Don’t believe the hype; Finnish universities face just as many problems with professional mismanagement and staff morale as those in other countries, says Gareth Rice
While Vieno Vehko empathises with millennials’ burden of tuition debt, she also finds it hard to respect a group that neither reads critically nor takes responsibility for its learning
The entanglement of the university and tech worlds faces increased scrutiny following the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Could joint positions in industry and academia offer a workable and ethically defensible way forward? David Matthews reports
What is it like to be a bat?; writing about yourself; when safety compromises freedom; a pioneer of the history of medicine; and rethinking the Garden of Eden
Removal of guidelines on affirmative action and retirement of Supreme Court justice could ‘set the stage for future challenges’ to university admission policies
In a world transformed, we need a radical new blueprint – for a flexible, less centralised network of scholars and students, says a former Berkeley chancellor
When the alt-right made highly dubious claims about historical Irish slavery, Natalie Zacek realised that a rebuttal from an expert would make no difference
There is no holding back the king tide that is the Asian country’s higher education ambition – yet while the torrent carries some riches, what will it sweep away?
At a gathering of young scientists and Nobel prizewinners, David Matthews detects a whiff of mutiny in the air stirred by the pressures of a modern research career
Government investment will address the underperforming sector but political interference needs to stop for Indian higher education to truly make its mark, argues Deepak Nayyar
A new perspective on Lenin suggests that the power shift to the Politburo originated not with Stalin but because it was often more expedient for ministers to go direct to the Politburo for a speedy decision rather than grappling with Sovnarkom bureaucracy
Three-quarters of students in the UK now receive ‘good’ degrees, compared with just half 20 years ago. Is grade inflation an inevitable result of the marketisation of higher education and is the picture the same worldwide? Simon Baker examines the evidence
The geriatrician and television star on hitch-hiking to Paris, the secret of ageing well, and how an elderly man’s rectal prolapse helped him realise his vocation
Cat Zero, a novel by Jennifer Rohn, an infectious disease researcher, shines light on the backbiting and tensions of lab life as an unlikely team of scientists work to save the cats of Kent from a mysterious virus
The Oakland Promise, like a number of local schemes in the US, aims to be a ‘cradle to career’ programme moving more of the city’s children into higher education. John Morgan visits California to assess it
Further education has suffered a dark decade in Australia, but now even universities are beginning to think things have gone too far. John Ross reports
