Opinion

We have all the elements needed to make online courses succeed, but institutional inertia at well-established universities stymies progress, argues Laurence Brockliss

We have to do more to ensure British-Bangladeshi girls don’t fear they’ll be isolated at university, says Sally Brian

Africa’s newest country is fertile territory for post-conflict research and more, but they need Western help, says Kuyok Abol Kuyok

In the TACTICS nations, just as in the UK and the US, universities and democracy depend on each other

Angus Horner believes that investment in the Golden Triangle will give the UK a competitive edge

John Morgan looks at signals of Home Office backtracking

Pam Tatlow on the recent parliamentary debate of the Higher Education Bill

Maddalaine Ansell, chief executive of the University Alliance, has hopes and fears ahead of Philip Hammond's speech

A more tech-savvy approach to student recruitment could save institutions more than just time, says Marguerite Dennis

Requesting a log of daily activity means that trust between the institution and the scholar has broken down, says Toby Miller

Lecturers have long been accused of indoctrinating students with their liberal views, and the grade-obsessed students of today feel the same way, say Will Grant and Darren Linvill

Ian Myson wants universities to internationalise their students in preparation for the working world

Who can enter whose washrooms in US public universities should be a matter for kindness and common sense, not ideology, says Felipe Fernández-Armesto

As scholars in the UK and US mull the future after Trump’s triumph and Brexit, academics must focus on making society’s walls fall

The government’s partnership with universities has been good for all; Anthony Monaco hopes the new administration will strengthen it

Philip G. Altbach and Hans de Wit foresee a bleak future for America’s global excellence and competitiveness

Nick Hillman welcomes the government’s concessions but says there is a long way to go before this bill becomes law

Claire Taylor wants ‘education is never wasted’ to become the mantra for a higher education sector that is struggling to communicate its value to the public

Despite having some questions about how the bill will be implemented, Douglas Blackstock believes it is a force for good

We must change the perception that universities are bastions of inequality, say Jan Fook and Fiona Ross

How did non-researchers end up with the power to determine the impact of academic work? asks Helen Lees

John Morgan looks at what Trump U fraud claims could mean for US president-elect Donald Trump

Matthew Reisz reflects on how films can help engage the public with academic work on topics ranging from Chinese pop music to climate change

It’s not just EU nationals that universities should worry about losing, says Timothy Devinney, and a shrinking pound won’t help

Paul Ashwin takes aim at ‘common sense’ arguments about the link between contact hours and pedagogic excellence

What links the anxious, fearful undergraduate and the anxious, fearful academic? Pervasive precarity, argues Matthew Vernon

As push-pull factors exert their force on scholars in the UK, the Article 50 ruling buys universities more time to argue their case against a shifting EU backdrop

Renee Ann Cramer explains how classroom role-play helped her students to humanise voters with whom they disagree

Not all universities are great at everything, so they shouldn’t claim to be, say Matthew Hartley and Alan Ruby

Is the average term of office for UK university vice-chancellors getting shorter? Nick Hillman and Tom Huxley find out

Higher education institutions, anchors of their communities, are embracing new civic leadership models, says Robin Hambleton

From calling out sexism to empowering students, we must be far more proactive in tackling offences, argues Graham Towl

The word can mean many things – most of which apply to The Donald. Shahidha Bari muses on how the terms of discourse reflect our age

Western universities’ desire to go abroad and multiply, in a variety of models, is not always ill-advised

When a UK politician questioned the value of academia, scholars were quick to respond, finds Tommaso Grant

The Member of Parliament for Montgomeryshire is wrong to say that academics lack ‘real world’ experience, says Emma Sheppard

Stop worrying about the expansion of higher education and look at the positives, say Francis Green and Golo Henseke

Taking an unconventional route after studying for a doctorate should not be seen as a failure, says Fiona Whelan

Peer review publications remain a key stage in the quality assurance of new research, but some comments can be the stuff of nightmares, says Kingsley Purdam

More helpful advice from Zachary Foster on how to successfully overcomplicate your writing

Science is an often overlooked but vital part of the liberal arts curriculum, says Steven Lynn Bernasek

Isolation and ‘blatant sexual harassment’ among the issues reported by female engineering scholars, writes Brian Rubineau

A trip to the theatre prompts Martin Hall to think afresh about the demonstrations gripping his country’s campuses

World-leading institutions will require greater funding, internationalisation and autonomy, says C. Raj Kumar

Gayle Munro on the disparaging comment that fuelled her thesis and the perception that non-traditional doctoral students lack commitment

Campus violence could halt the homeward flow of the internationally mobile researchers South Africa’s academy needs

With the right strategies, becoming the leading country for scholarship and science is within the UK’s grasp, says Jamie Martin

UK prime minister Theresa May must prove her ‘fixer’ reputation by consulting vice-chancellors and ensuring overseas students feel welcome again, says David Boddy

Karl Dittrich sings the praises of an increasingly international Dutch higher education system, and dismisses concerns about English proficiency

Duncan Wu watched the final presidential debate in a cinema in Virginia, but it was the discourse in the theatre – rather than on the screen – that caused him most concern

Rosi Prescott considers how universities should tackle the decline in students’ well-being often caused by financial stress

Early career researchers could benefit most from changes to funding structures, says Sven Sewitz, but he is concerned that there simply isn’t the will to make it happen

A teaching collaboration between two very different institutions worked better than either could have hoped, write John Simon and Thomas Schutte

Higher education institutions can and should do more to influence education at a secondary school level, says Edward Peck

UUK must help advance equality at the front of the lecture hall through loan write-offs and conferences, says Geraldine Van Bueren

Only one in 10 PhD graduates will work in academia. Institutions have to do more to ready the other nine for their careers, says a postdoctoral research fellow

In embracing ‘cognitive capitalism’, US universities have moved from knowledge generation to income generation, argues Henry Heller

The government is a broken record on overseas student numbers when all the evidence suggests that academic mobility is a win-win situation

The pursuit of high-ranking universities should not be at the expense of education itself, writes Ka Ho Mok

In this Q&A, Jukka Kola, rector of the University of Helsinki, gives his take on the changing face of university leadership