The government wants to fine universities that don’t protect free speech, but we need open debate, not restrictive penalties. More...

Britain’s elite universities have tried and failed to address concerns about diversity among their students. It’s time for drastic action to force their hands. More...

Universities have made progress in widening access to students from disadvantaged backgrounds, but they’re still not reaping all the benefits. More...

Downing Street rebukes MP Chris Heaton-Harris who wrote to universities asking for list of tutors lecturing on Brexit. More...

The Tory whip’s letter raises profound worries about academic freedom. We will go on promoting debates with diverse views on Brexit, as with all other subjects. More...

Chris Heaton-Harris’s demand to know who was teaching what on the EU ratchets up the gap in the post-referendum tribal divide. More...

An Oxford student, academics and a sixth-form Oxbridge support service co-ordinator offer their views on the diversity debate. More...

Stephen Hawking’s 1966 doctoral thesis has broken the internet after becoming available to the general public for the first time.
Demand for the thesis, entitled Properties of Expanding Universes, was so great on Monday that it caused Cambridge University’s repository site to go down. The site was still inaccessible at 7.30pm on Monday. More...

Anyone in the world can now download and read the doctoral thesis of a 24-year-old Cambridge postgraduate student, written in 1966; how many will fully understand Properties of Expanding Universes is another matter. More...

Dr Joy Boyce on an Oxford University course that produces graduates trained to think across the 'two cultures' of science and humanities. More...