Features

Conferences should be occasions for sharing and engagement, but Charles Husband too often sees only selfish and impolite behaviour

Unlike our major competitors, the UK has avoided a major research misconduct scandal over the past decade, but unless the government and the academy shake off their complacency, we won’t be ready when it is our turn to suffer, argues Michael Farthing

George MacDonald Ross argues that to stamp out plagiarism, we must create an environment in which students are forced to think for themselves, while Jude Carroll has practical advice on redesigning assessments to minimise cheating

On most indices, a comparison of the Welsh and Scottish academies shows that the latter holds the aces. As the Saltire soars, will mergers allow Wales to cope with the shock waves generated by England’s funding big bang? David Matthews reports

As students cram for scarce undergraduate places, private institutions proliferate and research outputs rise rapidly, will China’s impressive growth spurts bring gains in quality as well as quantity? Carolynne Wheeler reports from Beijing

In the age of digitisation, the ‘search’ part of research has become a virtual experience. Although progress has many advantages, John Sutherland laments the end of the scholar-adventurer and the thrill of discovery amid dusty, uncatalogued manuscripts

The REF's mendacious language and mismeasurements will recognise neither singular world-changing brilliance nor the value inherent in all scholarship, Fred Inglis argues. This bureaucratic beast, devoid of logic and intelligence, must be brought to heel

Scholarly links introduced R.C. Richardson to the Republic of Korea. His sole regret, in an ensuing 30-year love affair with its land, culture and people, is that so few of his fellow Britons choose it as a travel destination

The campus novel is a proud tributary of the comic flow of English letters. From Amis to Bradbury and from the page to the TV screen, the academy has proved to be a superior source for humour - but with serious undercurrents, writes Christopher Bigsby

It's a digital world, isn't it? Not for all: the paperless future has yet to arrive and there is a pulp faction in the academy still wedded to print. Matthew Reisz reports

Universities benefit from the large pool of cheap labour provided by PhD students and postdocs, but there aren’t enough academic jobs to go around, so young scholars should prepare for the possibility of a future outside the academy, one postdoc advises

In a competitive world, Japanese universities are realising the importance of internationalisation if they don’t want to get left behind. But culture change can be a slow and difficult process. Jack Grove reports from Japan

Our failure to acknowledge that science is spurred by the same creative impulse that fuels the arts does a disservice to future scientists and to society as a whole, argues Geraint Wiggins

The man who kept Berkeley from sinking as California slashed its budget will step down this year. He tells Zoë Corbyn how disaster was averted even though huge challenges remain

The government’s ruthless, distorted idea of ‘competition’ will impoverish the whole academy and everyone in it. Thomas Docherty muses on a prescient 40-year-old speech warning of the trap at the end of the rat race

External examiners' anachronistic power over the PhD process can be painfully counter-productive. Chris Hackley calls for a more constructive, European-style approach - and for judgement moderated with compassion

The ebb and flow of time has served only to deepen Ray Dolan’s passion for Van Morrison’s restless musical journey into the mystic

It may be the birthplace of the academy, but Greece’s now-dysfunctional higher education system is on its knees and in desperate need of reform, argues George Th. Mavrogordatos. However, the country’s politique du pire and its organised violence threaten the possibility of progress

Like it or not, impact is a fact of research life. Paul Manners suggests that many scholars do like it, and with good reason: portraying the dialectic between academic work and the wider world is part detective story, part archaeology and all satisfaction

Tom Palaima muses on the Greek ideal of reflective learning, his immigrant grandparents’ dreams of a better life, the GI Bill’s impact on America and the price of allowing universities - once places where thinking was not bound by arbitrary deadlines - to be debased into assembly lines

Do vice-chancellors have too many plates in the air? Times Higher Education's annual survey of pay in the academy looks at the additional roles the sector's leaders take on. In an era of pay restraint, handsomely rewarded bosses do much of this work for free, but Jack Grove asks whether external posts are dangerous distractions or a vital part of the university mission

From Thoreau’s pond and Hawthorne’s gables to Hardy’s study and the Brontës’ moors: Dale Salwak draws on his own literary pilgrimages to open students’ eyes to the sense of place underpinning great literature

Independent scholars can confound, complement and challenge the work of their campus counterparts. Matthew Reisz meets some on the edges of academia whose interests - and prose - are unfettered by the REF, journal editors or disciplinary distinctions

When Bernard Porter was persuaded to entrust one of his books to a company he'd not worked with before, he discovered that not all publishers are equal. Caveat emptor, he warns young academics

The despair over unemployment that sparked the Arab Spring continues to dog graduates in the region. David Matthews reports from a British Council conference in Morocco that aimed to find solutions

Valerie Sanders has overcome her fear of water - as long as it's the indoor, chlorinated variety - to discover a love of swimming that brings out the worst and the best in her

As the fallout from the Arab Spring continues, David Matthews reports from Cairo on the birth - and troubled infancy - of the student union movement in Egypt

For the late Julia Swindells, radicalism and friendship were always intimately linked. Here, she describes the youthful influences that led her down a political path

International students have enriched the UK and its universities immeasurably. It makes little sense for the Home Office to keep them out, argues Edward Acton

Hefce says that record levels of spare cash prepare the academy for the new fees regime, but as new policies for allocating student places bed in, we might need to reassess its future financial prospects. John Morgan reports

He was driven to write an acclaimed debut novel in stolen hours, but lecturer, researcher and scholarly biographer Christopher Bigsby is content never to call himself a ‘real writer’

You think your commute is bad? In a tough job market, professional opportunities are taking scholars far from their nearest and dearest. Matthew Reisz asks if today's ideal academic is unencumbered by ties or responsibilities

The REF's conflation of intellectual quality and geographical scale makes little sense and may have negative consequences for UK research, argues Alastair Bonnett

A fleeting glimpse of a renowned soprano ignited Peter Crisp's lifelong love of song cycles and lieder...but left him pining for an overture

Dissemination of the written word is changing as e-books proliferate. But how will it affect academics and the publishing industry? Andrew Franklin reads between the lines

In the academy all must have prizes, but nothing breeds success like failure. Steven Schwartz argues that students gain more from blind alleys than from victory processions, as failure engenders the ‘true grit’ essential to achievement in the real world

As old-style lifelong tenure fades out in the US, institutions are having to invent new systems by which they can define and judge scholarship, David Mould discovers

Allowing universities to be run by bean counters and bureaucrats is detrimental to academics' ingenuity and productivity, argues Amanda Goodall

The 'sciart' movement is bridging the gulf between the 'two cultures' that C.P. Snow lamented more than 50 years ago. Matthew Reisz reports from the lab of the imagination, where anything can happen

For decades the science of child-rearing was guided by patriarchal ideas, but now the cradle rocks to an older rhythm. Eric Michael Johnson, in conversation with eminent evolutionary biologists Sarah Hrdy and Robert Trivers, explores how Mother Nature and the social network that nurtured our past have been remembered at last

The National Student Survey puts pressure on lecturers to provide 'enhanced' experiences. But, argues Frank Furedi, the results do not measure educational quality and the process infantilises students and corrodes academic integrity

'Internationalisation' is the trend du jour for universities, but they would do well to consider its earlier manifestation during the British Empire's long 19th century. As Tamson Pietsch explains, history has much to tell us about the possibilities - and pitfalls - of the phenomenon today

David Willetts wants more of them, but how much is really known about the UK's private providers? John Morgan uncovers a melange of institutions in a diverse and diversifying sector unbound by caps and largely operating outside QAA oversight

Some v-cs took fright when Les Ebdon stated his readiness to use the 'nuclear option' to enforce access agreements as head of Offa. What does that say about the state of the sector? asks Martin McQuillan

Stefan Collini is, and he thinks you should be, too. He explains to Matthew Reisz why universities must not pander to students, business or the government and instead defend their own distinctive virtues

With novel credentials being developed and employers seeing the value of low-cost study based on open courseware, Jon Marcus asks if the bricks-and-mortar elite will end up on the wrong side of history

Physicist Athene Donald's pleasure in people-watching may owe something to a childhood spent observing birds of all kinds as they soared over city heaths and icy coastal mudflats

The first months at university are critical for a happy student experience. Indeed, so crucial are they that they are arguably a key focus of QAA reviews. Sarah Cunnane reports

Close ties with Nobel laureates, global entrepreneurs and distinguished academics can boost an institution's international profile, as well as providing fresh insights, experience - and a hint of glamour. Philip G. Altbach and Jamil Salmi report

Baffled by the ease with which titles promising to turn world history on its head have won huge audiences despite defying logic and lacking proof, Daniel Melia laboured to divine the hidden secrets that allow anyone to identify truly 'bad books'

Oxford has stolen a march on the rest of the sector by exposing its graduate destinations to detailed scrutiny - exploding a few myths in the process. Simon Baker investigates

What makes us human? In major new books, an economist, a philosopher, an evolutionary biologist and two psychologists offer compelling - and very different - answers. Matthew Reisz writes

The diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks articulate the importance of the academy in the ‘great game’ of international politics. David Matthews investigates

A university does not need a charter or even walls - open minds are enough, argue groups whose challenges to convention have been invigorated by recent protest movements. Jack Grove reports

With the best of intentions and the worst of outcomes, anonymous marking discredits lecturers and serves students badly. George MacDonald Ross believes greater trust will lead to fairness for all

Jeremy Black extols the physical - and psychological - benefits of a country stroll

Advisers, administrators, trusted vice-chancellorial aides and henchmen: Mark Leach considers the rise of the 'policy wonks' and the mixed reception afforded a new force in the higher education hierarchy

As high-profile art schools are absorbed by larger institutions, Peter Hill asks if their uniquely fertile environments suffer for being overseen by those whose priorities inevitably lie elsewhere

US universities are offering alumni new levels of professional and intellectual support in an effort to build lifelong relationships that pay long-term benefits. Jon Marcus reports

That people should be moved out of a former nuclear test site seemed a no-brainer. But spending time with those affected led two researchers to revise their views. David Mould reports