Academic life

Scholars share what the title means to them and offer the newly promoted advice on handling the status update

A UK university has been criticised for cancelling a guest lecture after a British academic refused to produce his passport

Politics scholar angered by what he claims was ‘ruthless’ attempt to discredit him by citing non-inclusion in UK’s research excellence framework

Doctoral students who downplay their part-time status forget that they excel in key ways, says Rebecca Gelding

Assessment, timetables and module weighting could be altered to reduce pressures for students who travel a long way to university each day, says study author

We talk blue-sky thinking, academic mobility and not ‘sweating the small stuff’ with the new Australian Research Council funding director

Anonymous interviews explore how scholars use gossip to warn others of wrongdoers – but it may not always work

Myths about the impact of having a surname starting with a letter late in the alphabet have been debunked by a new analysis

When a UK politician questioned the value of academia, scholars were quick to respond, finds Tommaso Grant

The Member of Parliament for Montgomeryshire is wrong to say that academics lack ‘real world’ experience, says Emma Sheppard

Peer review publications remain a key stage in the quality assurance of new research, but some comments can be the stuff of nightmares, says Kingsley Purdam

More helpful advice from Zachary Foster on how to successfully overcomplicate your writing

We talk to the renowned crime author about the challenge of writing, professorial aspirations and how long it takes to finish The Times crossword

Student artists at Staffordshire University have transformed academic research on graduate debt into a full-length comic

What price eternal life? Matthew Reisz meets a scholar who uses economics to explain our belief in the hereafter

UUK must help advance equality at the front of the lecture hall through loan write-offs and conferences, says Geraldine Van Bueren

Scholars and their significant others share the good, the bad and the ugly

We talk about growing up in the North East of England, alcohol consumption advice and international cricket aspirations with Newcastle University's new head

Plugging a multibillion-pound deficit exacerbated by June’s poll result may require ‘drastic measures’, analysts have warned

Students are too often micromanaged and policed while on campus, and it needs to stop, writes Frank Furedi

Would you prefer to live as a badger, an otter, a swift, an urban fox or a deer? We speak to the academic who did all five

Johannes Angermuller is a linguist in the UK, a sociologist in Germany and a mixture of both in France. How do you define your academic self?

We all need good advice – the problem is making sure you know where to find it, and how to accept it, says John Tregoning

We talk doctor supply, the importance of medical research and impostor syndrome with the new Medical Schools Council chair

Academic science still operates on assumptions that have failed to catch up with the realities of today’s family lives, argue scholars

The country’s learners and academics are more thoughtful, engaged and generous than their UK counterparts, says Sam Gilchrist Hall

We speak to the head of Nanyang Technological University about the rise of Asia, what it’s like being a European leading a Singaporean institution, and barbecue chicken

Peer reviews created by self-generated text machines are the latest threat to scientific integrity

Large-scale quantitative analysis of university grades confirms the existence of slump in second-year marks first observed in the 1950s

The historic UK referendum result is a challenge to the core beliefs of those attending this year’s EAIE annual conference, says Jack Grove

We talk civic engagement and the dream of all academic subjects incorporating the arts with St Andrews' new theatre chief

Why are postgraduates and postdocs so expendable and professors so untouchable, asks a geneticist subjected to a paranoid boss’ abuse

A new report suggests standards by which departments may consider social media and other public communications in promotion decisions

Humorous tribute to academia’s unsung heroes will be based outside a Moscow university

Is enough being done early on to prevent under-represented groups from leaving philosophy, asks Briana Toole

As THE’s HE and Me interview section passes a special landmark, John Elmes looks back over three years’ worth of laughs, tears, and a whole lot of column inches

David Walker looks at the increasing acceptance that the pressures of university can exacerbate impostor syndrome for students as well as staff

Seeking feedback from the well networked is better than gaining comments from famous scholars, a conference hears

A leading American medievalist has died

We talk government-university relationships, protecting Welsh students’ finances and the highs and lows of supporting Cardiff City FC, with the former politician

With the link between frequent library use and higher grades confirmed, Jack Grove asks if it is time for more universities to start measuring how long students spend in the stacks

Nearly 70, his mortgage paid and his children settled, John Kirkaldy realises it’s not too late to indulge in a globetrotting adventure

As the £650 million Crick Institute officially opens, here are some key facts about Europe’s largest biomedical research laboratory

We talk Australian wildfires, the emerging field of environmental humanities and rock musician aspirations with Bath Spa’s new interdisciplinary professor

Jack Grove asks whether the push to tackle gender inequality has led to discrimination against male scholars

Welfare state expert Peter Taylor-Gooby cheerfully admits his research has had no real-world influence – but hopes a book might

Rachel Moss on why academic women might find maternity leave a sometimes challenging experience

Unconscious bias training for those on promotion and recruitment panels may help tackle deficit of senior BME staff, says Leadership Foundation study

Lincoln Allison takes a fond look back at the permissiveness prevalent at universities in the 1960s and 1970s, while a more ambivalent Susan Bassnett recalls a reality that didn’t quite live up to the nostalgic hype

An ‘infectiously brilliant’ intellectual historian has died

We talk widening participation, gender discrimination in film, and wishing on shooting stars with the French former film executive

Levels of nepotism in scientific publishing have been revealed by report

Senior management do not recognise support staff’s pivotal role in achieving positive student outcomes, administrators say

Trends in international mobility may explain why fewer women are reaching the top ranks of academia, a Spanish study suggests

We talk tuberculosis, tough decisions and pancake races with the Manchester vice-chancellor

Supervisors explain how to help students keep their research on track

The Games remind cerebral sorts that the brain resides in an amazing physical vessel, Shahidha Bari writes

Handing out honorary degrees doesn't always go as planned

Ana Mari Cauce, who is Cuban-American and gay, aims to improve race and identity relations on campus

We talk to the digital publishing specialist about bringing historical figures to life, including the founder of the Pearly Kings and Queens, and how to eat lychees