Social science

With both Oxford and Cambridge seeking new vice-chancellors, Rosa Ellis examines the unique pressures of leading these prestigious universities and the qualities that successful candidates will need to do the job

As the pandemic increases public scrutiny of science, the UK Parliament is holding another inquiry into the long-running issue of reproducibility. Five of its contributors give their views on how sloppy science can be eliminated and trust be more firmly rooted 

Appealing narrative attached to ‘first-in-family’ students may obscure the actual extent of their social disadvantage, says researcher

Studying institutional success stories is socially useful and has nothing to do with selling out, say Matthew Flinders and Paul ’t Hart

Scrutiny of graduate outcomes is appropriate but the issue is much more complex than arts v science, says Anna Vignoles

ESRC extends PhD support to last three-and-a-half years but rejects review’s four-year recommendation

Negative connotations attached to ‘liberal’ and ‘arts’ have created a misleading perception of a transformative education model that delivers for students, say Barbara Altmann and Jeffrey Nesteruk

The LSE director on the institution’s green strategy, the importance of social scientists working with industry and the advantages of being ‘different’

Social scientists have an opportunity to advise on reorienting the traditional public inquiry towards focused lesson-learning, says Matthew Flinders

International scholars in arts, humanities and social sciences are recognising universities in China, sometimes more than their local academics

The cultural historian and author of The Art of Self-Improvement on positive transformations, the Stoic approach to life, and what self-help books can reveal about individuals and society

US and UK lose dominance in law, while social sciences, business and economics and education results also released

Economic and Social Research Council warned that current three-and-a-half-year funding period is ‘insufficient’ and is causing student hardship

Addressing the very real problem of global epistemic exclusion is inclusive and democratic, says Simon Marginson

Covid’s creation of an environment in which lessons can be debated will improve public understanding, say Deenan Pillay and David King

Leading light of research replicability Daniel Lakens says ‘uncomfortable questions’ and tough choices are required to restore trust in science

Managing climate change and pandemics alike requires immediate engagement with policy, not science-first rhetoric, argues Mike Hulme

The narrative that the humanities are haemorrhaging students, funding and political favour is deeply felt around the world. But the evidence of the disciplines’ decline is considerably more nuanced, finds Simon Baker

Universities must accept that overworked scholars cannot simply resume their research careers overnight, says Jenny Pickerill

The use of examinations when other more sophisticated real-world assessment is available seems increasingly strange, says Craig Mahoney

Concerns over the rising number of top marks thanks to teacher-assessed grades should not obscure the limitations of the UK’s exam system, says Nick Hillman

Universities can cut plagiarism by working with students’ unions to raise awareness of contract cheating and the value of academic integrity, says Aaron Yaverski

Students are not being pushed to consider imaginative ideas that would truly tackle global warming, argues Peter Sutoris

With ‘storytelling’ CVs becoming crucial in hiring and funding decisions, Jack Grove explores how academics can craft compelling research statements

Ethical reviews must become the cornerstone of Western universities’ internationalisation strategies, says Peter Brady

Offloading virtual learning to third-party ‘partners’ doesn’t always work for students but remains a blind spot for quality assurance, says Nora Carrol

New scholarships and admissions policies may help to address low participation from Traveller communities, but outreach and curricula should also change, argues Emily Danvers

Right-wing politicians’ caricaturing of a mature research approach is a social dominance power play, says Steve Raven

Robert Eaglestone finds much to admire in an unapologetic attempt to justify the humanities in their own terms

With the education of a generation of young people thrown into chaos, many universities are rethinking how they admit and support those most in need of assistance. Anna McKie examines how the pandemic will change attitudes and approaches to widening access

A failure of imagination and aversion to networking is preventing doctoral students finding rewarding careers outside academia, says Max Horder

Qualities of silent endurance and self-containment embodied by the Duke of Edinburgh are unlikely to resonate with, or help, a generation of students faced with adversity, says Adrian Furnham

Allowing tattoo parlours and drive-in cinemas to reopen before universities illustrates how students have been ignored during the pandemic, says Olivia Winnifrith

Efforts to improve access and promote diversity are often undermined by assumptions that they are at odds with ‘excellence’ and academic freedom. Drawing on her experiences all the way from Iran to California, Pardis Mahdavi explains how we can and must do better

Without audit studies, we would have an impoverished understanding of discrimination, say S. Michael Gaddis, Charles Crabtree and nine others

Former Downing Street guru says UK’s new research agency must be freed from ‘expensive disaster zone’ of science bureaucracy

Events at the University of Leicester suggest an always tense relationship may be turning toxic, says Ursula Huws

Autocracy starts with the violent repression of students and academics, say Matteo Fumagalli, Achim Kemmerling, Youngmi Kim and Luicy Pedroza

Worries about Islamo-leftism in France and free speech in England reflect disciplines’ straddling of science and activism, says Alexis Artaud de La Ferrière

The crackdown on ‘Islamo-leftism’ is a purely political move to court right-wing votes in the coming election, says William Barylo

Universities need to review the unhelpful websites and unwittingly ageist admissions procedures that prevent older people becoming doctoral students, says Alison Etches

Trauma suffered by lecturers who were forced to teach in-person during coronavirus spike should not be dismissed, say Paul Hanna, Carl Walker and Mark Erickson

Pausing the assessment timetable for tenure and promotion may seem helpful, but it will actually deepen disparities on campus, says Jennifer Greenfield

Staff who enter higher education in mid-career without a PhD are academia’s ‘proletariat’, not ‘privileged’ young researchers, says paper

Academics must emphasise that thinking critically does not mean dismissing everything as biased, say Darren Linvill and Patrick Warren

Encouraging pandemic-hit graduates to continue their studies will only delay problems unless universities embrace student employability, says Sabrina Wang

Shazia Jagot’s life was transformed by the chance to read Chaucer as an undergraduate. It is crucial, she argues, that a new generation of black and ethnic minority students get the same opportunity

Forthcoming policies on ‘low-value courses’ and grade inflation must acknowledge how pandemic will hit graduate prospects and undergraduate preparedness for years to come, says QAA deputy chief executive Vicki Stott

Ambiguous status of postgraduate research students in lockdown has underlined why they should be treated as staff, says Rebecca Teague

University administrative staff are often the first point of contact for troubled students but training on how to manage these encounters is non-existent, says Sarah Bones

Growing impatience with online learning in South Korea highlights the limitations of socially distanced teaching, says Justin Fendos

Academics should not be seduced by the moral certainty on either side of the ‘with us or against us’ divide, says Brad Evans

Ministry warns researchers against ‘degrading’ nation in pursuit of international journal publication

Calls to redesign curricula for online study ignore how scholars need time and peer support to reinvent courses, says Carole Binns

A huge endowment could help draw the talent and capital to counterbalance the golden triangle, say Neil Lee and Javier Terrero Dávila

The movement to ‘decolonise’ university curricula has leaped into the political and educational mainstream in the wake of George Floyd’s death, dividing opinion on campus and beyond. Anna McKie examines how scholars are handling difficult discussions and where the agenda goes next

Expert views conflict on humanities graduates’ employment prospects, and whether Australian funding changes will make arts the preserve of the elite

Office for Students sets out plans for tougher minimum standards related to student outcomes, including degree completion rates and graduate employment

Linguistic framing of coronavirus on campus by management has dodged a proper assessment of risks to students and staff, writes a UK academic

The holy grail of a business model for open access monographs that works at scale for publishers, libraries and scholars is close, says Martin Paul Eve