Teaching and learning

Differences in contact hours and class sizes between institutions and subjects ‘undermines idea that students receive value for money’

Some University of Hamburg academics fear decline in German scholarship, and believe international students should learn German

Bundling of subjects under pilot for future phase of teaching excellence framework may ignore diversity and complexity of many disciplines, says engineering body

New Durham course explores how Christians can engage with online realm

Positive psychology module mixed lectures with actual marathon running

Research finds undergraduates ‘self-sort’ by gender and ethnicity for group work

Scholar claims she was pressured to sign up to Higher Education Academy and did so without correct documents

Academics with negative attitudes to teaching surveys more likely to score poorly on ratings site, study finds

UK institutions make up more than half the finalists for inaugural HEA/THE prize

Round table discusses challenges of changing job market and political instability

There are many reasons why academics shun new pedagogical styles, say Lauren Herckis, Richard Scheines and Joel Smith

Chris Parr visits a university aiming to be the best in the world at both Western and traditional Chinese medicine

Should we be talking about Ofcoll and the ‘degree experience framework’? Diana Beech thinks so

The post-Gaddafi chaos has turned some campuses into war zones – with students among the fighters, says Darren Linvill

Calls among graduates to limit student numbers are not selfish, but may instead reflect concern about the value of university education, say Duncan Watson and Robert Webb

Gill Seyfang - who is presenting at the Higher Education Academy's annual conference - explains how improv comedy in lectures can inspire students

Academics who take regular breaks from assessment will get more done than those who toil away for 10 hours straight, study says

University reform urgently needed to capitalise on fourth industrial revolution, says KAIST head

Anthropologist spent more than a year among lecturers to understand why they don’t adopt innovative methods

Unrealistic expectations of would-be students revealed by major survey

German analysis finds that undergraduates with the highest ability put in the fewest hours

Simone Buitendijk says exercise forced leaders of research-intensive institutions to focus on education ‘for the first time’

Higher education regulator's new rules aim to drive up standards within sector

University will establish 50 degrees over the next five years

Study finds dropout rate has remained static over course of decade

The first THE ranking measuring teaching across Europe will be launched at the event next year

Sir Michael Barber says that classes in English universities could be ‘more inspiring’

The teaching excellence framework shines a light on teaching provision, raises its profile, flags up areas for improvement and gives prospective students more information, says Chris Husbands

Don't dismiss the meditation technique as a fad: its well documented benefits for those in demanding careers make a strong case for teaching it at university, says Craig Hassed

International education is Australia’s third-largest export industry, worth more than A$20 billion, and is set for further growth driven by current geopolitics. Jack Grove reports on how international recruitment is playing its part in Australia’s embrace of the Asian century

Vice-chancellor explains traditional offices and teaching styles will disappear at £330 million Waterside project

Some vice-chancellors will decry the results of the teaching excellence framework, but should recognise areas of poor teaching it exposes, says Edward Peck

As student loan debt in the UK passes £100 billion, Sir Keith Burnett says it’s time we faced up to the real cost of tuition fees and debt

Company accused of profiting from students’ intellectual property

The wild variations in the proportions of top grades awarded by different departments and universities must be addressed, says Bernard Rivers

Release date was postponed in wake of uncertainty following UK general election

Academics can acquire cult-like followings, but our goal should not be self-aggrandisement but the advancement of others, says Shahidha Bari

Lots of money is spent on medical education in England – but very little of it goes towards teaching, says Philip Chan 

To defend the values of reason from political attack we need to be more discriminating about the claims made in its name, says John Hendry

After a German university scrapped an intermediate diploma and exam deadlines, results worsened and procrastination increased

US university leader explains how top teachers were selected to design a new multimillion-dollar teaching centre

Academics can spot essays produced by contract cheating websites ‘most of the time’, say Deakin University researchers

Some big-name institutions may gain bronze when results are published next week, but sector experts are divided on impact on England's university pecking order

The fashionable idea that reading novels could improve students’ fellow feeling bears little scrutiny, says Seán Williams

Annual survey of 14,000 UK undergraduates explores reasons for underachievement of black and ethnic minority learners

Comparing THE staff-student ratio data with OECD figures on tertiary education spending suggests some interesting results

Lobby group says that law requiring classes to be taught in Dutch must be enforced

University of Glasgow research indicates students can improve communication and thinking ability by playing computer games

Contentious questions about sexuality and gender need to be discussed robustly but respectfully, academic argues

Philanthropist and entrepreneur Charles Chen Yidan says today’s education systems are ‘not suited to tomorrow’s society’

Purdue University’s controversial acquisition of Kaplan University reflects the failure of for-profit education. But, under Trump, it may have an unwelcome resurgence, warns Felipe Fernández-Armesto

Eliminating cheating services, even if it were possible, would do nothing to address students’ and universities’ lack of interest in learning, says Stuart Macdonald

University leaders highlight teaching funding proposal’s similarity to England’s TEF and fear ‘perverse incentives’ 

Call from government advisers to evaluate teaching quality, echoing England's TEF, could still go ahead

Ronald Schuchard looks at how Eliot’s time at the University of London shaped his work

‘Peculiar’ experiment fails to find link between physical appearance and grades

Increased scrutiny of US sector and distrust of academics puts traditional quality assurance models in question

Figures highlight challenges faced by European universities seeking to educate refugees

Forget affirmative action, says Sami Mikhail; universities are right to recruit on academic merit

Imaginative method is detailed in sector ombudsman’s latest annual report