Social science

Vilified abroad and distrusted in their homeland, Chinese students overseas have been marginalised as a result of a geopolitical struggle beyond their control, says Brian Wong

Those who fear a resurgence of coronavirus as campuses reopen can take heart from how Taiwan’s universities maintained in-person teaching throughout the pandemic, explains Cher Chiu

NYU Abu Dhabi’s vice-chancellor explains how her institution kept its campus open during the pandemic and what others can learn from this experience

Experts unimpressed by new attack on queer theory, post-colonial theory and other forms of ‘social justice scholarship’ by controversial authors

The pivot to online learning during the coronavirus pandemic has shown why university educators should embrace artificial intelligence, says Y. J. Jang

Scholars should not face official censure for making provocative statements on social media, but they have a responsibility to embody academic values of empathy and self-reflection in their online posts, argues Chris Barker

The A-level grading fiasco has highlighted the limitations of using exam results to assess undergraduate preparedness, says Suleiman M. Sharkh

Practical help for students and universities left exposed by the A-level results chaos is needed, not political point-scoring, says former Ucas chief executive Mary Curnock Cook

Critics underestimated the human imagination’s capacity to render concepts flexible, says Frank Furedi

The virtual reality technology market is booming thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. Jack Grove asks whether it might finally catch on in higher education

Eugenia Cheng defies convention with her approach to teaching. The Chicago-based British mathematician tells Matthew Reisz why similar out-of-the-box thinking is required to improve gender equality

Michelle Donelan says higher rates of university entry among black Britons highlight how narrative about social mobility can be misleading

The government’s tinkering with red tape is welcome but it won’t be enough to overcome Covid-19 uncertainty, says James Pitman

Most doctoral candidates show ‘clear preference’ for academic career despite high exit levels from sector, finds Higher Education Policy Institute study

Pastoral support for east Asian students has been re-engineered during lockdown and may offer lessons for the future

Two leading social scientists accused of producing racist scholarship say journals should rethink how they deal with such explosive allegations

The prizewinning economist discusses how economics must focus on beliefs and identity, along with the influence of TV on our choices

Institution’s efforts to make teaching more coronavirus-resilient could mean research-led teaching is ‘jettisoned’, critics claim

‘Unprecedented’ financial pressure on university budgets should result in reduced subscription charges, says UUK-Jisc group

The urge to be proved right and the mantra of publish or perish amount to a toxic scholarly brew. Reflection is the best policy, says Simone Eringfeld 

Finding your feet at a new university in lockdown can be tough. Jack Grove spoke to some recent starters about how universities can help their new staff

Open access publication of PhD theses makes it difficult for studies to be published as books, says 93-year-old Shakespeare scholar

Andrew Norton tells THE webinar that researchers on priority projects could be cut in coronavirus lay-offs while those doing less vital work are spared

Pandemic research is booming, with hundreds of new projects under way. Jack Grove speaks to experts on why insights beyond science are needed

With £7,500 tuition fees off the agenda, new strategies to rebalance English higher education could be introduced, says post-18 education review chair

UK research will become more interdisciplinary and community-focused in wake of pandemic, academic leaders tell THE event

World’s biggest academic publisher signs ‘global first’ open science agreement with Dutch universities and research councils

Social scientists should be more open that their policy advice is usually based on small experiments done in university settings, study recommends

Record year for university philanthropy in UK and Ireland sees Oxford and Cambridge dominate fundraising

Whether it’s to be ‘business as usual’ or not, social scientists have much to offer in discussion about how to move on after ravages of Covid-19

Trade-offs involved in pandemic are ‘bread and butter’ for the discipline and it could be ‘drawn into the broad sciences’, experts suggest

University of Glasgow principal Sir Anton Muscatelli says inputs into England’s TEF will become unreliable owing to pandemic shocks

Yes, excess haste can lead to mistakes, but the same is true of natural science, says Sandro Galea

Although UK higher education faces formidable financial challenges, it has won hearts and minds like never before, says Russell Reader

Financial incentives for developing new mass-testing methods would be more effective than coordinating research centrally, says economist Paul Romer

Education secretary Gavin Williamson pressed on whether government wants to ‘pick and choose’ which universities to save

If contributing to knowledge is the name of the game, what is wrong with description, asks Michael Marinetto

Global recession may make public and policymakers think more about those ‘at the bottom of society’, says social policy academic

Jo Johnson tells Times Higher Education event that universities should ‘take advantage’ of crisis to build on experience of online teaching

Emma Hardy calls on government to underwrite HE funding during ‘unprecedented set of challenges’ posed by Covid-19

India’s newest universities are showing immense promise but may find it hard to stay independent from the corporate world, says Ganeshdatta Poddar

Neglect of fundamental research is not inevitable when universities focus on sustainability challenges, UN advisor tells Innovation and Impact Summit

Coronavirus-enforced lockdown is leading to some unexpected scholarly analysis of Ryder and his team of pups

Switching towards peer-to-peer assessment makes sense for distance learning but a longer-term transformation would benefit students, says David Carless

Katie Metzler would like to see the different disciplines become more than the sum of their parts

Unexpected numbers are tuning into doctoral and master’s defences, with shutdown likely to lead to longer-term reforms to vivas, says Dutch professor

Rolling Stone shows how improvisation in difficult circumstances can lead to memorable results, but scholars must also be honest about trade-offs caused by lockdown, say Bailey Sousa and Alexander Clark

Science minister announces new joint team of government departments to consider assistance for sectors

Radical changes may be on cards after stock market crash and interest rate cuts, say experts

Concerns raised over proposed UK open access rules that would require researchers to surrender copyright

New objective to support university finances during Covid-19 crisis suggests a new path for England’s higher education regulator

Despite boasting years of experience in industry, scholars with professional backgrounds can find it hard to get ahead

Scottish Funding Council review condemns how bumper payments to secure ‘orderly exit’ of Sir Ian Diamond were awarded

Proposals to mandate open access monographs from 2024 will make it harder to publish and will limit career chances, says professor

Proposals are likely to raise concerns over the future of longer-form academic publishing

Former editors-in-chief at European Law Journal say the departure of editorial boards raises issue about ‘who owns’ scholarly journals

Center for Open Science project will pass judgment on journals’ commitment to research transparency

A growing number of data detectives are on the hunt for sloppy science and dodgy statistics. Jack Grove examines the methods they use

Just 5 per cent of funding over past two decades went on studies examining how to change human behaviour to help tackle crisis, researchers find

Reverse culture shock is among the tricky situations that scholars may face when returning to their native country for research fieldwork, says Olga Burlyuk