Academic life

The importance of senior faculty advising junior colleagues on their career trajectories is increasingly emphasised. But is guidance – and the giving of it – being fairly shared? Should mentoring schemes be formalised? And are they really enough? Seven academics have their say

As the celebrated children’s historical sketch show marks its 15th anniversary, Jack Grove speaks to its head writer, history producer and PhD researchers on how scholarly sleuthing has been crucial to its long success

I realised that I was sacrificing my best years – and those of my child – for a dream that did not have my back. So I quit, says Helen Lees

University managers must be committed to cultivating a compassionate culture and building trust in the workplace, says Andrew Woon

A radical new manifesto for science communication is warning about the dangers of making arrogant claims that academic knowledge can explain the mysteries of the universe. Matthew Reisz meets its authors

Proposed changes to how scholars publish show little awareness of how they will profoundly reshape academic life, says David Lund

The redundancies and course closures proposed at many struggling UK universities follow a decades-long drift away from the idea of higher education institutions as charities whose non-commercial public benefit needs to be supported by profit-making activity, argues Martin Mills

Libraries no longer accept donations, but targeted giving to colleagues and students is a way for retired academics to keep teaching, says Harvey Graff

Cornell University philosopher Kate Manne is calling out the discrimination – often blatant – faced by scholars deemed overweight

Maintaining authority, professional distance and ‘authenticity’ is hard among people who knew you pre-academia, reflects Brad Evans

Australian study finds good prospects for research degree graduates, so long as they look beyond academia

The feted urban sociologist Richard Sennett tells Matthew Reisz about how his former career as a cellist inspired his latest trilogy of books, why his ideal university would be more night school than Oxbridge college and why it helps him to imagine his readers as female biologists

When adjunct faculty contribute so much to US academia, why are they denied basic benefits such as health insurance and medical leave, asks Josh Hiller

Would someone who found effective software for their department never have to buy a beer again? Not according to my survey, says Paul Breen

It might sound ‘wishy-washy’ but joyfulness can succeed where KPIs fail in supporting the institutional mission, new book argues

Stealing other people’s research students corrupts collegiality, the cornerstone of academic life, says T. Prabhakar Clement

While UK universities are starting to address the challenges faced by new mothers, combining parenthood and academia remains a difficult task. Five writers give their experience of what institutions are getting right and wrong in supporting academic mums

From satirical novels to US sitcoms and cop shows, academics have proved to be rich source material across many genres. Four writers argue the case for who can claim to be fiction’s greatest scholar

John Edmunds commended alongside Bristol health chief and Leicester chancellor

In John Gilbey’s seasonal tale, the sharks are circling the vice-chancellor of the University of Rural England. But the fishing village to which he flees is not as innocent as he depicted it in his doctoral thesis. And its power-brokers are every bit as terrifying as those on the Regional Economic Regeneration Committee

Ádám and Dávid Tárnoki, radiologists at Semmelweis University, discuss their shared ‘trajectory’

A professorship comes with prestige, but appointments are opaque and there are other rewarding ways to cap off an academic career, says Ron Iphofen

Times Higher Education journalists name the academics and administrators at the heart of the sector’s biggest debates over the past 12 months

The concept of privilege is much more complex and dynamic than those who wield it often assume, says Noam Schimmel

University will also offer eight weeks of paternity leave, doubling previous offering

With academics feeling the strain from higher workloads, the days when scholars had time to write novels or run businesses seem increasingly distant. Lincoln Allison suggests that universities have far more to gain than to lose by allowing their academics to broaden their experience and earn extra income

The unexpectedly musical background of many sociologists might explain their academic success, Glasgow professor argues

The nectar of power and prestige is sweet, but modern editors have to swallow an embittering volume of hard graft, too, says Adrian Furnham

As academics are replaced by religious scholars, those that remain fear the worst, while student interest is plummeting, says an Afghan observer

Twenty-two institutions win awards for innovation and excellence in teaching and research

The American University in Cairo’s first Arab leader on helping people reskill, serving the community and taking on the ‘necessary evil’ of administration

Economic barriers and power outages harming sector’s reputation, but some leaders say country is continuing to hold its own, despite problems

Union and employer association welcome delay to resolve ‘unintended consequences’

From dedicating time for brainstorming to taking inspiration from their dog, five writers explain how they are changing their approach to academia and life as another academic year begins in the northern hemisphere

Annual meetings should be reimagined as spaces that enable connections – including with practitioners and the media, says Noam Schimmel

WeWork-style project seeks to replicate some of the benefits of having a university in higher education ‘cold spots’

Homicide rate may have been about 50 times higher than modern-day standards, study suggests

Arthur Conan Doyle’s maverick detective embraced science but also tapped into suspicion and resentment towards academia, a scholar argues

Over the past century, capitalism, relativism, egoism and social advocacy have fuelled the decay of traditional academic commitments, says Bruce Macfarlane

Experiences in the Congo and the US Congress taught Stephen Weissman that adventurous academics need self-examination and thoughtful adaptation

Initiative intended to check office requirements redesigned after privacy panic

University managers’ doomed pursuit of unattainable ideals turns staff into martyrs who see work as sacrifice and suffering. It explains much about why so many feel stressed, harassed and miserable, says Joe Moran

Departmental hierarchies, job precarity and institutions’ need to protect their star professors enables bullies to thrive in Britain’s top universities, says Wyn Evans

‘Narrow-mindedness’ over China in US universities driven by fear of losing government funding, says Denis Simon

Possibility of tensions flaring again on first anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death sparks attempts to keep students away from campuses

Jobs forum popular with economists accuses researchers of ‘hacking’ after locations of users exposed

As students in many countries receive their final degree marks amid perennial concerns about grade inflation, three scholars reflect on their experiences of being pressured to mark more leniently, while one considers how to enhance the fairness of marking outcomes

I want my research to fuel change and make a positive impact on the world, and I do not want to suffer in the process, says Heidi Green

When faced with a real, full-bore crisis, this generation of supposed snowflakes just got on with it and coped better than I did, says Joe Moran

Some incidents are inevitable, but, as all security guards know, de-escalation is a lot less painful than the alternative, says George Bass

As world’s most famous archaeologist makes his last big-screen outing, real-life researchers reflect on how the character and his famous hat and whip have influenced their discipline

The ‘Presidential Platitude’ and the ‘Forty-Minute Conference Paper’ are among German historian Philipp Stelzel’s concoctions

Sector leaders and academics from across the UK are recognised in the first King’s Birthday Honours list

Historian vice-chancellor Evelyn Welch has faced criticism for marking final-year dissertations personally

Unions and management should strike ‘grand bargain’ to resolve issue that ‘casts a shadow’ over the sector, says outgoing leader

When she was BBC Newsnight’s top booker, Sam McAlister persuaded Prince Andrew to give his infamous interview about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. She tells Jack Grove how academics can avoid shooting themselves in the foot and what TV producers want from expert guests

University ‘reviewing’ fair work umpire’s decision to reject clarification that ‘contemporaneous consultation’ means ‘within a week’

Universities may well accept a 1 per cent funding penalty as a cheaper option, compared with paying money owed to lecturers

Janina Ramirez, one of the UK’s best-known historians, reflects on gender fluidity throughout history, transphobia and Twitter trolls

Faculty groups say ‘we are already seeing staff and faculty leaving the state’ in response to proposed legislation