Usefulness of rankings outweighs concerns
World university rankings may be 'simplistic' but they offer comparative information that is otherwise unavailable, writes Phil Baty

World university rankings may be 'simplistic' but they offer comparative information that is otherwise unavailable, writes Phil Baty
Senior academics have carried out their threat to resign from the Arts and Humanities Research Council's peer review college in a dispute over "Big Society" research – and are now calling on...
The threat of up to 200 compulsory redundancies at Middlesex University may lead to a ballot for industrial action, a union has warned.Jenny Compton-Bishop, branch secretary of Unison at Middlesex,...
Michael Farthing, vice-chancellor of the University of Sussex, has been announced as the new chair of the 1994 Group.Professor Farthing will succeed the outgoing chair, Paul Wellings, vice-chancellor...
For-profit higher education providers could “really strike a chord” with students worried about the value for money of traditional £9,000-a-year degrees with “ridiculous” long vacations, according to...
More than 40 senior academics have said they will resign from the Arts and Humanities Research Council's peer review college on June if the council does not take "clear steps" to remove references to...

Seemingly lunatic exploits by eccentric explorers had a serious purpose, Robert J. Mayhew finds

Ronald Hutton welcomes an ambitious study of post-medieval society's leap into the darkness
To judge a book by its cover (which is what book covers are for, of course), the reader of this book, given its 3D, blocky, Pop Art-style yellow-on-orange lettering, might expect witty, irreverent...
This is a surprising book. One approaches an analysis of the inner workings of the Civil Service with something approaching trepidation. Of course it's an important topic, but how much will one's...
A peer through the toyshop window at internet glasses and avatars fails to inspire Athene Donald
George Inness is far and away the most compelling American landscape artist of the 19th century. I can't remember having seen his work before settling in the US in 2008, but after doing so I saw it...
Shamshad Khan, in her poem Oppressed Coverage, writes "whatever the news/you restate your views with such ease/always finishing with a call to prayer/Allahu Akbar/any excuse to show us on our knees...
Are students being short-changed by a narrow approach to learning? Matthew Reisz reports
Promoting education at local institutions could help to cut costs, Andy Westwood tells John Gill