Academic life

Both Nottingham universities’ leaders also honoured, along with former AHRC head Andrew Thompson

In their unearthly calm and Dewey Decimal order, university libraries offer the promise of remaking ourselves, says Joe Moran

The past 12 months will live long in the memory, for all the wrong reasons. But as 2020 nears its end amid fairy lights and optimism about vaccines, six academics tell us the bright spots they managed to find amid the gloom – from human connections to elasticated waistbands

Times Higher Education journalists name the academics and administrators who have shaped the debate in the past 12 months

Guitarist who found fame with the Futureheads has set up a degree course with Sunderland to give north-eastern students a taste of music industry and campus life

Professor calls on sector to embrace virtual connections and challenge international academic identity 

Academics have long grappled with the strains that job scarcity and the mobility imperative impose on their families. But might the experience of mass remote working finally offer a viable solution, asks Jack Grove

An Australian university’s attitude towards Rwanda illustrates the West’s failure to treat African academics as equal partners, says Timothy Carey

University’s plan to require staff and students to be ‘respectful’ of each other’s ‘differing opinions’ fought by academic opponents

Universities are now committed to ‘celebrating success’ and to treating every failure as just a stepping stone on the way to further success. Yet this, argues Joe Moran, is a betrayal of what really matters in the academy

Some find it difficult to make decisions on their own off-campus, survey suggests

University careers attract intellectually curious people who want to make a difference. But Donna Swarthout has been disillusioned once too often

Island nation’s pandemic management has been the envy of the world, but academics are still paying a price

Being Well in Academia offers guidance on ‘bullying, conflict, death, poverty, racism and violence’, says author and ‘agony aunt’ Petra Boynton

Academic says some safety requirements increase risk to researchers and encourages institutions to take flexible, academic-led approach

Scholar of Native American history shortlisted for two major non-fiction prizes discusses why the US needs a ‘reckoning’ with indigenous dispossession

As the pandemic reshapes both conferencing and publishing, melding talks and papers makes a lot of sense, says Richard Oliver

Staff serving on campus during lockdown are 50 per cent more likely than their housebound peers to be at ‘high risk’ for health problems

The popular conception that US academics are uniformly liberal fails to take into account universities’ subject breadth, says John R. Thelin

Female academics, especially mothers, face the double challenge of patriarchy and neoliberal management

Fiery Senate estimates session probes funding councils’ 'natural justice' obligations when researchers are impugned

Health and exercise needs overlooked as work demands and self-expectations leave time for little else

The pandemic has brought the power and consolations of scholarship to the fore. But with a particularly grim Halloween upon us, M. R. James’ ghost stories warn us that the pursuit of knowledge does not always end well, writes Shane McCorristine

What does it say about our labour culture that a tenured professor stuck in an elevator did not even consider cancelling his class, asks Irina Dumitrescu

Some universities acknowledge ‘errors’ totalling millions of dollars but deny deliberate ‘wage theft’

Australian survey finds little change in morale, workload or fatigue, but next year’s results could tell a different story

New lecturer Saloni Krishnan gives practical tips, from recruiting research assistants on a budget to keeping research on track while juggling teaching responsibilities

Environmental experts also more likely to have taken steps to offset or reduce impact of travel

Critics says that 60, or even 65, is too young to end an academic career

Physicist Brian Cox, author Bernardine Evaristo and former Ucas chief executive Mary Curnock Cook also recognised

Early career scholars, seasoned academics and institutions themselves all benefit from the creation of alumni affinity groups, writes Gretchen Dobson

The pandemic’s demolition of barriers and bureaucracy clears the way for a better higher education sector, says Pat Tissington 

Leading human rights barrister calls on UK law schools to address ethnic minority under-representation among academic teaching staff

Psychologist says scholars are still in ‘emergency’ mode and universities should recognise that the year ahead ‘may not be brilliant’ in terms of teaching quality

The grand achievements of those who came before are often held up as inspiration for current members of the academy, but a more nuanced view might be required

A willingness to lie and manipulate beyond what most people can imagine can do wonders for a career, notes Irina Dumitrescu

Education minister Ingrid van Engelshoven says too much research funding is now competitive, leading to intense work stress

Following the BethAnn McLaughlin and Jessica Krug revelations, Rachel Moss offers her tips for spotting online fakers

‘I can’t afford to self-isolate for two weeks’: academics working on pandemic research disclose the ways they are protecting their personal health

Blindness gave the late politics professor Roger Williams a unique ability to focus on the structure and coherence of what was being said to him. And though his interrogations could be exacting, Lincoln Allison wishes more sighted academics shared his talent

Dismissing plagiarism as a low-level academic misdemeanour ignores the potentially deadly consequences of letting cheating go unchecked, says David A. Sanders

Toronto president tells summit that ‘quality of city’ is crucial for university headhunting

Those planning new universities might think that a good institution will attract top staff wherever it is located. But is the quality of the environment beyond the ivory tower really so insignificant – and has the pandemic changed the calculus? Paul Jump runs through our survey results

Australian university insists it is just planning for potential scenarios, amid claims that 3,000 jobs are at risk 

Not all academics are in a position to churn out endless papers during lockdowns – and not all should, argues Michael Marinetto

After students gather to party, campus moves to online one week into semester

Academic endorsements cast little light while entrenching privilege, says Vincent Hiribarren

But in the new normal, the situation for female academics with children is even worse, says Enrica Maria Ferrara

The war survivor with multiple degrees from universities around globe discusses her roles as advocate for refugees and for the understanding of Africa in HE

Top researchers call for universities and funders to sign up to new set of principles to stamp out harassment

Bullying and harassment is still widespread in our institutions, and this must change, say science leaders

Male security guards are the workers most at risk of dying from Covid, but George Bass is happy to be one of the ‘expendables’

Research reveals that focus on ‘individual excellence’ in academia isolates disabled staff   

Just because you can’t meet in person, it doesn’t mean you can’t network, say a number of academic experts

Physical events are not going away but they must open up and embrace the best of the digital world, says Jim Woodgett

Daily tweets, cake baking and discussion of James Bond film titles have all helped keep Anthony Smith sane

Still on mute? Then let’s begin, says Emma Rees

Aspirants are convinced they can succeed against the odds because they have always succeeded in the past, analysis of ‘quit lit’ suggests

Shakespeare, the Beatles and Tina Turner are often referenced in the titles of academic literature, study finds

Progress will be very difficult if there is a loud cohort of academics who remain fundamentally opposed to it, says James Blackwell