Blog

With just 50 sub-Saharan journals listed in Scopus, it’s time to consider how citation indexes are holding back scholarly publishing in Africa, argue David Mills and Natasha Robinson

Having discussed the gender critical philosopher’s work with students, it’s hard to accept her gloomy assessment of silenced people, says Tony Lang

Strong financial health at sector level conceals wide institutional variation. If growth is choked off, whole universities could fail, says James Brackley

Universities are places where ideas are proposed and improved. It shouldn’t be so hard to discuss an issue with far-reaching implications, say 20 academics

While other nations are reaching saturation point, the US has the scope to derive greater benefit from international education, says Allan Goodman

International students spend billions in the UK and the vast majority return home. So why do anti-immigration measures target them, asks Ben Moore

Reaching out to a trusted community reminded Karen Spierling why she values academia enough to defend it in the public arena

Tackling racism within institutions is a crucial first step, says Nick Braisby, three years on from a murder that shook the world 

The banning of scientific messages about risks in pregnancy is yet another damaging imposition on academia, says Roohola Ramezani

Even journals that have removed paywalls retain their bias towards certain types of author – and their prejudice against others, says Katie Stripe

Reinforcing public support for student immigration is vital amid increasingly hostile rhetoric from politicians, says Wendy Alexander

Increased contributions to the Teachers’ Pensions Scheme will require cuts to student support services, warns Graham Baldwin

Even temporary immigrants can easily be blamed for social ills, but we need political solutions, not crackdowns, says Keith Burnett 

A misinformed rush to churn out employable graduates combined with a zero-sum budgeting approach is denuding other departments, says Harvey Graff

A new registration condition, complaints scheme and system of penalties all require careful thought, says Jamie Roberts

If academics are serious about tackling global warming, they can’t wait for the cavalry to show up – they are the cavalry, says Tony Chan

Decline is not inevitable: there is plenty that university leaders can do to shore up students’ interest in these crucial subjects, says Kathryn Shailer

Self-employment teaches valuable skills and offers more flexibility to fit work around academic and domestic demands, says Robert Phillips

Abundant myths and historical stereotypes are sustaining the harmful notion that girls just don’t like mathematical subjects, says Athene Donald

It is vital for librarians to work proactively with tech firms to address the limitations and biases of the likes of ChatGPT, says Leo S. Lo

Raising the visibility of scientific breakthroughs with high-profile awards builds public trust and inspires the innovators of the future, says Richard Friend

Offering payment has risks, but it could expand the pool of willing reviewers beyond those on permanent academic salaries, says Duncan Money 

Even academics, never mind practitioners, will rarely read beyond an underwhelming and uninformative summary, says Maia Chankseliani

The recent protests by Iranian women appear to have sparked a conservative backlash against schools and universities, says Roohola Ramezani

The technology threatens to impoverish research and destroy humans’ ability to understand the social world, says Dirk Lindebaum

Other countries could learn a lot from the various initiatives adopted in India since 2013, says Adrija Dey

Just as deans and provosts start to realise their visions, they are often gone, leaving everyone else to pick up the pieces, says Elizabeth Lehfeldt

Immediate review of outputs by a REF reviewer could be more efficient, transparent, informative and, above all, fair, says Martin Lang

Challenger institutions offer innovation and dynamism, but ignorance and monopolistic behaviour is holding them back, says Edward Venning 

Commercialising research is daunting. Academic founders can’t and shouldn’t be expected to do this alone, say Diarmuid O’Brien and Maina Bhaman

University leaders are likely to be more concerned about the reputational risks of misconduct than state bureaucracies are, says Ararat Osipian

Even when speech is legally protected, the harm that it can cause must be addressed, say Neijma Celestine-Donnor and Lara Schwartz

Medicaid spending commitments are driving cuts in appropriations for public universities, say F. King Alexander and Stephen Katsinas

Bibliographic databases’ default ‘sort by relevance’ listings perpetuate bias towards white, Western men, says Katy Jordan

There are few professional roles that would not benefit from a broad and complex humanities foundation, says Harvey Graff

Kenneth Griffin’s $300 million donation to Harvard is unusual in not being tied to pet ideological causes, says Naomi Oreskes  

Ancient India and China were the first civilisations to educate young people to become whole individuals, says Kyaw Moe Tun

Publishers, libraries and funders must do what they can to ensure that no one is priced out of open-access publishing, says Mandy Hill

We can’t discourage scientific opportunism without providing information about which publishers to avoid, says Natalia Letki

A COP-style UN forum to coordinate and promote public education could help prevent natural hazards from becoming disasters, says Afroz Shah

Basing teaching around the fundamental challenges faced by society will benefit both the humanities and humanity itself, says Doug Haynes

To retain students, US institutions must give credit for learning that occurs in professional settings, say Stephen Handel and Eileen Strempel

The theft of more than $800,000 by hackers prompted uncomfortable conversations about preparedness – or lack of it, says John Cox

Universities should do all they can to expand students’ horizons by exposing them to the transcendentally vast, says Andy Tix

Many such journals are on government-approved lists and indexed in mainstream bibliographic databases, says Emanuel Kulczycki

Encouraging graduates into teaching would bring a ready-made army of advocates for university study into daily contact with pupils, says Jane White

ChatGPT must compel humanities scholars to rethink their acceptance of intellectual mediocrity and lax standards, says James Walker

Constant rejections for academic jobs took a bigger emotional toll than anything they encountered during their PhDs, says Michelle de Souza

T levels are an alternative to A levels, not to level 1-3 vocational courses. Students need both options, says Sam Parrett

No policy initiative within research-intensive universities can be sustainable without researchers perceiving clear added value, says Sari Lindblom

EDI claims should be treated with the same curiosity and scepticism as anything else in academic life, says Maximilian Werner

Incanting managerial buzzwords in response to a handful of free comments is not a strategy for improvement, says an anonymous academic

The lost golden age of hiring and wider social appreciation of the disciplines never existed, says Harvey Graff

States, which all need a well-trained workforce to thrive, must contribute more to reducing the cost of public higher education, says Nancy Zimpher

With the right policies in place, the university can repeat the past 25 years’ economic return within the next decade, says Anthony Freeling

The exascale machine referenced in the budget will be expensive, but the price of strategic missteps is higher, say Peter Coveney and Roger Highfield

Universities need guidance on providing voter registration opportunities and using work-study funds for civic engagement, says Mike Burns

Higher education leaders are often reluctant to enter the political realm, but now this prudence carries the stench of cowardice, says Michael Roth

It would be extraordinary if the UK chose to switch to Plan B at the very moment the main obstacle to Plan A was being removed, says Joanna Burton

We need to find mechanisms to plug in relevant humanities and social sciences from the very beginning of projects, says Christina Boswell