Opinion

Greater understanding of the risks will help plot a sensible course between academic freedom and government control, says Fiona Quimbre

With politicians increasingly focused on short-term priorities, it is becoming both harder and more necessary for universities to take the long view

Lord Robbins’ review of British HE has had a 60-year legacy, but it ducked the question that looms largest over today’s sector, says Nick Hillman 

The challenge for universities seeking greater openness, innovation and collaboration is they can’t do it on their own, say Ian Matthias and Mike Boxall

Instead of focusing on the reliability of the data, I know first-hand that defamation suits become personal and career-threatening, says David Sanders

As geopolitical tensions and political scrutiny mount, knowledge diplomacy becomes both harder and more important, says Shearer West 

Grouping the likes of Brazil or Argentina with much bigger spenders will only raise the barriers to publication even higher, say three researchers

While academics may be dismissive, the process helps their professional colleagues recognise their own scholarly contributions, say four of them

Annual meetings should be reimagined as spaces that enable connections – including with practitioners and the media, says Noam Schimmel

The UK government is freezing ‘troublemaking’ educationalists out of policymaking. Universities should model better forms of debate, says Clare Brooks

The increased weighting of the environment section poses risks in an era when EDI is increasingly politicised, say Alice Sullivan and John Armstrong 

We who are the beneficiaries of technology must also listen and respond to the voices of frustration if science is to regain public trust, says Keith Burnett

Increased visa fees and health surcharges are likely to compound the Brexit effect on EU academics’ willingness to stay in the UK, say five researchers

The historical disconnect between teaching and research makes it easy to restrict expression without provoking much outrage, says Saikat Majumdar

We need to encourage and support scientists to leap into the unknown to solve our grand challenges faster and more equitably, says Xiangkun Cao

The internationalisation process should centre on quality assurance – but this is not necessarily a top priority in post-conflict regions, says Michèle Wera

Creating a cross-border qualification within a year is hugely ambitious but the wider benefits of mobility should be huge, say Jo Angouri and Jan Palmowski

University rankings wield enormous influence. But if constructed and used correctly, they should be a mirror and support, not a straitjacket

The UK government’s deeply flawed Online Safety Bill reflects widespread ignorance about tech – even within higher education, says Andy Farnell

Lockdowns demonstrated the damage isolation does to mental health. Why are universities prolonging it by recording lectures, asks Paul Wiltshire

Using AI, a teacher with little coding experience could design a virtual environment to deliver a specific lesson to a specific student, says Nick Clegg

Over the past century, capitalism, relativism, egoism and social advocacy have fuelled the decay of traditional academic commitments, says Bruce Macfarlane

Experiences in the Congo and the US Congress taught Stephen Weissman that adventurous academics need self-examination and thoughtful adaptation

MBAs replaced liberal arts with business courses. Demands for humanised corporations require a reversal, say Donald Drakeman and Kendall Hack

Some politicians are using the supposed ideological character of research to justify imposing greater control over it, says Martyn Hammersley

Many ask why we assume a combined university will offer more. The answer is that we are purposefully designing it that way, say Peter Høj and David Lloyd

The only way to get a permanent contract seems to be to take a teaching position. But that isn’t where my skills or interests lie, says Vanessa Baxter

Institutional partnerships are on the rise, but the sector must do even more to join forces to tackle global challenges, writes Linda G. Mills

As a human activity, research cannot but be cultural as much as it is scientific, say Annamaria Carusi and Shomari Lewis-Wilson

The changing nature of work and technology, as well as an evolving population and environment, call for a more inclusive system, says Alec Cameron

Universities and colleges should not cut their own financial support if a student receives an external scholarship, says Wyatt Deihl

Developing countries should not hesitate to tap the sustainable development expertise abundant in graduate schools, says Lucia Rodriguez 

With more support, care leavers could close the progression gap in much less than a century, says Monica Alejandra Henaõ-De-Castro

For over a decade, the UK government has urged ‘challenger’ institutions to shake up the higher education status quo. But there is scant evidence of success

Why are so many on the identitarian left so quick to reduce differences of opinion to existential threats to marginalised groups, asks Umut Özkırımlı

The effective ban on any form of anti-Zionism or harsh criticism of Israel has had a detrimental impact on my life and career progression, says Clive Gabay

An ungrammatical term that re-genders professorship on retirement does nothing for the advancement of women in academia, says Wendy Dossett

Business development should be left to the schools and faculties that house the researchers and students whose ideas drive innovation, says Ben Clark

BJP ministers and supporters are largely limiting themselves to discrediting and suppressing evidence of government failings, says an academic

Our research suggests men still have a greater chance of attaining influential postions than women, say Zhengyang Bao and Difang Huang

Rationalising resources is the official reason for proposed mergers, but Albanian history suggests a darker motive, says Arjan Shahini

Academics should be aware of how cohorts are structured so they can enable students to better distribute their emotional labour, says Miriam Johnson

For university students, living matters as much as learning. Piling pressure on local private rental markets helps no one, says Lorna Fox O’Mahony

Affordable AI-powered writing software offers some hope to scholars unfairly criticised for their imperfect English, but more radical change is required, says Natalia Kucirkova

As university libraries invest heavily in digital resources, Caroline Ball explains why physical books are still vital for research, teaching and the preservation of knowledge

Academia and the armed forces may seem worlds apart, but officer training has valuable lessons for university managers, says former Indian army veteran-turned-professor Vikas Rai Bhatnagar

University educators may not fully understand generative AI or its long-term impact on society, but they must seek to integrate the technology into degree courses, says Stephanie Marshall

Litigation over lockdown-affected degrees has highlighted how unfair contracts favouring universities offer scant consumer protection to students, say David Palfreyman and Dennis Farrington

Revised freedom of speech guidelines are pushing universities to be both more active in heading off problems before they start, but also less political

Those with passionate convictions must be willing to concede their arguments may be flawed or even wrong if useful debate is to happen on campus, says UCL president Michael Spence

Departmental hierarchies, job precarity and institutions’ need to protect their star professors enables bullies to thrive in Britain’s top universities, says Wyn Evans

Remodelling engineering degrees to include rewilding and ecological restoration would benefit students, society and the planet, says Paul Jepson

Seven years after he took the ‘big leap’ out of academia, John Ankers explains what he’s learned from life coaching other scholars who are mulling a change of career

Faculty often feel they’re always on the job because of technology and the stress can stem from not feeling totally in control, writes Betheny Gross

If Stanford’s now-departed president had fully faced up to dubious practices in his lab and insisted on corrections, his infractions of research integrity could have been forgiven, says David Sanders

At the heart of the debate about the global competitiveness of EU-funded research is the question of whether science should be a tool for industrial policy or a global power for good, says Jan Palmowski

Limits on free speech, funding cuts and political appointments at public universities risk squandering a golden opportunity to create a thriving higher education system, says Saikat Majumdar

I’m externally funded to do research but I help colleagues by teaching on top. How can it be right to punish me for partial performance, asks Philip Moriarty

Every day that the prime minister delays further diminishes the UK’s reputation in Europe, says Scottish first minister Humza Yousaf

If AI can perform or simulate a competency being assessed, is it really appropriate for students to use it, asks Andrew West