Other senior management

Marketisation, precarity and global competition have combined to create a vast market for academic ghostwriting, says an anonymous scholar

Strides have been taken since the destruction wrought by the US-led invasion, but funding and standards remain unacceptably low, says Mohamed Al-Rubeai

The difficulties even of obtaining a scholarship to study in the West amount to systemic exclusion, says Rudrani Dasgupta

US universities must think harder about how to make the poorer students they admit feel like full community members, says Anthony Abraham Jack

A weekly look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

The government’s new ‘national interest’ test for research proposals is another damaging symptom of short-termism, says Margaret Sheil

Some awards are unfortunate, but abolishing this time-honoured practice would throw out the baby with the bathwater, says Richard Willis

Regions’ struggles to provide appropriate land and resources is undermining quality, says Debananda Misra

Academics highlight brain drain of researchers and loss of international research partners as concerns in wake of latest government ‘attack on autonomy’

If history has taught us anything, it is that out of conflict comes collaboration, says Carel Stolker

Evidence from Canada highlights the scale of the challenge in preparing 21st-century workers and citizens, say Ross Finnie, Arthur Sweetman and Richard Mueller 

Robert MacIntosh offers managers some hints on how to succeed at their university strategy day

Encouraging the use of inclusive language and implementing policies against gender-based violence on campus can lead to wider societal change, say Amparo Galbis and Cristiana Oliveira 

England’s fledgling university regulator is in too much of a hurry to make an impact and curry favour with ministers, says Gill Evans

Seeking special status will further antagonise non-members faced with curtailed access to EU research funding, says Jan Palmowski

The press may castigate ‘snowflake students’ over free speech, but resistance to far-right speakers has a long history, says Evan Smith

The Pacific nation’s ambitions to harness its universities to drive economic growth face many challenges, says Roger Smyth

Four lab leaders explain how universities can help academics in the early days of running their first research group

Portland State University’s investigation of a researcher who published hoax papers misses the point of ethical oversight, says Jeffrey Flier

Reforms to the French university admission system have ushered in greater selectivity in an attempt to address high dropout rates. But without adequate filtering by family background, will this disproportionately favour the elite? David Matthews reports from Paris

UK university leaders might be bullish on the subject of institutional failure but the divide between managers and staff needs serious redress

Pledges of huge investments in higher education to secure the tech giant’s second headquarters could strain academic autonomy, says Michelle Dimino

If UCL renames its Galton Lecture Theatre, the choice should reflect a full appraisal of the eugenicist’s life, work and times, says Lennard Davis

Universities may feel held to unachievable standards, but removing barriers for all manner of talented people will make institutions better and stronger

Standardised test scores, interviews, entrance exams, choosing the top percentage of applicants: all are used in university admissions. Ellie Bothwell asks which methods provide the most honest reflection of suitability for higher education

Those who fail to articulate the issues their communities feel strongly about do the academy and society a disservice, says Sandro Galea

Putting universities in ‘special measures’ or even abolishing degree classifications altogether should be on the table, says Geoffrey Alderman

Institutions that pride themselves on inclusivity should be doing all they can to defend student sex workers’ rights and safety, says Adi MacArtney

Australia’s move to performance-based funding must be better thought through than England’s TEF, say Gwilym Croucher and Kenneth Moore

The jury is out on the educational value of recording, but universities prize its ability to project them as accessible and inclusive, says Simon Fokt

The residential experience has its attractions for school-leavers, but most US students value low cost and flexibility above all, says Paul LeBlanc

Latest Indigenous scholar to leave post urges universities to focus on student support, not ‘tokenistic’ senior positions

It is inexcusable that some people graduate from UK universities without a basic command of mathematics or grammar, says John Warren

High-cost meritocracy à la française will cut little ice with discerning international students, says Juliette Torabian

Maintaining a breadth of curricular offerings is crucial if subjects outside the sciences are to retain their attraction in the digital age, says Dean Forbes

Overseas programmes are rarely money-spinners, but as power shifts east they will be crucial for Western universities’ continued relevance, says Matt Durnin

Judgement is hard, but limits are appropriate if they ensure the quality of academic engagement with complex, competing ideas, says Sandro Galea

A Twitter storm over a remark he made on diversity policy reminds Jeffrey Flier why he was so wary of speaking out while a Harvard dean

Analysis of wage premiums from tertiary education suggests that the system struggles to deliver the changing skills that the economy demands, says Stephen Parker

If access to European research funding is to be maintained, more UK research universities need to forge formal links with EU institutions, says Peter Coveney

The UK’s Commons Education Committee has surveyed many issues, but its simple-minded approach is largely unhelpful, says Andrew McRae  

If businesses regard upskilling their middle managers as a high priority, universities should not be criticised for meeting that need, says Alec Cameron

Political efforts to silence academic critics are unlikely to end despite clarification that universities are not obliged to ban them, says Pushkar

Simon Baker weighs the evidence for the transformation of the country’s higher education system

Degrees focused on specific careers need be no less rigorous or innovative than other graduate qualifications, say Sandro Galea and Lisa Sullivan

Trump administration plans to allow universities to attract federal funding for students based not on the amount of time they spend studying but on measurements of their ability

Satisfaction with postgraduate research declines significantly over course of programme, survey reveals

Half of continental institutions are developing online learning programmes, survey says

Director of Indian Institute of Technology Bombay says universities in India are improving but progress will be slow despite government initiatives

Members say professional organisations dependent on income from subscription-model journals face ‘existential’ threat from landmark open access policy

A weekly look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

Seeking a greater share of imagined profits from commercialisation would undermine technology transfer, says David Secher

Unwieldy bureaucracy, infrastructure challenges and scant funding all hold back innovation in Indian higher education. Philip Altbach and Eldho Mathews assess the country’s current strategies for transforming its universities

A weekly look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

Many retired academics embrace the freedom to fully embody their view of the serious scholar, says Bruce Macfarlane

Universities must be clear about their ethics to avoid tripping up on the precarious path from principle to guidance

Research will suffer from the collapse of professional development into financially fixated assessments of ‘capability’, say Gill Evans and Dorothy Bishop