaging with structured bodies of knowledge, says Paul Ashwin

With infection rates increasing and online teaching well established, why risk everyone’s health by reopening, asks Richard Watermeyer 

Stricter political and administrative controls on what can be said have led to the creation of a pioneering ‘free university’, say Katarzyna Kaczmarska and Dmitry Dubrovsky

Job security, research funding and work-life balance for young academics have all been worsened by the pandemic, say four academics  

Cost transparency isn’t in universities’ DNA, but those who teach and design modules must be able to apply a clear budgetary model, says Terry Young

To navigate the pandemic, organisations need a frank review of their competencies, at both senior management and board level, says Michael Hartmann

The shielding of the academic workplace from all risk of Covid-19 is not a safe or sane position, says Robert Poole

Students from low-income backgrounds must not suffer from the unavoidable shortage of places, says David Katz

It makes no economic sense for job-retention schemes to postpone the inevitable, says Paul Oslington

Admonishments from student leaders will ring louder than punishments for non-adherents, say Sheldon Jacobson and Janet Jokela

Instilling graduates with a global outlook is a mission more vital than ever, says Duke Kunshan University vice-chancellor-elect Alfred H. Bloom

Amazon’s and Netflix’s obsessive focus on using customer data to improve user experience has valuable lessons for universities, argues Mike O’Connor

Vilified abroad and distrusted in their homeland, Chinese students overseas have been marginalised as a result of a geopolitical struggle beyond their control, says Brian Wong

Those who fear a resurgence of coronavirus as campuses reopen can take heart from how Taiwan’s universities maintained in-person teaching throughout the pandemic, explains Cher Chiu

Practical help for students and universities left exposed by the A-level results chaos is needed, not political point-scoring, says former Ucas chief executive Mary Curnock Cook

India’s National Education Policy aims to establish a seamless connectivity between humanities and science, says Rup Narayan Das

Sustainable changes in digital learning will result from best practice alongside bold experimentation, say Friedrich Hesse, Volker Meyer-Guckel, Bitange Ndemo, Alexandros Papaspyridis, Rahim Rajan and Suzanne Walsh

Assessing doctoral candidates’ published papers instead would teach more useful skills and improve morale, says Noam Schimmel

Academics may wish we weren’t here, but burying heads in the sand about the depth of the deficit is no longer viable, says Bernard Casey

Despite Auckland’s lockdown, the country’s handling of Covid-19 is increasing its attractiveness to students, says Roger Smyth

Academic endorsements cast little light while entrenching privilege, says Vincent Hiribarren

Universities and colleges are having to promise physical classes to protect enrolments, says Joseph Guarneri

Administrators must stop asking faculty of colour to do more than our fair share and then punishing us for it, says Josh Hiller

The Research Australia report has exposed the fault lines in health research funding, says Ross Coppel 

But in the new normal, the situation for female academics with children is even worse, says Enrica Maria Ferrara

Failure to act robustly risks legal, reputational and financial consequences for universities, says Susan Matthews

Managers must acknowledge that supervising some types of doctoral candidates is more labour-intensive, say Roger Watson and David Thompson

Sexual violence at the student level is being addressed, but what about when the perpetrator is a member of staff, asks Heather Savigny

Critics underestimated the human imagination’s capacity to render concepts flexible, says Frank Furedi

Lockdowns, campus protection and the new security law risk permanently cutting off scholars from the city and wider world, says Michael O’Sullivan