Social science

Twenty years ago, Paul Kennedy provoked intense debate with his claims about the decline of US power. Huw Richards meets a man still unafraid of tackling the grand strategies of empire and war

Pictures of smiling girls clutching A grades belie the fact that they are still unrepresented in elite institutions, claims Miriam David

Senior RAE figures offer frank perspectives on the future of research funding. Zoe Corbyn reports

Duncan Wu delights in a generous-hearted reminder of the humanity inherent in teaching

Gail Kinman asks whether a condemnation of 'therapeutic education' examines all the evidence

Lee Harvey takes a critical look at an analysis of what education tests really say about students

Report says academic attitudes stymie efforts to build university brands. John Gill reports

Research councils see a rise in applications but fewer candidates are successful, writes Zoe Corbyn

Report author accused of being paedophile - and advised to go to Specsavers. Chloe Stothart reports

It's time to start exchanging gifts and sharing cultures with the digital natives who are our students, says Fintan Culwin

Lynne Segal on a study of sex behind bars that exposes enduring fault-lines in modern thinking

Paper says PhD is still the 'gold standard' despite rise of work-based study, writes Rebecca Attwood

Gerard Kelly, a former president of lecturers' trade union Natfhe, died of liver failure on 2 August at the age of 40.

A fortnightly series in which academics step outside their area of expertise. Terence Kealey reveals how hypocrisy, violence and torture in the America of George Washington have helped create the US of George Bush

Ninety years after the suffragettes' first victory, June Purvis reflects on wars still being fought on behalf of women's rights

Nostalgia was once taboo in academe but a new generation is unafraid to explore longing and loss, says Alastair Bonnett

Academics welcome a new trend for undergraduate journals. Zoe Corbyn and Matt Rooney report

Isabelle Szmigin enjoys a romp through famous advertising slogans from the 1960s to the 1990s