The latest blog from Professor Nigel Thrift, Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Warwick:

The British attitude to Europe often seems sad and unnecessarily destructive.

The idea of withdrawing from the European Union is profoundly mistaken, promoted by a ragtag of interests and members of the national press who often seem to confuse Europe with immigrants and run stories with two variants: “They’re taking our money” and “it’s just a crazy bureaucracy.” The result is clear enough: Britain has become more and more marginalized within Europe, a stance that can only make it more and more marginal to the world at large...

UK employment has risen by more than half a million over the last year, and employment is now back to pre-recession levels. Why has employment performed so well, despite output 'bumping along the bottom' and remaining 3% below its pre-recession peak? Dr Jennifer Smith from the Department of Economics explains.

This week’s launch of the 'Better Together' or 'No' campaign for the 2014 Scottish independence referendum means that the battle over Scotland’s constitutional future now begins in earnest. Alex Smith, Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Sociology explains how the next two years will prove decisive in the history of both Scotland and the United Kingdom – whether or not the former elects to leave the latter in 2014.

Leading economic historian and Director of the Centre for Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy Professor Nick Crafts compares the Chancellor of the Exchequer to Charles Dickens' ever-optimistic character - hoping that something will 'turn up' to boost his fortunes.

The annual conference of the European Universities Association (EUA) will take place at Warwick on March 22-23. The conference will be attended by over 300 university heads from all over Europe.