Academic life

Kurdistan shows that post-conflict countries can build a thriving higher education sector by working with foreign partners, says Dlawer Ala’Aldeen

Spreading the word on social media about research can help academics get ahead, but is it too much of a distraction, asks Brooke Erin Duffy

Dame Sue Black’s pioneering work has taken her to war zones and the aftermath of natural disasters. She explains the scientific rigour required in the field

Universities used to be thought unsinkable, but the unthinkable – an institution going to the wall – is now a genuine, if yet remote, prospect

The Italian scholar discusses how Machiavelli might have appraised current politics, the benefits of birdwatching and discovering Stevie Wonder

Many an academic will be dragged to the cinema this summer by bored offspring determined to see the latest superhero film. But what kind of childhood heroes did scholars themselves have? Here, five reveal who and what inspired their career choices

Study finds that students who witness lecturers misbehaving are more likely to display incivility in lectures or seminars

Vitriol directed at Cambridge professor of Classics on Twitter is part of wider battle to politicise diversity, says Conrad Brunstrom

Expanding degree apprenticeships will strengthen universities’ important role in improving their local communities, says Dawn Morley

Academics able to link their expertise to world events can raise their personal and institutional profiles to previously unimaginable levels, says Russell Reader

At 1967’s Congress on the Dialectics of Liberation, radicals preached Black Power, existential psychiatry, free universities and more. Martin Levy reports on an event that was as much a happening as an academic conference

Academics who have become deputies for Emmanuel Macron’s En Marche! hope to tackle country’s problems with scientific method

Universities facing the challenges of developing a knowledge economy

There is no ‘hard divide between academics and administrators’, writes Charles Knight in response to criticisms of academic university staff

We talk internationalisation in the face of Brexit, as well as the “alien” concept of fun for academics, with the international relations professor

It is not Luddism to be cautious about destroying an academic publishing industry that has served us well, says Marilyn Deegan

Providing support for learners on low-cost ‘flat-pack degrees’ is key to expanding international higher education in Australia and worldwide, says Merlin Crossley

Bernard Leeman, anti-apartheid fighter and peripatetic champion of low-cost rural tertiary education, describes the circuitous route he took to Vanuatu

Newcastle fine art posts for duo who specialise in ‘places with dark and complex histories’

New report calls for Athena SWAN awards to be rolled out in India

As the pay of BBC on-air talent is revealed, one academic comes clean about his salary

London Economics shows how less well-off graduates will repay more than higher-earning peers

Scholars and senior sector figures reveal the books they’ll be reading over the summer break – for work or pleasure or both – in part two of our annual round-up of holiday reads

Minister also warns Labour plan to abolish fees would mean ‘Reservoir Dogs ending’ for universities 

We talk race, taking advice from Seamus Heaney and poetry’s vital place in society with the US’s next Poet Laureate

Early career academics can be left to sink or swim when navigating the choppy waters of learning scholarly writing. Helen Sword says a more formal, communal approach can help everyone, especially women

University attacked by 750 academics for forcing entire professoriate to reapply for jobs

Scholars are ignorant of many aspects of peer review, and part of the problem is that researching it is a bit like kicking the hornet’s nest, says Martin Eve

Former education minister speaks out on vice-chancellors’ pay, ‘summer holidays’ and academics’ workloads

We talk poverty, political correctness gone mad and the comfort of whisky with the outspoken historian

Conditions that undermine the notion of scholarly vocation – relentless work, ubiquitous bureaucracy – can cause academics acute distress and spur them to quit, says Ruth Barcan

For those vacationing in Peer Review Land, Felipe Fernández-Armesto offers some help with the local lingo

With the holiday season upon us, five academics suggest some unique destinations you may want to consider – or perhaps not

Ravensbourne’s plans to stretch the teaching timetable to 7.30pm triggers staff revolt

We talk emergency responses to terrorist attacks, geekiness and happy memories of the Olympic Games with Surrey’s professor of medicine

The post-Gaddafi chaos has turned some campuses into war zones – with students among the fighters, says Darren Linvill

From steely-eyed sadists to licky Labradors, ingénue academics should beware of the cast of kinky characters who flock to academic get-togethers, says Tara Brabazon

Academics who take regular breaks from assessment will get more done than those who toil away for 10 hours straight, study says

Emily Van Duyne on why she missed graduation despite being passionately committed to her students

Joanne Roberts on the importance of mentoring, and understanding the needs of your staff

Two summers, on the beaches of Greece and in the libraries of New York, define what the “long vac” meant to John Sutherland

The sweatshop conditions in which sessional academics work in Australia mirror the treatment of schoolteachers in Victorian times, say Hannah Forsyth and Jedidiah Evans 

Stephen Mumford tells Matthew Reisz about his desire to bring his discipline to a wider audience, why Norway was the perfect place to write his Cartesian debut novel and why insights into causation have more practical relevance than might first appear

We talk doping, ‘slithering’ through university and breaking world records with the former double Olympic champion

Don't dismiss the meditation technique as a fad: its well documented benefits for those in demanding careers make a strong case for teaching it at university, says Craig Hassed

Vice-chancellor explains traditional offices and teaching styles will disappear at £330 million Waterside project

Some vice-chancellors will decry the results of the teaching excellence framework, but should recognise areas of poor teaching it exposes, says Edward Peck

HEC Paris’ Alberto Alemanno says academics who influence policy ‘often’ do it in return for money

We talk diversity, the joy of family meals and Professor Stephen Hawking with the new Cambridge college master

Academics can acquire cult-like followings, but our goal should not be self-aggrandisement but the advancement of others, says Shahidha Bari

Publication of data showing long-term graduate earnings by discipline has huge potential to improve higher education, says Jack Britton

Former LSE director on how he overcame academic struggles to become Bill Clinton’s favourite political theorist, and the future for Labour

We talk about the importance of women-only colleges, academics’ role in policymaking and personal tragedy with the noted political scientist

Endless bureaucratic reorganisations in universities are increasing stress levels of academics, says Gail Kinman

Oxford has educated almost all post-war British leaders. Anthony Seldon looks at Oxbridge’s powerful political role

Some MPs turned out of office might turn to academia for employment. But what do former political high-flyers bring to a university, and what are the potential downsides? Jack Grove reports

Techniques designed to promote ‘openness and curiosity’ may have an important role to play in promoting mental health and performance

Glen Wright on the lighter side of scholarly collaboration