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MPs have voted for common sense and common cause in passing the Human Fertilisation Bill intact, says Mary Warnock

The flaw of rankings is that all universities have good points, says Alan Ryan

The prospect of another research assessment exercise will lead only to discord, says Gloria Monday

Looking over the work produced by her masters students, Tara Brabazon is struck by their creativity, inspired by their enthusiasm and determination and humbled to see teaching help to change lives

Social engineers seem to infest universities but are curiously absent in public schools. How strange

Higher IQs mean upper-class domination is 'natural', academic says. Rebecca Attwood reports

... try the real world and see just how lucky we academics are, says Tim Birkhead

Despite prevailing orthodoxies, creative writing is stealthily reviving liberal humanism, says Jonathan Taylor

In applauding students for their IT dexterity, do we encourage the mere collection of facts and intellectual inertia? asks Bob Simpson

Complementary therapies can and should be studied with scientific rigour, argues David Peters, so that medicine as a whole may benefit

Diplomas represent a big departure in education, but they raise worrying questions for universities, says John Brooks

The UK can give its home cohort an international outlook without their going abroad. Let's hope the US doesn't learn to, writes Peter Brady

Academia needs to be more accommodating to those who cannot or choose not to work full time, argues Keith Kahn-Harris

The history of the CND is a reminder to academics that they have obligations above those of RAE targets and teaching outcomes, says Tara Brabazon

Felipe Fern¨¢ndez-Armesto analyses a survey of academic salaries in the US

Charles Lambert reflects on the struggle of foreign language teachers at Italian universities to attain respect and workers' rights

Peer review lets us reward excellence when we see it; spurious 'absolute' standards do not, says Ron Johnston

We know what must be done to widen access, says Deborah Eyre, who hopes the latest review will finally grasp the nettle

Muscians find it easier than academics to set their egos aside, be generous to their peers and play sidemen for a true great, argues Tara Brabazon

As Gloria Monday settles down to mark essays, she finds it a struggle to keep up with the copycats

The climate in which universities operate presents difficulties and opportunities. We must prepare for both, writes Ron Dearing

Does knowing your personality traits help you lead better? asks Sally Feldman

PGCert courses are valuable, but it is pointless to consider best practice without having practised, says Carrie Dunn

A Bill allowing the creation of interspecies hybrids and reproductive cloning would bring UK science into disrepute, argues David Jones

The young and vulnerable are powerless to resist the overt sexualisation used to sell us 'fun' brands like Virgin, writes Mary Evans

Tara Brabazon challenges her students to break from their reliance on Google and read Poulantzas in the original

The low opinion academics have of the public will not change until scholars open themselves up to debate, says Dennis Hayes

Kevin Fong treasures the scary euphoria of an unexpected home birth

Corporate speak is key to applying for promotion, says Gloria Monday

Students request more and better feedback, but focusing only on teachers' written comments is a mistake, says David Nicol

Researchers' drive to discover needs assistance from 'science managers' skilled in economic exploitation, Keith Mason argues

Angie Sandhu and Julia Swindells argue for mutual respect and an end to sex discrimination in the academy's intellectual exchanges

Tara Brabazon on Peter Saville¡¯s remarkable staying power at the edge of fashion

Encouraging children to have higher aspirations will improve GCSE pass rates and help widen participation, says Steve Smith

Florida's not all guns and gators, says Alan Ryan - it funds a liberal arts college

Students and employers are increasingly dictating the courses that universities offer, as witnessed by the rise of business-related and TV-inspired subjects such as forensic science. But how far should demand drive the curriculum? Harriet Swain reports

Cardinal O'Brien's intemperate broadside against embryology research buries an opportunity for discussion in invective

Tim Birkhead on the trumpet-blowing and florid fiction of the academic CV

Many youngsters leave school unfit for university or work. Diplomas can change that, believes Claudio Vignali

Academics' insecurity about their lecturing skills has hit new lows in an age of unrepentantly rude mobile phone users, says Frank Furedi

If we want to find the significance of bluestones to Neolithic society, the Stonehenge diggers should look up, not down, says Lionel Sims

Tara Brabazon takes a listophile¡¯s delight in a celebration of musical progress

Has-beens, wannabes and lechers wrestle with PowerPoint, bad English and alcohol in a deadly dull German townlet: yes, it¡¯s academic conference season again

University rankings must include all relevant institutions and the information users are seeking, argues Joy Carter

In expanding its empire, human resources damages intellectual standards and peddles nonsense, argues David Colquhoun

Free information freely available is the rallying cry of Erik Ringmar, who wants others to join in putting restricted documents on the web

Beware digi-evangelists and search engines, says Tara Brabazon. It is still real-life librarians, past and present, who remain the true custodians of human knowledge

Despite their imperfections and controversy, league tables still add more to our understanding of the sector than they subtract

Up in the Andes is a university worth emulating, says Felipe Fern¨¢ndez-Armesto

David Watson argues that for research funding to be distributed equitably, the best way forward is through deeper collaboration

Tara Brabazon is alarmed by people¡¯s growing removal from analogue life, where people are engaged with their mobile screens rather than with each other

Politicians must end their coyness about tuition charges and face facts - they may be unpopular but they are necessary

Outsiders can never grasp the eccentricities of academe, says Sally Feldman

Job fulfilment and job comfort are different and impossible to reflect fully in quality-of-life indices, argues Linda Evans

Violence against females is rooted in our brutal past, but such acts are neither biologically nor culturally immutable, says David Roberts

It¡¯s not so much the dropouts who vex Gloria Monday, more the drop-ins who have no business on campus

Government proposals to redefine and promote innovation mark a major step forward, argues James Wilsdon

Commentators have not scrutinised Gordon Brown's role in the battle to topple Saddam. How curious, says Tim Dunne