My father, Alan Burgess, who has died aged 88, was a well-respected artist and art teacher, latterly at East Herts College, where he taught for nearly 30 years.In 1957 Alan was selected for Young Contemporaries (now New Contemporaries), a show for emerging artists. His early abstract work changed […]

Custodian University of Sunderland says renovation costs of £45m are too high and building must be pulled down. Not without a fight, say locals, who believe they’re being taken for foolsThe “little pieces of Sunderland” produced by the city’s glassmaking factory for more than a century can […]

My friend John Donnelly, who has died aged 84, was an architect and teacher. His projects included work in housing, waterside redevelopment and conservation design.In 1964 he qualified as an architect, following studies at Birmingham School of Art, and his early career included positions at the […]

My former colleague and senpai Arthur Stockwin, who has died aged 90, was a pioneering scholar of modern Japanese politics and a tireless builder of intellectual and personal bridges between Japan and the UK. He helped shape Japanese studies in Britain for more than half a century, mentoring […]

Texas A&M University is the latest school to end women’s and gender studies programs and teaching race. We know whyLast week, we learned of the decision of the Texas A&M University board of regents to end women’s and gender studies programs as well as the teaching of “divisive […]

Physics research drives technological innovation, from medical imaging to data processing, write Dr Phil Bull and Prof Chris Clarkson; plus letters from Tim Gershon and Vincenzo Vagnoni, and Prof Paul HowarthYour article (UK ‘could lose generation of scientists’ with cuts to projects and […]

Policy announced in autumn budget freezes threshold at which students start repaying university loansProtesters dressed as sharks and in Rachel Reeves face masks gathered outside the Houses of Parliament on Wednesday to express their anger over changes to their student loans and their ballooning […]

Dr Michael Symonds and Gavin Greenwood respond to an editorial on graduate loansYour editorial (8 February) is correct to highlight that a graduate levy by stealth is no way to fund the NHS and its potential consequences. This will include resident doctors, whose dissatisfaction with their pay and […]

Born of student disquiet after the 2008 crash, the group says it is reshaping economists’ educationAs the fallout from the 2008 global financial crash reverberated around the world, a group of students at Harvard University in the US walked out of their introductory economics class complaining it […]

Other countries benefit from the Trump brain drain as administration wages war on academia and researchWali Malik no longer has to worry that a rightwing bureaucrat – or influencer – will decide his research is “woke”.He doesn’t have to fear government retaliation for speaking his mind or […]

By freezing thresholds, Labour is quietly loading the cost of public services on to young graduates, while insisting it has not raised taxes at allThe personal finance expert Martin Lewis upbraided the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, for freezing the threshold at which millions of graduates repay their […]

Concerns about the cultural damage being done by the student loan system are raised by Prof Vaughan Grylls Your coverage of the dispute between Martin Lewis and the chancellor touches a deeper issue that deserves far more attention (Student loans: why is Martin Lewis clashing with Rachel Reeves?, 3 […]

Research suggests surging costs under Morrison government’s job-ready graduate scheme and axing of dozens of subjects largely to blameFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastAustralia risks becoming an “artless country” […]

As their debts rise, graduates reveal how loans are reshaping careers, finances and faith in the systemStudent loans: why is Martin Lewis clashing with Rachel Reeves?Growing anger over the plight of millions of graduates saddled with ballooning student loan debts is threatening to develop into a […]

The current situation in England and Wales is akin to generational warfare – Martin Lewis is right when he takes ministers to taskAs someone who receives close to the maximum student loan from the government each year, I try my best not to think too hard about the crushing financial burden I am […]

Readers on the merits of making class a protected characteristic, and improving working-class representation across a range of professionsRe the proposal that class should become a protected characteristic (Editorial, 30 January), my son is 21. He is studying biochemistry and is in the final year […]

Student finance | Duvet difficulties | Sunbed peg solution | The French way | Permafrost | Cerne Abbas GiantRachel Reeves thinks it is “not right that people who don’t go to university are having to bear all the cost for others to do so” (Economics viewpoint, 1 February). Higher education – […]

Formal approval given for new university group to operate from August, with both institutions keeping their namesThe universities of Greenwich and Kent have confirmed they have been given formal approval to merge into the UK’s first “super-university”.The merged entity will be the […]

When Essex University’s Southend campus opened, it was a message of hope for a ‘left behind’ UK seaside town. Its closure will be felt far beyond its 800 students, some of whom will not get their degreesThe seaside city of Southend-on-Sea, on England’s east coast, looks grey on a winter […]

We are raiding the Guardian long read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors.This week, from 2018: snowflake students have become the target of a new rightwing crusade. But exaggerated claims of censorship reveal a deeper anxiety at the […]