Teaching and learning

Low opinion of key exams connected to ‘disastrous’ decisions during Covid and a lack of understanding over how grades are awarded

First new college in half century at UC Berkeley reflects a nationwide effort to meet relentless rise in student interest in computing

Gaps between quality of providers’ teaching and the students they cater for identified in new Hepi report

The former vice-chancellor of the University of Johannesburg on the complexities of leading an institution in Africa 

The idea that humans’ inventiveness will always keep them one step ahead of computers may not turn out to be true, says David Sanders

Self-employment teaches valuable skills and offers more flexibility to fit work around academic and domestic demands, says Robert Phillips

Florida’s partisan attack on New College bolsters iconoclastic Massachusetts campus as it rebuilds from near closure

Academics’ rush to cater for different learning preferences with plethora of readings, videos and slides leaves course participants fatigued

Universities have focused on impact on assessments, but internet pioneer tells THE conference changes must extend to teaching and research

New College of Florida governing board assembled by governor refuses faculty-backed professor candidates

The sense of being part of a learning community is important – and you don’t get that from ‘captured’ lectures, says Michael Merrifield

Study finds trainee doctors become cynical, emotionally distanced and desensitised towards their patients

Ancient India and China were the first civilisations to educate young people to become whole individuals, says Kyaw Moe Tun

The UK’s trailblazing marriage of academic study and practical training is billed as a win-win for students and employers. But are universities and companies pulling their weight? Are students getting what they want? And what does it all mean for the future of traditional study, asks Tom Williams 

As AI makes giant strides, threatening to digitise a whole host of graduate careers, the need to ensure that human employees can regularly upskill and retrain is more urgent than ever. An early pioneer of mass lifelong learning, does Singapore point the way forwards? Pola Lem reports from the Lion City

Unions representing full-time and adjunct faculty walk out at New Jersey’s three-campus 67,000-student system

Assessment needs rethinking, but ChatGPT et al could streamline processes, improve tutoring and highlight collaborations, says Nick Jennings

The aspiration is commendable, but the downsides of running short, flexible courses must be considered from the outset, says David Spendlove

Basing teaching around the fundamental challenges faced by society will benefit both the humanities and humanity itself, says Doug Haynes

To retain students, US institutions must give credit for learning that occurs in professional settings, say Stephen Handel and Eileen Strempel

Universities should do all they can to expand students’ horizons by exposing them to the transcendentally vast, says Andy Tix

Fayneese Miller, university’s first black president, to retire after months of battling over propriety of Muhammad painting in art class

Focus on jobs and commercialisation inconsistent with sector’s ‘intrinsic purposes’, says Simon Marginson

V-c Wim de Villiers advocates multilingualism within higher education, but investigation finds university ‘violated rights’ of Afrikaans students

Grading fills students with anxiety and academics with guilt. It is the enemy of real education. Time for a rebellion, says Andy Farnell

OECD education director Andreas Schleicher urges shift towards lifelong learning, but says universities enjoy ‘nice monopoly rent’ from status quo

Former Cape Town v-c Mamphela Ramphele warns that higher education has been captured by elites and needs to prioritise tackling climate crisis

Focus on impact and deep evaluation far more important than whatever is in vogue, renowned education researcher says 

Retrofitting traditional assessment methods with more accessible and inclusive overlays is not the right way to go, says Katie Stripe

Students need to know the broad outlines of global imperial history if they are to judge claims for themselves. But, typically, they don’t, says Ian Pace

The honours system has too narrow a scope and too few grades. Why not embrace the Hear and the GCSE scale, asks Zahir Irani

Disappointing results from pilot scheme indicate a focus on 10-credit modules, rather than 30-credit courses, is the way forward, says Annabel Kiernan

Developed techniques to create virtual field trips are proving a boon to students’ education and morale, say Simon Hutchinson and Nataliia Popovych

Poll reveals how once ‘non-existent’ path to top tier of academia has now become ‘common’

Eerie AI simulations of academic writing show why student essays must return to their more imaginative and freewheeling roots, says Colm O’Shea

Planned departure from Western higher education will ‘limit Russian students’ exposure to outside world and democracy’, scholars warn

Forcing undergraduates to use AI chatbots as a learning tool will help students and educators, argues Dan Sarofian-Butin

A utilitarian approach to undergraduate education is leading to disenchantment among students and society. It is time to put ‘play’ at the heart of learning, says Colm O’Shea

Snap adoption of new teaching model, after half a century of gestation, shows that universities can get things done quickly

Evidence suggests that honesty pledges make cheating less pronounced than it otherwise would be, say Thomas Gift and Julie Norman

Most students got a higher-class degree at every major institution in 2021-22, data show

College Board promises essential new student exposure to black history, while battling accusations it allowed key politically motivated omissions

Education has been incorporating and reimagining the threats and possibilities of tech for decades. AI will be no different, says Paul Breen

Prodded by DeSantis, heads of all 28 campuses promise to hinder attempts to explain racial inequities to students

One in three degrees were firsts last year, but this is still above pre-pandemic levels

Delivery of educational material chunked at the optimal grade for retention by passive student-consumers is ripe for automation, says Andy Farnell

Ever more expensive boilerplate qualifications that may or may not connote genuine expertise are not what the world needs, says Valerie Sartor

As academia pushes to raise grades and completions among disadvantaged students, San Francisco professor shows value of Bandura, von Bertalanffy and kaizen

Supporters hope to spread benefits of the model, for years the preserve of a few progressive institutions, worldwide

After a tumultuous 2022, what will the new year bring for higher education? Some of the UK sector’s respected crystal-ball gazers offer their predictions for 2023

With hostility from the Home Office over international student numbers, membership of Horizon Europe slipping away and heavy demands placed on institutions by regulators, UK university staff will be wondering how 2023 will play out. Patrick McGhee and Emma Rees read the runes

Students aiming for a Russell Group university were set up to fail by a pathways college – but then passed anyway, says Donald Short

Liberal arts programmes should be revamped and rebranded to emphasise the competencies they provide graduates entering the workplace, says Costas Spirou

Helping students create climate-conscious start-ups would enhance campus learning and universities’ green credentials, says Robert Phillips

Expanding the blended or online learning currently on offer will not be enough to achieve reskilling agenda, says Betty Vandenbosch

The emergence of ChatGPT underlines that keeping the status quo may be the beginning of the end for legal education, warns Mimi Zou

Growth of chapters seen in the 1990s has tailed off, and they are increasingly pushed towards the back

Some research presentations by practitioners are more akin to sales pitches than free enquiry, says Ian Pace

Professor known for statements widely perceived as racist has had low class sign-ups for several years, suggesting campus verdict ahead of formal sanction review

Shadow health secretary backing a Policy Exchange blueprint for growing doctor numbers, including the creation of up to 15 new medical schools