Opinion

Higher education funding from US state governments has always been volatile, but reforms to healthcare could put public universities’ income under even greater pressure, says Will Doyle

How do you solve a problem like REF selection? Research-active status may be defined by formal or informal means, but is there a realistic alternative?

Setting pre-seen exams can bring out previously unsuspected abilities among students, say Nicholas Morton and Natasha Hodgson

While learning to work quickly is a useful life skill, a greater gift to students is permitting unhurried excursions and digressions, says Shahidha Bari

Military might and border walls are of more importance than compassion in Trump’s America, says John Fea

Tim Ingold and colleagues at the University of Aberdeen have created a manifesto that they hope will preserve higher education's true values

We must make it clearer to UK-based European scholars that the UK higher education sector wishes to remain open, says Sir Keith Burnett

If the outcomes of ‘active learning’ are so much better than those for traditional lectures, why stick with the old format? asks Simone Buitendijk

Groundbreaking photographer David Goldblatt’s archive should stay in South Africa, where it belongs, writes Martin Hall

Nele Feldmann and Katherine Miller on the importance of helping displaced Syrians on to higher education courses

Life science is a big part of the UK government’s industrial strategy, but neglecting basic research will drive top researchers abroad and threaten the flow of translatable discoveries, says Philippe Froguel

Universities should consider building ‘families’ of schools and colleges to facilitate easy transfer between different levels of education, says David Phoenix

South Sudan may be racked by famine, civil war and corruption, but the probity and effectiveness of its largely Western-educated vice-chancellors are providing the rest of the public sector with considerable food for thought, says Kuyok Abol Kuyok

There is a growing recognition in Australia that the future of higher education must be considered alongside what happens to its struggling technical and further education sector.

Tertiary education must be considered as a whole if governments are to prepare the workforce they need

South Korea’s University of Ulsan, a pioneer in academic and business collaboration, stresses the importance of communication for maximum engagement, writes Yeon-Cheon Oh

Mainland partnerships and lunar missions show the benefits of collaboration, says Timothy W. Tong, the head of Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Akiyoshi Yonezawa looks at what new domestic league table might tell the world about Japan’s strengths and weaknesses

Innovation in private universities will help to transform Indian higher education, says Atul Chauhan

Sir Mark Walport believes that the amended HE Bill will assist him in making the UKRI the best research funding agency in the world

Ahead of the Asia Universities Summit, Feridun Hamdullahpur sets out what you need to consider when carrying out industry-funded research

Fiona Dobbie is loving life as a PhD student, and hopes any midlife crisis it represents will end on graduation day

John Cater maligns the misuse of an NSS that can offer genuine insight into university teaching

Discussion of research excellence framework reform has overlooked the role of research itself, argues Kevin Hetherington

Emma Gee found passion and bravery lacking at a campus IWD event

Increasing the number of fast-track degrees may devalue the currency of UK undergraduate courses in Europe, warns Jack Grove

The ‘indigenisation’ of Canada’s academy has had many positives, but some scholars are uneasy about universities’ reluctance to challenge native beliefs about the world, say Rodney Clifton and Gabor Csepregi

When the US primary season threw up numerous examples of weak and fallacious argument, Michael Ventimiglia thought his time had come. But subsequent events left him grappling with his discipline’s apparent impotence

Universities in the US, South Korea and elsewhere must contribute to the advancement of the knowledge-based industries of the 21st century, says Doh-Yeon Kim

Cramming study into the shortest possible time will impoverish the student experience and drive an even greater wedge between research-enabled permanent staff and the growing underclass of flexible teaching staff, says Tom Cutterham

Theresa May’s new industrial strategy will support universities’ R&D, but more partnerships with business – while never entirely risk-free – are needed

Charlotte Evans on East Asia’s growing significance as a hub for international higher education

Yusra Mouzughi believes that ‘international’ women in universities should be celebrating their cultural differences

Matthew Reisz considers gravitational waves, scientific authority and sexual differences

Institutions with ideas for promoting gender equality should not keep them to themselves, says Kate Williams

Rivka Isaacson on her meeting with British crystallographer Olga Kennard, one of five female structural biologists whose portraits are in the National Portrait Gallery’s collection

Maddalaine Ansell and Sorana Vieru give their differing takes on the recent Lords amendment to the HE and Research Bill

Pam Tatlow looks back at a tumultuous day for the HE Bill in the House of Lords

Sir Steve Smith feels that universities minister Jo Johnson has listened, and that the HE Bill is now in fine shape

Giving students who use essay mills a criminal record would impose a punishment that ill fits the crime, writes Daniel Sokol

The massification of higher education has made it a polarising issue, says Simon Marginson

Ahead of Jisc Digifest 2017, Geoff Mulgan has some words of advice for those involved in digital education

Thinktank conflates THE online opinion survey with separate data, John Morgan writes

Open debate is right, but this mustn’t be dictated by politicians, says Chris Havergal

Less than a quarter of the country’s university research is curiosity-driven, and an assessment of impact is also in the offing, says Gavin Moodie

On University Mental Health Day, Geoffrey Cantor calls on institutions to significantly expand their mental health provision

Structured writing groups could have a transformative effect on the morale and productivity of early career scholars, says Alice Kelly

Since the Brexit vote, UK institutions have been losing friends and influence around the world. That will continue unless they win political support

Discriminating in hiring practice against particular intellectual perspectives is no less sinister than discriminating against particular political persuasions, says Glenn Geher

Universities cannot wash their hands of responsibility for who is booked to speak on their premises, says Michael Marshall

Interviewing a Mafia researcher made John Elmes consider how scholars should study volatile groups

LGBT History Month highlights changing attitudes on campus, says Mark Peel

‘Conditioning’ is partly to blame when junior researchers tone down their work, says Ciaran Gillespie

All UK universities should be reviewing and building upon their existing transnational education strategies, says Paul Feldman

Changes could mean HE and Research Bill receives Royal Assent in the spring, writes Nick Hillman

Universities must not allow a narrowing of acceptable discourse in class following Trump and Brexit, says John Moriarty

Traditional defences of the discipline are based on unsound reasoning, writes James Nikopoulos

Ignoring concerns about the lack of post-study work opportunities for Indian students overlooks the huge contribution of Indian-born Britons to UK society, Jack Grove hears

HEA and THE launch Global Teaching Excellence Award to recognise institutions’ commitment to teaching

Modern languages are struggling in an inward-looking nation. Revival may come by showing the young they are a route to a more connected world