New and noteworthy – 22 November 2018
When actors started to play to the people; a rainforest alive with aliens; the cultural artefacts of childbirth; and Africa’s golden age

When actors started to play to the people; a rainforest alive with aliens; the cultural artefacts of childbirth; and Africa’s golden age

Chester’s Tim Grady, recently shortlisted for the Cundill History Prize, is proof that smaller universities can produce researchers who compete with the elite. John Morgan writes

Japan’s combined budgetary crunch and demographic squeeze has raised questions about the sustainability of its huge university sector. John Ross visits the country to investigate

Recent political interventions in university affairs are symptomatic of the perception that higher education institutions need a firm hand
On meddling, merit and accountability The situation that Mark Steven describes in his opinion article “The political becomes personal when a grant is killed by a minister”, outlining how his personal...

The good, the bad and the offbeat: the academy through the lens of the world’s media

After spending a century in and around academia, Ukraine’s chief scientist reflects on his father’s ‘genius’, Chernobyl and how scientists helped to win the Second World War

Frustration with ‘snail’s pace’ progress across continent leads Irish government to back financial sanctions against universities that miss targets

Although less than half of fee income typically goes directly to teaching, English universities should not fear more openness, says Hepi study

Officials give GSM green light for public funding despite knowing of its financial worries, while ministers ‘refuse to back public universities’

Major Ucea study finds ethnic minority staff suffer ‘significant pay penalties’ relative to white male staff with equivalent academic backgrounds

MPs criticises government, which would have recouped £1.7 billion sale price in just eight years’ repayments

Jack Grove asks whether those who lead academic departments and universities can still realistically find the time to be effective researchers

Tributes paid to leading physicist who became first provost of Imperial College London