Opinion

A badly understood notion of risk has created a fake crisis in university pensions that will devastate academia, argues Dennis Leech

Stephanie Marshall looks at the common features exhibited by universities that successfully achieved a TEF rating upgrade

David Robinson looks at what Philip Hammond might have in store for universities

After rulings against six universities, Iain Campbell and Moya Clifford offer advice on making sure that university adverts are not misleading

It may be the only bit of your thesis that most people will read, but do not waste your best title on your PhD, says Zachary Foster

Academia often treats leavers as failures, but some of our smartest scholars are starting to see walking away as liberation, writes Inger Mewburn

Rising tuition fees and the marketisation of higher education mean the time is right to explore a new model, says Joss Winn

Jean-Claude Juncker and Tibor Navracsics on how the EU hopes to make it easier for educators to work across Europe

Mark Goodwin looks at what it takes to be a ‘vortex university’, and why Exeter aspires to become one

A single, comprehensive policy and funding infrastructure for UK tertiary education would empower learners and encourage innovation, say Paul Woodgates and Mike Boxall

Getting innovations to market can be a conundrum, but help and support is available for those limbering up for the knowledge exchange framework, says Siraj Ahmed Shaikh 

Traditions, success and lack of self-reflection limit higher education's role in thought revolutions, says Geoff Mulgan

PhD failure can have disastrous consequences for overseas students bonded to their funders, says Andrew George

Just like Hollywood and Parliament, academia has entrenched power hierarchies. It can’t pretend that sexual harassment doesn’t take place

Ahead of his Vincent Briscoe Lecture, Bill Durodié calls on researchers to engage with issues of great social and technological ambition

Australia’s higher education policy is adrift, and could learn a thing or two from the UK, say Julie Hare and Stephen Parker

Elizabeth Cannon on why Canada's HE sector still has some work to do to achieve true diversity, and how universities are approaching this problem

Isolation is the last thing Myanmar needs if it is to develop its higher education system and encourage critical thought, write Kyle Anderson and Kyaw Moe Tun

Specialist expertise in languages and cultures should be given strategic protection within universities, says Alice Campbell-Cree

Jisc has revealed its top social media superstars of the year, writes Chris Parr

If members of a jury can understand ‘beyond reasonable doubt’, then so too can university panels, says Daniel Sokol

Scientific endeavour has for centuries been driven on by both competitive and collaborative spirit, and the rankings can boost both, says Phil Baty

UUK International wants every UK university to join its ‘Go International’ campaign, but institutions find it hard to get students to participate in overseas schemes, says Rachael Pells

European staff have helped make the UK higher education system a world leader, says Sarah Stevens, and we need to ensure that they continue to do so

Vice-chancellors must make a sustained commitment to cultural change to ensure that violence, harassment and hate crime on campus are things of the past, writes Janet Beer

The apparent defeat of Australia’s latest attempt at higher education funding reform prolongs the agony for both universities and ministers, says Conor King

Hepi’s exposure of the degree to which teaching subsidises research should provoke a new approach to funding, says Phil Ward

US scholars' tendency to award extra credit for attending non-core lectures hastens the academy's slide into transactionalism, says Robert Zaretsky 

The merry-go-round of senior figures and a lack of coordination among mission groups has weakened UK universities' influence, says Nick Hillman

Research is paid for by legerdemain, and we should be honest about it if we want to correct funding imbalances and treat students fairly

King’s College London principal Ed Byrne on increasing participation in higher education while also driving improvements in quality

Getting universities’ houses in order may well mean publicly dismissing some very eminent academics, say Graham Towl and Kelsey Paske

University business schools should not be viewed simply as ‘cash cows’ that entice international students, writes Alec Cameron 

In the wake of the shooting at Sutherland Springs in Texas, university staff and students have been sharing their concerns, writes Chris Parr

Nancy Rothwell and Glyn Davis write from the Global University Engagement Summit in Melbourne

Lifelong learning, real-world experience and a focus on ‘uniquely human attributes’ are key to preparing students for the future, says Joseph Aoun

Modern universities do not always allow the necessary time for scholars’ intellectual pursuits, but slow philosophy can help address this unhappy situation, says Michelle Bolous Walker

Perhaps more could be done, but Oxbridge admissions data closely mirror applications, says Jonathan Leader Maynard

A growing sense of middle-class grievance in the UK would make a radical redistribution of top university places a very difficult political sell, says Sir Nigel Thrift

Last week’s spats over universities’ supposed anti-Brexit bias and what to do about it highlight the contested nature of free speech

Identifying intellectual junctions, intersections and sites for negotiation can give your academic rite of passage the right of way, says Zachary Foster    

The most effective institutions in ‘oiling elite trajectories’ are now universities, not schools, find Sam Friedman and Aaron Reeves 

Commission’s final report calls for an Office for Strategic Economic Management to ensure sound regional economic policy, writes Andy Westwood

Rob Johns offers advice on making sure your teaching is not all pro-remain, in the wake of the Heaton-Harris letter

Kingsley Purdam on the relentless need to gather feedback – and why the results of doing so are not always of much value

Matthew Reisz celebrates the scholars engaging with film, personal experience, the creative arts and even jokes

Bone cutters, a trepanning tool and a cloth used to wrap King George II are among the discoveries on a Halloween tour of St George's in London, explains Carly Manson

Stuart McCutcheon, vice-chancellor of the University of Auckland, on the consequences of New Zealand’s recent election

Stephen Halliday used to hate pointless meetings until he found a way to exploit the tedium

Turkey’s president was unwise to evoke Animal Farm when his attack on academics has eerie echoes of George Orwell’s novel, says Umut Özkirımli

Hannelore Vanhaverbeke on what publishers can do to help reduce the number of scholars infringing copyright agreements

Scholars are increasingly willing to use other people’s data in their research, writes Mark Hahnel 

Trump has little in the way of strategy on higher education, but the sector could still suffer collateral damage in the president’s desperate search for a legislative win, says John Aubrey Douglass

The scholarly better halves of literary sleuths flatter academic readers’ egos with their virtue, says Emily Michelson

Internet entrepreneurs will not rest until they have made physical universities obsolete, predicts Glyn Davis

Accreditation of research methods should be a mandatory requirement for publication in journals, says Peter Thompson

Academics find information and inspiration in myriad places and forms, and what they do with it can transform and even save lives