Times Higher Education’s most-read articles of 2023

Those looking to understand the issues preoccupying academics, higher education professionals and students could do worse than to consult the annual Times Higher Education most-read list. This year it’s heavily populated by stories about international students and visa requirements, with countries including the UK, Canada and Australia reviewing their policies.

Expert opinion drew the largest readership in 2023, however. Op-eds claim the top four spots on the list, on subjects ranging from staff-student relationships to American disillusionment with higher education.

15. Canada aims to spread out international students across country

International students are a recurring theme in this year’s most-read list, with Canada, the UK and Australia all considering changes to their visa policies. In the former, the Trudeau administration announced plans to “more strategically distribute international students around Canada”, THE’s North America editor Paul Basken reported. The country, one of the world’s top destinations for overseas students, has seen study permit applications from abroad rise from 313,000 in 2017 to 715,000 in 2022. The new measures are aimed at “ensuring the benefits of immigration are spread to all regions of the country”, said a spokesperson for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).

14. Sector fights plan to cut UK post-study work visa ‘to six months’

Post-study work visas came under government scrutiny in the UK this year, and THE readers took note. Rumours circulated early in the year that the visas would be cut from two years to six months, while only overseas students on postgraduate courses that are research-based or at least two years’ long would be permitted to bring dependants with them. At the time, Universities UK International director Jamie Arrowsmith told THE’s Patrick Jack that “any threat to remove or limit the graduate route would severely impact on our ability to recruit international students”, resulting in a “significant negative impact on the UK’s economic growth”. Eleven months later, the ban on dependants is about to come into play, while the government has announced a “review” of the post-study work visa.

13. National Student Survey 2023: which university performed best?

To the disappointment of many, the latest version of the annual National Student Survey omitted a key question on student satisfaction. But analysis by THE determined that students at the University of St Andrews were the most positive about their courses, with a positivity measure of 87 per cent across the remaining questions in the survey. Coming in second was the University of West London with 86 per cent, making it the top provider in England, while Aberystwyth University (85 per cent) scored the highest among Welsh institutions and the University of Ulster (83 per cent) came out on top in Northern Ireland.

12. Mass resignations from Elsevier journal over ‘unethical’ price hike

Open-access fees remained a subject of controversy in 2023. In April, the 40-strong editorial board of the Elsevier neuroscience journal NeuroImage announced their resignation after the publisher increased their article processing charge (APC) from $3,000 (£2,350) to $3,450 (£2,700). In an open letter, the editors – who subsequently launched a non-profit journal, Imaging Neuroscience – called large profits “unethical and unsustainable”, noting previous efforts to persuade Elsevier to reduce the APC. “Scientists and funders increasingly feel that it is wrong for publishers to make such high profits, particularly given that the publishers do not fund the original science, or the writing of articles, or payments to reviewers, and pay minimal editorial stipends,” the statement read.

11. UK’s post-study visa ‘not attracting skilled workers’

In the second (but not the last) appearance of the UK’s visa policies on this year’s most-read list, Patrick Jack covered a report by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), an independent non-departmental public body that advises the government. The MAC’s annual report said that the two-year graduate route had been a “resounding success” in increasing international student numbers, but less so in attracting skilled workers, with many students going on to enter low-wage roles. The committee also warned that the aforementioned ban on dependants could bring “potentially harmful consequences” for some overseas students.

10. Tougher UK visa requirements will hit postdocs, ERC head warns

Alongside plans to review the post-study work visa, home secretary James Cleverly also announced an almost 50 per cent increase in the salary required to obtain a skilled worker visa, prompting concern among sector leaders (and, evidently, THE readers). Maria Leptin, president of the European Research Council, called the change “bitter news” that “will affect postdocs”, adding: “I hope there’ll be a rethink of that”. Others reacted more directly. University of Oxford professor Ben Sheldon wrote on social media, “UK science is screwed”.

9. Nearly 20,000 students withdraw from UK courses

The cost-of-living crisis continued to affect undergraduates in the UK this year: data from the Student Loans Company revealed that almost 20,000 students withdrew from their courses between the start of the 2022-23 academic year and 21 February. That was a drop of 1 per cent from the figures a year earlier – but a significant increase on every other year since such figures began to be collected in 2018-2019. Laura Brown, Save the Student’s head of editorial, called the numbers “concerning”, telling THE, “Unfortunately for many, money is likely to be a significant factor in this decision, highlighting the urgent need for the government to improve maintenance funding to prevent more students from dropping out.”

8. Will a PhD make you better off? Not until 33 years later

As ever, PhD careers stories proved popular with THE readers this year. Jack Grove’s report wasn’t the most encouraging: according to a new study, while PhD graduates enjoy a “pay premium” of about £3 an hour more than master’s degree holders, it will take the former an average of 33 years to catch up financially on the latter thanks to the costs of earning their doctorates. “It is very likely that PhDs will always have a decent income, or more than decent,” said study author Giulio Marini, who said the doctoral graduates with the greatest financial payoffs were those who entered managerial roles. “However, considering the time to get it, the main issue is, ‘How could I pass from just decent into something more?’ Leadership is our answer.”

7. Australia cuts post-study work visas by two years

Another visa story makes the most-read list: this time, Australia’s December U-turn on the extension to post-study work rights announced only 15 months before. Asia-Pacific editor John Ross covered the migration strategy released by the federal government, which saw post-study work visas cut by two years, the age limit for temporary graduate visa applicants slashed from 50 to 35 and English language requirements tightened. Peter Hurley, director of Victoria University’s Mitchell Institute, said the changes would primarily affect vocational education and training (VET) colleges, with the higher education sector seeing limited impact.

6. PhD by publication ‘not an option’ at most UK universities

Back to PhDs: according to a review of research degree policies across 135 UK universities, just one in three published guidance on how students can complete a PhD by publication, an alternative route to the traditional doctoral thesis. The study, published in Perspectives: Policy and Practice in Higher Education, found that 58 per cent of Russell Group universities awarded PhDs by publication, but there was a “tendency for post-92 institutions not to offer an alternative format option”. Author Caitlin Robinson of the University of Bristol told THE: “PhDs by publication are often gained by those with a substantial body of work who want a doctorate – they need to be supported so they can develop a coherent project with the traditional structure, terminology and context that you would find with a traditional PhD.”

5. Indian states blacklisted as Australian visa rejections soar

In March, John Ross reported that some Australian universities were banning students from the states of Haryana, Punjab and Gujarat – just as politicians including prime minister Anthony Albanese and education minister Jason Clare were embarking on a political charm offensive to celebrate research and educational ties with India. The Association of Australian Education Representatives in India (AAERI) called the move “grossly unfair and discriminatory”, with president Ravi Lochan Singh writing in a letter to Mr Clare, “AAERI understands that there might have been higher instances of student visa refusals from certain regions in India but that should not bar genuine students from being considered.”

4. Should universities ban staff-student relationships?

Opinion pieces made up the top four most-read articles on THE this year. At number four, a piece that sparked lengthy conversation among our readers: as the Office for Students proposed a blanket ban on sexual relationships between academics and students across English universities, two writers offered differing views. Lincoln Allison, emeritus professor of politics at the University of Warwick, argued that “attempts to regulate physical or emotional relations between staff and students in a university are conceptually weak and largely impractical”, while an anonymous contributor shared their experience of grooming by an academic who became their PhD supervisor, writing, “The power dynamic between staff and the students they teach or supervise is ripe for abuse.”

3. UK degree classifications are no longer fit for purpose

In early 2023, the global banking group Santander became the latest in a string of major firms to drop its requirement for UK graduate hires to possess an upper-second-class honours degree or higher. In response, Zahir Irani, deputy vice-chancellor of the University of Bradford, made the case for new assessment criteria. “Traditional UK degree classes are too broad and vague to be significant any more for sorting an increasingly diverse set of graduates into career echelons,” Professor Irani wrote. “Employers – and societies more generally – want capable people. And they want to be rid of any apparatus that appears to be a barrier to fair appraisal and progress.”

2. Thank you ChatGPT for exposing the banality of undergraduate essays

ChatGPT is alarmingly good at replicating the “worst version” of college essays, wrote Colm O’Shea, clinical associate professor with the expository writing programme at New York University. Such essays resembled “an echo chamber, a neat summation of critical consensus” – and students had been producing them long before AI, he said. The ChatGPT crisis might, therefore, be the perfect opportunity to reinvigorate academic writing. “An engaged academic could return the essay to its proper Montaignian heritage: a divergent and creative exploration of possibilities,” Dr O’Shea argued.

1. US states are turning their backs on bachelor’s degrees. Work is needed

The most-read article on THE this year concerned the US’ plummeting faith in university education. In March, the governor of North Carolina followed governors in Alaska, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Utah in dropping the requirement of a four-year degree for most state jobs, at a time when college enrolments were declining and public opinion polls reflected historically low support for higher education. In response, Stephen Handel of the ECMC Foundation and Eileen Strempel of the University of California, Los Angeles called for “skills-based, competency-centred learning” to become more central to college curriculums. “Our higher education degrees must not only be linked more directly to the world of work, but we must also honour skills and knowledge gained on the job,” they wrote.

emily.dixon@timeshighereducation.com