Making other plans
Universities benefit from the large pool of cheap labour provided by PhD students and postdocs, but there aren’t enough academic jobs to go around, so young scholars should prepare for the...

Universities benefit from the large pool of cheap labour provided by PhD students and postdocs, but there aren’t enough academic jobs to go around, so young scholars should prepare for the...

Graham Farmelo is pleased to see the spotlight turn to the ‘supreme problem-solver of the 20th century’

It's a digital world, isn't it? Not for all: the paperless future has yet to arrive and there is a pulp faction in the academy still wedded to print. Matthew Reisz reports
The fines levied by the Higher Education Funding Council for England ("High stakes: £21m fines and 'blindfold poker'", News, 7 June) reveal real concerns with the student number controls now in place...
Thank you for hosting an important debate in recent weeks on the sustainability of the student loan system and the security for borrowers when it comes to repayment terms. David Willetts deserves...
David Willetts states that the modelling undertaken by London Economics in relation to the assessment of the resource accounting and budgeting (RAB) charge for higher tuition fees in England is "...
An open letter to Sally HuntWe note the results of the ballot to effect constitutional change in the University and College Union as communicated by you in March. We believe this ballot was conducted...
Regarding "Hefce's purse strings may be tied to concordat" (News, 7 June). Some readers may be under the impression that the UK Research Integrity Office shut down when its public funding ended in...
Peter Butler and Andrew Sturdy ("What doctors need is a dose of fairness", Letters, 31 May) suggest that in "The kindness of strangers" (24 May) I argue in favour of passing PhDs on compassionate...
In "Beyond those shores"(7 June), ߣߣÊÓƵ equates the divergence between Japan and the rest of the world in higher education terms with an intellectual deficit on the part of the...
Surely people should be given lines for sniffing cocaine, not smoking cannabis ("'Let's give every schoolboy lines for smoking cannabis'", News, 31 May)? I should stress that I am drawing on...
Your otherwise excellent leader ("The best that money can't buy", 31 May) would have been better still had the word "unintended" been omitted from "has had the unintended consequence of driving grade...
I was briefly worried at what our position (?) at the bottom (?) of the "University Sex League" might do to student recruitment, but a colleague pointed out how pleased parents will be (The week in...

A distinguished biochemist, who defied doctors' orders to receive a prestigious degree at the University of Oxford while in the grip of motor neuron disease, has died.Paul Bolwell was born in...

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