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The official weekly newsletter of the University of Poppleton. Finem respice!

Knowledge exchange sits low on academia’s menu, overshadowed by meatier mains, but could the assessment of universities’ third-stream activities tempt some to make it a signature dish?

David Pitt-Watson and Hari Mann believe there could be a way to settle the ongoing pensions row amicably

With student numbers falling as fees rise, drastic action is needed to widen participation, says Claire Callender

Scott Anthony takes issue with claims that Singapore’s leading universities have neglected local intellectual life

Muddled thinking behind the creation of the new Office for Students risks damaging the UK's world-class universities, says Lord Hunt of Kings Heath

Joel Mullan shares some of the ways that digital technologies could address the challenges posed by accelerated degree courses

The stressful postgraduate environment often leads not to solidarity but to the impoverishment of research, says Alfredo Cumerma

Almost 2,350 academics from non-UK European countries have resigned from UK universities in the past year, and Layla Moran fears that could be just the tip of the iceberg

Unconditional offers harm A-level performance, but contextual offers do not – and they better target social mobility, says John Law

Cabinet reshuffle offers universities the chance of a relationship reset before they are likely caught in the first swell of a global wave of funding reviews

Pakistani journals lack the professionalism and expertise to support a thriving knowledge economy, say Abdur Rehman Cheema and Mehvish Riaz

The UK’s new higher education minister needs to move beyond recent spats to prioritise science, funding and mitigating Brexit, says David Bell

The government’s unilateral move to rein in costs is the inevitable result of a volatile and emotive political climate, says Warren Bebbington

Presidential elections are looming, but government pressure on universities should ensure that students pose no threat to the ruling regime, says Ararat Osipian

Matthew Reisz meets the scholars for whom one discipline is not enough

Ongoing ministerial education reviews risk treating technical and academic education as separate pathways, says Quintin McKellar, and this could be to the detriment of both

Mary Visser asks if universities are delivering for people born in the late 1990s

Criticism of academic sisterhood survey gets to the crux of the matter that the resulting article will explore, says Holly Else

Thomas Curran looks at what lecturers can do to help when faced with students presenting perfectionistic tendencies

With students paying higher fees and expecting better facilities, UK universities must find sustainable ways to increase capital expenditure, says Philip Stephenson

Dorothy Bishop will not miss Jo Johnson, but is under no illusions that new minister Sam Gyimah will overturn any of his reforms

Hollie Chandler urges ministers not to underestimate the true contribution of international students to the UK

How can more degrees be the solution to urban deprivation when poor areas offer no graduate careers? asks Robert Hesketh

Bias in assessing submissions is inevitable and damaging. Anonymisation is the least bad solution, says Graham Farrell

Jo Johnson’s support for free expression unravels when it comes to Palestine, says Jonathan Rosenhead

A precise breakdown of foreign learners’ contributions to all areas and sectors of British life could help finally move the group out of the net migration count

The Office for Budget Responsibility’s methodology is of incredibly low quality, says Nick Hillman

Sir Anthony Seldon explains why he was pleased to see Toby Young resign from the Office for Students, despite initially applauding the appointment  

Nick Hillman reflects on Jo Johnson's eventful two-and-a-half years as minister for universities and science 

Chris Parr looks at the issues that É«ºÐÖ±²¥'s Twitter followers think the new universities minister should be tackling

Ahead of our Asia Universities Summit, Sir Keith Burnett looks into the future for UK higher education and sees the growing importance of China 

There is no evidence that the REF process encourages academics to rush out more research of a lower quality, says Steven Hill

The MBA is no longer a qualification with ‘near mythical status’ offered by only a handful of elite academic institutions – so does it still have value? asks Fran Johnson

Universities have a big role to play in counteracting the nationalist sentiment emerging around the world, Amit Chakma says ahead of 2018 Asia Universities Summit

Phil Baty on how É«ºÐÖ±²¥'s annual reputation survey informs its World University Rankings

É«ºÐÖ±²¥ Office threats to deport her may have been an ‘unfortunate error’, but Eva Johanna Holmberg is still wary about the future

Time to cut down on sarcasm, Buzzfeed quizzes, references to neoliberalism and ad hoc usage of Latinate and French phrases, says Emma Rees

Most human beings think well enough, and students are no exception. They just need help to express it within academic conventions, says Stuart Wrigley

The uncapped system had many benefits but its cost was ultimately too high for politicians to bear, writes Andrew Norton

Funding, Brexit and the growing power of China are among key issues to watch in 2018, say sector experts – but there is a glimmer of optimism, too

The appointment of Young to the OfS board is upsetting but unsurprising, says Lisa Mckenzie

Claire Taylor looks at how UK universities can rebuild trust

Simon Marginson looks ahead at what 2018 has in store for academia in the UK and further afield 

Martin Hamilton on four edtech trends to look out for over the next 12 months

UUK chief executive Alistair Jarvis outlines how he hopes the HE sector will work with the new OfS

An open access deal between German authors in journals published by Elsevier could be problematic, say Alex Holcombe and Björn Brembs

Jana Bacevic takes a look through the history books to assess how the government’s recent announcement on two-year degrees could pan out

Chris Parr runs through 11 of the best 2017 Christmas videos from university leaders

Arshin Adib-Moghaddam looks at restrictions to academic freedom in what he describes as an age of ‘psycho-nationalism’

Vice-chancellors’ salaries in Australia are the highest in the anglophone world, and are attracting sharp criticism, says Gavin Moodie

An annual scrap for survival in English universities’ elite grouping could make for compelling TV viewing, suggests James Tooley 

Without QR funding, the UK research base would be like a Lego set with only one type of brick, write Sarah Chaytor and Graeme Reid

The past year has seemed one of almost daily shocks and surprises for higher education, which É«ºÐÖ±²¥ has divulged, documented and dissected

Minimum compliance with publication requirements is the best recipe for job satisfaction, says Mike Marinetto

Chris Parr reveals the 25 Times Higher Education stories that received the most views during the last 12 months

Got some last minute scholarly Christmas shopping to do? Glen Wright has got your back

Clare McGlynn is not surprised that the UK was overlooked as a focus country after a successful EU funding bid

It may be five years since Moocs went mainstream, but Diana Laurillard and Eileen Kennedy believe they still have the potential to reach the hard-to-reach

The rapid increase in the number of unconditional offers being made to school-leavers is cause for concern, says Mike Nicholson