Opinion

For two decades, Times Higher Education’s rankings have both tracked and contributed to an ever more connected world. Now universities face an unwelcome shift in global dynamics

A national curriculum relating to vital knowledge and skills could also help assure equal access to high-quality courses, says Ian Pace

Is working humane hours at a humane pace possible for anyone in a British university, asks Sarah Colvin

Maastricht aims to be intrinsically international by deepening its European ties while expanding its global engagement, says Rianne Letschert

For a historian, the most gripping work does not entail vindicating or impeaching, but exploring how and why, says Alison Bashford

We must accept the speed at which knowledge now becomes obsolete and the role lifelong learning plays in keeping skills current, writes Tan Eng Chye

Relying on overseas expertise is foolish for a country that abounds with specific economic issues, says Jagjit Chadha

Making appropriate decisions is difficult for students when information is scarce and inaccurate, say Kaibalyapati Mishra and Krishna Raj 

We must examine how our measures of merit are impacted by culture, context, place and hierarchy, says Cheryl de la Rey

Global research collaboration is on the rise but faces a fundamental shift amid an increasingly unstable geopolitical landscape, says Meric Gertler

New York University’s multiple sites around the world were instrumental in minimising Covid-related disruption, says Andrew Hamilton

To find solutions to pressing problems, we must foster diverse voices by making the university a place to which anyone can belong, says Teruo Fujii

Scholars need to address how the legacy of Russian writers and artists is taught to students and the public, says Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed

Quality, ethics, good governance and impact monitoring must all be safeguarded from the outset, says Zeblon Vilakazi

A recent email by a UK vice-chancellor is a case study in how not to inspire people to go beyond the call of duty, say two management scholars

Entrepreneurs are the new kings, but academics doing basic research are key to our future – and they need proper funding, says Brian Schmidt

Scholars from the Global South have vastly fewer international options than those from the Global North, says Srila Roy

Universities must refocus on the basics of reading, writing and numeracy across subjects and fields, says Harvey Graff

The standardised test is graduate schools’ ideal measurement tool for the personality traits they seek in applicants, says John Gomez

Opening up cutting-edge facilities to both students and wider communities can help close 21st-century skills gaps, says Sara Prowse

Writing off student debt can encourage people to complete their degrees and work in the sectors they have trained for, says Danny Bielik

International students add hugely to the richness of universities. But are the risks of relying on their fees to subsidise so much fully understood?

US college debt cancellation ought to be restricted by income and profession, says Abraham Nussbaum

Victims of oppression often have to study informally; they should not be barred from pursuing an overseas master’s, say Natasha Robinson and David Mills

The only alternative to competing on uniqueness is competing on quality or price. Neither is a good option, say Scott Latham and Michael Braun

The cost-of-living crisis is bringing to a head the inadequacy of current funding and support for doctoral students, says Ellie Munro

The economic downturn is beyond their control, but degree programmes could be better tailored to industrial need, says Wu Keming

Covid-19 illustrated how universities are not always good at taking responsibility for the practicalities of their policy statements, says Zahir Irani 

Research support must be realistic, the cost of educating UK students must be properly met, and overseas students remain welcome, says Ian Walmsley

Careful thought is required before Western art music is condemned and cast out, says James Olsen

Acknowledging such students’ difficult personal circumstances is an important first step to improving their graduation rates, says Ozalle Toms

It is no accident that universities are prominent in protests over ties to the slave trade and movements to decolonise education, says Joanna Newman

The inequalities exacerbated by global capitalism must be challenged by institutions in the service of citizens rather than corporations, says Carl Rhodes

A large survey of students suggests that even Democrats are afraid to air their views on certain subjects. This isn’t healthy, says Samuel Abrams

Northumbria University’s transformation, reflected in its QR allocation, will allow it to do more for its students and its region, says Louise Bracken

Traditional metrics neglect the systematic barriers faced by individuals with various oppressed axes of identity, says Shan-Jan Sarah Liu

Universities were not prominent in Ursula von der Leyen's State of the Union address, but it left plenty of room for them to thrive, says Jan Palmowski

Sector experts offer their advice for Liz Truss and her new Cabinet on some of the biggest issues facing UK universities, from finances and R&D to culture wars and common ground

It is scandalous that wealthy publishers make academics provide what is, in effect, unlimited legal expenses insurance, says Andrew Tettenborn

As a campus guard, George Bass often sees the gaps between students’ intellectual abilities and their life skills

Prize committees should re-examine nominees with below-average scientometric scores, says Adrian Furnham

The latest bribery scandal is a reminder that even as the country fights for its survival, bad habits persist, says Ararat Osipian

Supporting young researchers to peer-review and edit journal submissions will also accelerate their training, says Quan-Hoang Vuong

Shaking off impostor syndrome can be tough for isolated academics who pursue niche areas of study where grant funding opportunities are limited, says Rachael Hains-Wesson

Academics’ passion for research should feed into the ideal higher education experience, says Gill Evans

The new UK PM’s team needs to maintain access for the hardest-to-reach, fulfil research spending promises and continue levelling up, says Laura Brassington

Proactively pushing a more positive, focused agenda around quality and value will win more public and political support, says Vivienne Stern

Creative partnerships between institutions can contribute to NHS training needs, research excellence and regional levelling up, say Brian Webster-Henderson and Martin Lupton

Universities must agree on sector-wide expectations and support for the growing number teaching-focused academics, says Christine Cassar

Reliance on student reviews of university teaching has led to a warped understanding of quality, says Sally Patfield

Without more reliable data on graduate employability or courses more aligned to employers’ needs, Ukrainian students will continue to look elsewhere, says Alexander Kostyuk

Students should be encouraged to tackle books, ideas or ways of thinking they may find distressing or offensive – but offering emotional support is important too, says Sussex’s new vice-chancellor, Sasha Roseneil

From threats to the humanities to the future of universities themselves, the risks of misunderstanding what to value seem to be growing

The reaction to James Sweet’s article about presentism – including his own – compromises genuine scholarly debate, says Jonathan Zimmerman

The wider issues raised by the scandal can be particularly acute in the work of academic practitioners in cultural fields, says Ian Pace

Universities should decide their funding needs based on their goals in teaching, research and outreach, say Nicolai Foss, Peter Klein and Phillip Nell  

Studying images, rather than texts, would allow history students to better grasp colonised peoples’ agency, says Apurba Chatterjee

From admissions to outreach and student data collection, the undergraduate journey must be reviewed to narrow unacceptable social and educational inequalities, say Kim Hunter Reed and Ray Belton

Enormous efforts to increase links between research fields have failed to consider how undergraduates can also benefit and contribute, says Stephanie Marshall

The latest A-level data show concerning long-term trends in the popularity of humanities subjects, says Julia Black