At last, teaching will get its due
Alasdair Smith sees the Browne review as a golden opportunity to halt the academy’s distorted focus on research output
Alasdair Smith sees the Browne review as a golden opportunity to halt the academy’s distorted focus on research output

The Liberal Democrat policy of opposing tuition fees is “simply no longer feasible” in the current economic climate, Vince Cable said today in a statement to the House of Commons.

The tuition fee cap should be scrapped, “blanket subsidies” for courses ended and universities freed to compete for students in one of the most radical overhauls of the sector ever.
Alan Ryan proposes that there should be no cap on tuition fees, grants for the talented poor should return and universities should lose their safety net
Recent studies reveal tuition costs do not deter students from lower socio-economic groups. Their decision not to go into higher education, argues Peter Urwin, is made much earlier in their schooling
Are academics being blamed for work-shy students and high unemployment? Jon Marcus reports

An investigation into senior staff at London Metropolitan University has concluded that there is no case for disciplinary action following the financial crisis that engulfed the institution.

There is “no evidence” that a Nigerian graduate accused of attempting to blow up a plane on Christmas Day last year was radicalised while studying at University College London, an independent review...

Advancing the frontiers of knowledge is at the core of the academy, but the crossing of established disciplinary boundaries is often resisted. How does a band of pioneers stake its claim to novel...
Materialism has had its day. To understand the ideas that drive human activity, including economics, we need a new field that combines the arts and sciences, argues Deirdre N. McCloskey

From scrolls to iPads, literature may change its form but its importance endures, says Tara Brabazon

An insightful analysis evinces the relevance of a Victorian conflict to today's ills, writes A.W. Purdue

Does language mirror the objects and structures inscribed in reality, or is it rather that reality is reified, structured and even invented by language? Is what we assume to be naturally and...
What value a degree in the humanities? The £25,000 it soon may cost? Indeed, in the age of "impact funding", what value the humanities at all? Lionel Trilling's 1971 book can still guide a thoughtful...

It took Italians an age to embrace the tomato, but the rest is juicy history, says Robert Appelbaum