Researcher (junior)

For internationalism to succeed, universities must engage more with their local communities and students, major study says

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

Universities must look beyond a narrow conception of impact to communicate the true value of higher education to society, say Ulrike Felt, Maximilian Fochler, Andreas Richter, Renée Schroeder and Lisa Sigl

Left with an inconclusive residency application, Alexandra Bulat asks when the government will end the double act of praising EU students while leaving their futures in the UK uncertain

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

A weekly look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

Transnational research is vital to academic pursuits but it shouldn’t be carried out at the cost of vulnerable people in resource-poor countries, says Kate Chatfield 

A forensic linguist’s compelling and sometimes chilling case files demonstrate how criminals’ punctuation can be their undoing

The Dutch anthropologist discusses growing up in the sectarian Netherlands, following the hippie trail and whether religious tolerance has a future

Sexual harassment of female lecturers by their students is one of the less discussed aspects of the interplay between gender and power in academia. Kate Cantrell tells her story

Independent research institutes are hailed as hothouses for cutting-edge science, but they seem to be falling out of fashion. Rachael Pells asks if concentrating research in universities is a better strategy

Life as a comedian at the Edinburgh Fringe has many parallels with the experiences of early career academics, explains Anna Ploszajski

Analysis concludes universities are ‘moving towards a nearly exclusive monopoly’ over research articles

As Elsevier buys another academic workflow company, some worry about potential for publishers to ‘lock in’ scholars to their services

The UK’s highly internationalised university system – a major factor in its research success – is a treasure that must be saved from a political altar

Fascinating autobiographical experiences make a practical guide for those embarking on immersive research, says Mark Jamieson

Book of the week: A ‘thought biography’ reveals elements that make for success in science, Rivka Isaacson finds

German students – and academics – still go along with controversial mainstream theories in order to get ahead, researcher argues

European Research Council says move is to support open access and get round often lengthy publishing process

Guilt grew as green spaces became pleasurable more than productive places, says Lisa Hopkins

Book of the week: Not trusting fellow citizens to vote erodes the foundation of polity, writes John Shand

A weekly look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

University managers can learn from Geraint Thomas’ example that success can be won without having to be domineering and overbearing

A Stoic history; influencers and other stars of the web; an English revolutionary; and chapter and verse on the books-artist nexus

Cutting partner labs out of awarded grant budgets is a common but destructive phenomenon in modern academia, says Anne Carpenter

Academic Jack Davis tells John Morgan of his surprise at learning that his history of the Gulf of Mexico had won a Pulitzer prize and his hope that it will help to deliver a pro-environmental message

The differences between Jesus and philosophers cannot be ignored, writes Robert Segal

An original book about the changes to arts and technology reaches a disappointing conclusion, finds Scott Mandelbrote

Outside the anglophone world, universities are under pressure to conduct research in English – but teach in their local language, says David Matthews

Book of the week: Dream homes, women on the edge, murder – we’ve been here before, says Sharon Wheeler

Philip Moriarty explains quantum mechanics with heavy metal music in

Precarity is a significant feature of the academy worldwide, creating a feeling of ‘academic apartheid’ as it grows. Ellie Bothwell explores its impact

Lincoln Allison was inspired to teach by academics who loved what they did and communicated this to students. But has all passion for teaching been eliminated by creeping assessment and instrumentalism?

Sharif Mowlabocus reflects on how politics took a back seat as LGBTQ organisations advanced

Fees and fairness are at stake in UK HE’s global search for students, learns Aniko Horvath

Scotland’s first black professor talks about life as an immigrant, his experiences of racism and why ‘better science makes better’

Educators accusing students of not working hard enough is simply a shirking of their responsibility to actually meet learners’ needs, says Katherine Gould

The accounting magic the UK government performs to handle outstanding student loans has once again been questioned, but the timing couldn’t be worse for universities, says Andy Westwood 

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

A weekly look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

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

The EU’s proposal for its next research and innovation funding framework focuses too narrowly on technology, say Gabi Lombardo and Jon Deer

Driverless cars are limited in their understanding and inherit their coders’ biases, warns John Gilbey

If you want to learn to argue better, don’t ditch emotion, argues Tony Mann

What separates the maverick from the herd? Helga Drummond wonders

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

Book of the week: the values of research must be preserved despite political and economic pressure, says Harry Collins

Results from the European Student Survey underpinning the rankings reveal key differences in teaching across the Continent

Peter Doherty warns scientists about being ‘used’ by journalists with a predetermined story to tell

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

Robert MacIntosh explains what to expect when staff enter the little-known world of the university exam board

Is the 4* researcher who is also a stellar teacher a realistic expectation? Times Higher Education surveyed academics to find out. Jack Grove reports

Some commentators have urged the UK to replicate German universities of applied science. It’s not that simple, says Neil Shirtcliffe

Overseas students seen as key buffer against rankings drop and demographic decline

‘Verbose’ language, bad English and unexplained abbreviations all figure highly in reasons for rejection

Major study may reflect how the most stressful part of higher education in China is actually the entrance exam

Cambridge researcher dreams of returning home to war-stricken country

Nobel laureates call for early career researchers to be freed from ‘publish or perish’ mentality

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