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Is it enough to demand an original contribution to knowledge or should doctoral candidates also have to show that they have ¡°material suitable for publication¡± ? asks Tara Brabazon

Irene Mac¨ªas deplores many Britons¡¯ pitiful foreign language skills and employers¡¯ apparent ignorance about its growing importance

Andy Masheter argues that Britain's academy must not sacrifice its hard-won global reputation on the altar of expediency

Gary Day is diverted by a look at working-class pleasures and the life of the Queen of the Music Hall

Reform of the sector's pension scheme may be essential, but no single option will please everyone - not least students

Merchandising should not dictate children's television, says Sally Feldman

Each week, Dr Margot Feelbetter poses a dilemma and offers advice for readers to respond to online.

Mathematician and TV presenter Rachel Riley on the many ways higher education can spur self-improvement

The Royal Family¡¯s humanity and fallibility are strengths, not weaknesses, argues A. W. Purdue

Each week, Dr Margot Feelbetter poses a dilemma and offers advice for readers to respond to online

The pursuit of knowledge is a lifelong commitment and an enduring passion for television stalwart Loyd Grossman

Higher education leaders shouldn't be afraid of moving out of their safe zones and making radical changes, says Dominic Shellard

The Cold War era's nuclear fears have nothing on the terror of a CO2-choked future, says John Warren, with too few botanists left to find ways to save the planet

Greg Garrard is torn between packing his course reading lists and giving his students time to reflect and dig deep

Gary Day is dazzled by Ozwald Boateng's style, but less so by England's performance on the pitch

Moaning about cuts won't win the sector friends or spare it pain. Its leaders must step up and make a positive case for its value

The space shuttles' impact went beyond science. Kevin Fong will miss them

After considering criteria that demand work ¡®well above world standard¡¯, Tara Brabazon concludes that an era of interplanetary scholarship must be upon us

As the World Cup hits fever pitch, Robin Hambleton hopes that UK academics who are hostile to professional, external assessment of the impact of their research will draw a few lessons from the beautiful game

The status of adjunct faculty is proving to be one of the summer's hot topics for discussion in higher education in North America.

Don't blame v-cs, argues Alan Ryan. It is the entire social system that is corrupt

Each week, Dr Margot Feelbetter poses a dilemma and offers advice for readers to respond to online

James Nesbitt contrasts Thomas Hardy's vision of wasted potential with the academy's ability to nourish talent

Are vice-chancellors paid too much? An accurate response must first establish what we value as a society, argues Rudi Bogni

Historians at home and abroad are fighting to stop the institution junking a tradition of intellectual integrity. Richard J. Evans says it must reconsider

Ahead of a meeting to draft a manifesto for Europe's academy, Jo Ritzen stresses the importance of autonomy

Considering what makes us tick is all very well, says Gary Day, but some actions defy simplistic definition

'Upskilling' is a noble aim of the main parties, but to achieve it, we must remove the financial barriers to part-time study

Unless baby-boomers are coaxed down from the top of the tree, new postdocs' careers will not get off the ground, argues Peter Geoghegan

Arthur Louis explains his post-retirement decision to retrain as a nurse, and says age hasn't hindered him a bit

As cuts bite, it would be easy for the sector to fragment. But, Keith Burnett argues, it must reject such pressures and work collectively to navigate the storm

Gavin Brown laments the disappearance of the basic programming languages, all but absent in the modern PC

There are some musical moments that make Gary Day forget class and everything else

As universities are being forced into the commercial world, academics shouldn't be shy of launching a charm offensive

Felipe Fern¨¢ndez-Armesto is unimpressed by some of the Windsor clan

Having spent years earning the right to teach undergraduates, Tara Brabazon knows very well that ¡®experience¡¯ is nothing like a degree

Universities overlook ways to make savings simply because they do not focus on institution-wide schemes, argues Microsoft¡¯s Ray Fleming

Each week, Dr Margot Feelbetter poses a dilemma and offers advice for readers to respond to online

Gymnast Beth Tweddle found university helped her become a well-rounded person and taught her time management

Change to the USS scheme is urgently needed to address greater life expectancy and a ?17 billion shortfall, says Nicola Dandridge

A workload allocation system can benefit everyone in a university, so long as it is transparent, trusted and equitable, argues Peter Barrett

Sally Hunt urges UK academics to join the campaign to free colleagues jailed in Colombia for their political views

The asylum was used to house inconvenient truths, says Gary Day, but some people do need its sanctuary

Universities' lack of new-media savvy can leave reputations exposed, but popularity was never wholly within their control

Funding for science or arts? It shouldn't be either/or, argues Malcolm Gillies

The Gulf of Mexico oil spill reads like a toxic 25th-anniversary homage to Don DeLillo¡¯s postmodern novel, says Robert Zaretsky

David Willetts has the intellect to deal with his universities and science briefs. How that will feed into policy is as yet unknown

Tim Birkhead wonders if a critic would feel differently after a job swap

Each week, Dr Margot Feelbetter poses a dilemma and offers advice for readers to respond to online. This week: Deportation danger

Before music became his life, a university writing course provided Liam Fray with creative stimulation and excitement

Students, fees and cuts will dominate the Westminster soap opera's higher education plotlines. Anna Fazackerley offers an early review

Donald L. Drakeman on science's need to look to less measurable but possibly more meaningful disciplines for insights and guidance