Any attempt to legislate to make it easier for private companies to take over universities could be challenged by one of the government's own watchdogs, it has emerged.
Teaching in universities that are usually ranked towards the bottom of higher education league tables is more consistently of a high standard than instruction at institutions towards the top of the rankings, a study has suggested.
The University of Leeds International Textiles Archive includes embroidery, fibres, stencils and pattern books, slides of processing equipment and stunning fabrics from places as far afield as Indonesia and Italy.
A risk-based approach to quality assurance could lead to more rather than less red tape for universities because the government's reforms are likely to put pressure on standards.
The vice-chancellor of an Australian university is to step down along with his deputy over “irregularities” that helped a close relative to secure a place at the institution.
The Astronomer Royal has called for a system of scientific research funding which puts far less stress on “improving efficiency in the ‘office management’ sense” and sets out to “maximize the chance of landmark achievements”.
Universities that do not demonstrate “extensive school involvement” in their initial teacher training provision may cease to be able to offer such courses.
A total of 27 universities and colleges have applied to lower their tuition fees in 2012-13 so they can compete for some of the 20,000 cut-price places being created by the government.
Applicants for Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council grants will have to identify the national importance of their research for up to 50 years in the future.
Observers have welcomed the news that women will be permitted to submit one fewer output to the 2014 research excellence framework for each period of pregnancy they have during the census period.
Universities wishing to improve the "student experience" have been warned they are placing too much emphasis on satisfaction scores despite their limited usefulness.
The head of outreach programmes at the University of Cambridge has said that students at the institution are "appreciably better" than they were 20 years ago.
A substantial collection of material relating to New Jersey-born rock legend Bruce Springsteen has been acquired by Monmouth University in West Long Branch, US.
The gap between the salaries of workers with postgraduate degrees and those holding only undergraduate degrees has grown significantly, a study has shown.
Universities will have to ditch the conservatism that has allowed them to survive in the past and change at a much greater pace if they are to prosper in the future, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has argued.
More than 450 private colleges have been stopped from recruiting international students after most of them failed to sign up to the Home Office’s new rules for inspection of the sector.
Lancaster University has announced plans to collaborate with Guangdong University of Foreign Studies to build a new university campus in Guangzhou, China.
An academic involved in the scandal over links between the Gaddafi regime and the London School of Economics is to leave the institution ahead of a report into the affair.
Funding chiefs in England have told the government they have “concerns” about the timetable for implementing a new regulatory framework for higher education, warning the challenge of bringing in some reforms by 2013 should “not be underestimated”.
