News

Academic opposition to outsourcing at the University of Sussex is building, with staff from ten schools, departments and research centres publishing statements supporting protests at the institution.

Ensuring that knowledge translates into growth will be among the priorities the incoming government chief scientific adviser Mark Walport has set himself for the next five years.

Students at the London School of Economics who were on a controversial visit to North Korea with undercover BBC journalists have hit out at the university, saying it has placed them in greater danger than the trip itself.

School pupils from poorer backgrounds could be contacted by the government to nudge them towards applying to university if they get good GCSE grades, David Willetts has said.

Cardiff calls time on anonymous allegations of past misconduct in dean’s lab. Paul Jump reports

The Army’s teamwork ethos shaped the management style of the University of Essex’s Anthony Forster

University says problems at partner colleges affect just 3% of students

Research club offers hands-on access to fascinating materials from aerogel to baby teeth

Overseas students rejected on ‘arbitrary’ grounds, UKCISA report suggests

Vast digital archive of court records 1674-1913 is ‘dead people’s big data’

Theatre director uses fellowship to give dramatic shape to the stories of ex-combatants

Academics count the costs of Panorama’s North Korea exposé

Western universities are refining their offerings as the city-state’s economy gets back on track. Jack Grove reports from the UAE

Legal challenge helped save overseas students from deportation

A gender gap in researchers’ funding successes persists across Europe

Doctoral training centre model poses international challenge for institutions

UUK chief looks to impact to save budget from Augean economy

Wales’ institutions gain funds as a result of cross-border flow under new fees regime

University of South Wales is a behemoth with plans to become even bigger

Many doctoral candidates do not make clear their work’s scholarly contribution

Instructors and students discuss their experiences of the University of Edinburgh’s debut courses on Coursera

Paul Manners worries that rush to tell research stories turns academics into salesmen and undermines collaboration

Do the data represent the failure of market research or are they the inevitable by-product of a broad curriculum?

The US dominates this year’s CWTS Leiden Ranking of the world’s top universities.

The vice-chancellor of the UK’s first private university will attend Baroness Thatcher’s funeral after being invited on her instructions, and has praised her for transforming the nation “wholly for the better”.

The University of Leicester has launched an investigation into a public lecture held by its student Islamic society after pictures of signs at the event suggested that men and women were encouraged to sit separately.

A new draft code of governance for Scottish universities has been condemned as “weak”, “meaningless in places” and offering “nothing new” by student and academic unions north of the border.

Incoming National Union of Students president Toni Pearce has acknowledged that sections of the organisation’s membership are dissatisfied with its direction, and is determined to bring them back on board.

Exceptions in the UK funding councils’ open access policy will be made for researchers hired from abroad, the Higher Education Funding Council for England’s head of research has pledged.

A huge cut to the Australian higher education budget announced just months before the next federal election is the largest since 1996, according to umbrella body Universities Australia.

Action needs to be taken against Scottish universities because senior staff members are being given “worrying levels of high pay”, the National Union of Students Scotland has said.

Arts and humanities PhD graduates from the US are more employable than their UK counterparts, a conference on doctoral education has heard.

By Scott Jaschik, for Inside Higher Ed

The BBC’s use of a student group from the London School of Economics to gain access to North Korea could jeopardise the overseas reputation of UK universities and the work of academics more generally, according to the sector’s representative body and the LSE director

European countries that have a greater proportion of foreigners in their skilled workforce produce more highly cited research, a study has concluded.

Survey reveals online revolution is news to large proportion of European universities

Scientists in the UK have won a major Czech research contract worth £10 million to develop laser technology.

Philip Altbach says global expansion may entrench the dominance of Western university systems

Affluent students who miss out on elite places ‘hyper-mobilise’ to retain status

Report says distribution would change little if based on institutions’ research council income

Clear sight essential, thick skin an advantage: Hepi’s outgoing director looks back on 11 years of scrutiny on the sector’s behalf

Yachtswoman’s charity funds research into innovative economic ideas

Black and ethnic minority academics still suffer racism, study finds. Elizabeth Gibney reports

Unions fear job losses will fund institution’s lofty research ambitions

New head of all-women Murray Edwards College, Cambridge makes equality a priority

Demise of matched funding leaves majority of institutions worse off. David Matthews reports

Strikers are fighting ‘charter for managerial radicalism’, says academic

‘Race law’ cited in imposition of reductions

Forum discusses efforts to increase mobility of Europe’s academics

Former president says online courses could drive down costs