News that Ucas is removing the requirement for applicants to declare if they have relevant unspent convictions when applying to university is a significant step forward. It recognises how, for the past two decades, access to higher education in the UK for people with a criminal record has been perceived as very difficult and has deterred many […] … learn more→

Although there is a Ph.D. glut for much of higher education, there is one field where there’s something of a shortage: computer science. A recent article on Inside Higher Ed highlights the immense cluelessness of the “leaders” which led to this situation, although the author of the article seems to miss this detail: System Crash […] … learn more→

Russia is a top destination for international students and the most popular place for students from former Soviet countries to study. The country currently hosts more than 243,752 international students and considers international recruitment to be an important geopolitical goal. More recently, Russia has resurrected and intensified the Soviet tradition of politicising student mobility. The government has requested that Russian students […] … learn more→

A young Mick Jagger couldn’t get no satisfaction, and on the cusp of his middle age he was desperate “to do some living before we die”. If the dominant mood of the young is angst, for those over 40 it is regret. That is certainly true for me. As a middle-aged university lecturer, I am less […] … learn more→

One of the most infuriating things about higher education is how, when the people at the top are exposed, there are no criminal charges, and they get huge bonuses, even when they resign their positions. Time and again we hand millions over to these “leaders” in higher education, and this situation is so common that […] … learn more→

Your tax code is an important piece of information because it governs how much tax you will pay. The code is created and applied by HMRC but there is always the chance that something can go wrong. So how do you know if you are on the right tax code and what can you do […] … learn more→

I don’t know why we call them “soft skills.” They’re certainly not easy to learn, although they are as valuable and necessary as the skills doctors use in surgery, bankers use to assess risk and physicists use to split atoms. Communication, observation, empathy and logical thinking: These precious and frequently undervalued skills have everyday names. […] … learn more→

Despite the growing tendency for variety in doctoral careers, we are not very good at tracking them. There are good reasons to suspect that surveys exaggerate the numbers remaining in the research system, because many spend up to a decade in temporary posts before settling into a more secure career. Indeed, as single-lifetime careers become rarer we […] … learn more→

Three-dimensional (3D) printing has fast risen from being what amounted to an R&D curiosity to a recognised and highly important manufacturing process that has transformed the way that we make things, regardless of their complexity. Offering both a high degree of flexibility coupled with the potential to make highly complex designs out of what were […] … learn more→

You return from school one afternoon, open the mailbox in your apartment building in western Massachusetts, and pull out a thick envelope. Heart quickening and hands shaking, you tear into the envelope of your first-choice school—Merrimack College—and you read the first line, “Congratulations and welcome…” Last week, you were accepted to Pace University and your […] … learn more→