Universities

The poisonous truth about British universities

24 January 2026 9:00 am

This week it became clear that almost none of the adults whose job it is to teach students the truth…

How many babies in Britain are called Jihad?

11 October 2025 9:00 am

Out of office French prime minister Sébastien Lecornu resigned after just 27 days – making his time in office 22…

Save art history!

11 October 2025 9:00 am

A few weeks ago I went along to a lecture on the Welsh artist, poet and soldier David Jones. Kenneth…

The failure of Britain’s elite universities

20 September 2025 9:00 am

Politicians, authors, priests and the occasional Spectator editor have all served as the Oxford Union’s president over its 200-year history.…

How bad can August storms get?

9 August 2025 9:00 am

Injury time England bowler Chris Woakes won a standing ovation for coming out to bat against India at the Oval…

How many countries have banned the burqa?

14 June 2025 9:00 am

Behind the veil How many countries have banned the burqa? At least 24 have placed some restrictions around the wearing…

Buckingham University’s shameful treatment of Professor Tooley

1 March 2025 9:00 am

One of many reasons I felt blessed, seven years ago, to be offered a professorship at the private University of…

Letters: How to save the NHS

2 November 2024 9:00 am

The survey says Sir: David Butterfield’s 21 years of experience of higher education (‘Decline and fall’, 26 October) chimes with…

Decline and fall: how university education became infantilised

26 October 2024 9:00 am

Last month, after 21 years study-ing and teaching Classics at the University of Cambridge, I resigned. I loved my job.…

No one will change their mind about Hamas

7 September 2024 9:00 am

Earlier this summer, my son and I biked over to fashionable east Hackney where it’s normal to pay £4.20 for…

Labour’s outrageous attack on academic free speech

26 August 2024 8:10 pm

In an extraordinary outburst, a government source has described the new Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act, introduced by the…

Give us a pubs tsar – but spare us Tim Martin

3 August 2024 9:00 am

More than a third of UK universities are in financial doo-doo: staff cuts, cancelled courses, slashed research budgets and possible…

Affirmative action was hurting black students

1 July 2023 8:04 pm

Harvard may have a slightly more difficult time poaching black students from Boston College, Miami University of Ohio, or other…

Stop the press

1 July 2023 9:00 am

The convicted phone-hacker assembling complaints against the tabloids

University challenge

20 May 2023 9:00 am

Our country still excels when it comes to higher education. Britain has seven of the world’s top 50 universities. In…

British universities are beyond redemption

13 May 2023 9:39 pm

There’s no doubt that the government has the best of intentions when it comes to clearing up the Augean stables…

Return of the Donald

13 May 2023 9:00 am

Why I think Trump will be the next US President

Letters

22 October 2022 9:00 am

Paying the price Sir: Lionel Shriver’s piece about university standards rang true to me (‘University is supposed to be hard’,…

Why are our universities still cosy with China?

19 October 2022 11:47 pm

It sounds like something from a spy novel: scientists linked to the Chinese military complex working at UK universities on…

Shame should not be heritable

1 October 2022 9:00 am

Vice-chancellor Stephen Toope claims it was ‘inevitable’ that a university ‘as long-established as Cambridge’ would have links to slavery. Now…

Marching order

1 October 2022 9:00 am

Why has Oxford killed off a much-loved Catholic college?

Who’s to blame for our censorious students?

30 September 2022 9:05 pm

Without freedom of speech, you do not have a university. More than any other value, it is freedom of speech…

Will my kitchen be designated a ‘safe space’?

25 June 2022 9:00 am

As the father of four children who will be entering higher education in the next few years, I’m worried that…

Who’s out

14 May 2022 9:00 am

The negative discrimination of Oxbridge admissions

America has betrayed its young

30 April 2022 9:00 am

Two articles last weekend made me feel sorry for American young people. We in the anti-woke brigade can be awfully…