News

Tributes paid to Cambridge literary critic

UCL announces drive for academic-led collaboration with major global cities and their universities

Russell Group university’s return to the local highlights higher education’s role in the wake of the Brexit vote in addressing post-industrial decline, and supporting austerity-hit councils

Universities told to upgrade student welfare support in wake of alarming figures

Academics debate how to respond to increasing influence of People’s Liberation Army

Pioneer of the genetics of hearing talks about how her research interests have been shaped by wine and music – and how she would cope with deafness

The good, the bad and the offbeat: the academy through the lens of the world’s media

Hearing that an editor does not want to publish your work can be crushing, but learning from the experience can make you stronger

Conference hears scholars should focus on challenges like climate change and global sustainability, not the corporate world

Voters back increases in university spending in series of local ballots

Case may show that Canada needs a broader strategy to become an innovation powerhouse

Nuanced signals suggest a long-haul future for world’s biggest market

Chief executive Anant Agarwal explains how the Harvard-MIT platform has defied sceptics and financial pressures to stay true to its mission

Leaks suggesting plans to lower fees could chime with government agenda on tackling cross-subsidy

A downturn last decade offers a textbook example of the risk universities face, say Melbourne researchers

Increased stresses and decreased stigma leading to surge in rates of students under treatment

Office for Students chair says institutions must be ‘better at managing their affairs’ after reports that some are in financial trouble

Representative organisation criticises vice-chancellors’ aversion to sharing funding with vocational education

Sir John Kingman hints that research councils could withhold funding in cases where universities do not address unfair treatment of staff

Royal Historical Society survey also exposes crisis of overwork in discipline

Toronto historian warns academics against shying away from the complexities of the past

Response to row over vetoing of humanities grants could result in curiosity-driven scholarship being pushed out

Leader to move on after ‘the most challenging tenure’ leading the fire-hit institution

Organisation joins Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in signing up to the Plan S open-access initiative

Parent institutions siphon off majority of most UK business schools’ expenditure, survey says

Education Committee calls for radical reshaping of higher education towards ‘flexible’ model, and for breakdowns of how fees are spent

Many students who do not complete their course at the first attempt often return to their studies, say experts

Too many institutions fail to abide by their own statements of values, leaders warn

Leading Italian academics often leave the country, which struggles to attract highly rated foreign researchers

Military initiative to connect Amazon communities to the internet will allow students to enrol on distance-learning degree courses through the Open University of Brazil

Australia’s freeze on teaching grants protected struggling institutions, not education budget

Parties must wait for a ruling on affirmative action policies, with a Supreme Court judgment likely years away

Institutions face ‘never-ending rollercoaster’ of assessment, conference hears

Academics express anxiety about ultimate reach of proposed policy tying gender to birth

Plan S task force leader suggests developed nations could contribute towards article processing charges in poorer sectors

Sector representatives sceptical of ‘kickstarter’ spending

Scientific excellence must mean more than ‘how good someone is with a round-bottom flask’, conference hears

After the death of a student athlete, university directors backed their football coach over their president, but subsequent protests led them to quickly reverse course

Record revenue fuelled by large foreign intakes at the country’s biggest universities

Tributes paid to radio host turned literary scholar

Study finds current methods used for assessing disadvantage fall short

Deepening deficits of up to £14 million at English universities prompt warnings of damage to cities and towns reliant on universities as ‘anchors’

Regional institutions hardest hit as domestic cap dovetails with intense competition for foreigners

The good, the bad and the offbeat: the academy through the lens of the world’s media

Circus expert Vanessa Toulmin explains how growing up on a fairground has shaped her academic career, teaching style and approach to life

Living Wage Foundation says that only about one in five higher education institutions has sought accreditation

Graduates from some of the least prestigious institutions perform most strongly in the jobs market

St Mary’s University, Twickenham found that unconditional offers were unlikely to benefit recruitment efforts

Latest tweaks to Australian research grant rules will just add to paperwork, critics say

Department tasks KPMG with surveying universities on their teaching costs, in work for Augar review

Canadian university leader said he would be ‘worried’ if he were at an institution in the province 

Academics say that online recordings must be emphasised as a supplementary resource, not an alternative to lectures, or some students lose out

Asia scholar says continent’s progress in STEM fields has been ‘to the detriment of the social sciences and humanities’

Shorter courses also an important enticement for learners from the subcontinent

Education minister refuses to rule out future interventions in grant awarding process

Students ordered to leave Kwame Nkrumah University following reports of ‘rioting’

Joint venture will be second undergraduate collaboration between universities in China and Ireland

Sponsors that do not meet rules should have ethical approval for future experiments withheld, says Science and Technology Committee

If he had chosen to pursue the biggest factor in Harvard’s admissions discrimination – preferences for the white and wealthy – Michael Wang would have faced obstacles from alumni and the law alike

We can’t deliver equivalent teaching with less preparation time and resources, RMIT academics say