England’s higher education institutions could soon find themselves having to retrench. Their vital role as engines of social mobility and commerce must be valued too
After a year where universities were buffeted by forces beyond their control, the winter brings time for reflection and appreciation of their vital role
If anyone should be leading the charge to tackle the world’s biggest issues, it is academics. But toxic debates are derailing them from their original purpose
Australia’s twice-unlucky research grant applicants raise questions about the assessment process, but they could help elevate science as an election issue, says John Ross
It’s easy to say academics should be kinder and more giving to students, but they already face myriad other demands and must mind professional boundaries
Dutch figures show just how little time professors get for their own research. It may be easier to pursue your intellectual interests outside the university system, says THE reporter David Matthews
The international stars in the Boston Red Sox and the city’s stellar universities highlight why Trump’s xenophobic rhetoric is so out of step with a ‘winning’ part of America, writes Jack Grove from Boston
The chair of the Office for Students has declared that it would be irresponsible to bail out struggling institutions, but John Gill argues that institutions are facing financial challenges beyond their control
The Australian government has released three major data sets unusually back-to-back and full of mistakes, leading John Ross to ask: why so much, why so fast and why so erroneous?
UK higher education invites trouble if it conveys an impression that students and staff matter only in transactional terms and that diversity is not valued
Experts are out of fashion with today’s political vanguard, but fraudulent research risks further undermining science, says THE’s Asia-Pacific editor John Ross
For all the good ascribed to Twitter and the rest, is this time-consuming activity improving things or distracting us from achieving transformative impact?
Positive public outreach is critical for universities to remain on the good side of public opinion, but the University of Reading has found that a little bit of sass can go a long way
There is no holding back the king tide that is the Asian country’s higher education ambition – yet while the torrent carries some riches, what will it sweep away?
At a gathering of young scientists and Nobel prizewinners, David Matthews detects a whiff of mutiny in the air stirred by the pressures of a modern research career
There are hints of a thaw in the Home Office’s icy hostility to immigrants, but universities could also do more to protect their own staff, says Paul Jump
The boom in international students and researchers on campus has obvious benefits, but Australian universities risk going financially bust if they stop coming, and maybe even if they don’t
While it is important to reassess behaviour and power dynamics through a post-Weinstein lens, it is harder to make the case for deleting work from the academic record
A Twitter poll on whether or not lecturers should ever comment on students’ attire attracted almost 400 responses, but the replies quickly became more complex than just ‘yes’ or ‘no’
After tweeting an anecdote of an academic responding to her email the same day as their child was born, Rachael Pells was surprised by the response from other academics on Twitter
Suspected spies posing as professors have hit the headlines in recent months. Matthew Reisz considers academia's long – and ongoing – entanglement with espionage
Universities need to raise funds from potentially mercurial financial markets without losing sight of their long-term missions. It’s a delicate balance