Still working on a positive attitude
Has scholarly pessimism helped fuel anti-expert rhetoric? Panglossian we are not, but when hope fails, there’s humour, says Shahidha Bari

Has scholarly pessimism helped fuel anti-expert rhetoric? Panglossian we are not, but when hope fails, there’s humour, says Shahidha Bari
On 26 January, the University of Warwick, like other English universities, put in its teaching excellence framework submission. It was with mixed feelings – mixed because, although we agree with the...
Steve Fuller argues in his feature “Et tu, academe?” (26 January) the case for “academic Caesars”, leaders who can make the radical decisions necessary to ensure that universities can survive...
One thing that the feature on confessing research mistakes (“To err is human; to admit it, trying” (26 January)) does not get into is journals’ review processes. A journal stakes its reputation on...
Re “Theresa May to seek new ‘credible alternative’ to universities” (23 January, www.timeshighereducation.com). The new technical courses look suitably redesigned and the reformed apprenticeships...

Top universities recognise that groundbreaking ideas don’t all develop and stay in one country, and neither do those who create and study them

Ucas January deadline figures show 5% fall across all students

Paper concludes that ‘contrary to popular thinking, Confucius Institutes have not had a positive impact on China’s global interests’

Study finds that students with greater self-belief are less likely to view new cultures as a ‘threatening challenge’

Nobel laureate Sir Angus Deaton on why he signed an anti-Trump petition, and why universities are partly to blame for Trump’s rise

The University of Toronto’s scholarship raises questions about the extent to which academic freedom is appropriate