The week in higher education
• A Guardian feature on the Conservative Party conference trumpeted the "return of the Nasty Party" on 11 October. One anonymous delegate told the newspaper that he might leave the party over David...
• A Guardian feature on the Conservative Party conference trumpeted the "return of the Nasty Party" on 11 October. One anonymous delegate told the newspaper that he might leave the party over David...
With the first cohort of £9K students settling in, there is still no clear idea about how cost is affecting numbers and teaching
I first met Zhao Jing when interviewing her two years ago. I was part of a panel evaluating her application to enter graduate study at Fudan University without sitting the entrance examination. She...

Credit: UCL/Grant Museum of Zoology/Matt ClaytonThis jar of moles is one of the most popular items owned by University College London's Grant Museum of Zoology and took pride of place near the...
Leeds Metropolitan UniversityMichelle BriggsAn academic whose research focuses on pain management and has the overall aim of improving patients' ability to cope with pain has joined Leeds...

The UK sector’s growing involvement in offshore education includes everything from branch campuses and institutional partnerships to validation and franchising. David Matthews weighs the different...

Risky diversion - Are UK universities’ overseas adventures a sure route to success?

Family ties are a big influence on which location people choose for study. Julie Hare reports

Duncan Wu admires (with some caveats) a synecdochal exploration of family, loss and the end times’ bitter waters

A pioneering researcher in public-sector management who spent more than 40 years at the University of Stirling has died.Rob Ball was born in Kettering, Northamptonshire on 12 September 1945. He...

Weekly transmissions from the blogosphere
Nottingham Trent UniversityFranklin my dear, we give a damnFertility specialist and television presenter Lord Winston has opened a multimillion-pound science facility named in honour of Rosalind...

First-rate vocational training is more essential than ever, says Sally Feldman
As the first undergraduates subject to England’s new higher fees regime acclimatise to campus life, Chris Parr talks to freshers across the capital about their reasons for going to university, how...
Lecturers at the University of East London are set to hold a one-day strike in a row over proposed changes to staff workloads.