There is a lot of hype about AI, especially ChatGPT. But the voices of academics who understand the challenges it presents have been silenced by the rush to marketisation of universities and a culture of fear, and are too enfeebled and exhausted to come up with solutions.

The development of high quality non-profit private universities over the past half-century, especially in the Global South, represents a remarkable development: despite the challenges they face, these elite private institutions have brought vitality to an often moribund higher education environment in their country.

An organisation representing nearly a million doctoral candidates and postdocs across Europe has called on academic institutions and governments to improve conditions for early career researchers, arguing that their precarious existence endangers academic freedom, which is already under attack in many European countries.