The UK’s research ecosystem is fragmented. We need more collaboration to pool expertise and improve public health. More...

Student Loan Company halts or cuts funding for 800 in England and Wales after overpayments. More...

Fresh-faced students have traversed the corridors of Oxford University since 1249, but how will the institution take to the class of 1971 and, more importantly, how will they take to Oxford? The Observer Magazine finds out. More...

One by one, the great institutions that bind Britain together are being allowed to fray, weaken and decline. They may do good and even vital work, but whatever their purpose – from the system of legal aid to the Open University – they are under siege. Britain might be substantially richer than it was 40 or 50 years ago but the national narrative is that organisations once energetic and growing are now unaffordable. More...

Ballot finds significant majority in favour of accepting offer to reopen talks over pensions. More...

The overall decline of 2% is explained largely by the fact there are fewer 18-year-olds in the population available to go to university. However, there has also been a sharp drop in the number of older students applying to go to university, in particular to study nursing, which has seen a 10% decline in applications on last year. More...

A new measure looking at how successful individual universities have been in trying to widen participation to students from all backgrounds has ranked University of Hull as the best-performing institution and Cambridge the worst. More...

A few months into my first lecturing job I was told that a male colleague – let’s call him Matthew – was apparently keen on pursuing a female student now and then. He “dated” some young women he taught and was in “relationships” with a few (I use inverted commas here because I don’t consider such a liaison an equal one and therefore a real one in terms of power). It was apparently an open secret in the department and beyond. More...

Peter Malpass (Letters, 3 April) is right to highlight the fact that WD & HO Wills recruited many Bristolian women and girls to work in their Bedminster factories. My mother was one: she left education at 14 to work on a Wills production line at Ashton Gate stripping leaves of tobacco. She told me about the regimented existence: no speaking while working on the line and having to ask permission to use the toilet. My mother became politicised, was a staunch supporter of trade unions and joined the co-operative movement. My grandmother and great-aunt were also employees at Wills from the 1890s. More...

More students from underrepresented backgrounds are studying for a degree. The next step is to ensure they do well. More...