Of around 20 surviving maces made for universities in the Middle Ages, three are owned by the University of St Andrews. Probably the finest and most valuable is the St Salvator's College Mace shown here.
The group charged with thrashing out how the UK should expand access to publicly funded research has decided against setting any guideline figures for open-access article charges, raising concerns that it will not stop commercial publishers' alleged profiteering.
Universities could be forced to sign up to the proposed Concordat to Support Research Integrity as a condition of public funding under proposals being considered by the Higher Education Funding Council for England.
More international students cite safety as a factor in their decision to study in the UK than was the case five years ago, despite worldwide coverage of the violence and looting that swept many English cities last August.
Astronomers have welcomed a partial reprieve granted to the UK’s northern hemisphere telescopes, but have described the closure of two major facilities in Hawaii as a “sad day for British astronomy”.
The US Department of State has been accused of making “ill-informed and misguided” policy statements against the use of international student recruitment agents and “doing significant harm to the higher education industry” in America.
Publishers of humanities and social science journals could go bankrupt if all academic papers became freely available after six months, a report commissioned by publishers has warned.
A senior civil servant in charge of implementing the government’s higher education policies has been named the new vice-chancellor of the University of London.
Introducing a "student premium" to encourage more teenagers from disadvantaged families to attend university may lead to cuts in support for mature or part-time students, sector figures have warned.
Achieving world-class status is a marathon, not a sprint, but notes Jamil Salmi, rapid progress can be made with the right regimen - particularly when starting from scratch
Lowering university offers to reflect social deprivation may be misguided because decisions are being based on unreliable data, the head of the UK's admissions body has warned.
The sole surviving chick from a pair of peregrine falcons nesting on a Nottingham Trent University building has been cooed over by more than half a million people since its first appearance via the institution's webcam.
A university has defended a senior manager who encouraged staff to improve student-completion rates by resubmitting work, giving "generous" deadline extensions and passing assignments before they had been seen by external examiners.
UK universities made £1.1 billion through research contracts with businesses and non-commercial organisations in 2010-11, according to Higher Education Statistics Agency data.
These images are taken from the Bowen Collection, now held by the University of Bath, which was assembled as part of the research for a book on the origins and history of judo in the UK.
Open-access advocates have attempted to build up a head of steam in the US by launching a petition on the White House website calling on the Obama administration to require all publicly funded research in the country to be made freely available online.
Barriers to entering many professions are being reinforced by employers who recruit from a small cohort of socially exclusive universities, according to the government’s independent reviewer of social mobility.
Dozens of university chancellors and heads of governing councils have written to the prime minister backing calls for international students to be removed from net migration statistics.
Imperial College London, University College London and the computer firm Intel have launched a research institute they hope will help to shape the way cities work in the future.
