Politics

Students could have significant impact on individual seats, THE modelling suggests, but jury is out on whether this might change overall result

Conservatives’ intense scepticism about the value of expanded higher education set against Labour’s attack on ‘failed free-market experiment’, as differing philosophies underlie pledges

THE deputy news editor John Morgan wades through the party manifestos and discusses how the parties’ proposals will affect higher education

Critics fear initiative could widen social inequalities

Sector leaders say Augar-inspired cut to tuition fees in England would damage sector

The Labour Party in the UK, like the Democrats in the US, hopes to be elected on a policy of abolishing student fees. Roger Smyth draws on the experience of New Zealand to challenge the rationale for such a strategy

Growing numbers of university leavers, and their concentration in cities, could have a significant impact at the ballot box – and throw up challenges for universities, too

In a fraught political climate, it is even more difficult than usual for researchers to grab the attention of ministers. Diana Beech imparts her insider’s tips

Association to Horizon Europe would also be positive, but hostile mood music over immigration still reverberates 

The EU’s next framework programme, Horizon Europe, is due to start in just over a year. But while its broad shape is settled, political wrangling over budget and participation rights means researchers are still unclear over their future funding prospects. David Matthews reports from Brussels

Party manifestos all seen as likely to drive English institutions’ focus away from dwindling per-student funding, towards increasing research income

Judges find provincial government improperly violated universities’ autonomy

Conservatives also aim to tackle ‘low-quality courses’ in England and ‘reform the science funding system’

Manifesto also pledges ‘fundamental rethink’ of teaching and research assessment, plus end to ‘failed free market’ in higher education and to staff casualisation

Party would use review to consider ‘any necessary reforms’, having previously indicated it may favour a graduate tax

Lawmakers fret over weak response to China, but can’t say what they would do better

Lorenzo Fioramonti wants to ‘put his ideas to the test’ and end the country’s brain drain

Fees reform has not quelled popular anger over exploitation, but academics can play a key role in constitutional reform, says Robert Funk

Society president warns parties must address ‘huge reputational damage’ to UK science caused by Brexit

£9,000 fees permitted per-student funding to rise even at the height of austerity, argues former minister David Willetts

Universities are inherently political spaces, but the current explosion in violent protest must come to an end, says Brian Wong

New chair of main higher education grouping promises to resist complacency

Lord Kerslake, chair of UK2070 Commission, calls for ‘MIT of the North’ and ‘HE-FE systems’ in deprived towns

Boris Johnson pledges to double public spending on research and development to £18 billion over course of next parliament

Flimsy evidence provided for China’s political interference in UK academia has raised questions over the motivation for calls for tougher regulation

The ongoing wave of student protests is testing the diplomacy skills of the territory’s vice-chancellors to the limits. But is it possible to keep the peace on campus and maintain good relations with the Hong Kong and Chinese governments while maintaining unrestricted freedom of speech, asks Joyce Lau

Bureau admits using paperwork flaws to drive evictions, without clear line on open science

Party’s lifelong learning report features call for new organisation to coordinate across National Education Service

Leading sociologist of inequality fears boosting the status of a select few universities could mean a closed educational elite, as in the US or France 

Restrictions on loan access for university courses with low graduate earnings under consideration for Tory manifesto, though Augar-inspired cuts not ruled out

A quarter of universities doing only bare minimum to help registration as general election looms, survey suggests

Would-be Brexit Party MP Kevin Yuill says he is encouraged by support for Leave party among staff and students

Barcelona academic says universities should take more neutral stance, but exiled scholar says Spain’s actions ‘undermine’ European values

Presidential push for women’s universities accompanied by scrapping of gender action plan by regulator

Politicians are culpable for restricting student loans for prisoners, but universities need to be less wary of released offenders, says Nick Hillman 

Revolt by four-year campuses in US shows challenge of expanding federal role

Conservative mistrust of the existing research funding system demands a re-examination of its uneasy compromises, says John Womersley

New figures raise question of whether government has thwarted progress on its own policy priority

Michael Murphy fears universities are now seen as being in ‘perpetual opposition’ by politicians

As mistrust between the EU and UK deepens, politics could scupper British association to the next framework programme, says Jan Palmowksi

Augar response, TEF direction and research funding plans could all remain at a red light while UK goes to the polls

Talks unlikely to take place until referendum clarifies whether country will undergo its own ‘Brexit moment’

Ankara may be seeking long-term presence in Syria through campuses that will bring influx of non-Kurdish refugees, according to experts

UK and Switzerland risk missing out on beginning of €100 billion (£86 billion) programme, alongside potential newcomers Australia and Canada

Government Accountability Office says number of religious-based hate crimes in universities nearly doubled in eight years

As government takes interventionist stance, education experts call for deeper measures on social and institutional inequality

Commentators laud ‘exciting’ political pairing of seasoned bureaucrat and entrepreneurial icon

Federal institutions vow to fight back against Jair Bolsonaro’s restrictive policies

Alberta joins Ontario in cutting university funding and hiking tuition fees

Trump education chief resisted aiding students defrauded by for-profit college chain

Repository of research findings to help social scientists see ‘what we’re actually grappling with’

Investment will create 2,700 new PhD places in biosciences and AI research

Tensions between Hong Kong and mainland China students play out at universities

Chris Skidmore reiterates desire for UK to associate to Horizon Europe, but says negotiations are unlikely to begin until the second quarter of 2020

Liberals’ likely partners equally committed to reducing burden on graduates

Criticism grows as the government is accused of causing ‘unforgiveable havoc’ amid protests  

Julie Bishop tells Times Higher Education interview that Australia’s universities should rank better

If the point of missions is to win taxpayers’ support for an increased science budget, accountability will be vital, says Harry Farmer

Constitutional Council decision could strike a blow against expansion plan for international students and grandes écoles’ fees policy

Experts sceptical of free-college methods, but welcome party-wide commitment for 2020 poll