Features

Universities’ zeal for student feedback centres on NSS surveys and best-practice audits; those expressing critical views are increasingly unwelcome

Recreational deprivation has been linked to criminality, obesity and declining creativity. Rob Parr asks why having fun is not taken more seriously

Extremists silenced institutions and scientists for years, but researchers are now willing to speak up for good practice and valuable results

The story of an unlikely branch campus in Cyprus and higher education on a divided island

Universities should not acquiesce in a system that perpetuates inequality - they must take a stand against it, argues Thomas Docherty

As students’ associations change and rely more on grants from universities, is their independence at risk?

How are universities faring after the first full year of operating under the £9,000 fees regime?

As lecturers in the UK prepare for the UCU’s marking boycott, US campuses are experiencing a surge of unionisation

Archie Brown on lessons for universities from political leadership

Exasperated by a profusion of loose thinking, the philosopher tackles the assertion that the self is only a manifestation of the physical body

What’s behind the big rises for vice-chancellors? Plus, academic pay across the UK

The academic who says riding the waves can boost cross-cultural communication and sustainable tourism

Academics discuss how supervisors shaped their teaching

Does research assessment discriminate against female academics? asks Barbara Graziosi

The stealthy rise of private pre-degree courses

The perils of life on a contract with no guarantee of work

Despite the snobbery of Oxford, a young literary scholar found the liberty to know and speak his mind

Some think claims of a serious lack of STEM graduates are exaggerated

Veteran academic authors share their hard-won tips

Research heads and other university staff on the burdens of submitting to the inaugural research excellence framework

Andy Westwood, former New Labour special adviser, asks what went wrong with skills policy

Do your eyes glaze over or does your brain fill with fog when you are presented with reams of raw data? You are not alone.

Courses led by interdisciplinary groups can energise teachers and students, says Robert Zaretsky

Poor theses often betray inexpert supervision, say external examiners David Alexander and Ian Davis

Why classroom veteran Dale Salwak waited 17 years to join the digital pedagogues

Could England force a similar reversal? Howard Hotson asks

How does a tiny institution create such outsized impact?

Historian Barbara Taylor’s account of the asylum system is woven into a memoir of breakdown and recovery aided by a ‘safe haven’, analysis and friendship

Find out how academics and professional and support staff feel about working in UK higher education

Research is like a baby - insistently demanding and on its own timetable, as Rebecca Braun found on maternity leave

Does more mean better or worse?

Serious academic players on what they’ve learned from life at the table

How has 16 years of growth in enrolment affected the fortunes of different disciplines?

The hardcore group of academics who print books on subjects sidelined by mainstream publishers

Ruth Barcan believes such feelings are a logical response to a broken academic system

Academics describe the complex, arbitrary bureaucracy, emotional turmoil and career limbo wrought by Britain’s policies

We’ll make the principles of Robbins a 21st-century reality, minister promises

In this season of festive goodwill and fantasy, John Gilbey meets the vice-chancellor of the publicity-shy but prosperous University of Rural England - and he begins to contemplate the possibility of living happily ever after…

Beijing wants to supercharge its nation’s universities as it has its railroads, but might its ambitions falter for want of academic freedom and cultural change?

The year’s best reads for work and pleasure, chosen by scholars and senior figures in the sector

Data gathering can be a dangerous business, oceanographer Penny Holliday tells Paul Jump

Enthusiasm for ‘neuroeducation’ risks blinding people to its potentially limited efficacy, argues Steven Rose

African American scholars still struggle for public prominence outside discussions of racial justice, says Daniel Matlin

The state is confronting student protest with an iron fist while promising to relax its grip on the academy. Jack Grove reports from the country

Academics must counter ‘verbicide’, which constrains expression, to foster new ideas and ways of seeing

In the case of Rwanda, it is wrong to argue that only academics working outside the country are capable of critical comment, says Phil Clark

Robert Colls on why E. P. Thompson’s landmark book belongs on more university reading lists

David Matthews reports from the island state on the questions facing its burgeoning academy

A mentor provides far more than inspiration and sage advice, says Tom Palaima, who fears for the future of such guiding relationships in the era of Moocs

Susan K Burton looks back at her time teaching at Japanese universities and wonders why more Westerners don’t head east

Richard Larschan explains how events at his university arising from the bombings led to his long-resisted retirement

Does bitchiness serve any useful scholarly purpose?

Time is a harsh mistress but there’s much to look forward to, says the doyenne of the Left

Robert Eaglestone and Simon Kövesi ponder the problems that could sink the subject

The death of his father prompts Nicholas Till to consider the interconnectedness of things

Experts discuss the development and legacy of the epochal report on its golden anniversary

Nicolas Gompel explains how his pet obsession has inspired his investigations into biological diversity

A new generation of ‘dual-intensive’ universities can do the job, argues Edward Acton

As the 2014 REF census date approaches, Paul Jump talks to the architects of previous rounds of assessment about how it all began and their views on the research excellence framework