Europe ‘struggling to catch’ US on high-impact science
Americans produce nearly twice as many highly cited papers in key fields, with China also catching up on EU

Americans produce nearly twice as many highly cited papers in key fields, with China also catching up on EU

The good, the bad and the offbeat: the academy through the lens of the world’s media

New leader of Canada’s Conservative Party, Andrew Scheer, promises research grant cuts to universities that offer safe spaces or speaker bans, says Creso Sá

UK universities could curry much more political favour if they adopted a more constructive and pragmatic tone, says Sir David Bell

Greater outreach by scientists could ramp up demand for politicians with better scientific training, says David Berman

The fashionable idea that reading novels could improve students’ fellow feeling bears little scrutiny, says Seán Williams

The English scholar and author of on journeys real and imagined, from Shel Silverstein and Agatha Christie to pilgrims’ tales ancient and modern

A weekly look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

Book of the week: The art of coaxing meaning from literature is the legacy of one great critic, says Robert Eaglestone

Some MPs turned out of office might turn to academia for employment. But what do former political high-flyers bring to a university, and what are the potential downsides? Jack Grove reports

Oxford has educated almost all post-war British leaders. Anthony Seldon looks at Oxbridge’s powerful political role

The official weekly newsletter of the University of Poppleton. Finem respice!
Stuart Macdonald is wholesale in his condemnation: of universities (“not much concerned with learning”), students (“struggle to write a postcard, never mind an essay”), the government (“has not...