The 10 most popular Times Higher Education stories of January 2015

Which Times Higher Education stories got tongues wagging and fingers clicking in January?

Our countdown of the most-read THE articles of the last month includes further fallout from the 2014 research excellence framework; a critical analysis of the vogue for multi-disciplinary departments; and a must-read list of the most international universities in the world. Does your institution make the top-100?

10. Careers at risk after case studies ‘game playing’, REF study suggests

Submission patterns reveal how institutions responded to research excellence framework rules.

9. Multidisciplinary departments: do they work?

Staff and student experiences of interdisciplinary mergers, including an awkward departmental “speed date”.

8. How to give the next generation of scholars a career boost

We examine European efforts to make academic career paths less challenging to navigate for early career researchers.

7. Is ‘academic citizenship’ under strain?

A wide range of essential under-the-radar tasks sustain academic culture, but who will perform them in an increasingly careerist academy?

6. The rise of the medical humanities

The University of Oxford’s Belinda Jack examines the growing field and considers the therapeutic effects of poetry.

5. It wasn’t all nasty, brutish and short

Did Anglo-Saxons really use the four-letter profanities we credit them with?

4. Interview: Terry Eagleton

The literary theorist talks about his 50-year career, the importance of low-minded virtues and the double act of Christianity and communism.

3. The big grants, the big papers: are we missing something?

Is a perverse focus on research cash and high-impact publications threatening academics’ careers and the aims of science itself?

2. REF 2014 rerun: who are the ‘game players’?

How do the research excellence framework rankings shift when institutions are compared on research intensity, which takes into account percentage of staff submitted, rather than on standard grade point average?

1. The 100 most international universities in the world 2015

Our ranking of the most international higher education institution was the most-read Times Higher Education article of January 2015.