Columnists

A new book about what is free on the internet is no anarcho-syndicalist guide to subversion, cautions Tara Brabazon

What with the pull of book-writing and the need to earn a living, there’s no time to achieve ‘high-impact’ status

Lecturing when fatigued is an inescapable fact of life for Kevin Fong

The REF plans are bad news for new universities and promise to negate the fairness and sense apparent in the 2008 RAE, argues Ian M. Marshall

A modicum of respect would do wonders for casual staff’s morale

Gloria Monday is thrilled to learn of her promotion to professor, until she discovers the absence of a corresponding pay rise

The point of a Masters or PhD is not to create art but to build evidence, writes Tara Brabazon

Alan Ryan says technical training is vital - and must be funded properly

Our new weekly online blog on the daily struggles, petty indignities and insecurities of an academic life on casual contracts

Tim Birkhead witnesses Darwin’s anguish as he struggles with personal conflict and loss and the weight of the world’s most powerful idea

Let's not allow recording requests to stifle free exchange, says Tim Birkhead

Although the PhD she examined was as bad as the lunch, Gloria Monday chokes down her objections

Dan Stern says that the marketisation of research means that academics must abandon the ivory tower and get down and dirty in the marketplace – or face obscurity

Felipe Fernández-Armesto experiences a Damascene sporting conversion

The closure of the Centre for New Zealand Studies has important repercussions for the future study of post-colonialism

Media studies is belittled despite graduates' success, says Sally Feldman

Research should be aimed at improving our lives, not increasing our bank balances, says Thomas Docherty

US attacks on the NHS also raise issues about the academy, says Kevin Fong

The next generation to shape academia must eschew quick-fix shortcuts and generously nurture talent without envy, says Tara Brabazon

Alan Ryan ponders why institutions are so uptight about freedom of information

Twitter is not for exchanging trivia. Rather, as Russell Stannard has recently learnt, it’s a powerful networking tool for academics and institutions

Tim Birkhead dreams of time to work, free from day-to-day interruptions

iPod broadcasts provide the best way for universities to present and strengthen their brand to would-be students and the public; the message must be to use the beat of popular culture to convey a serious message

Felipe Fernández-Armesto says police officers need the academy's guidance

If you want to stay abreast of what’s happening in the holidays, Gloria Monday’s advice is not to leave the building

There's always a backlash against women's successes, warns Sally Feldman

Rather than treating visiting international students as cash cows or with suspicion, we should value the vital diversity they bring to education

The question is not whether standards have fallen but rather whether we have the right standards for what we are trying to achieve, says Bob Brecher

The widely held assumption that university councils must have a majority of external members is incorrect, writes Nicholas Bamforth

Let's stop panicking and let the swine flu experts do their job, says Kevin Fong

More of the same won’t allow us to reform the British system effectively, writes Florian Bieber

QAA chief Peter Williams gives his verdict on the IUSS report

We live in a society where speed of communication rules, but Tara Brabazon asks if fast is necessarily better, particularly when it comes to learning

This talk of social mobility is a poor form of radicalism, says Alan Ryan

Thomas Docherty examines the transparency culture, its political uses and the dangerous implications for scholarly freedom

Tim Birkhead says it's time to broaden students' horizons

Gloria Monday on business-speak, unpronounceable graduands and the human face of administration

The BBC must fulfil its potential to inform, says Felipe Fernández-Armesto

The internet does not have to spell disaster for the publishing industry: Tara Brabazon visits the San Francisco bookstore that holds out hope

The Paris meeting provides an important forum for discussing key issues in improving university standards around the world. Laura E. Rumbley, Liz Reisberg and Philip G. Altbach report

Behold the upholders of standards – megalomaniacs who can’t count, writes Gloria Monday

The chase is thrilling, but prevention is better than cure, says Sally Feldman

Tradition, not the empty processes of the 'excellence' agenda, offers the academy a road map to higher standards, says Thomas Docherty

Oh Lord - what a change. But let's not freak out just yet, says Kevin Fong

He might be the ultimate killing machine but, says Tara Brabazon, the Governor of California is out of his depth when it comes to understanding how students use textbooks

In a secular and anti-heroic age, the devotion of fans to celebrities is that of believers to gods. Expect the death of the god-like King of Pop to be denied, says myth scholar Robert A. Segal.

The argument for boosting people’s mental performance with substances such as Ritalin betrays a reductive view of learning, says Paul Cooper

The burgeoning culture of complaints delivers no surprises for Alan Ryan

A PhD student's run-in with a senior researcher sets Tim Birkhead thinking

As librarians are being retitled and rebranded, Tara Brabazon focuses on their vital role

Felipe Fernandez-Armesto punctures a few national illusions

Daily attempts to locate adequate, affordable car parking close to work is driving Gloria Monday to distraction

Children and a job - men are starting to cope, writes Sally Feldman

By insisting our universities’ sole role is to fire the economy, we have lost sight of their more civilising purpose, says Thomas Docherty

In a networked world, there is no excuse to continue to examine British theses by British academics only, argues Tara Brabazon

Maureen Skinner, like other delegates at the meeting of America’s university administrators, shared her troubles in song amid the talk of tough times

Kevin Fong bemoans science's continuing inability to secure its future