Academic Jack Davis tells John Morgan of his surprise at learning that his history of the Gulf of Mexico had won a Pulitzer prize and his hope that it will help to deliver a pro-environmental message
Precarity is a significant feature of the academy worldwide, creating a feeling of ‘academic apartheid’ as it grows. Ellie Bothwell explores its impact
Lincoln Allison was inspired to teach by academics who loved what they did and communicated this to students. But has all passion for teaching been eliminated by creeping assessment and instrumentalism?
Leading a university seminar for the first time can be an intimidating prospect. Here, three PhD students offer some advice for those preparing for the new academic year
Seekers of dispassionate truth may be irritated by the moral passion of the likes of Dostoevsky, Zola and Chekhov, but it is a much stronger influence on public opinion, says David Aberbach
Educators accusing students of not working hard enough is simply a shirking of their responsibility to actually meet learners’ needs, says Katherine Gould
The accounting magic the UK government performs to handle outstanding student loans has once again been questioned, but the timing couldn’t be worse for universities, says Andy Westwood
Don’t believe the hype; Finnish universities face just as many problems with professional mismanagement and staff morale as those in other countries, says Gareth Rice
What is it like to be a bat?; writing about yourself; when safety compromises freedom; a pioneer of the history of medicine; and rethinking the Garden of Eden
While Vieno Vehko empathises with millennials’ burden of tuition debt, she also finds it hard to respect a group that neither reads critically nor takes responsibility for its learning
The entanglement of the university and tech worlds faces increased scrutiny following the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Could joint positions in industry and academia offer a workable and ethically defensible way forward? David Matthews reports
In a world transformed, we need a radical new blueprint – for a flexible, less centralised network of scholars and students, says a former Berkeley chancellor
When the alt-right made highly dubious claims about historical Irish slavery, Natalie Zacek realised that a rebuttal from an expert would make no difference
There is no holding back the king tide that is the Asian country’s higher education ambition – yet while the torrent carries some riches, what will it sweep away?
At a gathering of young scientists and Nobel prizewinners, David Matthews detects a whiff of mutiny in the air stirred by the pressures of a modern research career
A new perspective on Lenin suggests that the power shift to the Politburo originated not with Stalin but because it was often more expedient for ministers to go direct to the Politburo for a speedy decision rather than grappling with Sovnarkom bureaucracy
Three-quarters of students in the UK now receive ‘good’ degrees, compared with just half 20 years ago. Is grade inflation an inevitable result of the marketisation of higher education and is the picture the same worldwide? Simon Baker examines the evidence
The geriatrician and television star on hitch-hiking to Paris, the secret of ageing well, and how an elderly man’s rectal prolapse helped him realise his vocation
The Oakland Promise, like a number of local schemes in the US, aims to be a ‘cradle to career’ programme moving more of the city’s children into higher education. John Morgan visits California to assess it
