The 10 most popular stories of October 2014

Every month, we pull together the 10 most-read Times Higher Education articles of the previous calendar month.

October’s highlights include: anger over pension reform, claims that the social sciences need a bit of a shake up, and the results of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2014.

10. UUK data ‘misleading’ over the impact of USS reform

University of Oxford criticises figures given to universities illustrating the impact of cuts to pensions.

9. Moocs ‘will not transform education’, says FutureLearn chief

Simon Nelson says original claims about massive open online course were overhyped.

8. Do the social sciences need a shake-up?

Amanda Goodall and Andrew Oswald examine the state of the disciplines.

7. False assumptions of the USS

It’s not often a letter makes our top 10. Scholars speak out on pensions.

6. Thomas Docherty ‘to be cleared of all charges’ by Warwick

Scholar cleared after nine month suspension.

5. Big brother in the academy

Monitoring of scholars’ performance, time and output is increasing.

4. University of Cambridge tops ‘Table of Tables’ for fourth year

Our top 30 compiles the results of the “big three” UK domestic university rankings.

3. 11 new #HEwords for academics that should be in the dictionary

Spinpact or grimpact? Muke or shitation? Brush up on your higher education vocab.

2. Intellectual cowardice

Chris Walsh investigates the figure of the coward in academia

1. World University Rankings 2014-2015 results

There could be only one winner this month, with the publication of our annual Times Higher Education World University Rankings.