Professor

The Cambridge-based US philosopher explains how his father’s vexed relationship with Catholicism led him to philosophy and why the student idealism he witnessed in West Germany in 1968 caused him to leave America

Universities’ intellectual property is seen as key to successful knowledge economies. But what is the best way to turn ideas into marketable products? Is it realistic to expect major commercial success? And how much of a stake should universities take in the process – and the proceeds? Jack Grove reports

If good collegial practice is recognised, shared and rewarded, universities will be more enjoyable places to work, says Rachel Norman

After years of resisting university managers determined to graduate students at all costs, one US professor decided it was time to quit

Mental illness has been depicted as the primary occupational health hazard of UK student life since the 1950s, says Sarah Crook

Thirty years after his breakout book declared democracy to be an unstoppable force, the End of History author explains to Matthew Reisz why a new defence of liberal values is urgently needed, and why scholars must share some responsibility for destabilising them

Trials suggest that far from being mutually exclusive, both can play an important role, says Kim Eggleton

A few electronic mailing lists still thrive in the academy, reminding us that peer communication need not be all about ‘building the brand’, says Kate Eichhorn

The furore over the John Comaroff letter means discussions that could boost understanding of sexual harassment won’t occur, says Jonathan Zimmerman 

All academics have had that anxiety dream about standing up to give a lecture, only to realise they have forgotten to prepare anything – or to put on any clothes. But real teaching failures are rarely so disastrous – and many are teachable moments. Seven academics tell us their hard-earned lessons

As the Christ Church saga underlines, college trustees must ask probing questions if they are to fulfil their responsibilities, says Gill Evans 

Offering the opportunity to iteratively paraphrase copied content to lower similarity scores is nothing to do with education, says Július Kravjar

International community ‘should take in academics unable to continue teaching in Hong Kong’, say scholars

Scientists should strive for real impact, not to impress a panel of busy peers, with their agendas, biases and blind spots, says Pedro Domingos 

The grip of Silicon Valley on commerce and culture is huge and ever-growing. But as concerns mount about tech firms’ ethics, is there anything that universities – with vastly lower research and salary budgets – can do to put them on a more responsible trajectory? Four experts give their views

Tokyo’s tight border controls could undo decades of education exchanges, say scholars

Despite China’s rise, even the country’s government recognises that English usage is irrevocable, say Philip Altbach and Gerard Postiglione

A publisher’s move to correct the undue influence of pro-Israel groups on a history textbook shows the value of engagement, says John Chalcraft

Establishing a peer review accreditation scheme would also help incentivise higher standards, says Arfan Ghani

Marketing students in business schools increasingly demand to be taught to use audio-visual software, says Emmanuel Mogaji

Accurate reporting of results is important, but meaning is rarely distorted by orthographic or grammatical slips, says Adrian Furnham

The Novak Djokovic affair underlines the need to teach that openness to error is the baseline of knowledge, say Raj Persaud and Adrian Furnham

The technological objectification of thought plagued education long before classes were conducted over Zoom, says Kishore Saval

The publication of three Nature papers demonstrates that money is no substitute for good ideas, open science and collaboration, says Andrea Morello

Higher education must acknowledge the extra workload that comes with higher education in the digital era, says Christopher Schaberg

The philosopher and author of The Fourfold Remedy: Epicurus and the Art of Happiness on Asterix, architecture, Aristippus and discovering the power of ideas

Perhaps it is only by recasting an agreement as an adventure that professors can respond to the urgency of our times, says Robert Zaretsky

The UK minister’s demand that universities stick to face-to-face lectures is a step backwards for education, says Wendy Garnham

Carrie Tirado Bramen enjoys a wide-ranging analysis of an important concept that has recently been neglected by scholars

Tributes paid to ‘single-minded’ researcher who could tell you anything ‘you ever needed to know about sleep’

The pandemic has demonstrated that there are broad deficiencies in quantitative reasoning skills even within the academy, says David Sanders

A look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

Nathan Abrams is impressed by a comprehensive attempt to survey the ways Nazi atrocities have been represented on screen

June Purvis enjoys a group biography that offers new insights into the role of British working-class women in the struggle for the vote 

Neve Gordon has reservations about an ambitious analysis ranging across continents and centuries

Tributes paid to a pioneering political scientist who overcame the obstacles and stereotypes that often block women in the academy

The escalating pressures of university life are resulting in all manner of exotic new psychological disorders. Adrian Furnham opens his casebook

As the season of goodwill comes around again, warm words about collegiality and fellowship have been dutifully corralled into all-staff missives from university leaders. But in an era of management, metrics and industrial unrest, does the image of the academy as a commonwealth of scholars still bear scrutiny? Seven academics have their say 

Star professors who abuse their positions escape censure because universities fear hit to reputations and funding, says union report

Robert Eaglestone reflects on the limits of hagiography

Persuasion is everywhere, but universities could do a public service by communicating the messy, uncertain truth more widely, says Michael Blastland

Australian universities’ ongoing embrace of digital approaches is cheapening learning – but not in a good way, says Binoy Kampmark

Robert A. Segal is unconvinced by an argument about the depth of religious racism

Coyness, contention and competing agendas all hamper historians and sociologists of sex. Matthew Reisz speaks to those who choose, nevertheless, to probe this most sensitive and intimate of subjects

Chris Knight wishes that the authors of this hugely ambitious study had gone back further and taken greater account of Africa

Studying institutional success stories is socially useful and has nothing to do with selling out, say Matthew Flinders and Paul ’t Hart

A look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

Non-Korean academics must often accept ‘dead-end jobs’ and isolation among native colleagues

Mediocre but arrogant academics who appropriate successful projects are a threat to education and collegiality, says Manuel Freire-Garabal 

Nobel literature laureate on his dual career, childhood memories and why decolonising the curriculum is nothing new

The silence of other universities about an apparent clampdown on lawful speech is a betrayal of their mission, says Jonathan Rosenhead

Emma Rees is impressed by a disturbing study of how universities largely fail to address their employees’ grievances

Scholars defend Sergey Zuev’s ‘impeccable reputation’ and liken his treatment to torture

Amid another round of strikes, the pension scheme chair’s assertion that changes are unavoidable cannot stand unchallenged, says Neil Davies

The country’s conservative government is wary of academia’s social influence and values, but a ministerial letter offers hope, says Agnieszka Piotrowska

Peter J. Smith gets drowned in the detail of an ambitious study of the playwright’s milieu

The counterfactual approach can open up fascinating new perspectives and give a voice to the neglected ‘losers’ of history, professors say

The UK’s whole-genome sequencing project could spark a global step change in the treatment of rare diseases, says Damian Smedley

More training, greater recognition and a wider geographical purview would help expand the reviewer pool, says Miriam Maus

The latest USS valuation may have been conducted amid crashing markets, but there is no escaping the need for changes, says Kate Barker