World policy

The disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on poorer students makes the case for a stripped-down ranking in 2020, says Conor King  

New institutions will add nothing unless there is a greater emphasis on quality, says Eric Fredua-Kwarteng

The UK’s existing oversight by external visitors and professional bodies is the best way to safeguard standards, says Colin McCaig 

Slashing research will be a dangerous temptation for politicians desperate for savings, warns Jan Palmowski

‘Levelling up’ research spending may imperil regional universities’ sustainability, warn Grace Gottlieb and Graeme Reid 

Slightly higher fees would be a reasonable price for a system that responds to student numbers and preferences, says Andrew Norton 

Focusing on how to deliver the UK government’s big ambitions for science could arrest the troubled funder’s drift, says John Womersley 

Consulting citation data would ameliorate the all-too-human shortcomings of departmental review, says a Russell Group professor

Employers value higher and degree apprenticeships. Restricting access to them would be counterproductive, says Jane Longmore

Canada’s excess of directive funding programmes risks hobbling scientific imagination and progress, says Jim Woodgett

Sinn Féin’s desire for an all-Ireland education system could see it reject fee rises north of the border, says Diana Beech

The UK’s structures for supporting and nurturing research leaders are woefully underdeveloped, says Matthew Flinders

The appointment of Manuel Castells as the country’s universities minister signals a change in fortune, says José Martinez-Sierra

India’s students have surprised many observers by standing up together to protest against injustice, says Pushkar

Questioning the BBC’s agenda in highlighting the problem in Ghana and Nigeria does not make it any less serious, says Eric Fredua-Kwarteng

Actions by the current government suggest official discomfort with the basic purpose of public universities, says Jayati Ghosh

Ongoing falls in Australian postgraduate recruitment suggest a trend away from structured education for people in mid-career, says Andrew Norton

The apparently political murder of an undergraduate at a top Bangladeshi university by other students has stunned a nation, writes Nahid Neazy

The school system’s focus on relative over absolute standards makes it difficult to judge applicants’ potential, says Conor King

The plan promises big leaps in innovation, quality assurance and lecturer training, say Youmin Xi and Xiaojun Zhang  

Fees reform has not quelled popular anger over exploitation, but academics can play a key role in constitutional reform, says Robert Funk

Requirements for obtaining the national scientific qualification and good performance despite stagnant funding have contributed to improved citation performance, argue Michele Ciavarella and Pietro D’Antuono

The competition among 20 Georgian institutions for international medical students raises a host of quality concerns, says Michèle Wera

As mistrust between the EU and UK deepens, politics could scupper British association to the next framework programme, says Jan Palmowksi

Time, money, planning and monitoring are key to improving standards, say Eric Fredua-Kwarteng and Samuel Kwaku Ofosu 

Improved citation performance amid falling funding is the result of gaming, say Alberto Baccini, Eugenio Petrovich and Giuseppe De Nicolao

History suggests that universities will lure students with the chance to repay fees via post-graduation work, says Peter Brady

President Bolsonaro’s education cuts and opposition to racial quotas will hit current policies, says Marry Ferreira

Free of Communist-era secretiveness, the new president might be willing to tackle abuses of power on campus, says Ararat Osipian

A bold policy to internationalise Turkey’s universities by teaching in English should be abandoned, says Sinan Bayraktaroğlu

Ongoing efforts to iron out regional anomalies are creating as many problems as they solve, says Ceren Ergenc

Pan-continental prosperity will suffer if the UK’s near-absence from the European University project is a sign of things to come, says Martin Paul

Tuition comprises less than half the cost of attending US universities, but taxpayers may be unwilling to cover it, says Anthony P. Carnevale

Students from poorer regions who enter their local workforce after graduation should also be celebrated, says Sir David Bell

Several years on from Rhodes Must Fall, the hoped-for revolution in South African university teaching has not happened, says Saloshna Vandeyar

The next EU commissioner for research and innovation must fight for the Horizon Europe budget but resist timetables for scientific delivery, says Jan Palmowski

Review chair’s comments on ‘discretionary’ funding raise disturbing questions, say Mark E. Smith, Sarah Randall-Paley and Andrew McConnell

Budget restrictions, a focus on teaching and a paucity of internationalisation all hold back Turkish research, says Hakan Ergin

The New Education Policy breaks with India’s post-independence preference for vocational avenues of upward mobility, says Saikat Majumdar

Raising UK outlay to international levels will reap rich technological, social and political rewards for the next Conservative Party leader, says Sarah Main 

Building education ties along the New Silk Road will strengthen the influence of Chinese higher education, says Futao Huang

Use of of group-level indicators to identify disadvantage will limit the impact of Oxford’s embrace of contextual admissions, says James Robson

The adoption of an Athena SWAN-style initiative is undermined by a failure to meaningfully consult Indigenous Peoples, say Karen Lawford and Jamie Lundine

Efforts to accrue more overseas fees could be vetoed by the Home Office and will do little to make UK students more culturally savvy, warns Peter Brady 

A review following the latest iteration of the PBRF could lead to radical changes that undermine the gains made, warns Roger Smyth

In a managerial era, universities are challenging the traditional idea that only individuals need protecting, say Otto Hüther and Georg Krücken

The US admissions scandal notwithstanding, Australian university history reveals a variety of approaches to allocating university places, say Gwilym Croucher, James Waghorne and Hamza Bin Jehangir

Apparent moves to increase university autonomy will have the opposite effect given the government’s authoritarian tendencies, says Jarosław Płuciennik

The recent US scandal is a symptom of the crucial importance of prestige signalling in highly unequal systems, says Gavin Moodie

A Labor victory in May’s election could still see funding conditional on universities’ employability, diversity or research records, says Andrew Norton

Agreement that EU research funding should continue to be distributed according to quality is an important step forward, writes Jan Palmowski

Despite thin pickings this time around, Trudeau’s Liberals have probably done enough to win the science vote in October’s election, says Creso Sá

Market-like mechanisms within higher education are unpopular with academics but can have positive effects, say Rebecca Natow and Kevin Dougherty

Academic autonomy is too often used as an excuse to ignore suggestions from students that could improve their education, says Janadari Wijesinghe 

Universities’ vocal opposition to government plans for vastly increased international fees has yielded only minor concessions, says Juliette Torabian 

Strides have been taken since the destruction wrought by the US-led invasion, but funding and standards remain unacceptably low, says Mohamed Al-Rubeai

Regions’ struggles to provide appropriate land and resources is undermining quality, says Debananda Misra

Evidence from Canada highlights the scale of the challenge in preparing 21st-century workers and citizens, say Ross Finnie, Arthur Sweetman and Richard Mueller 

England’s fledgling university regulator is in too much of a hurry to make an impact and curry favour with ministers, says Gill Evans

Rising default rates on education loans could signal trouble ahead, says Pushkar