Social science

Bridget Phillipson flags ‘wide-scale organised exploitation’ as she announces new measures to combat fraud connected to franchised provision

Defunding of diversity-related research may deter American university libraries from buying titles in contentious topic areas, publishers fear

With its Trump-style promise to smash woke ideology on campus, Germany’s far-right populist party is widely seen as a threat by academics. And with even the country’s mainstream parties promising little for higher education or research, few are relishing Sunday’s election. Emily Dixon reports

More transparent and democratic decision-making within UK universities could have helped institutions avoid the financial mistakes that are now resulting in mass redundancies, argue Nicholas Grant and Nadine Zubair

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

Delayed introduction of England’s campus free speech act will help scholars confront bias confirmation propagated by social media bubbles, argue Carla Ferstman and Faten Ghosn

With success rates below 10 per cent in a recent funding round, pressure on scholars to secure grants may not be realistic, warns leading economist

UK society for American studies has funding removed for not complying with US Embassy request on new president’s diversity policies

Social sciences ‘the proverbial canary in the coalmine’ for restrictions in other areas of research, dean warns

Social science faculty at National University of Singapore told ‘higher risk’ campus speakers face additional ‘administrative formalities’

Social scientists must work hard to verify their conclusions. Too many that do not are rewarded anyway, says Martyn Hammersley

Parliamentarians warn removal of funding for UK in a Changing Europe might be seen as ‘deprioritisation of impact-based work’, given its success

Scientists from the favoured areas raise the strongest objections

We can no longer deem as educated a student who knows nothing about statistics, data analytics or computing, says Daniel Diermeier

Academics who rely on the British Library’s unmatched collection are still feeling the impact of a devastating cyberattack a year ago. Jack Grove hears from those affected and considers how another catastrophic breach might be averted

Plagiarism accusations that led to the downfall of black US academics and politicians have sparked criticisms of ‘sloppy’ writing practices. But these controversies actually reveal how academics are struggling with the many writing technologies now essential to their jobs, argues Genevieve Creedon

Former chief secretary to the Treasury set to face Bridget Phillipson in Commons for announcement on tuition fees

It’s tempting to dismiss the Ohio senator’s attacks on higher education as MAGA rabble-rousing, but he is right in some respects, says Lincoln Allison

Misleading claims that some undergraduates are unjustly receiving extra help obscure how many universities are actually failing to provide sufficient support to disabled students, says Chris Pepin-Neff

With ethnic minority students missing disproportionately more classes, traditional timetabling risks widening attainment gaps, says Christopher Byrne

With its focus on breakthrough research and innovation, Manuel Heitor’s plan for European research should be commended, says Jan Palmowski

Donald Trump’s election as president in 2016 prompted a slew of academic books grappling with how such a figure could have been chosen to lead the free world. But what are the chances that any of those bleak tomes will dissuade American voters from re-electing him next month, asks Matthew Reisz

Institutions in six continents plan fightback against creeping denigration of the social sciences

Providing a pathway from community colleges to universities, the US’ credit transfer system is admired around the world for driving social mobility and offering a vital second chance for late bloomers. But opaque and complex university rules are undermining it, argue Lauren Schudde and Huriya Jabbar

With the audiobook industry booming, university publishers are turning everything from hot new scholarly titles to Karl Marx’s catalogue into engrossing listening. Matthew Reisz speaks to academics, producers and publishers about what makes a great audiobook and where the industry goes next

Thousands more students on the autism spectrum are entering universities thanks to improved diagnosis and support from schools. John Ross examines how institutions are adapting to this challenge and what more can be done

Global network of research universities aims to help displaced learners as United Nations hits halfway mark on access target

Radical proposal to overhaul admissions to the UK's research-intensive universities would tackle ‘elite formation’, say LSE and Oxford professors

Next year’s review must consider why the equality charter now views ‘gender as a spectrum’, in addition to questions of cost and effectiveness, says Lucy Hunter Blackburn

Universities should reflect upon the intellectual life and sacrifices of South Africa’s student activists as they mark milestones, says Mashupye Maserumule 

Call for an ‘immediate ceasefire’ is scarcely better than the ‘stop arming Ukraine’ motion that led to resignations a year ago, says Christopher Phelps

Vice-chancellors can often overestimate the savings from institutional mergers and underestimate their complex challenges, says Malcolm Prowle

Tormented by playground thugs as a child, Jonathan Taylor reflects on why the insidious bullying found in universities is similar but much worse

Strategic silence of vice-chancellors within our national debate is a mistake when the quest for truth is so central to academia, argues Sir Geoff Mulgan

From Putin to Orbán, autocrats are using postcolonial theory to flood reading lists with ‘overlooked’ native authors in a drive to further xenophobic identity politics, explain Karolina Koziura, Daniel Palm and Adrian Matus

As an academic, I have found my best holidays to be anything but a vacation from intellectual life, says Lincoln Allison

Universities of all types are embracing the earn-while-you-learn qualifications but government can do more too, says Exeter’s vice-chancellor Lisa Roberts

Speculation over imagined backstabbings and betrayals is rife but the joining of two of Australia’s universities is more of a meeting of minds than clash of clans, insist vice-chancellors Peter Høj and David Lloyd

Degrees taught in Hindi might play well with Modi fans but this shift risks IITs’ global reputation for producing outstanding graduates, says Eldho Mathews

Many scholars loathe generative AI but it has immense power to engage the intellectual curiosity of students as long as academics truly embrace it, argues John Kaag

The 2029 Research Excellence Framework aims to assess ‘how institutions and disciplines contribute to healthy, dynamic and inclusive research environments’. But will panellists and university managers really move away from a focus on prestigious journal papers, asks Matthew Flinders

Fed up with a lowly position on the author list? If so, getting creative with surnames could be the solution, a study suggests

Head of UK’s biggest PhD school says promoting impact in doctoral studies would make students more employable and research more visible

Teaching UK degrees abroad promised adventure, sunshine and a regular pay cheque. But navigating an environment in which many students couldn’t speak English, senior academics acted like dukes and oversight from the UK was patchy at best left Anthony Killick disillusioned

Ever-expanding numbers of doctoral students may suit universities, but one’s twenties should be a time for broad learning and professional development, not for burying oneself in detailed research, says Lincoln Allison

Scale of research precarity at top UK university and its effect on staff laid out in new report

Poll finds most researchers are using AI but only a tiny number trust technology companies on data privacy

With the right support, academics with visual impairments are prospering, but barriers to true inclusivity remain, says Kate Armond, while a lecturer reflects on how practice on reasonable adjustments can fall short of policy

Researchers say emails suggest disapproval of social media posts on transgender issues contributed to rejections

The regulator’s example scenarios fail to acknowledge the harm that even lawful speech can cause on campus, say Naomi Waltham-Smith and James Murray

Proposed changes to how scholars publish show little awareness of how they will profoundly reshape academic life, says David Lund

Inflated marks, overworked staff and politically compromised courses are the price of exploiting offshore UK-registered students, says Michael Day

Generative AI firms should stop ripping off publishers and instead work with them to enrich scholarship, says Oxford University Press’ David Clark

The redundancies and course closures proposed at many struggling UK universities follow a decades-long drift away from the idea of higher education institutions as charities whose non-commercial public benefit needs to be supported by profit-making activity, argues Martin Mills

Debate risks legitimising dehumanising ideologies, but rebutting such views is how progress has always been made, says Eric Heinze

Scholarly inquiry is already improving UK society, but its full impact won't be felt until researchers better engage with policymakers, says Rita Gardner

The weaponisation of plagiarism allegations to remove Harvard’s president is no cause for celebration, says research fraudbuster David Sanders

As Harvard University seeks a new leader following the short-lived presidency of Claudine Gay, the institution’s long-time president Derek Bok reflects on the need for elite US universities to react to the political maelstrom by abandoning questionable practices and improving the quality of their education

While UK universities are starting to address the challenges faced by new mothers, combining parenthood and academia remains a difficult task. Five writers give their experience of what institutions are getting right and wrong in supporting academic mums

From satirical novels to US sitcoms and cop shows, academics have proved to be rich source material across many genres. Four writers argue the case for who can claim to be fiction’s greatest scholar