Feature article

AI communities of practice can help us face its challenges head on

GenAI’s disruptive effects have driven universities to seek answers as uncertainty mounts. Communities of practice focused on the technology could provide solutions

Mariángeles Castro-Sánchez

Universidad Austral

computer technician working on mainframe

Career development for technicians in higher education

Technicians need to advocate for themselves, network and seek leadership opportunities to gain the recognition they deserve, writes Mark Dabee Saltmarsh. Here, he offers career advice for the unsung heroes of higher education

Mark Dabee Saltmarsh

Cardiff Metropolitan University

Student sitting at her desk in front of a computer

AI-aware pedagogy for business courses

AI-aware pedagogy integrates an understanding of specific AI technology relevant to specific courses

Rohini Rao

Manipal Academy of Higher Education

How to help a student in mental health distress

Students are vulnerable to mental health struggles, and exam time can be especially stressful. Here’s how to help in an emergency and offer long-term support for those with ongoing issues

Norlin Nosbi, Nurul Azhani Yunus, Mazian Mohammad, Abdul Rahim Othman

Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP)

Black female student doing online education

Blended learning is the short-term fix that turned into a long-term stay

Yes, the transition between online and in-person methods can make blended delivery challenging for students and educators alike, but keeping students engaged and sustaining their learning is worth the effort

Nisha Detchprohm

Georgia Tech College of Lifetime Learning

Educate to empower your students and prevent harassment

To make campus safer, why not teach first-year students the principles of harassment prevention? Here’s how

Dinara Pisareva, Nikita Durnev

Nazarbayev University

An illustration of business people sat on a growing plant

Three ways to embed career development learning more deeply in your curriculum

Embedding career development learning into curricular learning can be invaluable for students. Here’s how to integrate it more meaningfully

Anna Branford , Julian Lee

RMIT University

Female director supervising a film shoot

How can we support aspiring mature student creatives?

Helping mature students pursuing creative subjects to make the most of their university experiences shouldn’t be difficult. Here are some suggestions

Emma Lennox

Queen’s University Belfast

black woman at laptop with scales and gavel, law studies

International collaboration is a legal education opportunity

Cross-cultural understanding can enrich the ways in which educators in law integrate comparative legal analysis into their teaching, writes Petra Butler

Petra Butler

University of Canterbury | Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha

How universities can better support Gypsy, Roma and Traveller students

More students from Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities are entering higher education. But what can universities do to better support their needs?

Colin Clark

University of the West of Scotland

A young student wearing a mask studies in the library

Three ways to support the post-pandemic mental health of Generation Z

Post-pandemic, students are still struggling with their mental health. Here are three ways to help

Sumbal Riaz, Aena Khan

Dubai Medical University

Use peer feedback to build engagement and belonging online

Giving feedback is a time-consuming and often frustrating part of teaching. What if educators handed the task to students? Here are the takeaways from an online business course

David Waller, Kaye Chan, Melissa Clarke

University of Technology Sydney

A teacher giving a lecture at the front of class

A new way of designing learning outcomes in line with future skills

How to design learning outcomes that balance traditional academic skills with the human abilities students need to thrive in the workplace

Kay Harrison

The University of Auckland

Plant the seeds for a rewarding balance between family and academia

Balancing the demands of family life and higher education can feel as daunting as starting a garden from scratch. But with careful planning, consistent care and the right tools, you can cultivate a thriving environment where both areas of your life flourish

John Sinclair

Colorado State University Global

Ways to empower EAP students to give high-quality feedback

Helping English for academic purposes students provide better quality feedback to their peers can give them more autonomy and free up teachers’ time

Jingfei Zhang

Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University

Building trust to support researchers’ mental health

Principal investigators should know what challenges to trust their research team may face at each stage of a project – from team building to post-project collaboration – so they can focus support effectively

Alex Zarifis

University of Southampton

Illustration of hand holding a cup aloft

Everything you wanted to know about National Teaching Fellowships but were afraid to ask…

The UK’s National Teaching Fellowships were established to recognise excellence in teaching and student learning. Fellow James Derounian asks if the scheme fulfils its goals

James Derounian

University of Bolton

A blueprint for programmatic assessment in healthcare courses

A shift from traditional to outcome- or competency-based programmatic assessment began before the pandemic and has gained momentum since. Here are some ways to work towards it

Sreejith G

Manipal Academy of Higher Education

How to capture the attention of new generations of dentistry students

From traditional lectures to seminar-based group work, the evolution over 20 years of a dentistry course shows how course design and pedagogy can adapt to students’ expectations and learning styles

Máté Jász, Szilvia Ambrus , Péter Schmidt , Péter Hermann, Szandra Körmendi

Semmelweis University

Using AI to create engaging educational games for humanities students

Combine AI with gamification and storytelling activities to enhance student engagement

Dania Arriola Arteaga , Bárbara Regina Granados Guzmán

Tecnológico de Monterrey

How to collaborate with students on research projects

Students and academic staff collaborating on research projects offers many benefits for everyone involved. Here’s how to do it

Louise Owusu-Kwarteng

University of Greenwich

Latin American father working from home with toddler

Childcare for students and academics needs resources and relationships

Handling a challenging academic workload along with parenting responsibilities is complicated. Support, connection to resources and access to reliable childcare are all needed for parenting students and professionals to succeed

Kim Thomason

Virginia Tech

Strategies to help students conceptualise their research projects

Effective conceptualisation is key when beginning any research project. Help students get off to a good start using these strategies

Adrian Man-Ho Lam

The University of Hong Kong

A son hugs his mother as she works at a laptop

What universities can do to help academics with caring responsibilities

Higher education institutions can help their employees balance the demands of family responsibilities with work – here’s how

Ambreen Ansar

Dubai Medical University

Ways to create time and mental space for strategic innovation in higher education

From breaking down silos to simplifying administrative processes, find out how university leaders can better position their institutions to adapt and innovate

Catherine Wehlburg

Athens State University

Academics can (and should) be idiots

The comedy stage can be a place for academics to be silly and let it all hang out. Chris Pahlow explores why humour is effective for scholars and the people they’re trying to communicate with about their research

Chris Pahlow

Amplifying Research

Ten tips when instigating an assessment transformation programme

Higher education is facing pressure to reform assessment. But how to get started? Steve Briggs offers 10 tips

Steve Briggs

University of Bedfordshire

angel fish jumping from small to bigger bowl

Why university-wide curriculum transformation is a leap of faith

Overhauling an institution’s entire education curriculum is a silo-busting undertaking. Here’s what one university, now in its second year of implementation, has learned

Marion Harney, Julian Chaudhuri

University of Bath

Active learning: what can we learn from secondary teaching?

A great deal of teaching in higher education appears to be inactive, despite the proven benefits of active learning. Here are some practical active learning strategies

Sarah Shaw

University of Chester

A woman stands up in front of a boardroom table

How to navigate your first steps into university leadership

Moving from colleague to taking charge can be a daunting transition. Kingsley O. Omeihe and Ibiyemi Omeihe offer advice on your first few moves as a leader

Kingsley Omeihe, Ibiyemi Omeihe

University of the West of Scotland

A filming set up of a female student speaking to camera

Ease autistic students’ transition to university with low-stimulus videos

University communications are often high impact and visually appealing. But this can be the opposite of what some of our students need

Norman Darwen, Mark Hughes

The University of Manchester

Illustration of a scholar in a lightbulb hot-air balloon

The aspiring academic’s career path from PhD to professor

If you have just finished your PhD or postdoc and realised that an academic career needs more than published papers and teaching, Jan Buermann has advice on how to kick-start progress up the ladder

Jan Buermann

University of Southampton

A lecturer takes questions from students with raised hands

Six strategies for boosting student attendance

Make your classroom a welcoming, engaging space for in-person learning once again. Here are six ideas to improve student attendance

Maha Ayman, Hananeh Ali

Dubai Medical University

Lessons in chemistry: widening university students’ participation through storytelling

Storytelling can bridge the gap between complex STEM content and student engagement – it gives learners a discovery-based approach and educators an inclusive teaching tool and means of assessment

Karen Ho

Mount Royal University

A group of four students working on a project

Use student-centred learning strategies to motivate international business students

Support your international students by incorporating strategies that promote student-centred learning into your teaching

Giselle Bate

University of Chester

Young Asian female graduate with baby and partner

Balancing books and babies: empowering graduate-student parents

Juggling academics with family responsibilities is complicated. Barbara Hoopes shares advice on supporting and empowering graduate students who are parents

Barbara Hoopes

Virginia Tech

A group of students converse over a table

Interdisciplinarity makes us greater than the sum of our parts

The real world is complicated. Let’s give our students the tools to take it on with interdisciplinary education

Jillian Terry

The London School of Economics and Political Science

Student outside holding a notepad while thinking deeply

Want to increase student satisfaction? Activate higher-order thinking skills

Activating students’ higher-order thinking skills enhances student satisfaction, research shows. Here are some examples of ways to do it

Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University

A blueprint for hiring innovative educators

Academics in Pakistan found the rules for hiring university teachers were letting well-rounded candidates, with real-world experience, slip through the cracks. Here’s how they changed and improved the situation

Asghar Zaidi

University of Oxford

Student receiving guidance from a teacher

Five steps to prevent student disengagement

Follow this educator's action plan to ensure students at risk of dropping out of their studies feel supported to get back on track

Layal Hakim

The University of Exeter

young woman working at laptop with gavel in foreground

AI as tutor and critic: using tech to personalise education

Artificial intelligence can have practical applications for assessment in higher education, despite the focus on the threats it poses. Here are considerations when using AI to support teaching and generate feedback

Michael Butler

King’s College London

A man with a baby in a sling checks his laptop while drinking coffee

The art of balance: tips for primary carers in higher education

The dual role of primary caregivers and higher education professional is a delicate balancing act. Here are some strategies for juggling two very demanding endeavours

Monika Shukla

Singapore Institute of Technology

human intelligence v AI on scales illustration

Assessments that maintain fairness and authenticity without AI

In-person, reflective and analytical tasks require students to apply their learning in real-world ways that AI can’t easily replicate. Here are eight ways to tailor AI-resistant assessment

Temesgen Kifle

The University of Queensland

Female lab technicians carrying out experiments

Developing interdisciplinary courses for tomorrow’s scholars

Many universities are developing new interdisciplinary degree programmes to prepare students for working across sectors on complex issues. But how can we engage faculty in this whole-institution approach?

Anne Preston, Katherine Fletcher

UCL

How to handle data ethically and effectively as a social scientist

New data sources are generating vast amounts of information for researchers. But social scientists and management researchers should put robust practices in place to remain ethical

Anne ter Wal

Imperial College London

Female researcher working on her laptop in a lab

Understanding ethics approval in academic research

The following strategies aim to streamline the ethics approval process, reduce delays and uphold the highest ethical standards

Marios Kremantzis, Fatema Zaghloul, Rushana Khusainova

The University of Bristol

Teaching international students about academic integrity

Cultural misunderstandings can lead to international students being referred for academic misconduct. An answer for university educators can be to tailor course content to bridge gaps in your students‘ understanding

Julija Jones

University of Southampton

Taking on academic leadership even if you are not prepared for it

The call to leadership can come before you feel ready for a more senior role, as happened to David Waller. Here he shares what he has learned from five years as a department head

David Waller

University of Technology Sydney

The transformative power of immersive field studies

Embracing experience in teaching can bring the curriculum to life and help students forge their own learning journey. Here are five benefits it offers

Myria Georgiou, Afroditi Koulaxi

The London School of Economics and Political Science

Robot with people rolling coins, AI subscription

Is it worth paying for GenAI?

How useful is artificial intelligence for syllabus design? A law lecturer compared the free and subscription versions of three generative AI platforms, with surprising results

Sophia De Arez Cintra

King’s College London

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