Postgraduate and early career
The lockdown is affecting not only final-year students. Without a blanket funding extension, many others will suffer and drop out, says Ross Goldstone
Virtually all modern university courses end with a request for feedback. But are students’ reactions even useful for improving future course design, never mind assessing lecturers? Seven academics discuss their experiences
Funding bodies should reconsider case-by-case assessments to minimise bureaucracy and student distress, say researchers
Finding writing partners online can impose some productive accountability, says Alice Kelly
Graduate students had been seeking help with high housing costs
Parting shot the privilege of the established, as precariously employed academics choose less risky departures, says anthropologist
PhD students seen as being particularly at risk, in wake of murder of Giulio Regeni and detention of Matthew Hedges
Impersonating the Messiah is apparently a necessity for funding success – but it’s hell, says Piers Kelly
Australian researchers fear wasting weeks writing potentially pointless applications
Analysis of 10 years of data identifies sea change in research-intensive universities’ profiles
But study shows that difference in career prospects between men and women is considerably smaller within academia compared with other sectors
Researchers say that conservative Christian beliefs do not necessarily conflict with belief in concepts such as evolution
Scholars welcome new ethics training for doctoral students but want broader action to improve awareness
Arbitrator finds campus unfairly limited hours to avoid having to provide tuition fee benefits
Ongoing falls in Australian postgraduate recruitment suggest a trend away from structured education for people in mid-career, says Andrew Norton
Union cites aspirational university statement as grounds to halt walkout
Craig Poku was the only black PhD student in his department. He reflects on how black British doctoral students can navigate the challenges they face
You have spent three years thinking your life will be perfect after you submit your thesis. But it isn’t true, says Petra Boynton
Economic and Social Research Council may provide four years of PhD funding amid concerns over stress caused by three-year model
University’s first graduate walkout since 1973 comes as winter break approaches
Precarious contracts ‘damage’ universities’ teaching and reputation, panel says
Junior scholars have always needed to curry favour with their seniors, but quantifying research impact exacerbates the problem, says Jonathan R Goodman
Most postdoctoral researchers will end up working outside universities – postdoc adviser Emma Williams has some advice on the tricky business of applying for jobs in different sectors
Survey of more than 6,000 students worldwide also highlights bullying and harassment faced by doctoral students
Constant checks on their presence and bureaucratic curbs on their movement leave international students feeling like security threats, says Alexander Mack
‘Monk mornings’, work sprints and withdrawal from social media helped Benedict Probst become hugely more productive
Investment will create 2,700 new PhD places in biosciences and AI research
Complaints about journal editors’ decisions ignore the root cause of the research assessment problem: career structure, says Richard Sever
Student labour movement feels momentum despite Trump administration pressure
New rules will soon require UK institutions to listen to early career researchers. Jack Grove looks at how to engage a group often seen as hard to reach
Universities rightly make every effort to protect learners’ feelings. But what about teachers’ feelings, asks Alice Wickenden
Former Heriot-Watt and Strathclyde academic ordered to complete unpaid work and overnight curfew
Improving the career prospects of postdocs is now a priority of UK universities and research funders
Countries such as the UK and Germany could see benefit to their research bases, event hears
Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski tells young scholars to focus on research and ignore ‘shitty job market’
Brian Schmidt says academia is losing brightest researchers because they cannot endure ‘intolerable’ precarity throughout their thirties
A new survey of employers raises questions about the labour market value of higher degrees, says Tristram Hooley
Analysis suggests as many as half of the main influencers of depression and anxiety have their roots in the student-supervisor dynamic
Increasing number of female evaluators on committees could put more emphasis on long-term outcomes, says researcher
Working-class graduates half as likely to move to Oxford, Cambridge or elite London institutions
Former colleagues call for investigations to disclose what Strathclyde and Heriot-Watt universities knew about Kevin O’Gorman’s conduct
‘Macquarie model’ credited with cutting attrition and accelerating completion, and is now being emulated elsewhere
First Complete University Guide survey since Augar review raises prospect of domestic master’s fees overtaking annual charges for undergraduates
University says scheme will give junior academics ‘opportunity to experience life as a full-time lecturer’, but critics suspect REF link
Early career academics dismayed to see 20 per cent threshold for independent projects and personal development dropped from UK guidelines
Marking down fellowship applicants for being unwilling to move institutions can be deeply unfair, say Trisha Greenhalgh and Ed Hawkins
Those lucky established academics who want to help precarious colleagues would do better to pay for their lunch, says Sarah Burton
The banning of certain academic books by prisons in Northern Ireland is deeply counterproductive, says Dieter Reinisch
Asking people to prepare for a 10-week course that might not run is too much, says an anonymous early career academic
Provision of teacher residencies and mentoring by universities seen as key to long-term science improvement
Starting again from scratch every October causes no end of stress, mix-ups and wasted time, says one hourly paid lecturer
Trump-dominated panel bolsters campuses that reject postgraduate unions
Swiss university has signed San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment, which says academics should not be judged on the journals they publish in
Liverpool pro vice-chancellor says new positions would be step between PhDs and traditional postdoctoral posts
Identical CVs with different names on them sent to 250 academics in experiment
V-c who chairs financial sustainability group warns that deficit on doctoral training raises major questions
The unaffordability of two rents severely restricts the study options of care leavers and estranged students, says Roy Celaire
Vacataire status means not only low pay, but six-month waits between wages, says the Confederation of Young Researchers
Supervisors’ supportiveness, not their academic ability, found to be key driver of satisfaction in survey
More than 1,200 people sign letter supporting Feyzi Ismail in her dispute with SOAS University of London
