Social science

This brave book attempts to show that social anthropology and social anthropologists can offer insights into today’s world and also point to solutions, says Simon Underdown

Fred Inglis travels the bumpy road from Victorian workhouse to the modern British benefits system

Panikos Panayi follows the struggles and achievements of those who made this country their home amid difficult circumstances

Book of the week: Great writing can enlighten and encourage dialogue between disciplines, says Gary Morson

Seven top universities establish political monitoring units in response to state ‘rectification reports’

Singaporeans are starting to question the benefit of recruiting so much global research talent, say Pang Eng Fong and Linda Lim

The chief executive of the Alan Turing Institute discusses his career in higher education, making the case for the humanities, and the nascence of the Russell Group

Do ancient cultural ideas drive the insistence that Greece pay all its bills in full? asks Emma Gee

Free market ideology has contributed to ‘vaccine hesitancy’, endangering us all, says Harry Collins

A study of one of Europe’s leading thinkers on sexuality contends that brutality is a force behind much queer activism and political thinking

Book of the week: Bryan Cheyette straddles truth and fiction in observer accounts of anti-Semitic persecution

Don’t blame vice-chancellors for their salaries – we need to rethink where power lies in universities, says Tom Cutterham

Brain-boosting drugs can help students and academics alike to unlock their potential, says Hemmel Amrania

Enduring popularity of flesh-eating monsters is a response to real threats, says Marcus Leaning

Replacing England’s tuition fee system with a cheaper and fairer alternative is not as difficult as many claim, says Andrew Adonis

Kurdistan shows that post-conflict countries can build a thriving higher education sector by working with foreign partners, says Dlawer Ala’Aldeen

Spreading the word on social media about research can help academics get ahead, but is it too much of a distraction, asks Brooke Erin Duffy

Book of the week: Behind a veneer of amiability, Randy Malamud finds discord, cruelty and a ‘cultural charade’

The publication game that researchers are obliged to play has stripped the purpose out of social research. Time to change the rules, says Yiannis Gabriel

Many students aren’t reporting sexual harassment or assault on campus despite efforts to tackle the problem, say Hareem Ghani and Graham Towl

Prevent monitoring and defeat of legal challenge shows that anti-extremism policy is not limiting academic freedom, says Hifsa Harron-Iqbal

Expanding degree apprenticeships will strengthen universities’ important role in improving their local communities, says Dawn Morley

The notion that only the ‘left-behind’ poor are xenophobic is a myth, Eliane Glaser learns

Steven Yearley considers the argument that metropolitan centres, not nation states, hold the power to take the lead on climate change

At 1967’s Congress on the Dialectics of Liberation, radicals preached Black Power, existential psychiatry, free universities and more. Martin Levy reports on an event that was as much a happening as an academic conference

The UK's ‘red line’ on free movement of labour may prevent its students from participating in the Erasmus exchange programme, says European Union law expert

Even scientists may be unmoved by evidence on how to make teaching better, finds Jennifer Rohn

‘Nice’ kids are still being told not to do ‘it’, setting off a dangerous dissembling, says Angelia Wilson

A study of female NGO workers and the migrants they interact with examines the relationship in all its complexity, says Emma Rees

It is not Luddism to be cautious about destroying an academic publishing industry that has served us well, says Marilyn Deegan

Research finds undergraduates ‘self-sort’ by gender and ethnicity for group work

‘Staggering’ scale of persecution of Turkish academia condemned by scholars’ group

London Economics shows how less well-off graduates will repay more than higher-earning peers

University attacked by 750 academics for forcing entire professoriate to reapply for jobs

Higher proportion of black students in London may contribute to capital’s higher dropout rates, says SMF

Calls among graduates to limit student numbers are not selfish, but may instead reflect concern about the value of university education, say Duncan Watson and Robert Webb

Gill Seyfang - who is presenting at the Higher Education Academy's annual conference - explains how improv comedy in lectures can inspire students

Call for rankings to give more weight to societal impact

Emily Van Duyne on why she missed graduation despite being passionately committed to her students

‘Shocking’ shift away from fundamental projects harms country's scientific reputation, says author of report

A divided nation where the rich rule the working poor is not limited to fiction, finds Nicola Ingram

For those interested in imagining the kind of world we want to live in, Guy Standing’s case for providing all citizens with a basic income makes a convincing read, says Lorenza Antonucci

Book of the week: Joanna Bourke on the gruelling truths faced by injured soldiers, and their carers and families

Robert J. Mayhew finds the pioneering environmental thinker’s meditations on population, resources and ecology more relevant than ever

Sir Christopher Snowden, former Universities UK president, attacks ratings in wake of Southampton’s bronze award

A polemic against the new McCarthyism in US universities catches Jane O’Grady’s attention

Some vice-chancellors will decry the results of the teaching excellence framework, but should recognise areas of poor teaching it exposes, says Edward Peck

As student loan debt in the UK passes £100 billion, Sir Keith Burnett says it’s time we faced up to the real cost of tuition fees and debt

Campus safe spaces are bad for democracy and open debate, but academics must respond to the genuine concerns they represent, says James Wicks

A thoughtful study by the head of Utrecht University focuses on the forces reshaping the sector, says David Wheeler

Clare Bambra commends a polemic that shines a light on the fatal flaws in US healthcare policy

Matthew Feldman appreciates an enlightening exploration of radicalisation and its causes

Book of the week: From staff in nappies to hassled waitresses, a study of work is full of justified rage, says Philip Roscoe

Publication of data showing long-term graduate earnings by discipline has huge potential to improve higher education, says Jack Britton

Catherine Clinton admires an intimate portrayal of US presidents’ wives and those they subjugated

A detailed examination of the motivation behind suicide bombing is a must-read, says Christina Hellmich

Lisa Mckenzie finds a new lesson in Orwell's classic every time she reads it – and this year, it concerns some of her fellow scholars

Terry Dray explains what other institutions can learn from Liverpool John Moores University’s recent review of career development services

Objections to co-authorship with juniors display a misguided sense of ethics, say Mark Hayter and Roger Watson

Human rights lawyer faces jail for sharing post by exiled academic under Thailand’s lese-majesty rules