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Staff at the University of Liverpool will ballot for strike action over plans to alter employees’ terms and conditions.

The outgoing head of King’s College London is to take charge of a University of Oxford college.

The International Monetary Fund has announced it will use the edX massive open online course platform to deliver economics courses to government officials and eventually the public.

A firm grasp of written English and a passion for a chosen course subject are the most desired attributes in university applicants aside from exam grades, according to a survey of admissions officers, but their social background does not figure so highly.

Students are occupying the University of Warwick’s council chamber to protest against the “marketisation of higher education”.

Scientific research in the UK has been harmed by the current spending freeze, a report has claimed

Vince Cable, the business secretary, says he has “ruled out categorically” any rise in interest rates for graduates who took out student loans before 2012, while stressing that plans for a sale of student loans are ongoing

The former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has been announced as the new chancellor of the University of South Wales

By Elizabeth Redden, for Inside Higher Ed

The UK’s platform for free online university courses has announced its first international members.

The proportion of students entering Russell Group universities who are state-educated has fallen in the last decade, a report from a government commission on social mobility has said.

The University of Liverpool has been accused of “putting a gun to the head” of almost 3,000 staff who a union says face losing their jobs unless they accept altered working terms and conditions

The Queen’s Birthday Honours List includes a knighthood for Eric Thomas, the University of Bristol vice-chancellor and Universities UK president

The government should urgently clarify its plans for the sale of the student loan book and reassure existing graduates that their repayments will not be raised, according to Labour’s shadow higher education minister.

Science ministers from the G8 group of the world’s richest countries have jointly endorsed the need to increase access to publicly-funded research.

Students are starting their search for a graduate job earlier than ever, a new survey has revealed.

Woolwich murder reignites debate over university radicalisation

Teacher-turned-scholar Jon Berry sends a message to the education minister on the theory behind best practice

Foreign academics had to account for their whereabouts each week, university master complains

The University of Sheffield has nudged the University of Cambridge into third place in a list of the UK institutions earning the most research income from engineering, Higher Education Statistics Agency data show

Just four European countries spend less as a proportion of national income

Website dedicated to uncovering academic misconduct goes global

IPPR report offers stark warning over £6,000 plans

Martin Hall offers regrets after inglorious June but remains committed to post

More scholarships and internships will boost graduates in the business world, says chief executive Martin Davidson

Founder Michael Bulman digs in as academics expound on offering’s weaknesses

Personalised assessments and more emphasis on exams could help cut out plagiarism, argues associate dean Mark Ridolfo

Howard Davies and Maria Zhivitskaya say critics of a new law allowing foreign-language instruction are fighting lost Proustian battles

Lecturers’ union agrees to trim national committee but not on scale called for by general secretary Sally Hunt

The education secretary’s attacks on the academy are a smokescreen for the damage caused by his radical policies, argues Martin McQuillan

Convention for Higher Education’s rallying cry against coalition’s university reforms

When toddler-wrangling there’s no time to procrastinate, John Kaag discovers

Digital collection of 5 million pages aims to ‘open window’ on to India’s recent past

Davina Quinlivan detects a shift to more rounded representations of mental illness on screen

As students grow keener to stand up for their rights over perceived wrongs, is the sector doing all it can to be consistent, fair and prompt when resolving disputes?

Psychology lecturer picks up gong for her work on sex and relationship advice

Just one in 10 at the grade is female at some institutions, Hesa shows

Diverse university models and academic freedom are key to resilience, participants hear

Western universities scramble to spot fraudulent applications from China’s hypercompetitive students

Anthropologist gets her hands dirty with Big Apple’s sanitation workers

House of Lords event hears how council and the scholars it has saved have enriched the UK

The Welsh government has said it will look into “radical” innovations in higher education, including compressing undergraduate degrees into two years.

The banning of psychoactive drugs amounts to one of the worst cases of scientific censorship in modern times, researchers have argued.

Universities have been lambasted for their “excruciatingly slow progress” on switching away from investments in “unethical” industries such as oil.

Universities in Wales have launched a report that argues that they create £3.6 billion for the country’s economy every year.

Labour’s shadow business secretary is “open” to setting a target to increase overseas students if the party returns to power as the major export industry has been “taken hostage by the Home Office” under the coalition.

The Home Office has concluded that the student visitor route into the UK is being used as intended and not as a back door route to work or settlement

Ministers should extend student loans to many more part-time students to remedy a “crisis” in recruitment, a thinktank commission is set to recommend

George Osborne has given his strongest hint yet that science funding will be protected in the coming spending review

Scholarly talent search winners for 2013 to bring insights to the nation

Royal Institution provokes online backlash over decision to trademark title

Despite loss of teaching grant, universities must still comply with enrolment targets

Transition is both desirable and inevitable, Gabriel Egan argues

Critics of university deal point to repression in Gulf state