Opinion

Victor Ponta quit as prime minister amid scandals including a renounced doctorate. Should he be allowed to run for president, asks Ararat Osipian

At the very least, they should hold out until the administration works out how to enforce its crackdowns on DEI and research, says Johann Neem

Departments should refocus on brokering linguistic services to meet the needs of staff and students in a polyglot world, says Tomasz Kamusella

One year on from publication of the Universities Accord, Justin Bokor says the funding needed to support equity student success is simply not there

The recent arrest of accreditation council members only underlines that competence of regulation is as much of an issue as its degree, says Pushkar

More transparent and democratic decision-making within UK universities could have helped institutions avoid the financial mistakes that are now resulting in mass redundancies, argue Nicholas Grant and Nadine Zubair

Talent pipeline for the UK’s £100 billion creative arts industries is under threat as universities shutter loss-making arts degrees, says Ravensbourne vice-chancellor Andy Cook

Subscribing to nearly everything published by journals is no longer feasible in these financially straitened times but librarians can provide creative workarounds to ensure journal access, says Liam Bullingham

Delayed introduction of England’s campus free speech act will help scholars confront bias confirmation propagated by social media bubbles, argue Carla Ferstman and Faten Ghosn

Most courses are already performance- or employment-focused. The demise of another scholarly programme will skew the balance further, says Ian Pace 

No one has yet cracked high-touch, low-cost business learning, but efforts are under way, says Julian Birkinshaw

Limiting industrial action to defensive branch battles on redundancy is not enough. We need to politically challenge the HE funding model, says Rhiannon Lockley

These are undoubtedly turbulent times, but the figures suggest that the sector is in relatively good health, say Eileen Strempel and Stephen Handel

The new commission’s competitiveness compass is shockingly deficient in its approach to research, says Jan Palmowski

There is something about handwriting that enhances the creative flow essential for academic study and scholarly activity, says Rich Smith

I don’t begrudge granting help to students who need it, but we must also have guard rails to deny it to those who don’t, says Nikolay Kukushkin

Editors’ failures to stick to advertised time frames and formatting requirements cost authors extra effort and stress, says Rob Sowby

The global examination of culture is not possible without languages at degree level, say Wendy Ayres-Bennett, Charles Burdett and Emma Cayley

Individuals and groups must be convinced to strive for common educational purpose in an atmosphere of mutual respect, says Neil Rudenstine 

The work of lobbying policymakers to make HE a higher priority is undermined by the endless pantomime of UCU’s internal politics, says Dyfrig Jones

All we are seeing is a necessary course correction to counter the infiltration of bad actors, say Leslie McIntosh, René Aquarius and Dorothy Bishop

Universities under political pressure to row back on support for minorities need a rallying point, say Manuel Barcia and Effie Kesidou

Educational interventions are like making a soufflé that may or may not rise, say Billy Wong and Lydia Fletcher

But domestic universities must also raise their game if the country is to become a major destination for international students, says Pushkar

The number of staff in roles serving the whole of UKRI is not evidence of centralisation, top-down control or added bureaucracy, says Ottoline Leyser

Students will now believe they can shut down debate of issues they find uncomfortable, rather than engaging critically, says a queer scholar

South Korea is among the US’ top three contributors of international students. Falling purchasing power threatens that position, says Kyuseok Kim

The complexities of the 21st century and Japan’s demographic decline demand more interdisciplinarity and internationalisation, says Teruo Fujii

The executive cadre clearly didn’t see the crises around revenue, leadership and public standing coming, say Hamish Coates and Leo Goedegebuure

To maintain the graduate premium, universities must anticipate skills needs, guide good course choices and be open to everyone, says Shitij Kapur

The new administration will marginalise or even prohibit the kind of inclusive, challenging, non-traditional syllabus I taught, fears Glyn Robbins

Why harm high-quality provision at established universities because of a small number of providers with questionable motives, asks Mark Clark

Policy institutes’ lack of strategic variation risks overheating the competition for airtime with national policymakers, says Diana Beech

Scaled and standardised, lowering entry requirements for disadvantaged applicants can contribute to a fairer society, says Jon Datta

The scientific record should reflect what actually happened, not a sanitised narrative that leaves out the messy bits, say Ivan Oransky and David B. Allison

Local context is important in overhauling trustee recruitment – and payment may help, says Nikki Le Faou 

Better tech alignment, industry guidance and identity verification would all help – as would meaningful and visible punishments, says Kim Eggleton

Tec de Monterrey’s partnership with Boston’s Ragon Institute shows how Latin America can connect to global centres of excellence, says David Garza-Salazar

Last summer’s Southport riots brought home the importance of fostering mutual understanding in neighbouring communities, says Duncan Ivison

The all-consuming nature of their work means that academics risk a loss of connection and even identity when their careers end, says John Tregoning

Claims that efforts are tokenistic must be countered with bold actions to retain buy-in, make progress and maintain momentum, says Cat Davies

The celebrated campus novelist and former University of Birmingham literature professor has died. Christopher Bigsby recounts the life of ‘a serious man who wrote comic novels’

By working together, England’s FE colleges and universities can create a seamless skills pipeline that benefits everyone, says David Warnes

As more of the research process is exposed, the readiness and resources of researchers and their institutions must be considered, says Tim Errington

No one transitions overnight from a full-time academic career to a much more self-determined and lightly specified routine, says Harvey Graff

Technology can offer a very useful helping hand, but there are an array of pitfalls that need careful handling, says John Miles

Disciplinary nuance and optimum word usage are likely to remain beyond chatbots trained on the imperfect existing corpus, says Brian Bloch

Security guards’ jobs would be easier if others also had the knowledge and equipment to respond to medical incidents, says George Bass

Academics are only revealing their own biases if they believe the television presenter’s behaviour represents working-class values, says Joe Baden

Drawn-out complaints procedures that aren’t resolved before visas expire are unethical – and a poor advertisement for UK HE, says Sanaz Raji 

Our evidence-led recommendations will challenge universities – but within the parameters of the possible, says Nigel Carrington

Social scientists must work hard to verify their conclusions. Too many that do not are rewarded anyway, says Martyn Hammersley

We can’t just concede that usage is ethical if within universities’ narrowly conceived rules. What about the pursuit of truth, asks Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin

There are plenty of global examples of how academic expertise could be better applied to companies’ real-life skills deficits, says Sarah Gordon

A columnist has dared to voice the blasphemy that spending huge sums on higher education doesn’t always open new doors, writes Pushkar

The country’s leaders must recognise that emigration is not a betrayal but a symptom of deeper societal issues that must be addressed, says Roohola Ramezani

The political freedom currently exists for Palestinians to debate how to build back better. But it may be short-lived, warns Bill Williamson

Centres of Research Excellence, officially launched today, will also strengthen the UK’s leading position in biomedical sciences, says Patrick Chinnery

The far-right president rails against academics’ supposed sense that they are superior. A scholar forced to sell books to make ends meet feels anything but

Managers should take inspiration from student organising, but we need more than diversity window-dressing, say Alexander Hensby and Barbara Adewuni