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The viva, the final hurdle to gaining a PhD, is labour-intensive, not conducted to any national standard and is dreaded by students who fear an examiner will capriciously halt their career. Is it still fit for purpose? asks Elizabeth Gibney

Australian approach offers lessons for UK, forum hears

Starting university-level study in secondary school pays financial and academic dividends, writes Jon Marcus

Informal group admits reform will require more work than previously thought

The rest of the world thinks so, says Hefce funding chief

Jon Marcus reports on how one of the global capitals of higher education rose to the challenge posed by terror

Robert Gordon head critiques traditional rationale for scholarly activity

Existing legislation fails to cover Student Loans Company cash

A BBC scheme aims to tackle gender inequality

Numbers treble after change in funding requirements

Under the reign of the free-market icon, state power over universities increased. Vernon Bogdanor assesses Thatcher’s legacy to education

New ‘ambassador’ aims to improve access to elite institutions

Toby Miller recalls a paralysing encounter with terror in the skies and asks: in my shoes, would you have reacted differently?

Union takes on management over ‘academic annex’ reforms

The LSE’s complaints about being kept in the dark about undercover reporting in North Korea are peevish, Tim Luckhurst argues

Geraldine Van Bueren says international law could help opponents of rising tuition costs in their battle

Thinktank calls on federal government to level the playing field

The Times Higher Education Student Experience Survey 2013 shows a responsive attitude and landmark infrastructure projects help to create contentment. Elizabeth Gibney reports

Paul Magrs was flabbergasted when an institution he hadn’t heard from in years asked if it could use his work to show impact. Here is his reply

Brian Cantor, the vice-chancellor of York University, is to take charge of the University of Bradford as his next post.

A bill to reform the libel system in England and Wales is set to become law after completing its passage through the Houses of Parliament.

The proportion of young people accessing higher education hit a record high of 49 per cent as students scrambled to avoid last year’s tuition fee hikes, a new study says.

The University of Oxford professor of tropical medicine and global health has been named as the new director of the Wellcome Trust.

University staff have been offered a 0.5 per cent pay increase for the next academic year – far below unions’ claims for a salary rise in excess of 3 per cent.

The chief executive of the Scottish Funding Council is to leave his position to join a university, a matter of weeks after a similar move by the head of the English funding council.

The Duke of Westminster has been revealed as the country’s richest university chancellor in a list of the UK’s wealthiest people.

By Ry Rivard, for Inside Higher Ed

The University of Central Lancashire is shelving plans to switch to private company status, potentially dealing a blow to other post-1992 universities’ hopes of making the move and opening up to commercial investment.

Academic opposition to outsourcing at the University of Sussex is building, with staff from ten schools, departments and research centres publishing statements supporting protests at the institution.

Ensuring that knowledge translates into growth will be among the priorities the incoming government chief scientific adviser Mark Walport has set himself for the next five years.

Students at the London School of Economics who were on a controversial visit to North Korea with undercover BBC journalists have hit out at the university, saying it has placed them in greater danger than the trip itself.

School pupils from poorer backgrounds could be contacted by the government to nudge them towards applying to university if they get good GCSE grades, David Willetts has said.

UUK chief looks to impact to save budget from Augean economy

Gurminder Bhambra supports the students and staff contesting the hollowing-out of the University of Sussex’s collegial ideals

Wales’ institutions gain funds as a result of cross-border flow under new fees regime

Steve Smith warns of looming budgetary issues that could send institutions off the road

University of South Wales is a behemoth with plans to become even bigger

Do the data represent the failure of market research or are they the inevitable by-product of a broad curriculum?

Many doctoral candidates do not make clear their work’s scholarly contribution

It is morally wrong to deny University of Sussex students 24/7 support from flexible, professional campus services, says John Duffy

Paul Manners worries that rush to tell research stories turns academics into salesmen and undermines collaboration

Overseas students rejected on ‘arbitrary’ grounds, UKCISA report suggests

Instructors and students discuss their experiences of the University of Edinburgh’s debut courses on Coursera

University says problems at partner colleges affect just 3% of students

The Army’s teamwork ethos shaped the management style of the University of Essex’s Anthony Forster

A retrospective of the neglected artist to whom Claude Monet ‘owed everything’ is long overdue, writes Christoph Bode

Cardiff calls time on anonymous allegations of past misconduct in dean’s lab. Paul Jump reports

Research club offers hands-on access to fascinating materials from aerogel to baby teeth

We must hold up a mirror to scientific peer review if we are to stamp out fraud and uphold the discipline’s reputation, argues Philip Moriarty

Vast digital archive of court records 1674-1913 is ‘dead people’s big data’