Columnists

Wellington was once a town where espresso was dangerously pretentious, but an innovative alliance of galleries, libraries, archives and museums has helped rebrand the New Zealand city

The tyranny of 'the hypothesis' has made science too timid, says Tim Birkhead

Press-ganged into attending the annual graduation ceremony, a sweaty and begowned Gloria Monday wishes some of the cash on show was heading her way

Students’ pleasure in writing is often knocked out of them by formal schooling. Blogging may become their only outlet of expression and, with a little encouragement, it is possible to reignite their love for the written word, suggests Tara Brabazon

Marking schemes are an admission of failure, says Felipe Fernández-Armesto

The titles of the Open Media Series help lift Tara Brabazon above the daily grind and remind her of the need to question conventional wisdom and fight injustice

The wasteful technician-academic divide needs to end, says Sally Feldman

Gloria Monday is surprised to find marks being awarded for expletives, and wonders whether she should incorporate this practice into her work as an external examiner

Kevin Fong discovers fear in a campus mini-mart shelf full of Pot Noodles

E-learning consultants invent crises and create divisions between students and teachers so they can sell their wares. Tara Brabazon analyses the rise of the digital Raj

A degree is no mark of genius, and we shouldn't expect it to be, says Alan Ryan

Yet another meeting, yet another report that fails to break new ground. Gloria Monday fights boredom by totting up the number of legs in the room

Tara Brabazon on the soundtrack to life on a continent’s edge

Felipe Fernández-Armesto considers why soccer will never score highly in the US

Tara Brabazon on the cutting-edge centres that generated a new way of doing research

The v-c’s glorious IT dreams always fail in reality, laments Gloria Monday as she reaches for her pen and paper

Spoon-fed students won't fend for themselves at university, says Tim Birkhead

Gauging the 'public value' of arts graduates is a tricky job, says Sally Feldman

Many now-defunct public clocks once helped shape shared spaces. Tara Brabazon is delighted that a (digital) website is working to restore function and value to a neglected (analogue) public feature

Gloria Monday examines the importance of clear communication

Once an advocate of core subject teaching, Susan Bassnett now finds herself endorsing the broad diversity afforded by modern curriculums

As Kevin Fong scribbles on napkins, he wonders how Geri penned a whole book

School libraries are suffering, and even closing, as resources are cut, staff ‘redeployed’ and the internet deemed more important to learning than printed matter and professionals who can sort the wheat from the chaff. Tara Brabazon says we must fight to defend the invaluable contribution libraries make to information literacy and to an informed citizenry

The flaw of rankings is that all universities have good points, says Alan Ryan

The prospect of another research assessment exercise will lead only to discord, says Gloria Monday

Looking over the work produced by her masters students, Tara Brabazon is struck by their creativity, inspired by their enthusiasm and determination and humbled to see teaching help to change lives

Higher IQs mean upper-class domination is 'natural', academic says. Rebecca Attwood reports

... try the real world and see just how lucky we academics are, says Tim Birkhead

The history of the CND is a reminder to academics that they have obligations above those of RAE targets and teaching outcomes, says Tara Brabazon

Felipe Fernández-Armesto analyses a survey of academic salaries in the US

Muscians find it easier than academics to set their egos aside, be generous to their peers and play sidemen for a true great, argues Tara Brabazon

As Gloria Monday settles down to mark essays, she finds it a struggle to keep up with the copycats

Does knowing your personality traits help you lead better? asks Sally Feldman

Tara Brabazon challenges her students to break from their reliance on Google and read Poulantzas in the original

Kevin Fong treasures the scary euphoria of an unexpected home birth

Corporate speak is key to applying for promotion, says Gloria Monday

Tara Brabazon on Peter Saville’s remarkable staying power at the edge of fashion

Florida's not all guns and gators, says Alan Ryan - it funds a liberal arts college

Tara Brabazon takes a listophile’s delight in a celebration of musical progress

Tim Birkhead on the trumpet-blowing and florid fiction of the academic CV

Has-beens, wannabes and lechers wrestle with PowerPoint, bad English and alcohol in a deadly dull German townlet: yes, it’s academic conference season again

Beware digi-evangelists and search engines, says Tara Brabazon. It is still real-life librarians, past and present, who remain the true custodians of human knowledge

Up in the Andes is a university worth emulating, says Felipe Fernández-Armesto

Tara Brabazon is alarmed by people’s growing removal from analogue life, where people are engaged with their mobile screens rather than with each other

Outsiders can never grasp the eccentricities of academe, says Sally Feldman

It’s not so much the dropouts who vex Gloria Monday, more the drop-ins who have no business on campus

How Tara Brabazon has learned to appreciate Bob Dylan - the man, his music and what he stands for

Why, wonders Kevin Fong, do we so quickly forget our illustrious forebears?

Wikipedia reveals not the ‘wisdom of the crowds’ but the rule of the mob, argues Tara Brabazon

Alan Ryan suggests Mr Denham revisit an example of quality and opportunity

The Great Leader is all smiles on the website – Gloria Monday suspects that a rebranding is in the offing

Although a believer in books, Tara Brabazon welcomes Amazon’s wireless reading device and its potential to transform reading and researching

Tasks like ordering tape and test tubes halt academic work, Tim Birkhead finds

We’re enslaved by Crazy Frog capitalism – and the mobile phone is the symbol of our bondage, argues Tara Brabazon

Felipe Fernandez-Armesto lauds the world's soul foods, and killjoys be damned

The wannabe 'pree-sen-nas' blinded by celebrity culture are closed to ideas and opportunities, argues Tara Brabazon

In the wake of a vote by UCU members to reject pay-bargaining changes, general secretary Sally Hunt calls on all sides to move forward in good faith for the benefit of the sector as a whole