When Laurie Santos designed a new university course that would aim to show students how to be happy, she thought that it might generate some interest.

There are British universities that own castles, grottoes and even a sewage plant. But Rama Thirunamachandran, at Canterbury Christ Church University, is proud to be the only vice-chancellor who has purchased a prison.

Publisher Taylor & Francis has dropped plans to charge extra for access to older research papers online, after more than 110 universities signed a letter of protest.

Students are opposed to the introduction of variable tuition fees in English higher education, according to polling that emerges amid growing criticism of the government’s hopes of delivering greater price competition in the sector.

Women in countries with high levels of gender equality are less likely to gain degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields, according to a study.

A global shift towards open-access publishing is opening up new types of inequality within academia, according to research that highlights institutional “stratification” in publishing access outcomes.

Taking part in brief mindfulness exercises can help university students stay focused during lectures, researchers have claimed.

Questions have been raised about the value of international organisations providing aid for developing countries’ higher education systems, after the veterans of one project warned that much of its $4.6 million (£3.3 million) budget had been squande

One in three students globally is enrolled in private higher education institutions, according to research that reveals the huge growth and wide reach of private providers.

Publishing giant Taylor & Francis has called for talks with editorial board members from one of its international journals, after they resigned in protest against the dismissal of the editor-in-chief.