Features

Long-frozen, loan-funded tuition fees are neither covering course costs nor, arguably, fairly recognising the benefits of higher education to society and employers. But is there an alternative that is politically and economically viable in a likely UK general election year? John Morgan reports

With academics feeling the strain from higher workloads, the days when scholars had time to write novels or run businesses seem increasingly distant. Lincoln Allison suggests that universities have far more to gain than to lose by allowing their academics to broaden their experience and earn extra income

Recent increases to already sky-high visa and health service costs have prompted worries that talented overseas-born academics will turn their backs on the UK, undermining the country’s lofty scientific ambitions. As a new home secretary takes office, Jack Grove hears from some of those affected

Students love it but faculty typically hate it. Both are asking for help with it. But how close are institutions to devising AI policies that protect both academic integrity and student employability? New York University Abu Dhabi vice-chancellor Mariët Westermann offers her reflections

Mexican president Andrés Manuel López-Obrador has expanded university access but is accused of ideological attacks on institutions, overly zealous corruption clampdowns and a misguided power grab over research policy. Ahead of next year’s election, Tom Williams assesses the mood in Mexico City

Studying high art is still important, but popular culture can give humanities undergraduates better pointers on how to convert their refined understandings into practical action, rather than passivity and pessimism, activist scholar Caroline Levine tells Matthew Reisz 

Bizarre riffs about The Karate Kid or the Wu-Tang Clan may irritate his students, but ‘strategic vexing’ can promote the more adventurous educational mindset that undergraduates require in the age of ChatGPT, says Jose Marichal 

The special administrative region’s status as an international crossroads has been severely shaken by the National Security Law and stringent Covid lockdowns. But sector leaders remain buoyant about boosting ‘non-local’ recruitment – and not just from China. Pola Lem reports

From dedicating time for brainstorming to taking inspiration from their dog, five writers explain how they are changing their approach to academia and life as another academic year begins in the northern hemisphere

Amid concerns about value for money and the supposed liberal bias of certain humanities and social science subjects, conservative politicians are increasingly intervening in curricular decisions. Do such subjects still have a place at public universities – and who should get to decide, asks Paul Basken

As higher education minister in the Blair government, Alan Johnson steered plans for top-up fees of £3,000 through Parliament. As he returns to the sector in a new role, the former postman talks to John Morgan about why fee-funded university expansion remains the best hope for creating a fairer UK

Barack Obama’s favourite political thinker Yascha Mounk has made his career attacking right-wing populism. His latest target – identity politics fostered on US campuses – will surprise many of his acolytes, he tells Matthew Reisz

A decade of English university policy has sought to improve standards by increasing competition. However, new institutions remain small and peripheral. Tom Williams asks whether the prestige gap and bureaucratic excess will always limit the scope for innovation, in England and elsewhere

University managers’ doomed pursuit of unattainable ideals turns staff into martyrs who see work as sacrifice and suffering. It explains much about why so many feel stressed, harassed and miserable, says Joe Moran

The 2028 exercise’s measurement of the quality of research environments will account for a quarter of overall marks. But what exactly does quality look like? Can it really be measured? And are there political risks in diluting the REF’s focus on outputs? Jack Grove reports

From Coldplay to Queen, the world’s biggest bands often meet as students – yet universities are seldom mentioned in song. Jeremy Clay ponders why and unearths some lost exemplars – including a long-lost Dutch psychedelic paean to the University of Leicester

Their value previously unquestioned, Nordic universities have tended to enjoy happy relations with governments despite close state control over them. But a surge of support for populist parties in the region suggests that the consensus may be shifting. Ben Upton reports

As several UK universities outlaw sex between academics and students, two writers offer differing views on the Office for Students’ proposed ban

Admission to an Indian Institute of Technology is the prize every Indian school-leaver dreams of. But does the scramble for places prepare students well for higher study? Are the institutes’ curricula fit for purpose? And what will internationalisation mean for their future? Pola Lem reports

Canada’s Liberal government swept to power eight years ago promising to undo the damage inflicted by the previous Harper regime. However, after a big early funding spike for basic research, there is a growing sense of drift – and mounting concern about the future. Paul Basken reports

As students in many countries receive their final degree marks amid perennial concerns about grade inflation, three scholars reflect on their experiences of being pressured to mark more leniently, while one considers how to enhance the fairness of marking outcomes

Covid-era terror of a decimation in international income has proved unfounded, but investment yields continue to fluctuate wildly. Ahead of the publication of Australia’s landmark new Universities Accord, John Ross investigates what the financial data really says about the state of the sector

Studying flocks of starlings helped Giorgio Parisi crack some of physics’ deepest mysteries. The Nobelist talks to Matthew Reisz about his unconventional methods, missed eureka moments and being Italy’s most in-demand scientist

If you want to get promoted in UK academia you will probably need to apply for an Advance HE fellowship. But there is widespread scepticism that this extended ‘box-ticking exercise’ improves pedagogy, says Amanda Goodall, while Martin Rich considers how the programme might be made fit for purpose

Helping students learn is core to universities’ missions, but the buzz phrase ‘student success’ has come to designate something more. Exactly what, though, remains contested, and its pursuit has exposed age-old tensions between academics and administrators. Sara Custer reports 

When she was BBC Newsnight’s top booker, Sam McAlister persuaded Prince Andrew to give his infamous interview about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. She tells Jack Grove how academics can avoid shooting themselves in the foot and what TV producers want from expert guests

When Rhodes and fees both fell and Africa’s top university appointed its third black leader, hopes were raised that South African higher education was moving into a new era of equality. But several years on, funding pressures and governance failures still abound. Patrick Jack reports from Cape Town 

As his new book on pandemics is published, the UK’s best-known historian tells Matthew Reisz that identity politics is inhibiting history, nationalism only intensifies during global crises, and a refusal to communicate history to the public amounts to mere ‘connoisseurship of the dead’

The ‘teenage’ regulator has a toxic relationship with universities owing to its uncompromising approach and its alleged unwillingness to listen – except to Conservative ministers. But should vice-chancellors agitating against the OfS be careful what they wish for? John Morgan reports 

Accommodation shortages and spiralling rents are damaging the student experience and limiting universities’ expansion ambitions. But amid political turbulence, rising borrowing costs and a shrinking private rental market, how can universities ensure that housing supply meets demand without mortgaging their futures, asks Patrick Jack

Georgia State’s transformation of student outcomes has been praised by Barack Obama and Bill Gates. Jack Grove talks to its president, M. Brian Blake, about the trailblazing institution’s incredible journey and his own remarkable rise through US academia

Alliances with university colleagues can be inspiring and life-affirming but may also be grounded in little more than ambition or survival instinct. Six writers reflect on the joys and challenges of having friends in academia

Farah Karim-Cooper – one of the UK’s few ethnic minority Shakespeare professors – reflects on being an outsider in a discipline not known for its non-white faces and ponders how diversity can be improved