Professor

Rising numbers of overseas academics have been hit with visa denials or refused entry to Palestine, scholars say

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

Tributes paid to a scientist who narrowly missed a Nobel

Nesta finds proportion of female AI researchers was higher in the mid-1990s – although universities fare better than tech firms

UCL centre, about to welcome new director, shows how slavery shaped UK – with implications for universities

All modern academics know that it’s publish or perish, but is regular publication a gateway or a barrier to groundbreaking scholarship? Simon Baker assesses the data on the relationship between research volume and quality and asks which, if either, should be prioritised

Giving short online talks for a general audience offers benefits for individuals, subjects and the entire profession, says Kristen Sadler

Matthew Reisz considers the fascinating, painful and plain bizarre topics addressed by researchers exploring one of the last taboos

Wolfgang Ketterle says scientists should aim instead for equilibrium in the longer term, and always keep other interests or hobbies

Tributes paid to ‘one of the greatest humanists of the early 21st century’

Colleagues may look askance at ‘the death squad’, but while teaching and research into one of life’s only two certainties may be taxing, it is also vital, Matthew Reisz hears

Physicist and broadcaster says academics must have freedom and support to communicate with society, to ‘avoid mistakes of past’

With such wide disagreements in grading, the research excellence framework’s gravity for careers is unjustifiable, says Philip Moriarty

If academics want students to see value in course-based activities, we need to make clearer to them exactly what broader skills they will learn by completing them, says Tanya Martini

The New Education Policy breaks with India’s post-independence preference for vocational avenues of upward mobility, says Saikat Majumdar

Tributes paid to psychologist who put counselling on a scientific footing

Promotion criteria requiring top researchers to also be good teachers and managers undermine the nature of universities, says Andrew Oswald

Universities in most nations are now obliged to prioritise graduate career prospects, but how it should be approached depends on your view of the meaning of education. Academics need to think that through much more clearly, says Tom Cutterham

Disengaging from ‘whiteness’ is not alienating: it is an opportunity to reflect on why we are in academia in the first place, says William Barylo

Asking for higher contributions is painful but unavoidable in such uncertain times, says USS chair Sir David Eastwood

The serious-minded pursuit of knowledge is not incompatible with an enjoyment of some rather more popular pursuits. Six academics talk about their passion for a topic conspicuous by its absence from the scholarly literature 

The Surrey professor and broadcaster explains how science communication can entertain and enlighten

The UK’s TEF experience should be a warning to Australia’s re-elected government not to settle for empty accountability, says William Locke 

A weekly look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

David Newman is unconvinced by claims that the Middle East is being reconfigured

Joanna Bourke has reservations about an attempt to track the changing meanings of terror

A different environment can do wonders for a person; might universities feel a similar refreshment when the UK’s political landscape settles down again?

Lincoln Allison may have lived through the glory days of academic publishing, but he still wonders whether the countless hours he spent writing his 14 moderately successful tomes would have been better spent on the tennis court

Robert Montgomerie enjoys an engaging account of a breakthrough in biological thinking

Book of the week: Robert Eaglestone praises a dazzlingly wide-ranging analysis of the choices we don’t make

Tributes paid to Harvard’s first tenured black professor

The new president of the Royal Economic Society on the need for economists to be more engaging and why being a woman is an advantage in the field

Most universities still rely on exams and assessed essays to grade their students. But as the fourth industrial revolution, employability and student satisfaction all rise up the agenda, many experts are suggesting that assessment needs to much more closely resemble real-world tasks. Anna McKie marks the arguments   

Artificial intelligence may be threatening employment but it could also be key to helping humans find alternative jobs, argues Shigeru Miyagawa 

Engagement by students and staff bolstered by mandates from governments cited as key ingredients for success in THE University Impact Rankings tables

Dean was removed following opposition to his role in Harvey Weinstein’s legal team

Alec Ryrie reports from a skirmish in the culture wars that proves surprisingly illuminating

The author of Brexit in History: Sovereignty or a European Union? on extroversion and introversion, political decision making and Bohemian fairy tales

Tributes paid to ‘gentlemanly’ scholar of folklore, fairy tales and fantasy fiction

Successful publish-or-perish operators should look in the mirror before writing their next diatribe about marketisation, says Mike Marinetto

Experts question government decision to continue reserving 90 per cent of pre-university programme places to Malay majority

Istanbul scholar Füsun Üstel becomes first academic to go to jail for signing 2016 peace declaration

Book of the week: Christopher Hill considers a notably sharp analysis of the challenges the EU faces today

A weekly glimpse over the shoulder of our scholar-reviewers

Today’s conspiracists see all social phenomena as resulting from dark intrigues – but why, Jane O’Grady wants to know

Matthew Reisz on the ideals archaeology and anthropology need to live up to

The University of Arizona ecologist on Colombia’s natural diversity, her lucky break, and the challenges facing other aspiring scientists

Tributes paid to internationally renowned figure in technology education

In a managerial era, universities are challenging the traditional idea that only individuals need protecting, say Otto Hüther and Georg Krücken

International conferences are a huge boon to academics, allowing them to hear about new findings, make new connections and, above all, enjoy the physical manifestation of their virtual global community. But is all that footfall worth the huge carbon footprint it leaves? Joanna Kidman is increasingly unsure 

Academics are watching to see how the University of Hong Kong will respond after one of its scholars was jailed for his role in 2014 protests

English studies is a traditional big beast in the academy, but there are concerns that changes in student behaviour could put it on the endangered list. Seven academics give their views on whether and how the discipline needs to evolve

Emma Rees celebrates a new generation of online feminist campaigners

Tributes paid to leading scholar of French colonial history

Struggles of Hampshire College suggest to some that students may be reluctant to shape their own degrees in a debt-heavy, career-focused higher education sector

Publishers’ terror of libel law and focus on their profit margins have made them excessively risk-averse, says Stuart Macdonald

The expert on ancient Syria was forced to flee his homeland – but has been able to continue his work thanks to a German scholarship

Lincoln Allison is unimpressed by an attempt to promote plebeianism as a political philosophy

Geoffrey Alderman considers the ambiguities of the synthesis between German and Jewish culture in the 19th and 20th centuries

R.C. Richardson considers how the events of the 1640s and 1650s were recalled by the next generations