Teaching and learning

Reflecting concern about validity of student evaluations, Australian institutions following North American and European move towards greater use of observations

The UK’s TEF experience should be a warning to Australia’s re-elected government not to settle for empty accountability, says William Locke 

Universities need to give staff more support about how to deal with negative comments, say researchers

Event will include launch of THE Europe Teaching Rankings 2019

Consumerism, technology and the culture wars threaten to render critical thinking an unwanted skill, worries Victor Ferrall

The UK’s largest university is respected for its innovative approach to distance learning, but its impact on wider higher education is varied, experts say

Experiment that saw students take tests in temperatures ranging from 16ºC to 33ºC finds men appear to score highest in the cold

Like it or not, Wikipedia is used by students around the world – so academics should teach them how to use it, writes Caroline Ball 

Schools take credit for majority of literacy and numeracy development

Most universities still rely on exams and assessed essays to grade their students. But as the fourth industrial revolution, employability and student satisfaction all rise up the agenda, many experts are suggesting that assessment needs to much more closely resemble real-world tasks. Anna McKie marks the arguments   

Artificial intelligence may be threatening employment but it could also be key to helping humans find alternative jobs, argues Shigeru Miyagawa 

Move follows agreement over ‘statement of intent’ on tackling issues linked to rise in firsts and 2:1s in UK

Software could be adopted across the sector as early warning system for standards issues

University’s emphasis on creativity, not exam scores, aims to help shift China away from ‘degree factory’ model, THE summit hears

David Peña-Guzmán says philosophy undergraduates have enthusiastically embraced experiment designed to ‘reignite their love of attentive reading’

Analysis of capital outposts finds staff are not as well qualified and facilities are typically less impressive

Analysis of nine European universities finds the ‘innovation’ agenda has taken root – often pushed by students who want to solve the world’s problems

They are full of self-esteem and love social media yet crave high grades and safe spaces. What to make of today’s students? asks Felipe Fernández-Armesto

Today’s students have access to vast amounts of information, so how can academics teach them to critically assess what they read online?

Academics fear global reach of new Singaporean legislation could result in censorship of international academic journals

Ford administration is blind to incompatibility of statistical metrics and quality teaching, academics warn

US universities might be world-leading in research terms, but there is scant evidence that this has any bearing on their prowess as educators. Why do institutions of higher education show so little interest and aptitude in instilling genuine learning, asks John Tagg 

The relationship between PhD students and their supervisors is often said to be the most intense in the academy, with huge implications for student success. Yet most supervisors receive little if any training. Here, six academics give their take on how to approach it 

Websites launch new services as they aim to stand out in an increasingly crowded market

Theological institutions and other private and niche providers earn the best ratings

Government proposes law against contract cheating, as it clears the decks for coming election

Despite its tarnished reputation and history of collapsed ventures, the for-profit sector retains a strong foothold on the US academy. Paul Basken tracks its successes and failures

US university president tells THE summit that institutions need to ‘rethink’ their operations

Former ETH Zurich president tells THE summit there has been a ‘huge inflation’ in university enrolments, coupled with a ‘substantial mismatch between what universities teach and what society needs’

Future steps require a future, first-time China summit hears

What are university leaders and chief technology officers doing to meet future challenges?

How will the rise of artificial intelligence affect universities’ carbon-based employees? John Gilbey runs the algorithm

In these days of virtual learning environments, face-to-face classes promote the endangered art of meaningful human interaction, says Joe Moran

A large world-class university may eclipse a less renowned neighbour, but an education ecosystem rich in diversity can benefit all in the area

Today’s students are different from the previous generation, and we must understand that when we teach them, writes Simon Beames

Some evidence shows international students are more likely to use essay mills, but academics say this reflects wider problems in global higher education

Cross-national study compared final-year undergraduates in US, India, China and Russia

Academic autonomy is too often used as an excuse to ignore suggestions from students that could improve their education, says Janadari Wijesinghe 

Geoffrey Stone says students’ successful efforts to persuade him not to use racial slur are a good example of free speech

Patchy information obscures outcomes for students taught by subcontractors

Technology now enabling rapid expansion of the worldwide sharing of classrooms

Royal Statistical Society vice-president Guy Nason explains why it has taken the unusual step of reporting the Teaching Excellence Framework to the UK’s statistics watchdog

In a rapidly changing world, is a broader approach to the university curriculum needed to develop the critical thinking and creativity increasingly sought after by employers, Anna McKie asks

THE survey finds support among academics for harsher punishments for students, following paper that reports ‘surprising’ level of support for criminalising users of contract cheating services

A student’s mysterious accusation of racism saw P. K. Newby removed from her course – and another woman lost from the leaky pipeline

Marketisation, precarity and global competition have combined to create a vast market for academic ghostwriting, says an anonymous scholar

The Palestinian law professor talks about the overlap with his other job: as a stand-up comedian travelling the world talking about the Arab American experience

This growing but still unacknowledged phenomenon in higher education is badly in need of ethical oversight, says an anonymous academic

But research finds students prefer the mode over more traditional teaching methods

Claims that academics are indoctrinating their students with liberal propaganda are increasingly common in the right-wing media. John Morgan examines why such a conviction has arisen and whether there is any substance to it

Without devices, classes fostered engaged, active learning, writes Ioannis Costas Batlle

Key working group no longer active and grade inflation consultation makes no mention of initiative

Race-based student performance gap doubles when professors admit doubts about innate abilities

Academic turned wrestler Dan Mathewson is just one of many educators willing to go the extra mile for scholarship and learning, says Jack Grove 

Continental version of UK’s former Higher Education Academy among suggestions on how to boost educational standards

Using the teaching excellence framework to drive up teaching standards is fundamentally misconceived, says Matt Waddup

Evidence from Canada highlights the scale of the challenge in preparing 21st-century workers and citizens, say Ross Finnie, Arthur Sweetman and Richard Mueller 

Gradings influenced more by sex and ethnicity than teachers’ experience

Switching to a six-point scale in surveys eliminates perceived gap in teaching performance, study finds

Teachers must guide science students in how to ‘tell a story’ in their reports, write Anna Sajina and Sergei Sazhin