Coronavirus

Based on interviews with university presidents over the past year, Jon McNaughtan identifies three areas that all campus leaders should focus on during any crisis

Institutions have introduced four-day weeks during lockdowns, but scholars suspect most changes will be temporary

Universities should partner with students instead of treating them like passive recipients of our superior knowledge, says Simone Buitendijk

British Council expert says universities should be prepared for more deferrals, cancellations and late decision-making over the next 12 months

Survey of Australian researchers also reveals unusual problems associated with home working, including sleepwalkers gatecrashing Zoom calls

Higher education finance expert weighs up costs of options for government, amid calls for loan discounts and cash grants

While Greg Craven warns competition for business and law students could bankrupt some universities, colleagues disagree

OECD finds science rose to the challenge of coronavirus, but this led to cancelled projects elsewhere and academics working outside their expertise

Life in the age of Covid does not lend itself readily to students internships, but there are alternatives, says Benjamin Tak Yuen Chan

Researcher uses role-play techniques to demonstrate both the technical and interpersonal challenges of decision-making during a pandemic

Legislation is urgently needed to ensure good governance and fair pay and conditions, says Nahid Neazy

Institutions emerge from a nearly year-long lockdown with greater knowledge of digital education and public health

Covid-19 and Brexit have created perfect storm, with confusion over paperwork and whether study abroad is deemed essential travel

In these difficult times, boosting your teaching credentials could result in an even better job when you bounce back

Few areas of higher education and research have been left untouched by the Covid-19 pandemic – and during 2020, trends emerged that the academic community will be keeping a close eye on in 2021. Here, we look at five and what the coming months may bring

The new coronavirus variant means that the costs to public health outweigh any pedagogic benefits of reopening campuses sooner, says Simon Williams

Amid mass online instruction, universities need to up their game around digital safeguarding and student welfare, say Andy Phippen and Emma Bond

Low case rates will allow the phased return from April, says education minister

Office for Students suggests universities may need to provide extra lectures or repeat courses after pandemic-related disruption

Universities express concern about diversion of clinical academic staff to front-line services and impact of lockdown

Quick shutdowns protected students but not off-campus neighbours, Stanford analysis shows

Cyberpsychology expert Linda Kaye says it’s crucial that we understand the personal, social and educational implications of the shift to online teaching and learning

National Union of Students calls on more accommodation providers to issue rebates

THE’s Careers Clinic series brings together the great and good of higher education to answer a burning careers question

Admissions officers say grade distribution will be a key issue for space-limited courses

With new lockdowns upon us, it’s time students received the financial relief they deserve, says David Green

Genomic analysis demonstrates successful roll-out of testing programme at university, scientists say

UK scholars call for relief on workload to prevent them feeling obliged to send children into schools during crisis

Data show that Italy’s misfortune to suffer early in pandemic was a benefit for research but it could be short-lived

Despite guidance from government, most leaders do not expect to be able to teach majority of students face-to-face during spring term

Having surveyed thousands of instructors on their lockdown experiences, James T. Walker discusses two key findings and their practical implications

EduCity initiative could let students stay closer to home until Covid eases

Institutions cut fees after students threaten accommodation rent strikes over lockdown

Holyrood revises guidance in light of spread of new Covid-19 variant

V-cs urge government to compensate universities over pandemic rent waivers, with fee refunds also expected to become ‘political football’

Informal use of university scientists as independent advisers is unsustainable when health emergencies last for months, warns committee

Academic couple Theresa Mercer and Andrew Kythreotis are heading into their third lockdown, along with their kids, but this time the expectations are higher and lessons have been learned

Overseas students will only need to be in country by April to be eligible for post-study work visa if their course is finishing this academic year

Research excellence framework submission deadline still set for 31 March

Vice-chancellor says feedback from first lockdown shows four-day week ‘helps improve work-life balance’

Uneasy bonds between lecturers and education specialists must be strengthened to deliver post-pandemic learning, says Neil Mosley

London institution makes announcement as York cancels face-to-face teaching on classroom-based courses for rest of term

Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies members say that teaching should stay online until Easter

Growing impatience with online learning in South Korea highlights the limitations of socially distanced teaching, says Justin Fendos

A-level exams also unlikely to go ahead as planned

One academic faces five weeks of quarantine, while many students can’t travel to campus at all 

Students have been told not to return to campus for another seven weeks

New measures that provide insight into how universities build personal qualities of their graduates are needed, argue Doug Cole and Dino Willox

Rest of students’ return to English universities should be staggered from 25 January, while international students asked to reconsider urgency of need to travel to UK

Praise for Covid vaccine creators is deserved, but the extraordinary work of other scientists must not be overlooked, says Nicholas Dirks

Government gives priority for medical subjects to restart in first weeks of January, with wider student return ‘kept under review’

Calls to redesign curricula for online study ignore how scholars need time and peer support to reinvent courses, says Carole Binns

Survey suggests nation is risking welfare of those it hopes will assist its future growth

Resilience of demand for UK education and short-term nature of disruptions highlighted

Researchers suggest campuses may need to close to in-person teaching to restrain spread of new coronavirus variant

The combination of Brexit and the Covid pandemic has driven change throughout academia, even reaching the scholarly backwater that is the University of Rural England. But perhaps it doesn’t have to be that way, writes John Gilbey. Things could be better – or much, much worse…

In their unearthly calm and Dewey Decimal order, university libraries offer the promise of remaking ourselves, says Joe Moran

Academics recommend repeated testing in January so universities ‘can open up the student experience’

Institutions respond with both electronic crackdowns and pedagogical soul-searching

The past 12 months will live long in the memory, for all the wrong reasons. But as 2020 nears its end amid fairy lights and optimism about vaccines, six academics tell us the bright spots they managed to find amid the gloom – from human connections to elasticated waistbands