Higher education

Depictions of conferences as being dull and exhausting make it ‘almost impossible’ to imagine them as places of intellectual engagement, scholar warns

Role of lecturers who play a key part in teaching and administration should get more recognition, according to study

Sutton Trust urges higher education institutions to devote 10 per cent of outreach budgets to evaluating effectiveness

The National Union of Students has released a selection of Christmas songs inspired by higher education. All together now – one, two, three, four...

Simon Marginson tells SRHE conference that multiplicity of factors affect graduate outcomes

SRHE conference told that universities are at centre of ‘a race between competing social groups with unequal resources’

Juggling multiple departmental roles on top of teaching and research can leave new lecturers feeling ‘punch-drunk’, explains new appointee Richard Budd

Street mime artist-turned-professor Gilberto Scaramuzzo explains to Jack Grove how the wordless theatre form can enrich university teaching

Blurring the lines between supervisor and friend can cause difficulties for academics and students alike, says study by Finnish researchers

King’s College London research finds that ability of metrics to predict problems in higher education providers is ‘extremely limited’

Study suggests students taught by academics with teaching qualifications are more likely to pass, but less likely to get first-class scores

A Welsh town’s Boiz, Geeks and Emos are in urgent need of new scripts, finds John Field

Cait MacPhee on personal accounts of gender trouble in the sciences

Funding, staffing and alternative providers among issues to be considered as part of £5 million initiative

Helen Bynum lauds an exploration of the moral and social aspects of science through the evolution of a leading publication

Flora Samuel on a revelatory call for researchers to embrace context, culture and the unknown

Joanna Williams on a study embracing technology and introducing a provocative concept of learning

Academic ‘scallywags’ are gaining doctorates thanks to the circulation of dodgy theses within some universities, says the founder of plagiarism pressure group

Transition to ‘make-or-break’ stage for female academics is a significant challenge, study explains

Tara Shears on the career thrills and frustrations of a female scientist who made history at Berkeley

This survey shows how textbook materials often reveal more about the ‘home’ culture than they do about the one being taught. Sylvia Jaworska writes

Digital learning may be the future, but the present is more uncertain, says  Sandra Leaton Gray

Early experience of class has a large effect on the working lives of graduates, discovers Huw Morris

Rama Thirunamachandran says role and financing of sector’s teaching champion must be rethought

Proposal announced by Ministry of Education as the number of international students in the country continues to decline

Mary Evans on proposals for achieving equal representation of women and men in university hierarchies

Sir Keith Burnett considers the challenges of introducing a teaching excellence framework

Improving students’ ‘spiritual and moral growth’ is only solution to growing social barriers in higher education, say scholars

Women who head universities say their gender is an extra job

‘Anecdotal evidence has little value’, professor tells UK Council for International Student Affairs conference

Why are certain employers hotbeds for the creation of higher education leaders, asks John Gill

Funding crisis could spell the end for colleges, claims Alison Wolf study

The finest malapropisms and typos the sector has seen in our look back at the winners of the last five years

Tom Palaima on an examination of the conflicts that have been raging since the 1960s

Kathryn Ecclestone on a study examining the underside of the new fixation on inner feelings

David Palfreyman on the effect that the forces of marketisation have had power dynamics within academia

Richard Joyner on the dwindling role of German and Russian in the communication of research

Thomas Docherty on a study of the academy today and working conditions

Wherever you stand on the career ladder, this guide has fresh advice, says Sandra Leaton Gray

Is an innovative project reshaping the US academy to better serve society or undermining its foundations? asks Ferdinand von Prondzynski

Is legal training fit for purpose? A global study asks all the right questions, says Caroline Hunter

This guide gets right to the heart of the virtues that make a scholar, Robert Eaglestone discovers

The use of gadgets to help students is only as effective as the pedagogical methods employed, finds Steve Wheeler

Miriam E. David urges scholars to engage with essays contributing to wider political debates

Ferdinand von Prondzynski ponders an exploration of how universities should be led and by whom

This powerful polemic should be in every undergraduate’s welcome pack, says Mary Evans

Tony Mann discovers the charisma of mathematicians

Research tools have been revolutionised by the internet but, asks John Gilbey, are they reliable?

Helen Bynum admires a physician’s quest to distinguish alternative medicine from quackery

Fred Inglis on a collection of articles that touches on, but should have focused on, the corruption of universities by corporate forces

Sandra Leaton Gray on a chilling true story of the monetisation of the contents of academics’ heads

Eileen Pollard on a collection of interviews capturing important truths about the doctoral process

Tallis enters a crowded arena when he asks what the arts mean nowadays, says Fred Inglis

Irene Glendinning evaluates a rare study of the effectiveness of STEM widening-participation schemes

Dale Cooper on the methods of philanthropy in universities and how the UK has learned from the US tradition

Thomas Docherty on the fundamental tension between professional duties and civil engagement

Joanna Williams reviews the latest commentary on the commercialisation of higher education

Geoffrey Galt Harpham on a timely reminder of the common root of modern human sciences

Leslie Gofton finds this fusion of memoir and essay blending academic learning, popular culture and politics fails to fully satisfy

Does formal teaching of jazz contradict the improvisation that is at its core? Trevor Herbert examines the evidence