Academic life

The £2 million recently awarded to a whistleblower by a US court is a rare reward for the volunteers who trawl the scientific literature for error and fraud. Yet their numbers continue to grow. So what drives them? And can their efforts ever cleanse more than a drop in a troubled ocean? Jack Grove reports 

Many of the lessons I’ve learned about community, grace and letting go are transferable regardless of subject or health, says Alexandra Dufresne

Academia is inherently competitive but we can reduce the debilitating sense of constant threat, say Catelijne Coopmans and Catherine Montgomery 

What kind of experience isn’t lived? Are all systems really ecosystems? Why do we keep inventing pointless new jargon, asks Ron Iphofen

Professors from UCL and Plymouth Marjon University receive damehoods, while four vice-chancellors commended

Times Higher Education journalists name the change-makers at the heart of the sector’s biggest debates over the past 12 months

New analysis shows complete takeover of senior administrative positions since 2021, turning universities into ‘highly authoritarian institutions’

Nineteen higher and further education institutions announced as recipients of newly renamed UK honour

Beijing’s drive for technological self-reliance blamed for high-pressure academic environment as data suggest more academics are struggling to cope

Professors who moonlight as puzzle-setters for major newspapers discuss importance of ‘letting the mind wander’ after busy day in the lab

Measuring researchers’ output mass against their body mass will incentivise even harder running on the academic treadmill, says Dariusz Jemielniak

Teaching missions would be easier to fulfil if academics did not have to seek so many permissions to do their jobs, says Akhil Bhardwaj

Georgiann Davis’ gripping account of growing up intersex and obese in a dysfunctional provincial family is a ‘queer’ response to J. D. Vance’s celebrated Hillbilly Elegy. But will the Trump administration’s opposition to gender studies spoil her happy ending? Matthew Reisz reports 

An open approach to knowledge and a kind, enabling manner help students go their own way but never feel alone, says Andrew Chadwick

Academic life was a lot simpler in the humanities and social sciences when simply finding a document guaranteed originality, says Disha

The flexibility and insightful observation that cultural ‘outsiders’ are forced to develop confers several advantages for academics, says Adrian Furnham

Videos of glamorous scholars sipping coffee portray a lifestyle far removed from the toxic culture of overwork faced by academics, says Rituparna Patgiri

Risk-averse mindset, fervour for meetings and ‘time sink’ labour-saving ploys leave everybody overburdened, finds Melbourne study

Cultural studies academic Rachael Gunn’s breakdancing performance at the Paris Olympics went viral for all the wrong reasons. One year on, she tells John Ross that although processing the ridicule has had to take priority over her academic career, she would do it all again

If the UK doesn’t want skilled migrants any more, maybe my contributions would be better appreciated in the Global South, says Meron Wondemaghen

As academics fear being replaced by AI, the security staff who wave them through every morning are being replaced by strangers, says George Bass 

Applications for professional service posts decline as appeal of working in universities ‘fades’, but academics face more competition than ever

Facing a thesis whose bibliography alone was longer than any essay I’d ever written, I was convinced that this time I’d gone too far, says Polly Penter

When student complaints were made against a high-achieving female scientist, her institution launched a one-man inquiry that found her blameworthy merely ‘for doing my job’, she writes: a ‘textbook case of institutional gaslighting’ that was a betrayal of scientific standards

Excess work hours ‘consistently’ correlate with ‘moderate to severe’ anxiety and depression, Australian survey finds

Genetics expert and failed union presidential aspirant removed from sessional academic duties over call for ‘Zionists’ to be ‘executed’

Australian employee representatives say universities are too ready to surveil workers, while higher education regulator suggests additional methods

Honours also bestowed on Oxford emeritus professor Ursula Martin and Science Committee chair Chi Onwurah

Satisfaction with pay and benefits lags well behind other sectors but career development improving, survey finds

Once praised as key workers, low-salaried university employees dedicated to student safety are increasingly seen as redundancy fodder, says security guard George Bass

Race lacks obvious front runner, with Mohamed El-Erian largely unknown outside academia and Sandi Toksvig proving divisive

European universities urged to re-evaluate structures and support for employees after ‘profound’ shifts in jobs market

Using jokes where appropriate can build trust, diffuse anxiety and enhance learning, says doctoral supervision award winner

Blanket bans on the amount of time staff can spend out of the country reflect ‘compliance-first’ mindset of UK universities, say critics

When classes move outside, we all know that half as much will be learned but twice as much will be remembered, says Zachary Michael Jack

Guidance on facilities, accommodation and equality monitoring may need to be redrawn after landmark judgment, gender-critical scholars insist

After the furore of Oxford’s election, no obvious frontrunner has emerged to take the high-profile role at Cambridge. Some say the institution needs a politically engaged figurehead, others want someone who can sort out internal fractures

Survey of first-generation scholars finds many struggle with ‘unwritten rules’ of academic life

Overly cautious institutions pushing ‘bullshit jobs’ on their staff ‘destroying academia from within’, says neuroscientist

With US academia under siege from the Trump administration, universities elsewhere are contemplating offering ‘asylum’ to disaffected researchers. Here, four former US academics now established abroad reflect on the potential culture shock that awaits US émigrés

Thousands of academics and professional services staff are losing their jobs across the UK. What are their chances of finding another position, either in higher education or elsewhere? Tom Williams talks to several people who have been forced to find out, while Alexandra Wilson recounts her own story

‘A poor communicator who ghosts me’: disaffected research students and supervisors have similar grievances about each other, survey reveals

While not everyone has a flair for it, popular writing can boost audience, income and professional enjoyment. But no silly titles please, says Lincoln Allison

A scholar’s job is not just to learn – it’s to create. And that requires a completely different skill set from consuming it, says Ilana Horwitz

Research assessment has made huge progress but measurement of community remains half-baked, say Mats Persson and Jan Ch. Karlsson

Subscribing to nearly everything published by journals is no longer feasible in these financially straitened times but librarians can provide creative workarounds to ensure journal access, says Liam Bullingham

The benefits of a strong brand are accruing for universities and academics alike. Jack Grove explores why reputation matters – and examines the latest results in the list of the world’s most prestigious universities

Higher education news feeds are currently dominated by near-daily announcements of large job cuts across the UK. But what effect is all this having on the atmosphere within the departments affected – and, indeed, across the sector in general? Four scholars give their takes

Editors’ failures to stick to advertised time frames and formatting requirements cost authors extra effort and stress, says Rob Sowby

Can it be our responsibility as employees to better prioritise our well-being when the workload imposed on us goes so far beyond what can be done in a 35-hour week, asks Joan Taylor

The all-consuming nature of their work means that academics risk a loss of connection and even identity when their careers end, says John Tregoning

With his witty tales of lovelorn globetrotting academics at the University of Rummidge a far cry from campus life today, Jack Grove assesses the master comic novelist’s work and relevance

The celebrated campus novelist and former University of Birmingham literature professor has died. Christopher Bigsby recounts the life of ‘a serious man who wrote comic novels’

No one transitions overnight from a full-time academic career to a much more self-determined and lightly specified routine, says Harvey Graff

Former Brunel vice-chancellor alongside former Cambridge leader and King’s vice-president

Security guards’ jobs would be easier if others also had the knowledge and equipment to respond to medical incidents, says George Bass

Academics are only revealing their own biases if they believe the television presenter’s behaviour represents working-class values, says Joe Baden

With the University of Rural England’s hopes of survival resting on a bailout from a disgruntled tech bro alumnus, John Gilbey’s seasonal tale sees its embattled vice-chancellor go back to the future in Silicon Valley 

The far-right president rails against academics’ supposed sense that they are superior. A scholar forced to sell books to make ends meet feels anything but

With working hours full of interruptions, early mornings offer the best chance to pursue labours of love. But how to get going – especially if you are not a morning person? Three scholars debate the virtues of online versus in-person meetings, companionship versus solitude, and coffee versus pipe tobacco