Opinion

The critics are wrong, argues Rick Rylance; the AHRC is funding research into the 'Big Society', not promoting it

The for-profits are coming, warns Matt Robb, and universities must prepare themselves for the rigours of competition before it's too late

Academy take note: the International Baccalaureate offers the best preparation for higher study, argue John Oakes and Anthony Seldon

A weekly roundup of the best on the scholarly web

Felipe Fernández-Armesto can’t wait to flee the madness infecting the UK

In the last in this series, Dr Margot Feelbetter poses a dilemma and offers advice for readers to respond to online. This week: Final reckoning

There are pitfalls to setting up an overseas campus but the grand ideas do translate into practice, says Paul Greatrix

As expectations of retirement income take a turn for the worse, Andrew Oswald offers a few ideas for reversing the trend

David Vaiani argues that the UK's universities must cast off the bonds of state finance to thrive on the global stage

Malcolm Gillies discusses the fees revolution’s mean, median and mode

The royal wedding demanded a topsy-turvy carnival of sex and symbolic slaughter, says Camilla Power, but trying to exercise a human right to ritual participation landed her in jail

Each week, Dr Margot Feelbetter poses a dilemma and offers advice for readers to respond to online. This week: Recipe for disaster

Peter Geoghegan lauds an HEA-funded project that aims to correct the commodification of the academic experience

Sciences Po shows that massive tuition-fee rises can be used to underwrite efforts to widen participation, Peter Gumbel writes

Our willingness to end funding for 2* work bodes ill for the future of research at elites and new universities alike, says Michael Rayner

David Willetts, advocate for the arts? Nothing like it, accuses Sally Feldman

Each week, Dr Margot Feelbetter poses a dilemma and offers advice for readers to respond to online. This week: I can't take the (slow) pace

Michael Chung proposes the Einstein/Murray Rule to help researchers determine the true value of their work

The 'impact' of great work is neither immediate nor measurable by the apparatchiks: it echoes down the ages, says Simon Blackburn

Shocked by his students' great reluctance to read, Nicholas Morton sought a way to get them hooked on the habit

Tim Birkhead finds a valuable lesson in the story of the bullfinch trainers

The obsession with contact hours is a result of the market logic that threatens to undermine the academy, argues Thomas Docherty

…and when it comes to £9,000 fees, you ought to lie in it, argues Kevin Fong

Each week, Dr Margot Feelbetter poses a dilemma and offers advice for readers to respond to online. This week: The horror, the horror...

Trinity College Dublin staff follow ancient traditions in the election of their head, but one voter fears their loss as the state encroaches

The British Academy can be proud of its steadfastly arm's-length allocation of public funds, Adam Roberts argues

But the pursuit of money can be a zero-sum game, and one nation's loss may be another's gain - as the UK could learn to its cost

External examiner James Derounian seeks respect and fair remuneration for the bastions of the appraisal system

Each week, Dr Margot Feelbetter poses a dilemma and offers advice for readers to respond to online. This week: Tinker, tailor, student, spy

To stop the Arab Spring developing into an oppressive winter, the changemakers should read their Camus, argues Robert Zaretsky

Who wouldn't want to help Africans avoid malaria and find sustainable work? Western aid officials, says Nick Petford

Peter Mandler worries that government priorities are creeping into AHRC decision-making and constraining researchers

Alan Ryan wonders why women still appear to be losing out in academia

Offa’s access agreements will not work, argues Thomas Docherty, although two principles should be kept in any alternative system

Felipe Fernández-Armesto fears for the future of a leading comprehensive

Each week, Dr Margot Feelbetter poses a dilemma and offers advice for readers to respond to online. This week: Time to be counted?

Michael Boylan on strategies to engage, empower and educate students when discussing controversial issues

In the search for new proxies to inform the World University Rankings, overseas collaboration is a real contender, says Jonathan Adams

Each week, Dr Margot Feelbetter poses a dilemma and offers advice for readers to respond to online. This week: She knows where the bodies are buried

Ethical downfalls are not the result of single acts, but rather the daily erosion of moral standards, says Stefano Harney

The German government minister who was accused of plagiarism really just wants to be loved, claims Christopher Reid

Steve Smith discusses the fundamental dilemmas that knowledge economies face over funding mass education systems and research

Malcolm Gillies discusses the reality of university reputation

Katie Best calls for business school rankings that measure pedagogic merit, not simply cash and corporate power

In today's insecure academy, quality control takes a back seat to pleasing students and covering up errors, a senior lecturer claims

Full competition for qualified students would keep fees down, says Alasdair Smith, and limiting unqualified numbers would control costs

Science alone cannot get to the heart of what makes us human, which is why the humanities and social sciences matter so much