Features

An academic who takes students from the UK to Mumbai to lead a community theatre programme tells Chris Parr how the project affects all who take part

A recent paper claims that the quality of researchers declines with age. Five senior scientists consider the data and how they’ve contributed through the years

What do protests at the University of Hyderabad and Jawaharlal Nehru University tell us about India’s ‘messy democracy’?

By some measures, universities are wonderfully accommodating workplaces for gays and lesbians. Six academics give us their perspective

It’s time to use technology to detect potential threats and worry less about outdated ideas of privacy, says Ron Iphofen

There’s a tension between Germany’s desire to be in the global elite of higher education while remaining egalitarian. John Morgan reports

Amid all the events to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, Peter J. Smith contemplates our appetite for everything – and anything – to do with the Bard

Ellie Bothwell reports on what both regions gain – and lose – from the Sino-African partnership

The international scholarly community must take meaningful steps to support Academics for Peace, says Mehmet Ugur

Scholars choose ‘essential’ texts to introduce sixth-formers to the academy

During a bout of severe depression, a professor in the US was admitted to a secure hospital unit. He writes here of his experiences

David Matthews examines the approach of ResearchGate, Academia.edu and Mendeley to profit, user data and open access publishing

Sometimes you need someone as controversial as psychologist Hans Eysenck to advance science, says Philip Corr

Youth is not a bar to excellence, despite older institutions’ rankings success. Jack Grove analyses how some youthful contenders have risen in the ranks

Ahead of the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race, Lincoln Allison ponders the decline of sport at university, and the value of such pursuits

Is the subject’s amalgam of a wide range of subject matter and methodologies a strength or a weakness? Five scholars have their say

Did art schools such as Central Saint Martins ever have a golden age and, if they did, is it irrevocably lost? Anna Coatman writes

The University of California System remains a model blueprint despite Berkeley’s travails, and one the UK would do well to copy, says Alan Ryan

Ellie Bothwell examines strengths and weaknesses in different higher education systems across the Continent

Nigel Thrift, head of Schwarzman Scholars, a transnational scheme to develop movers and shakers, tells John Gill about China’s international role

Institutions have little evidence that their widening participation activities deliver, but they are working to change that, finds Chris Havergal

Universities need a new funding model, say Andrei E. Ruckenstein, Mark E. Smith and Nicola C. Owen, who want academics to take the lead in tackling the problem

Few academics use the full potential of their voices, yet speaking well allows us to be alive and connected in the moment, says Joe Moran

Matthew Reisz talks to creative writers and artists about what it is like to be the subject of commentaries and theories

Advice on how to cope with all the work and when to say no to opportunities

Scholars discuss their early adventures in the world of work – and what they learned from them

John Morgan examines current arrangements and suggested ratios at home and abroad

Two famous experiments have reached the silver screen. Antonio Melechi on the relationship between the academic discipline and Hollywood

Times Higher Education's poll shows that the bulk of staff find their work rewarding but there is a deep gulf between academics and professional and support staff

A high school dropout turned Harvard scholar tells Matthew Reisz why the academy’s one-size-fits-all mentality must go

How can institutions hire and hold top scholars when homes in their cities are out of reach to academics?

Neil Reid is fulfilling a childhood dream and working in a cloud forest in Honduras, where the natural wonders and the need to defend them can push the region’s dangers out of mind

As technology changes rapidly, how can the academy respond to the challenge of educating for an unwritten future? John Gilbey went to Silicon Valley to find out

Times Higher Education World University Rankings data reveal the top 200 most outward-looking institutions

Gordon Brown’s former right-hand man talks to John Morgan about his return to Harvard, Labour’s higher education ‘failure’ and a political comeback

Does the UK’s Prevent strategy go too far in its demands on institutions? A group of experts share their perspectives

Joanna Williams discusses student censors, the elevation of subjective experience over ‘facts’ and the need to challenge ideas

Science suffered restrictions and reductions in funding under the previous government. Will the Trudeau administration put it back on track? Ellie Bothwell investigates

US institution reveals its 41st annual list of words that should be banned due to misuse, overuse and general uselessness 

Nicholas Rowe reimagines Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol in a modern university, with Professor Scrooge in charge of a target-driven department

From robots to the most popular course, academics share their predictions

The most popular higher education articles of the year, based on website traffic

Mike Marinetto thinks such a shift viable, while literary scholar Lennard Davis recounts his struggles to stick to the facts

As undergraduates join lecturers in rethinking reading lists and course content, Chris Havergal examines their role in pedagogical decisions

List ranks institutions by search engine results and Wikipedia appearances

The PubPeer organisers and two other scholars debate the merits and pitfalls of anonymity in peer review

Simon Blackburn, Mariana Alessandri and John Kaag on why reports of Socrates’ impending demise are greatly exaggerated

The furore about trigger warnings and no-platform campaigns reveals not a timid generation but rather one unafraid to tackle reality head-on, argues Tom Cutterham

Three scholars share the pleasures and perils of sticking your head above the parapet

Anarchist academic reflects on what her recent brush with the law says about threats to academic freedom

Is the biomedical research facility dubbed ‘Sir Paul’s cathedral’ built on sound foundations?

A shocking film about the extent of sexual assault at US colleges has just toured UK universities. It is high time we took this problem seriously in Britain, says Nicole Westmarland, while US academic Jennifer Doyle warns that a paranoid overreaction poisons campus culture

John Elmes talks to Paul Jackson about the politics scholar’s central role during negotiations between the Nepalese government and Maoist rebels

The Global Employability University Survey reveals where to study to get a job

Martin Levy says Allen Krebs’ misadventures in the 1960s offer a cautionary tale for anyone thinking of setting up their own campus

Matthew Reisz on the scientific benefits of leaving corpses out to rot

More BME staff have been entering the UK academy but they remain under-represented at the top. What is being done about it?

How valid are fears that financial conflicts of interest are damaging confidence in academic research?

Donald Brown shares the experiences that prompted him to talk about ‘institutional racism’ at Oxford

Nicholas Till on how his love for the Czech composer led to his bringing back more than LPs from Soviet-dominated Prague