Professor

Justifications of suicide may risk promoting it, but censoring one side of an ancient argument would shortchange students, says David Baumeister

The withdrawal of funding for Ontario’s basic income pilot highlights the perils of working on politically funded research, says Evelyn Forget

Professors shown to be mostly mad and mostly male, scholar claims

New rules requiring a female presence on doctoral defence panels at the University of Glasgow will push more ‘unrewarded’ academic tasks on to women, critics claim

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

Ann Hughes samples an account of household recipe creation in 17th-century England

In recounting their journeys, female writers could talk about themselves, their values, their civic engagement and their responses to contemporary affairs in Britain, writes Abigail Williams

An otherwise strong account of America’s scientific pioneers largely forgets women, says Leslie Kemp Poole

The elaborate prank that saw spoof papers accepted by social science journals reveals more about the hoaxers’ politics than the shortcomings of ‘grievance studies’, says Alison Phipps

A weekly look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

The capital value of slaves made it possible for white livelihoods to flourish, writes Martin Myers

Exploring what comes first, religion or politics, can help us understand societal divides in the US, says Angelia Wilson

A study of an amazing era of progress is as lively as the minds behind it, says Robert Lambourne

Scholarly prose can be verbose and unclear, and can obscure the point you are trying to make. Joe Moran offers his top 10 tips for writing well

If academics object to students’ intended destinations, they have a right not to write, says David Palumbo-Liu

Sociology, once a discipline seen as the embodiment of social progress, is now subject to frequent scepticism over its methodology, politics and career relevance. Here, five sociologists offer their assessment of the challenges facing the subject and what the future holds

Right-wing intellectuals who fetishise ‘facts’ frustrate rather than further intellectual debate, says Ryan Coogan

The US car industry shows why higher education deregulation is ultimately disastrous for product quality and consumer safety, says Jeff Frank

The digital tide will not wash away campus-based learning, believe most respondents to THE’s University Leaders Survey. David Matthews reports on what they see ahead for study options, scholarly conferences, scientific progress and more

Book of the week: In dire political times, Lyndsey Stonebridge discovers a welcome example of slow reading

Human beings’ need for religion goes far beyond the management of emotions, says Ursula King

Recording the day-to-day during the Holocaust did not restore victims’ sense of self, finds Dan Stone

Universities in China are once again the fastest-advancing group in the THE World University Rankings. A closer look at their approaches shows why

Singaporean scholar says that reverse brain drain has allowed global power to thrive 

To spare doctoral candidates protracted and unproductive efforts, Tim Marler and Dean Young suggest a pragmatic route to successful completion, while, below, Julian Kirchherr advocates a quick-and-dirty path to a viable thesis

Over time, one symbol of dehumanisation has served different purposes, finds Catherine Molineux

Jenny Pickerill argues that we need more practical suggestions on how to tackle institutions’ resistance to decolonisation

Top Israeli scholar says he was told to leave behind his scientific qualities when he became a member of parliament

Study finds that a quarter of students at European universities think internationalisation is of little importance

After a year of heavy criticism threatened to see the landmark study written off for good, it has received support from an unlikely quarter

The good and evil of opium is documented in this eloquent history, writes Jonathan Mirsky

This deeply researched history of a conflict has an unfinished feel, finds Kori Schake

This unusual and intellectually invigorating book should be an essential starting point for feeling our way ahead in this field, says Shane O’Mara

Robert Montgomerie is impressed by a novel account of the backbone’s evolution

Ellie Bothwell analyses how religious institutions shape up compared with secular institutions and how they are adapting to modern mores

What are vice-chancellors’ insights into the trends, threats and priorities affecting the future of the university? Nearly 200 leaders of world-ranked universities give their views on where the sector will be in the year 2030. John Ross reports

Book of the week: An important study of barbarism calls for citizens to be vigilant and to resist, says Joanna Bourke

A weekly look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

Tributes paid to a wide-ranging and highly innovative scholar of Renaissance literature

Senior leaders must lead the charge in changing higher education’s structural disadvantages for black and minority ethnic staff and students, say Kalwant Bhopal and Sally Hunt

Coalition leader Giuseppe Conte has been urged to back out formally of the race for a top university job

Australian research argues that re-entry programmes focusing only on returnees ‘widens inequity in internationalisation’

Asking social scientists to demonstrate academic impact ignores the messy reality of political lobbying, says Matthew Flinders

As students increasingly turn to essay mills to do their work, Anna McKie explores what drives this global trend and how universities are fighting it

Tributes paid to Yale’s pioneering game theorist

Author of Academically Adrift says university haters have ‘grossly distorted’ his seminal study

Government accused of making universities ‘a safer place to commit assault’, but others say changes will offer better support for victims

A weekly look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

List of finalists for the ‘Oscars’ of the higher education sector released

Matthew Reisz learns about the social and intellectual trends that are influencing a new campus culture

New book weighs merits of secure reporting software that alerts institutions if an alleged offender crops up more than once

A study of seemingly irrational romantic feelings reveals much about sexuality in 19th-century literature, finds Charlotte Jones

Patriarchy’s perpetuators; magical morphing gender; a physicist’s-eye view of the world; and what’s with all those buttons?

The mercury has fallen, but an alarming number of issues threaten to ignite and, potentially, give the UK sector some painful burns

Pioneering scholar of black feminism remembered

Junior scholars need all the experiences they can get, but their digital know-how can also boost the impact of academic events, says Alice Kelly

There are reasons to be optimistic that we can start to know something about whether life exists elsewhere. But, says Charles Cockell, a more remarkable finding might be that we are exceptional

Book of the Week: Emma Rees on the key role of feelings in spurring individuals to political action

Peter J. Smith wishes the UK would adopt a US approach to making the Bard more accessible