Coronavirus

Royal Statistical Society president Sylvia Richardson says pandemic has sparked huge interest in the discipline and highlighted body’s vital public role

My plumber made me realise that being just a ‘professional and efficient’ teacher wouldn’t cut it during this time of transition, says Peter Vanberkel

Rites of passage failed to launch this year, from sex to graduation. We have a moral duty to help students find meaning in their lives, says Bertus Jeronimus

Academics and public health officials quit Covid-19 research or need police protection after attracting threats

Postgraduate admissions assessments may have digital element despite falling number of Covid cases

Toll on younger scientists highlights lack of research-specific pandemic aid

Survey for regulator finds teaching staff more likely to lack access to right technology and support compared with students, and are less confident in their skills

Digital divide is ‘greatest challenge’ facing country’s education system in Covid era, researchers say

Repeat of autumn semester outbreaks adds to mounting pressure on Greek system

The University of Groningen’s response to the pandemic has been widely lauded. Key to it was taking teachers and students seriously from the start, says Klaas van Veen

Bringing students back in tranches may increase the prospect of repeated self-isolation and may simply delay outbreaks of Covid-19, research says

Students share in small permanent increase to welfare payments

Trauma suffered by lecturers who were forced to teach in-person during coronavirus spike should not be dismissed, say Paul Hanna, Carl Walker and Mark Erickson

Actors? Videographers? Graphic designers? Covid has forced academics to wear many uncomfortable hats, say Christine Rivers and Anna Holland

More students to return from 8 March, but other learners must keep studying online until a review by the end of the Easter holidays

Almost 40,000 student cases were reported before November but most staff cases have been reported since 

UK Research and Innovation announces additional £11 million for UK doctoral students but rejects plea for blanket six-month extensions

No institution will be able to make it alone amid the pandemic-induced tumult, so let’s make shared values the antidote to the crisis, says Ferruccio Resta

Due to the 2008 global financial crisis, a long shadow loomed over me and my cohort. Over the medium term, though, most of us made it, says Lucas Lixinski

Experts voice caution on prospect of quick bounceback in UK overseas recruitment post-Covid, highlighting issues around affordability and changing competitive landscape

Industry operatives’ worst fears could cost universities thousands of staff and country tens of billions of dollars

‘No detriment’ policies lead to wide variation in degree classifications across sector

Many institutions may find it challenging to translate the crisis experience into an immediate enhancement of teaching and learning, says Michael Gaebel 

Leaders say they are happy to support safe return of students, but worry about timing and convincing staff

Warnings that some universities could become master’s-free zones overlook progress during the pandemic, vice-chancellors say

Holyrood ministers say pandemic restrictions mean students have been unable to gain sufficient clinical experience

mRNA pioneers, Oxford vaccine scientists and Bill Gates are potential contenders for science’s top prize

An ideological gap has grown, where some universities have different ideas to students about the concept of a university, says Steve Davies

Katalin Karikó’s struggle with mRNA gives universities mandate – if they want – to tackle persistent barriers

This swift transformation highlights who among our students we think are worthy of learning and who we choose to leave behind, says Clare Mullaney

Reduced tuition fees and more hardship scholarships would help those watching Zoom lectures while working on checkouts, says Barbara Franz

The ‘feel’ for a person that comes from encountering them in their home is difficult to replicate in depth online, says Graham Crow

Announced increases in hardship funding are not enough, while missed educational opportunities must be replaced, says Paul Blomfield

Arizona State University president says digital learning shift must ‘stay attached’ to core knowledge-generating activities

Respondents to THE survey reject idea of tuition fee refunds for students

With US enrolment numbers falling off a cliff, the future is ripe for deep, cross-border partnerships between institutions, says Rick Shangraw

Universities’ wariness of online instruction was suddenly swept aside last year by Covid-19. But how successful has the overnight digital transition been? Is it sustainable? And should it be? Paul Jump runs through the results of our major survey of university staff

Updated guidance in line with Westminster government’s plan to announce phased route out of the coronavirus lockdown on 22 February

Professor says country will lose its lead on overseas recruitment and predicts ‘major forking of the way’ between Australia and UK

It’s highly likely that one result of the pandemic will be a significant improvement in higher education throughout the region, says Liz Reisberg

Universities and government dispute magnitude of sector’s losses as it braces for worse in 2021

English universities are making huge efforts to support students through the pandemic, but the government must play its part, says Anthony Forster

Much more cash – and fundamental reform – needed to alleviate impact of Covid-19 on learners, say unions

Encouraging pandemic-hit graduates to continue their studies will only delay problems unless universities embrace student employability, says Sabrina Wang

Continuous professional development must become an integral part of the academic career path, not a mere ‘extracurricular’ endeavour, says Alexandra Mihai

With scientists forced to work from home, many now conduct experiments from a distance, and the continent’s biggest research facilities think this change is here to stay

Covid-19 proves both a stimulant and restraint on the jettisoning of long-form lectures

University leaders harnessed an ephemeral income stream to realise ‘ambitious’ institutional strategies

Forthcoming policies on ‘low-value courses’ and grade inflation must acknowledge how pandemic will hit graduate prospects and undergraduate preparedness for years to come, says QAA deputy chief executive Vicki Stott

THE survey finds that availability of funding trumps health, student experience and quality of online learning as main worry

Cross-party report calls on Westminster government to more than double hardship funding, but says straight refunds aren’t the answer

Compulsory Covid jabs for students may seem sensible but would discriminate against minorities, says Zachary Michael Jack

Percentage of papers with female authors rose markedly in latter part of 2020

Vice-chancellors say they are considering what to do if members of their community refuse Covid-19 inoculation 

Ambiguous status of postgraduate research students in lockdown has underlined why they should be treated as staff, says Rebecca Teague

OfS head warns that pandemic uplift must not ‘bake in’ further grade inflation over longer term

University Hospital Institute Méditerranée Infection, under leadership of ‘populist’ microbiologist Didier Raoult, continues to push hydroxychloroquine in the face of evidence

THE’s Careers Clinic brings together the great and the good of higher education to answer a burning careers question

New position of White House social sciences adviser may raise priority of social response to coronavirus and consideration of race-related factors

Executive chair says scholarship from non-medical subjects will be vital for post-pandemic society