Opinion

Excellent teaching shouldn’t cost the earth, even in a market where price is used as a proxy for quality, argues Carl Lygo

Foreign flavours enrich the English tongue, says Felipe Fernández-Armesto

Efforts to trumpet the value of social science can misrepresent important controversies and subtleties, says Martyn Hammersley

David Phoenix explains why his institution is moving away from the model of big multidisciplinary departments

Enrichment of university life by academics’ ancillary activities is threatened as the workforce is pushed towards casualisation

A rift will always separate digital natives from others, Shahidha Bari believes

An academic’s conviction as a paedophile was kept under wraps in the 1990s. Would a cover-up happen today, asks Geoffrey Alderman

Why are today’s students so preoccupied with protecting themselves from potentially ‘harmful’ ideas, asks Tom Slater

A vague policy on higher education could help the party win the next election, argues Nick Hillman

Financing options fail to live up to the promises made by politicians, says Alan Ruby

A Dutch-born scholar and research administrator wonders if the British class system plays a role in views about division of labour

Anthony Forster explains why university leaders have strong concerns about the proposals

John Holmwood and Stephen McKay examine the results for the social sciences and identify some anomalies

In the debate over EU membership universities need to remind us of the ideal value of transnational knowledge, says Anna Notaro

Is the tide about to turn on the college sport?, ask Daniel Goldberg and Robert Lee Maril

Countries worldwide are investing to get ahead in the global game of research. Not doing so will cost the UK dear

Kevin Fong examines his responses to £35,000 a year degree

Some early career scholars feel there is not enough support for academics who reach out, say Richard Watermeyer and Jamie Lewis

Institutions must cater for the reality that graduates of arts-based courses are likely to work in ‘arts in the community’, says Judith Hills

Calls to sack Robert Lambert would deprive us of academic expertise, argues Stefano Bonino

Marnie Hughes-Warrington on the case for re-thinking academic career progression

A perverse focus on research cash and high-impact publications threatens academics’ careers and the aims of science itself, says Dorothy Bishop

A professor with two decades of experience reviews his career highs and lows

Institutions are using pictures of glamorous students to tart up their marketing, but not everyone approves of the trend, says Hong Bing

Fictional journalists show more principle than their BBC counterparts, says Sally Feldman

South America’s neoliberal pioneer is taking higher education out of the market. The UK should take heed, says Bahram Bekhradnia

Consultants often boost the number of shortlisted women, but universities must fight their own ‘people like us’ mindset, says Sue Shepherd

Building an academic career is hard, but high initial hurdles and a lack of clear progression paths make it unnecessarily daunting

Laurence Grove on the role of bandes dessinées and satirical cartoons in France’s commitment to liberty

Students searching for the perfect university must value the diversity on offer and be aware of the complexity it brings, says Alan Ruby

Christopher Bigsby on those who take a creative approach to academic rigour

Universities must have at heart a public ethos counterbalance to weigh against commercial interests and state diktat

Things to say, and things to not say, in a campus biography

The counter-terrorism bill will co-opt academics into the ‘securocrat’ and chill debate on campus - it must be fought, says Martin Hall

Jenny Pickerill offers some advice on some common mistakes and how to stand out from the pack

Philip Cowley and Robert Ford describe a step change in their discipline’s engagement with the electorate

With the fever of REF results subsiding, we contemplate what 2015 might hold in store for higher education

Three achievements are underestimated in current political debates, says Anne Corbett

Alan Ryan is dismayed to see that the US is still bedevilled by lethal racism

Academic staff must do more to address inequality of access to taught master’s and doctoral degrees, say Sally Hancock and Paul Wakeling

Remember that everyone is watching your online lectures

The exercise was robust and positive, says Willy Maley, who found work on the English subpanel to be like ‘a well-run exam board’

The sector would do well to consider setting a target for the proportion of women heading universities, says Simonetta Manfredi

Emran Mian argues for standardisation in setting of exams

Why do so many Christmas gifts continue to be gender-specific? asks Sally Feldman

Nicholas Boyle, the author of 2014: How to Survive the Next World Crisis, reflects on the predictions he made about the past 12 months

Problems associated with the system of research assessment would be reduced by a move to annual reviews, Paul Grout argues

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