Teaching and learning

Hepi survey data spanning six years suggest students do not rate other members of mission group very differently from UK universities overall

Calling on women and non-white people to speak first in class has a noble aim, but there are better alternatives, says James Kierstead

The #MeToo movement has cast historical behaviour and curricula in a new, shadowy light. Four writers give us their perspectives

Business academic Diane Holt recalls her experience aboard a ‘floating university’

US undergraduate gives presentation in underwear after lecturer questions ‘short shorts’

Finalists for top international teaching award hail from Australia, Canada, Switzerland, South Africa, Spain and the UK

Study focuses on benefits of giving students hands-on experience – including via Lego

There are now more women than men in higher education worldwide. While it would appear to be a victory for gender equality, this imbalance also highlights boys’ educational underachievement. Ellie Bothwell reports

Overseas students’ academic potential is hobbled if their English does not far exceed current thresholds, says Danijela Trenkic

Vice-chancellor explains why new degree courses will be vital for the agricultural industry after the UK leaves the EU

Those who castigate lecturers in anonymous feedback forms should realise their identity is fairly easy to discern, according to academic

Embracing immersive content would aid public engagement and bring research and teaching closer together, argue Vincent Tong, Sam Smidt and Matilda Katan 

Maastricht study finds less hard-working students benefit when taught with more persistent peers

The university lecture should be seen as a special form of human encounter, argue Amanda Fulford and Áine Mahon

Worsening political ties have led a Russian government agency to urge students abroad to return home

Hollywood legend’s backfiring legal action offers lessons for universities on essay mills, says researcher

Study reveals feedback on social media sites closely correlate to measures of quality such as England's TEF

If microcredentials could only gain the trust of employers and workers, platforms would have a golden goose on their hands, says Chris Fellingham

Head of QAA says a wave of allegations against alternative providers shows need for action on academic malpractice

Sam Gyimah tells MPs that for universities ‘to carry on as if we are still in 1965 is not acceptable’

Education committee chair Rob Halfon says ‘sanctions’ should be applied where numbers of disadvantaged students stall or decline

University teachers are wrestling with the challenge of facilitating a new mode of online peer-to-peer learning, says Peter Kahn

A lack of intellectual and cultural willingness to open up historical discussions about the UK’s imperial past make it a difficult subject for students and scholars to get to grips with, argues Scott Anthony

Recent calls for more ‘useful’ degrees ignore their patchy record in improving the workplace or society, says Felipe Fernández-Armesto

Study reveals success of historically black universities when students’ backgrounds are taken into account

The UK's first-ever Twitter-only teaching and learning conference shows academic symposia with international reach can be organised on a shoestring, say Natalie Lafferty and Pat Lockley

Reed College responds to student complaints that its flagship module was too white, too male and too Eurocentric

Data from one of last Hefce reports likely to throw down the gauntlet to new Office for Students on grade inflation

‘Conventional lecturing’ accounts for majority of class time on science, technology and mathematics courses in US and Canada

A newcomer in the Oxford-Cambridge innovation corridor will reshape our understanding of what higher education is for, says Lynette Ryals

The French thinker Simone Weil’s focus on teaching students to attend to reality is crucial in the social media age, writes Robert Zaretsky

Efforts to convince modern undergraduates to study hard and accept their grades need constant reinforcement, say Raj Persaud and Adrian Furnham

Elite Japanese universities are renowned for their strength in research, but does their reputation also reflect quality in teaching? Times Higher Education’s student-focused Japan University Rankings and student experience survey offer some fascinating insights

Institutions are removing content that has not been covered because of missed classes but are adamant that standards will not be lowered

Peter Horrocks’ comments about development of learning materials branded ‘an attack on OU staff and the institution itself’

As peak marking season approaches, Julianne Law gives a frank assessment of where her university’s new paperless marking system has gone right and what could be improved

The apparent theft of exam papers in Papua New Guinea suggests to John Warren that we should all be more transparent over marking mishaps   

While supervisors say protracted shifts are a crucial part of medical education, new research finds no benefit

UK Essays said that its ghostwritten papers provided a ‘guaranteed grade, every time’

University of Waterloo president says modern universities must combine research and creativity 

Project encourages students to explore the past of Roehampton’s Georgian mansions and teacher training colleges

Lancaster University's vice-chancellor Mark E. Smith and Nicola Owen argue that a new composite ranking offers a more nuanced view of institutional excellence

Prisoners rarely get tertiary lessons, let alone have undergraduates study alongside them, but the results can be profound. Helen Lock reports

Benefits appear to come from exposure to campus life rather than quality teaching, Australian researchers find

Academics with higher qualifications or more experience could get higher scores in subject-level teaching excellence framework

The reawakening of political activism within academia sparked by the pensions strike will reinvigorate scholarship, says Jana Bacevic

Tan Eng Chye says teaching models ‘cannot afford to keep still’, even if some students are reluctant to study programming

Historic flying of Trans Pride flag at University College Cork follows similar commitment to equality by other Irish universities

Ethics modules ordered after warnings from students’ union that misconduct is on the rise

Universities anticipate much greater scrutiny of teaching outcomes, potentially even ‘peer review’ of lectures

Having well-resourced and world-leading university research is crucial if the UK is to succeed as a knowledge economy, says Michael Drew

Business school expert says lecturers’ role is to help students manage information rather than pass on knowledge

The next warden of Rhodes House on growing up in a family of political refugees and why universities must prepare graduates to be good citizens

Economist Bryan Caplan considers tangible benefits, inconvenient truths and wonders whether Latin and poetry are worth the effort when ‘Kardashian’ trumps ‘Shakespeare’ in Google search results

Historians must not let Boris Johnson and other armchair scholars take centre stage in their discipline, says Tanja Bueltmann

Academic focus on ideas from a small range of European countries would not be tolerated in other disciplines, says Lloyd Strickland

Undergraduates who took part in breathing exercise reported feeling less distracted and more positive

Bournemouth University research reveals gap between expectations of employers and university curricula

Teaching would improve if all scholars were required to undertake regular secondments in industry, says Cecilia Chan

Murky cross-subsidy between university courses must be addressed by the government’s review of higher education funding, argues David Robinson