By Robert Eaglestone. These seem to be very bad times for graduate research students in the arts and humanities, the intended audience for this book. The job market is not great; funding is scarce; casualisation, which might appear to serve grad students but actually exploits them, proceeds apace; the smooth, high walls of the ivory tower seem ever more exclusive and imposing; the groves of academe (odd, I’ve always thought, to have groves inside a tower) ever more remote. Even from the pages of Times Higher Education, our little world’s local paper, opinion pieces declare that, to prevent them getting “exalted notions of themselves” (forfend!), researchers in the arts and humanities should realise that they are simply “trainspotters in their field” about whom no one cares (wait: trainspotters in a…field?). More...

By David Eastwood. Making the case for the humanities, and more specifically making the case for research funding in the humanities, matters. In times of plenty, this hasn’t been difficult. In funding terms, the past decade and a half has been a golden era. More...

By Paul Jump. Plans to uncap tuition fees in Australia have been defeated in the country’s upper house for the second time in four months. More...

By John Morgan. George Osborne has announced that the government will offer PhD and research-based master’s students income-contingent loans of up to £25,000. More...

By Chris Parr. What are your personal experiences regarding the protection of academic freedom?
This is the question at the heart of a new survey that hopes to examine the concept of academic freedom across the world. More...

By Jack Grove. Just a third of bright teenagers from poorer backgrounds take an A level likely to help them attend a selective university, a study says. More...

By Jack Grove. University applicants welcome the presence of international students on campus and believe they will improve learning experiences, a survey suggests. More...

By Jack Grove. The Universities Superannuation Scheme has been criticised for launching a consultation website that does not yet allow people to comment on proposed changes to their pensions. More...

By Jack Grove. A new “health surcharge” levied on international students from next month is “an election stunt full of loopholes”, a legal expert has claimed. More...