Opinion

Simplistic analyses belie the complex evolution of students, instruction, reading practices, college regulations and communications media, says Harvey Graff

The broad approach taken by the OfS’ guidance on free speech will safeguard orthodoxy-challenging work, say Abhishek Saha and Ian Pace

Boosting your publication metrics need not come at the expense of your integrity if you bear in mind these 10 tips, says Adrian Furnham

Students see benefits to paid work beyond the money, but they would welcome help in advocating for better pay and conditions, say six academics

Thirty years ago this month, apartheid’s opponents declared victory and signed out. Yet racist legacies persist to this day, says Noam Schimmel

University managers must be committed to cultivating a compassionate culture and building trust in the workplace, says Andrew Woon

Timeliness and rigour are vital, but the publishing and incentives systems are not set up to deliver them, says Meron Wondemaghen

A lack of long-term, sustainable policymaking is crippling universities, and the same mistakes are afflicting those involved in teacher education

The regulator’s example scenarios fail to acknowledge the harm that even lawful speech can cause on campus, say Naomi Waltham-Smith and James Murray

Extra costs linked to proposed new Research Excellence Framework rules could send art history departments to the wall, warns Francesca Berry

India’s surge in patent applications and awards resembles China’s pathway towards becoming a knowledge economy, says Pushkar

Proposed changes to how scholars publish show little awareness of how they will profoundly reshape academic life, says David Lund

Higher education might not be doorstep issue for voters but the importance of universities in tackling the world’s biggest problems has never been higher, argue Amanda Broderick and Patrizio Bianchi

Knowledge is commodified by the prioritisation of economic imperatives over social and democratic goals in educational policymaking, says Zahid Naz

Inflated marks, overworked staff and politically compromised courses are the price of exploiting offshore UK-registered students, says Michael Day

Generative AI firms should stop ripping off publishers and instead work with them to enrich scholarship, says Oxford University Press’ David Clark

What other industry would deem those with so much prior training to still be mere trainees? Let’s call them what they are – researchers, says Michele Nardin

Extending England’s proposed threshold for legal recourse would encourage universities to adopt delaying tactics, says Abhishek Saha

Universities are in a funding cul-de-sac, blocked in by negative rhetoric about their role and value. Will a likely change of government provide a way out?

Management teams and boards need a shared overview of the data and technology that underpin key university processes, says Karen O’Brien

Recruiting underprepared students is damaging the classroom experience and is soul-crushing for teachers, says a UK lecturer

If slides substitute for note-taking, students will not develop vital skills. Let’s not underestimate their ability to develop them, says Tobiasz Trawiński

Requiring grants for research time previously given as standard will lend funders undue power over topics and methods, says Dennis Tourish

Existing measures tend to focus on training to enhance women’s skills, rather than addressing structural and behavioural issues, says Mairi Gibbs

Promoting awareness of the impact words can have on others will create a psychologically safe space where staff, students can thrive, says Melissa Carr

Chinese students in the Anglosphere want to develop their careers and learn English, not to be lectured about how terrible their homeland is, says Sibei Sun

Requiring OA publication would have left bookshops’ history sections narrower in scope and the preserve of a select few authors, says Rory Cormac

Codifications of how university missions preclude institutional positions would guide expectations and responses, says Paul Gooch

The sudden rise of generative AI offers an opportunity for reflection and renewal of our scholarly values, say Ella McPherson and Matei Candea

If, as it must, engineering is to contribute to restoring the planet, it needs to attract holistic-thinking carers, says Tim Ibell 

Russian studies is one of many disciplines that can and should loudly tell the story of how authoritarianism strips people of citizenship, says Ani Kokobobo

Mutual support networks and mentoring can help more women attain senior positions, say Efthalia Chatzigianni and Bryony Whitmarsh

No journey in strange new waters can be smooth sailing, but healthy conflicts have a place in innovation and transformation, say David Lloyd and Peter Høj

As battles over industrial relations and identity politics rage, higher education’s fault lines are increasingly a matter for the courts. Is anyone winning?

Universities are not doing enough to police misconduct. We need an independent register from which bullies can be struck off, says Nicholas Rowe

Libraries no longer accept donations, but targeted giving to colleagues and students is a way for retired academics to keep teaching, says Harvey Graff

Power dynamics inevitably temper the ideal of a self-correcting knowledge system, but robust mutual critique remains vital, says Ian Pace

Institutions must instead provide fora and establish rules for debating issues and their moral implications, says Carolyn Hughes Tuohy

Our department obliges Jewish studies students to study Islamic civilisation and vice versa. But will extremism put off applicants, asks Jonathan Judaken

UK universities should leverage Saudi resources to build partnerships that will advance science and technology for mutual benefit, says Andrew Griffith

With the University of Kent becoming the latest lower-tariff English university to mull course closures, students might be frozen out, says Becky Muradás-Taylor

The science secretary’s demand that UKRI take action against its EDI committee underlines how far UK science’s independence has slipped, says Fiona Fox

The document gestures to some key barriers, but Indigenous knowledge is valuable in itself, not just for improving outcomes, says Ian Anderson

Tolerance and respect are still expected, but a new kind of deference to group identity is emerging among students, say Stephen Hawkins and Mylien Duong

Recommended reforms, such as abolishing the Job-Ready Graduates fee hikes for humanities, will gold-plate the Help system, says Maxwell Yong

AI will make courses cheaper to deliver, more professionally relevant and more pedagogically effective, says Max Lu 

Cryptocurrencies will change the landscape of international finance. We can no longer think of money as a background phenomenon, says Richard Holden

To make maths programmes viable, we must make them more attractive to a wider pool of applicants, says Jens Marklof

The desire of bereaved parents to establish a statutory duty of care towards students is understandable – but for universities it remains a fraught issue

Keeping highly trained people on tenterhooks for so long undermines the conditions necessary for innovation, says a university manager

Power relations would be more equitable if all leading disciplinary journals and books were published in multiple languages, says Simon Marginson

Maintaining authority, professional distance and ‘authenticity’ is hard among people who knew you pre-academia, reflects Brad Evans

Historical ties and cultural cachet mean that even as outbound South Korean student numbers fluctuate, the US remains the top choice, says Kyuseok Kim

Higher international fees for in-person courses are vital to universities, but online students can be charged the same wherever they live, says Tim Dunne 

Opportunities that enhance employability and the student experience will boost both enrolments and donations, says Robert Phillips

No one should assume that university managers and consultants have all the solutions to UK universities’ financial woes, says Chris Moore

Upfront costs can run into thousands of pounds, so speedy repayment is vital for equal access to permanent employment, says Eleanor Palser

Institutions should push the Qatar government harder to improve conditions and wages for their migrant labourers, say Karl Widerquist and Ian Almond

The behaviour of some has effectively served to chill the views of others. But this flies in the face of universities’ core role, says Dawn Freshwater

Debate risks legitimising dehumanising ideologies, but rebutting such views is how progress has always been made, says Eric Heinze