With image

In the age of digitisation, the ‘search’ part of research has become a virtual experience. Although progress has many advantages, John Sutherland laments the end of the scholar-adventurer and the thrill of discovery amid dusty, uncatalogued manuscripts

An exhibition showcasing five decades of Yoko Ono’s work downplays her dark side in favour of more uplifting, regenerative themes, finds Helena Reckitt

Street life, dazzling dress, social commentary and a riot of sensuous colour interweave in a rich assembly of West African art, writes Charles Gore

In a competitive world, Japanese universities are realising the importance of internationalisation if they don’t want to get left behind. But culture change can be a slow and difficult process. Jack Grove reports from Japan

Three decades after confronting our anxieties about reproduction in Alien, Sir Ridley Scott returns to the universe of his classic sci-fi horror film. Davina Quinlivan considers the franchise and shows that in nightmares, no one can hear you scream

Art chronicles the myriad roles horses have played in our history, but it’s blinkered to see them just as a resource, says Elaine Walker

It may be the birthplace of the academy, but Greece’s now-dysfunctional higher education system is on its knees and in desperate need of reform, argues George Th. Mavrogordatos. However, the country’s politique du pire and its organised violence threaten the possibility of progress

Tom Palaima muses on the Greek ideal of reflective learning, his immigrant grandparents’ dreams of a better life, the GI Bill’s impact on America and the price of allowing universities - once places where thinking was not bound by arbitrary deadlines - to be debased into assembly lines

The Ashmolean’s new show recreates the artistic journey of an 18th-century Grand Tour. Daniel Carey enjoys the ride

But publishers dismiss Willetts’ suggestion as not a ‘game changer’. Paul Jump reports

Using words to reflect and create our experience of landscapes, and vice versa, is a powerful ruse. Leo Mellor admires the view

The Bauhaus school is getting a retrospective in London, after a gap of more than 40 years. Alexander Massouras writes

Alison Oram on a tale of two very different 19th-century women who lived as men: the charming butch and the fragile androgyne

As the fallout from the Arab Spring continues, David Matthews reports from Cairo on the birth - and troubled infancy - of the student union movement in Egypt

For the late Julia Swindells, radicalism and friendship were always intimately linked. Here, she describes the youthful influences that led her down a political path

There’s more to the ancient world than dusty toff-on-toff talk, ‘professor of bloody Classics’ tells Matthew Reisz

He was driven to write an acclaimed debut novel in stolen hours, but lecturer, researcher and scholarly biographer Christopher Bigsby is content never to call himself a ‘real writer’

Peter Hill is awed by an exhibition of indigenous Australian art that combines the hypnotically beautiful with the deeply primal

By foregrounding naked ambition, this exhibition allows some more nuanced shadings to fade away, finds Jordan Vibert

Hugh Cunningham ponders our enduring nostalgia for childhoods past and asks if we still yearn for a Romantic ideal

Are the curiosities of dress of various native peoples really so different from those of today’s London ‘tribes’, asks Matt Lodder

Economic crisis leaves French politicians tight-lipped on universities budget. Clea Caulcutt writes

Discussion of the merits of paired works used to be a sociable pastime. Has the fashion for chronological museology narrowed our experience, asks Sheila McTighe

Had it really looked east and dared to dance, this film could have offered so much more, says Philip Dodd

Michael Frayn’s plays are as relevant now as they were when they were first written, says John Bull

Impact assessments will shape behaviours - but not necessarily in desired directions, argue Katherine Smith and Nasar Meer

A son’s quest for his late father’s secrets does not bring us closer to the trauma of 9/11, says Will Brooker

As 2014 race begins, reports Paul Jump, maternity provision is the only big change from draft document

The diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks articulate the importance of the academy in the ‘great game’ of international politics. David Matthews investigates

That people should be moved out of a former nuclear test site seemed a no-brainer. But spending time with those affected led two researchers to revise their views. David Mould reports

‘Damning’ report criticises governance, but Saif Gaddafi likely to keep PhD. David Matthews writes

Well, they’re not doing badly. But in a world in which capitalism is in crisis, the Left is moribund, activists are slick professionals and rebellion drives sales, Alastair Bonnett envisages a new type of dissident institution

Miles Hewstone discusses a heinous data-faking scandal and the lessons that must be learned to stop the ‘betrayers of the truth’

W.G. Sebald, stifled by the culture of silence in post-war Germany, by ‘people’s ability to forget what they do not want to know’, settled in 1960s England and wrote groundbreaking literary works to great acclaim. Ten years after Sebald’s untimely death, Uwe Schütte, a former student, reflects on his life

Excitement, anxiety, shaking in your boots. Academics experience mixed feelings as term starts, says Jon Marcus

A coalition of the willing is battling legal, logistical and technical obstacles to archive the riches of the mercurial World Wide Web for the benefit of future scholars. Zoë Corbyn reports

MPs want to see a more robust and transparent peer-review process. Paul Jump writes

The soul’s yearning to find its psychological or physical other half unites two of Shakespeare’s early plays, says Peter J. Smith

UKRIO, set up to ensure probity in research, needs funds - but some can’t see a role for it, writes Paul Jump

A gruelling four-year battle with her institution over a gender pay gap was ultimately empowering for Liz Schafer, who hopes it will help other women in the fight for parity

Political schooling

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

It was a Thursday afternoon. The college council of the Unseen University, Discworld’s oldest and most venerable school of wizardry, liked their Thursday afternoon meetings.

In 2005, Terry Pratchett imagined for THE what the wizards at his Unseen University might do in the face of targets, inspections and research assessment