Blog

Who wants to be heckled in their workplace by people who think they are entitled to define the parameters of your faith for you, asks Joseph Mintz

The Edinburgh protests underline the need for meaningful ways for students, staff and community to govern the university together, says Kevin Donovan

Students already graduate with huge debts. Rather than accepting yet more easy credit, they should do more paid work, says Paul Wiltshire

Universities are crying out for consistency, something resembling certainty and a plan for the way forward, says Graham Galbraith

Listening to students and engaging activist donors in university affairs in more constructive ways would both help, says Richard Joseph

Despite claims of political appointments, no party seems to want to make interference in universities an election issue, says Mukhtar Ahmad

The likes of Google are being undermined by both AI and their own commercial imperatives. Researchers can no longer rely on them, says Andy Farnell

Western business practice is not universal, so why are studies from elsewhere so rare in the literature, asks Yuliya Snihur  

Intimidation of longstanding civic institutions belies a traditional conservative emphasis on small government and free speech, says Andrew Seligsohn

The digital revolution is creating a sense of always being watched and judged in both teaching and research, say Chavan Kissoon and Terence Karran

The government should help universities diversify their source countries as it works towards a fix for domestic student funding, says Connor Horsfall

Making people paranoid about employing familiar and useful words is not the way to encourage responsible AI use, say Lilian Schofield and Xue Zhou 

The unprecedented pressure on presidents from donors and pressure groups renders them unable to defend their students, says Harvey Graff

Gendering and decolonising curricula requires a nuanced consideration of learners’ diverse perspectives and cultural contexts, says Heather Jeffrey

New legislation opens the way for quality-focused branches to drive up standards across a traditionally public HE sector, says Ianis Matsoukas

My government-commissioned review is seeking examples of barriers to research on sex and gender faced by UK-based individuals, says Alice Sullivan

These initiatives don’t demand extra funding, undervalue publisher input or create institutional or disciplinary divides, say Anthony Cond and Jane Bunker

Perhaps we need, instead, a specific tribunal to investigate and hear the most serious allegations, says Guy Micklewright 

While well intentioned, reserving positions for under-represented groups only takes us further away from the colour-blind ideal, says an academic

The humanities- and social sciences-focused institution is the canary in UK higher education’s increasingly explosive coalmine, says Sir Keith Burnett

I realised that I was sacrificing my best years – and those of my child – for a dream that did not have my back. So I quit, says Helen Lees

Simplistic analyses belie the complex evolution of students, instruction, reading practices, college regulations and communications media, says Harvey Graff

The broad approach taken by the OfS’ guidance on free speech will safeguard orthodoxy-challenging work, say Abhishek Saha and Ian Pace

Boosting your publication metrics need not come at the expense of your integrity if you bear in mind these 10 tips, says Adrian Furnham

Students see benefits to paid work beyond the money, but they would welcome help in advocating for better pay and conditions, say six academics

Thirty years ago this month, apartheid’s opponents declared victory and signed out. Yet racist legacies persist to this day, says Noam Schimmel

University managers must be committed to cultivating a compassionate culture and building trust in the workplace, says Andrew Woon

Timeliness and rigour are vital, but the publishing and incentives systems are not set up to deliver them, says Meron Wondemaghen

The regulator’s example scenarios fail to acknowledge the harm that even lawful speech can cause on campus, say Naomi Waltham-Smith and James Murray

Extra costs linked to proposed new Research Excellence Framework rules could send art history departments to the wall, warns Francesca Berry

Proposed changes to how scholars publish show little awareness of how they will profoundly reshape academic life, says David Lund

Higher education might not be doorstep issue for voters but the importance of universities in tackling the world’s biggest problems has never been higher, argue Amanda Broderick and Patrizio Bianchi

Knowledge is commodified by the prioritisation of economic imperatives over social and democratic goals in educational policymaking, says Zahid Naz

Inflated marks, overworked staff and politically compromised courses are the price of exploiting offshore UK-registered students, says Michael Day

Generative AI firms should stop ripping off publishers and instead work with them to enrich scholarship, says Oxford University Press’ David Clark

What other industry would deem those with so much prior training to still be mere trainees? Let’s call them what they are – researchers, says Michele Nardin

Recruiting underprepared students is damaging the classroom experience and is soul-crushing for teachers, says a UK lecturer

Existing measures tend to focus on training to enhance women’s skills, rather than addressing structural and behavioural issues, says Mairi Gibbs

Promoting awareness of the impact words can have on others will create a psychologically safe space where staff, students can thrive, says Melissa Carr

Chinese students in the Anglosphere want to develop their careers and learn English, not to be lectured about how terrible their homeland is, says Sibei Sun

Requiring OA publication would have left bookshops’ history sections narrower in scope and the preserve of a select few authors, says Rory Cormac

Codifications of how university missions preclude institutional positions would guide expectations and responses, says Paul Gooch

The sudden rise of generative AI offers an opportunity for reflection and renewal of our scholarly values, say Ella McPherson and Matei Candea

If, as it must, engineering is to contribute to restoring the planet, it needs to attract holistic-thinking carers, says Tim Ibell 

Russian studies is one of many disciplines that can and should loudly tell the story of how authoritarianism strips people of citizenship, says Ani Kokobobo

Mutual support networks and mentoring can help more women attain senior positions, say Efthalia Chatzigianni and Bryony Whitmarsh

No journey in strange new waters can be smooth sailing, but healthy conflicts have a place in innovation and transformation, say David Lloyd and Peter Høj

Institutions must instead provide fora and establish rules for debating issues and their moral implications, says Carolyn Hughes Tuohy

UK universities should leverage Saudi resources to build partnerships that will advance science and technology for mutual benefit, says Andrew Griffith

With the University of Kent becoming the latest lower-tariff English university to mull course closures, students might be frozen out, says Becky Muradás-Taylor

The science secretary’s demand that UKRI take action against its EDI committee underlines how far UK science’s independence has slipped, says Fiona Fox

The document gestures to some key barriers, but Indigenous knowledge is valuable in itself, not just for improving outcomes, says Ian Anderson

Tolerance and respect are still expected, but a new kind of deference to group identity is emerging among students, say Stephen Hawkins and Mylien Duong

Recommended reforms, such as abolishing the Job-Ready Graduates fee hikes for humanities, will gold-plate the Help system, says Maxwell Yong

AI will make courses cheaper to deliver, more professionally relevant and more pedagogically effective, says Max Lu 

Cryptocurrencies will change the landscape of international finance. We can no longer think of money as a background phenomenon, says Richard Holden

To make maths programmes viable, we must make them more attractive to a wider pool of applicants, says Jens Marklof

Higher international fees for in-person courses are vital to universities, but online students can be charged the same wherever they live, says Tim Dunne 

Opportunities that enhance employability and the student experience will boost both enrolments and donations, says Robert Phillips

No one should assume that university managers and consultants have all the solutions to UK universities’ financial woes, says Chris Moore