A tobacco corporation is attempting to access confidential data on teenagers' smoking habits, obtained by university researchers. Just one case where Freedom of Information benefits companies against the public interest.
Already this academic year student activism in Scotland is flourishing again. It owes a huge debt to the historic occupation of Hetherington House. Two students recall the seven-month occupation, which ended last month.
The British research culture has shifted. The obligation to publish, the obscure ranking system, the need to deliver 'value for money', together raise a fundamental question: What is the relationship between research and the neo-liberal order?
UK universities are under pressure to research one of the government's key policy ideas - but they are resisting. The campaign to remove the 'Big Society' from the AHRC's research delivery plan is crucial for the integrity of higher education
Do we really need to talk about women in Universities? The answer is YES. Pay gaps, and the marginalisation of women, are visible symptoms of a bigger set of ongoing problems.
The government's higher education proposals would see a fundamental reversal of the direction of reform embarked upon in the post-war period
The Coalition plans to put "students at the heart of the system" with its higher education reforms. But the White Paper proposals would lead to the disempowerment of students, re-modeling them as consumers of education, no longer part of the learning process
When a Nato spokesperson is lecturing at one of the top British universities, it's clear that the autonomy of higher education is under threat
The Coalition's proposed reforms to English higher education treat students as customers, and education as a financial transaction where pursuit of profit is the only determinant of value
Senior academics across the UK are taking action against the politicisation of research, in response to the announcement that Cameron's 'Big Society' is to be a research funding priority for the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Is this the beginning of a wider resistance from within the insti
The launch of the for-profit ‘elite’ university, the New College for the Humanities, must be understood in the context of the Coalition’s wider programme to marketise higher education. The first article in OurKingdom’s series 'Capitalism and the University' analyses the big picture
The London police defended the Minister of Higher Education by showing that even universities are to be subject to the criticism of truncheons. The Liberal Democrats of all parties should oppose this.
