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An exhibition foregrounds the people of Dresden and their many and contradictory stories rather than their historical tragedy, discovers Ulrike Zitzlsperger

In the first of a new series on academics who conduct research in extreme circumstances, Gillian Fowler recalls the six years she spent working as a forensic anthropologist exhuming mass graves in Guatemala

Ghana tunes in for British Council’s Apprentice-style reality TV show. David Matthews reports

Beware online misrepresentation, says academic mistakenly linked to tarot book. Chris Parr reports

Is there an optimum size for research labs? Are larger labs more prone to research misconduct and harder to manage? Paul Jump investigates

It’s time for physics to make a big bang, the woman from the ministry tells Elizabeth Gibney

The 50th anniversary re-release of Lawrence of Arabia allows us to reassess cinema’s sensual relationship with the desert, Davina Quinlivan writes

Event hears how online learning offers ‘alternative public realm’ for Iranians. Matthew Reisz reports

The Egyptian government may shun the UK as a destination for postgraduate students on state scholarships because of frustrations over visas.

New HE minister aims to unblock channels to openness. Joanna Sugden reports from New Delhi

Weary of cronyism, many in Italy welcomed a metrics-based research evaluation - until they saw the catalogue of approved publications, ‘crazy lists’ that ignored many journals in favour of provincial newspapers, religious circulars and yachting magazines. Massimo Mazzotti writes

Next week, scholars will launch the Council for the Defence of British Universities. Historian Keith Thomas and astrophysicist Martin Rees, eminent founding members of the independent body, explain why they believe the academy requires protection from the state and the market

Longitudinal study adds to concerns raised about the future of UK research. Jack Grove reports

John Bunyan’s masterwork, which influenced literature, politics and culture for generations, is startlingly modern in depicting a world of greed and inequality

Telecoms monopoly break-up offers lessons for higher education, says college. John Morgan writes

Privilege and discrimination: what better topics for a frenzied debate? John Morgan listened in

The story of a black actor on the Victorian stage raises questions about race and racism in today's theatre, argues Peter J.Smith

Romney's and Obama's positions on education converge as election nears. Jon Marcus writes

Genius and madness may be two sides of the same coin and both states exhibit ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking. Such unusual thought patterns are key to creativity but can also lead reason astray. Glenn Wilson takes a look at the psychology of minds at the margins

Procedures must change to improve women’s options, says Brunel’s new head. Jack Grove writes

If Moocs are the future of learning, they’re still not without precedents or pitfalls, reports Tom Barfield

Not a peep from Finch as scholarly journal firms fly off to tax havens and grow ever more profitable. Simon Lilley does the sorry sums

OERs are touted as the answer to all manner of global ills, but much work is needed before they fulfil the promise, writes Jeremy Knox

The REF is coming and many institutions are looking to poach premier league researchers to boost their scores (and income) before it is too late. Elizabeth Gibney takes a look at the recruitment ‘feeding frenzy’

Korean horror may draw Western attention for its brutality, but its focus on sacrifice and expiation is distinctive, says Daniel Martin

Analysis with revised data and modelling points to 'serious' consequences ahead. John Morgan writes

Universities dismiss Michael Gove's call for them to take charge of examinations, reports Jack Grove

UK’s future prosperity ‘relies on boosting the quality of master’s and PhD research’. Paul Jump reports

Sciences and the arts are re-entering each other’s orbits in a burst of boundary-blurring creativity, Arthur I. Miller observes

Filled with treasures from around the globe and across the ages, England’s university museums are as varied as their funding, but those of Oxford and Cambridge still take the lion’s share of Hefce cash. Matthew Reisz on the changing roles of these repositories of knowledge

The UK sector’s growing involvement in offshore education includes everything from branch campuses and institutional partnerships to validation and franchising. David Matthews weighs the different models’ risks, rewards and rationales

Russell Group chair issues warning over threat to ‘hard-won eminence’. John Morgan reports

Duncan Wu admires (with some caveats) a synecdochal exploration of family, loss and the end times’ bitter waters

The Ivy League’s autonomy has allowed its members to conquer the world. The UK must loosen the reins on its universities and establish an equivalent, Terence Kealey argues

David Matthews reports on bid to show clemency to PhD students as cash from Damascus dries up

The Inside Out festival aims to fling open the doors of the academy and allow scholars’ work to roam free in London and engage with its many publics, writes Matthew Reisz

Animated films aren’t just for children, argues James Clarke. They’re lyrical metaphors for the richness of human existence

Losses for UK and US as Eastern excellence drives start to bear fruit. Elizabeth Gibney reports

A violent, drug-addled reworking of Star Wars is an authentic work by a controversial auteur but lacks the bite of his earlier films, argues Duncan Wu

Merseyside is the perfect setting for an exhibition that explores departure points, national identity and the fluid nature of ‘British art’, finds Alexander Massouras

TV detective shows express a great deal about the nature of society and the human psyche, argues Gary Day

Marisa Carnesky’s new theatrical homage to the carnivalesque is a divinely divinatory affair, Roberta Mock discovers

With cycling enjoying huge popularity after the successes of Bradley Wiggins and other Olympians, Thomas Docherty explores how the pain, endurance and concentration demanded by the sport’s premier event, the Tour de France, find parallels in academic life

Even more fascinating than the con artists who assume others’ identities are the people who are desperate to believe them, suggests Rohan McWilliam

With political dramas proving to be big draws, Matthew Morrison assesses the radicalism of playwrights and audiences

‘Agnotology’, the art of spreading doubt (as pioneered by Big Tobacco), distorts the scepticism of research to obscure the truth. Areas of academic life have been tainted by the practice, but some scholars are fighting back by showing the public how to spot such sleight of hand, reports Matthew Reisz

The government has reluctantly shelved its bill governing foreign education partners, reports Joanna Sugden from New Delhi

Tim Birkhead has been studying a single guillemot population for 40 years. Here he explains how such commitment provides insights that the three-year studies favoured by the research councils cannot hope to match

Rain is a national obsession - never more than in British films. James Clarke reveals what happens when the heavens open

For six years the government has targeted the decline in UK health research. But a law putting GPs in charge of allocating local resources has left many clinicians fearing that those advances could be derailed. Elizabeth Gibney reports

A season dedicated to the UK’s greatest film-maker shows that there is more to his sensibility than misogyny, Davina Quinlivan argues

Peter J. Smith on a fresh view of the Bard via the prism of materiality and the playwright’s own socio-historical moment

Batman’s true superpower is to reflect the dark side of human nature. Will Brooker asks if he’s really the protector we deserve

Canada seeks long-term relationship with growing higher education superpower. Jon Marcus reports

Raphael Lyne on the shape-shifting fascination to be found in the meeting of Greek myth, Roman and modern British verse and Titian’s indelible hues

From the swinging Sixties of Shrimpton and the Krays to the 2012 Games, David Bailey’s eye captures ever-mutable London

As the findings of the final research assessment exercise are released, Times Higher Education has devised tables of excellence to rank institutions according to their subject successes and their overall quality

As students cram for scarce undergraduate places, private institutions proliferate and research outputs rise rapidly, will China’s impressive growth spurts bring gains in quality as well as quantity? Carolynne Wheeler reports from Beijing

British scholars head for North Africa to forge links with territory neglected by UK sector. David Matthews reports

Later works, photographic ones in particular, redefine the creator of The Scream as a 20th-century artist, observes Alex Danchev