Higher

Glasgow University could scrap language courses because of budget cuts

Can Britain afford to deprive its students of the linguistic skills that would make them internationally competitive?

Inside Higher

Chalk Talk: Why private students aren't the way to ease the fees pain

Thursday, 14 April 2011

A salutary message comes from the US for ministers pinning their hopes on the private sector bailing them out of their current dilemma over student fees. The plot so far: ministers are anxious to encourage more private sector provision of degree courses, to pressurise existing universities to lower their proposed fee charges for next year. To that end, they have already held meetings with representatives of the BPP University College of Professional Studies. The idea is to offer private students loans, just as would be the case for students at state-financed universities.

Why social mobility should start at school

Thursday, 14 April 2011

Higher university fees and the end of the EMA grant were already deterring poorer teenagers from continuing their education. Now the English Baccalaureate could be the final straw, argues John Dunford

Which candidate can unite the National Union of Students's warring factions?

Thursday, 7 April 2011

After a winter of fees protests, all eyes will be on the election of the next president

The appliance of science: The teenager who took a stand against animal rights protesters

Thursday, 31 March 2011

Five years on, Jonathan Brown catches up with Laurie Pycroft at Oxford, where his key battles were fought

'Webinar' method of learning could change the university experience for ever

Friday, 25 March 2011

Through your headphones it sounds like you're hearing the world think. Disembodied voices with accents spanning continents discuss with the intimacy of a late-night radio talk show each crystal-clear photograph that slides across the screens of our laptops on opposite sides of the world.

A life of debt begins here: Student's money worries

Sunday, 20 March 2011

Amol Rajan: Once they have graduated, the students of tomorrow face a bleak financial future.

American liberal arts colleges: Where art meets science

Thursday, 17 March 2011

In 1959, the British scientist and novelist CP Snow warned of a divide between scientists and "literary intellectuals". He explained that few of his friends and colleagues had both read one of Shakespeare's plays and could explain the second law of thermodynamics. The British education system, he argued, forced children to specialise at too early an age, pushing them towards either the arts or science and industry. More than half a century later, how much has changed?

Going the distance: Why online learning is gaining ground

Thursday, 10 March 2011

Some students never set foot in a lecture theatre. They never pace the library aisles, queue for a computer or struggle to get their voices heard at a seminar. In fact, some students manage to complete their degrees without so much as leaving their homes – and, according to Julie Stone, business development manager at the University of Derby, they are among the most dedicated. "Learning online requires commitment," she says. "When we started developing online programmes, in 2001, it was a marginal activity because there simply weren't the students." That changed in 2008, when applications suddenly flooded in – there are now about 1,500 online students on Derby's books. "We anticipate significant growth over the next five years," says Stone. "We're investing in online education as a core part of our business."

The University debate: There's more than one way to learn

Thursday, 17 February 2011

Going up to Oxford taught the novelist Philip Hensher life's possibilities. Going straight into employment gave the entrepreneur Simon Dolan a head start at work. So who had the advantage?

Chalk Talk: Universities can charge what they like – just as long as it's not too much

Thursday, 17 February 2011

Is it just me, or is there not something Kafkaesque about the Coalition Government's proposals for raising tuition fees? It starts off with the Government telling universities they can raise their student fees to a maximum of £9,000 a year.

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