So, you’ve finished writing your book, the ideas are on the page and all that’s left is to send your opus off to the publisher, right? Not so fast. In between draft and submission is the revising stage, one that many scholars gloss over on their way to a polished manuscript. After all, to paraphrase Hemingway, “all writing is rewriting”.

Editing is an eminently learnable skill – one that can be broken down into manageable steps. That alone can be enough to ease the fear of looking closely and honestly at how your manuscript is constructed. And a systematic approach can guide writers to fix or improve their work in line with what peer reviewers, scholarly publishers and ultimately the target readership are looking for.

For this episode of the podcast, we talk to developmental editor, author and manuscript consultant Laura Portwood-Stacer. Her latest book, Make Your Manuscript Work (Princeton University Press, 2025) decodes the editing process into a set of steps. She explains the key area that anchors a manuscript, how authors can identify the strengths and problems in their work, the skills writers need to edit their own work, and the power of title and chapter headings in reaching as broad a readership as possible.

For more advice from experts around the world on how to take your academic writing to the next level, visit the latest Campus spotlight guide.

The number of international students enrolled on masters by research (MRes) courses more than doubled in the year after the government introduced a ban on dependent visas for other courses, new figures revealed this week.

Higher Education Statistics Agency (Hesa) data obtained by Times Higher Education show that there were 6,085 non-UK-domiciled students enrolled on MRes courses in the 2024-25 academic year – up from 2,485 in 2023-24.

This leaves the institutions behind such rises open to accusations of playing the system and using MRes courses as a way to circumvent the government’s visa rules.

On this episode of News Talks, Miranda Prynne speaks to Times Higher Education deputy news editor Helen Packer, who has been covering the story, to find out what lies behind the rising MRes numbers, what the institutions driving the growth have said and the reaction from politicians and other sector leaders.

International branch campuses are back in the spotlight with countries including India, Vietnam and Greece opening to foreign institutions for the first time. And with international student flows coming under pressure from government policies, stretched student finances and emerging host countries, transnational education (TNE) and branch campuses offer an effective alternative for reaching overseas students.

But while there are many success stories of now well-established branch campuses all over the world, there have also been plenty of failures. There are currently 387 international branch campuses open across 85 countries. A further 73 have opened and then closed, according to research by C-BERT.

So, what causes some international branch campuses to flourish while others collapse?

To find out, I spoke to Christine Ennew, who served as provost and CEO of the University of Nottingham Malaysia from 2013 to 2016, having been part of the team who travelled to Kuala Lumpur in 2000 to establish this pioneering branch campus. Christine spent five years as pro vice-chancellor at the University of Nottingham and most recently was provost at the University of Warwick until she retired in 2023.

We discuss the thinking behind branch campus endeavours, what is needed for sustained success, common criticisms of branch campuses and what impact, if any, the UK government’s new international education strategy may have.

For more insight on related topics, check out our spotlight guide on how to deliver value for international students.