Opinion

The argument that v-cs will jump ship if their salary doesn’t match that of commercial comparators rings hollow

The latest edition of Times Higher Education discussed by our editorial team

Being open about failure is one thing, but we must also look at how we define success, says Shahidha Bari

Universities should take responsibility for the betterment of society, says Michael Crow

Steph Wright wonders if it is better to speak your mind or to hold your tongue

Shadow minister for higher education, further education and skills, Gordon Marsden, offers his thoughts on the government’s HE plans

John Gill asks whether the universities minister had anyone in mind when he formulated his plans to open up degree-awarding powers

Success as a Knowledge Economy is the culmination of several unwelcome trends in higher education, writes Joanna Williams 

Nick Hillman picks the higher education White Paper apart, but warns there is still plenty of distance to run before legislation

Some highly selective institutions offer worse employment outcomes than less selective ones, government-commissioned report finds

THE editor John Gill assesses whether the White Paper does enough to answer critics of the government's HE policies

Pressure to publish can lead to unethical behaviour, writes Athene Donald

Matthew Hartley ponders how prestigious (and pricey) colleges can justify their course costs

Class is a national fixation yet if we truly want social mobility we must stop talking about it and take steps to make it a reality

An online experiment proves that part of the bill for complying with the Freedom of Information Act is self-inflicted, says Louis Goddard

Lord Stern should devise a research excellence framework that looks beyond past performance, says Giosuè Baggio

Mechanisms for dealing robustly with assaults must be put in place without delay, argues Matthew Wyard

Specialist language in scientific literature can put people off. Doctoral candidate Michelle Reeve asks: is it really necessary?

Scholars should cheer up and learn to take the rough with the smooth, says John Tregoning

Money for universities will be spread ever more thinly unless enrolment numbers are brought under control, says Warren Bebbington

David Tollerton takes issue with Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis' message to university leaders

Paul Greatrix on exposing an entire cohort to an American pedagogical classic, the common reading programme, and a classic American novel 

Matthew Reisz reflects on the testimonies of gay academics about how the academy has changed and needs to change more

A former colleague pays tribute to Nobel prizewinner Sir Harold Kroto, who has died aged 76

The latest edition of Times Higher Education discussed by our editorial team

Young people and employers are ill served by the government’s divisive move, which creates an unlevel playing field, argues Philip Cowan

In chasing REF points, academics may risk their public standing and undermine work with potentially profound effects, argues Mark Reed

Craig Brandist on the proletarianisation of a profession and how it leads to behaviours that could hobble higher education

Among all the changes in an international higher education sector, one constant is the primacy of integrity and quality

This year's results discussed by the Times Higher Education rankings team

Martin Hall considers the consequences for universities of moving beyond reconciliation to reparation for former injustices

After the THE Africa Universities Summit, and as higher education leaders gather at Going Global in Cape Town, Phil Baty reflects on the role of rankings in nation-building

John Cater considers the long-term impact of the loans the Class of 2012 is now starting to repay

Twitter may be a medium for academic vanity, but it also serves some very useful scholarly purposes, argues Les Back

Trisha Craig considers how universities can help foster in their students a lifelong commitment to community service

National attitudes to universities echo the Bundesliga-Premier League contrast, says John Morgan

Academics will continue to have negligible impact on social policy unless they forge new collaborative relationships with service users, says Peter Beresford

Schools and universities are increasingly looking at how improving personalities can boost social mobility. But in doing so, they may be forced to choose between teaching what is helpful, and what is true, says David Matthews

13 tips to make submitting your paper a breeze

The latest edition of Times Higher Education discussed by our editorial team

Well-targeted mental health support can help students stay on track in an uncapped sector, says David Laws

The junior doctor contract not only deters the lab work that leads to breakthroughs, it threatens quality of care, argues Amitava Banerjee

To aid non-traditional students, David Burns built a ‘Spoc’, a digital course where an academic is always on call

With targeted help from the government, the country’s universities have reasserted their quality and regained their global standing

How can it be that experienced, full-time lecturers teaching huge classes at Canadian universities can be on such low salaries that they officially qualify as “poor”?, asks Andrew W. Robinson

Discrimination and university expulsions continue to blight the lives of this religious minority, writes Shabnam Moinipour

Mark Shucksmith considers whether better knowledge exchange between academics and the third sector could serve as a mechanism for social change

Planning, personal connections and relentless self-promotion could just unlock the largesse of the masses, says Glen Wright

Richard Budd mulls the logic of giving money to your alma mater

Some of the factors that turn your alumni into marketing assets are not as obvious as you might think, says Holger Bollmann

Is the National Union of Students too concerned with discrimination and political correctness or is it right to ignore its critics, asks Jack Grove

Matthew Reisz considers why we are still talking obsessively about the playwright 400 years after he shuffled off this mortal coil

Rima Amin considers the challenges for students’ union officers in the light of the NUS vote to boycott the National Student Survey

David Lloyd finds that a journey into the Australian outback proves instructive

Producing ‘real’ books builds academics’ collective public presence, and it is also the most irresistible scholarly challenge, says Ödül Bozkurt

Many Italians have refused to take part in the country’s research assessment exercise. Alberto Baccini and Giuseppe De Nicolao consider the protest’s impact

China’s motives, like the West’s, are mixed, but it clearly has a role to play in building capacity in African higher education

Investing in the education of millions of young people can help defuse a security time bomb, argue Faisal Abbas and Abdur Rehman Cheema

 The latest edition of Times Higher Education discussed by our editorial team

An idea formed in a Dublin bar could help Oxford in its ambition to act with greater ‘agility and generosity’, says principal of Lady Margaret Hall