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Initiative part of wider plans to bring higher education in line with new media age and reality talent shows. Sarah Cunnane reports

Defending one¡¯s territory ¨C one of the most basic of instincts ¨C can arouse passions in even the most docile. Gloria Monday finds ways and means of keeping what she¡¯s got

Our new immigration rules will have to be revised if we do not want to endanger our collaborative research culture, warns Mathias Brust

Higher education bodies should reconnect with examining boards to boost scientific literacy and ensure undergraduates are better prepared, says Alan Wilson

The RAE's limited concept of research must be broadened to restore integrity to academic work, writes Roger Brown

Gary Day on the beauty of everyday objects, a baroque pilgrimage and a long-running soap

Although the Government has said it wants evidence to inform its policies, many academics feel that their voices go unheard

Art and science can work hand in glove, writes Sally Feldman

Amid the gloom at the MPs' inquiry, Bob Burgess is cheered by support for a scheme to record student achievement

US universities' income has plummeted, but we can learn from their efforts to tackle the problem, says Jon F. Baldwin

Robin Hambleton argues that we need a new vision of academia to replace the myopia of the research assessment exercise

Marquard Smith believes the editors of academic journals have played a key - if underappreciated - role in improving research quality

RAE cash will broaden the UK's research base, so the Russell Group should stop complaining, says Malcolm McVicar

Gary Day enjoys a look at strike activists and their impact, and muses on a new species of teenager

We must save pure research - it could be key to Earth's future, says Kevin Fong

Media scaremongering about the sinister effects of new media on young people¡¯s brains is a poor excuse for failing to engage with and bring out the best in our students, argues Tara Brabazon

Gloria Monday¡¯s newfound street cred sees her sharing a Quorn and vodka repast around a student table where the proletarian accents are fake but the filth is real

The 2008 RAE results mean that funders will have to judge institutions on delivery, not reputation, writes Gerald Bennett

Most education is vocational, and quite rightly so, says Alan Ryan

Bill George on data supplied by the Hubble Telescope and the implications for what may be found on extra-solar planets

The UK's elite universities help industry and wider society to prosper. They need to be funded appropriately, argues Roy Anderson

Gary Day enjoys the evolution behind why humans have no fur, but finds a Yorkshire tale far-fetched

Academia long gave asylum to awkward geniuses. It is less welcoming now, and scholars and students both feel the loss

David Eastwood on the challenge of allocating funding to support excellent research and world-class teaching

If people who teach journalists will not uphold standards in the use of English, we cannot expect others to do so, says Tim Luckhurst

Gary Day is gripped by Jeremy Paxman's analysis of Victorian paintings and the latest drama on Mrs T

The shift in focus away from the elite changes the research landscape and fulfils the funding council's promise for the RAE

Viva PhD success - and let's f¨ºte the candidates a little, too, says Tim Birkhead

Barry Manilow has the skill to vacuum-seal emotion in every lyric and speaks for and to those who are neglected and marginalised

In which a lecture on the Thirty Years War is swept aside by a juggernaut of animal welfare protests, and Gloria Monday becomes a pro-chicken heroine despite herself

Felipe Fern¨¢ndez-Armesto finds his beloved Oxford changed, changed utterly

Climate change is one of the gravest threats of our age, but universities are helping to tackle it, writes David Lammy

Universities must tell the public why higher top-ups are needed because the lily-livered Government will not, Anna Fazackerley says

Gary Day on improving tales of tearaway urchins, soaraway barnets and electromagnetic attraction

Ron Dearing left school at 16, but his unstinting devotion to higher education's highest aims have left the UK sector a better place

Geoffrey Crossick on the dialogue, evidence and strategy essential to preserving a world-class student experience

Gerontologist Malcolm Johnson once opposed assisted dying, but he now believes that the terminally ill should be given a choice

Gary Day on the disadvantages of age, the healing properties of literature and chasing hurricanes

By continuing to undervalue and underfund the thing that makes UK higher education unique, we endanger our reputation

Sally Feldman says academics should talk to the media about their work

Tara Brabazon gives supervisors her top tips for guiding doctoral candidates successfully to completion

When Gloria Monday caught a serial cheat presenting her own work back to her, she thought justice would be swift. But she found that institutional reputation counted for more than academic rigour

Kevin Fong welcomes Obama's promise to restore the importance of science

To maintain world-class research, we need a structure that ties pockets of excellence into elite teams, Phil Willis says