Choosing sides in campus culture wars is counterproductive Academics should not be seduced by the moral certainty on either side of the ‘with us or against us’ divide, says Brad Evans By Brad Evans 4 January
Blanchflower aiming to counter ‘disastrous’ austerity economics Economist calls for emphasis on wages and jobs as antidote to ‘failed’ doctrines, as he takes up Glasgow role looking at independent Scotland By John Morgan 4 January
Broken employability metrics need a post-pandemic revamp New measures that provide insight into how universities build personal qualities of their graduates are needed, argue Doug Cole and Dino Willox By Doug Cole 3 January
Measuring quality with metrics ignores transformative mentoring Metrics rarely reflect how students have addressed their weaknesses, which is itself the most rewarding part of university teaching, says Megan Argo By Megan Argo 2 January
Medicine, education and social work back to campus on 4 January Rest of students’ return to English universities should be staggered from 25 January, while international students asked to reconsider urgency of need to travel to UK By Anna McKie 31 December
London Higher head aiming to counter government ‘preconceptions’ Diana Beech, former adviser to Tory ministers, wants to challenge ‘crude generalisations’ that could hit London’s vital arts courses By John Morgan 31 December
Student returns to English campuses restricted for early January Government gives priority for medical subjects to restart in first weeks of January, with wider student return ‘kept under review’ By Anna McKie 30 December
New Year Honours 2021: knighthood for Stirling v-c Both Nottingham universities’ leaders also honoured, along with former AHRC head Andrew Thompson By Anna McKie 30 December
Pandemic is no time for a pedagogy overhaul Calls to redesign curricula for online study ignore how scholars need time and peer support to reinvent courses, says Carole Binns By Carole Binns 30 December
Careers Clinic: how should I react to negative student feedback? THE’s Careers Clinic series brings together the great and the good of higher education to answer a burning careers question By Dene Mullen 30 December
New OfS chair pick shows Johnson’s ‘political control freakery’ Lord Wharton of Yarm urged to get up to speed with challenges as ‘quickly as possible’ if appointment confirmed By Simon Baker 29 December
Times Higher Education’s most read articles of 2020 With just a few notable exceptions, it’s no surprise to find that this year’s most popular stories were dominated by one particular topic By Dene Mullen 29 December