Lecturer

You have spent three years thinking your life will be perfect after you submit your thesis. But it isn’t true, says Petra Boynton

Strikes notwithstanding, more pay restraint and greater pensions contributions from UK staff seem unavoidable, writes Bernard Casey

Economic and Social Research Council may provide four years of PhD funding amid concerns over stress caused by three-year model

Reporting procedures were woefully inadequate, while senior managers frequently enabled intimidatory behaviour, says an anonymous UK academic

Study finds that overseas scholars in former communist countries work there not out of deliberate choice but often due to ‘happenstance’, love or to escape poor job prospects at home

Would-be scholars confronted with academics’ tweets could be forgiven for running for the hills, worries Scott Rich 

Prince Andrew’s fall from grace a full decade after Jeffrey Epstein’s conviction underlines academia’s failure to probe modern power, says Jason Lee

Jonathan R. Goodman is wrong to blame bibliometrics for stifling academic debate, says Craig Aaen-Stockdale

Critics fear initiative could widen social inequalities

In a fraught political climate, it is even more difficult than usual for researchers to grab the attention of ministers. Diana Beech imparts her insider’s tips

Colleagues may judge those with regional accents more harshly, but poorer students respond to lecturers from similar backgrounds, says Ryan Coogan

Junior scholars have always needed to curry favour with their seniors, but quantifying research impact exacerbates the problem, says Jonathan R Goodman

Elsevier could sell Dutch universities a bundle of journal access rights and software, raising concerns that universities could become stuck in one publisher’s software ecosystem

Hepi study calls for debate on the purpose and value of the UK’s costly system of residential universities

The two-time Ig Nobel Prize winner explains the potential applications of her research on wombats’ cubed poo and why animal waste is the ‘best study topic’

More account must be taken of pregnancy, assisted fertility and miscarriage, say Christina Hellmich and Marina Della Giusta

Such skills can be learned relatively easily and cheaply. Universities should develop expertise in fields essential to human flourishing, says Andrew Moore 

Management academics need to be supported to bring teaching and research on global warming into the mainstream, say Amanda Goodall and Susan Hill

Would-be Brexit Party MP Kevin Yuill says he is encouraged by support for Leave party among staff and students

Schools in Vietnam need to recruit careers advisers – but their advice should be aimed primarily at parents, says Matthew Edward

Academics’ deep identification with their work means that the failure of a book proposal, grant application or promotion request can cut deeply. But in a competitive profession, such knock-backs are inevitable. Here, six academics recall their most traumatic rejection – and how they got over it

Analysis of publishing deals across Europe highlights different costs faced by country-level consortia

‘Monk mornings’, work sprints and withdrawal from social media helped Benedict Probst become hugely more productive

Steph Grohmann’s ‘revenge eviction’ gave her vivid, first-hand experience of the trials and consolations of occupying unused buildings, finds Matthew Reisz

The impact agenda is often portrayed a diversion from the real activity of research, but it can also provoke new lines of enquiry, says Alix Green

New rules will soon require UK institutions to listen to early career researchers. Jack Grove looks at how to engage a group often seen as hard to reach

Bureaucracy is the bane of every academic’s life. But who is to blame for its proliferation – and how can it be kept in check? Six academics have their say – while a registrar offers an equal and opposite reaction 

Much important scientific research takes place outside laboratories. The history of science can only be enriched, argues Vanessa Heggie, if we give equal attention to other sites

The Bad Religion frontman and Cornell University lecturer on combining songwriting and academic research and how universities should respond to far-right extremism

Academic lawyers have helped to resolve legal puzzles, but wider engagement can be demanding and ineffective, says Kenneth Armstrong

Ever since it emerged from English departments in the 1970s, media studies has been routinely dismissed as the archetypal ‘Mickey Mouse’ degree. But in an era of fake news and media hegemony, has this multifaceted subject finally found its place in the zeitgeist?

Improved citation performance amid falling funding is the result of gaming, say Alberto Baccini, Eugenio Petrovich and Giuseppe De Nicolao

Recent controversy over the future directions of both Stanford and Melbourne university presses have raised questions about the role of in-house publishing arms in a world of commercialisation, impact agendas, alternative facts – and ever-diminishing monograph sales. Anna McKie reports

Universities rightly make every effort to protect learners’ feelings. But what about teachers’ feelings, asks Alice Wickenden 

Trend for ‘shorter and closer’ overseas study options among Japanese students puts premium on demonstrating educational value, EAIE conference hears

Caring duties and environmental responsibility do not signify a lack of commitment to scholarship, says Danielle George

The iconic dictionary’s misogynist descriptions of female genitalia were ripe for revision, say Emma Rees and Ellie Stedall

A new humanities-based major focused on how global commerce, businesses and societies shape one another points the way forward, says Karen E. Spierling

Encouraging Chinese students to access non-Chinese media sources can ease fears of systematic bias, says Tao Zhang

Using free online teaching materials instead of textbooks lessens student debt and sparks pedagogical innovation, says Steven Murphy

The pursuit of impact remains controversial, but it has opened doors to more varied careers, says Andrew McRae

Historic prompts on how to keep overbearing expectations at arm’s length should be taken up by modern academics, says Michael Marinetto

Exam invigilator Helen Soteriou reveals the elaborate schemes devised by students seeking to cheat on their tests

The current generation of students often come under fire for supposedly being excessively brittle and demanding. But does the reality bear that out, and what are the teaching techniques to which they respond best? Six scholars recount their own experiences and offer their tips

A lecturer describes how her university failed to act when she was racially victimised by a student receiving mental health support

Academics should consider whether they are comfortable giving top marks to students barely literate in English who submit work translated by Google, says Paul Stapleton

Individuals should be able to choose their own work-life balance depending on their life situation and level of ambition, says Lee Cronin

University campuses are microcosms of the universe and offer multiple opportunities to put abstract theory into action, says Peter Harper

Funders and researchers are squandering a huge opportunity to create a more just and effective system, says Jon Tennant

Why are an ex-footballer’s views on the game worth so much while academic analysis of the news is worth nothing, asks Peter Wells

Those fired and imprisoned for signing a 2016 statement condemning Turkish military action still have a long struggle ahead, says Mehmet Ugur

Cultivating open-mindedness and intellectual humility is the best way to combat arrogance and insouciance, says Bethan Willis

Students want above all to develop ties with the people and places they interact with, say Liam Keenan and Maddy Thompson

The live unveiling of Germany’s Excellence Strategy institutions is greeted by champagne, confetti and a changing of attitudes

The ‘best’ scientists lack time for peer review, and academics should be rated for ‘worthy’ papers, argues Dan Shechtman

Summer is upon northern hemisphere academics. But its cherished traditional identity as a time for intensive research is being challenged by the increasing obligations around teaching and administration that often crowd out research entirely during term time. So is the 40/40/20 workload model still sustainable? Respondents to a THE survey suggest not. Nick Mayo hears why

Calls for critical thinking from their students are rarely reflected in academics’ own writing or institutional behaviour, says Alex Wright

Leiden University acted unlawfully, a court has ruled, in using anonymous letter to discredit an applicant for a professorship

Those lucky established academics who want to help precarious colleagues would do better to pay for their lunch, says Sarah Burton

Michael Kosterlitz tells THE how colour blindness shaped his career and why Nobel winners shouldn’t be taken too seriously