Your Higher Ed Must-Reads for 2025

It’s that time again in the higher ed publishing cycle where we look ahead to those exciting new books we can expect in the next 12 months. Fortunately we are able to share a list of some of the much-anticipated publications on the way this year.

January 9, 2025

5–8 minutes

book review, Diversions, higher ed must-read

New books for 2025

It’s that time again in the higher ed publishing cycle where we look ahead to those exciting new books we can expect in the next 12 months. And, excitingly, we have a full set of some much-anticipated publications on the way this year.

Once again we decided against asking a range of higher ed celebrities for their book choices as they might not have come up with the right answers or may have even thought we were serious about the whole thing. So here is our entirely self-generated list of the best higher ed books due to be published in 2025 which will be ideal reading for academics and administrators during whatever free time or holidays they are lucky enough to be able to schedule.

Trainspotters Guide to University Locomotives – After many years out of print this book is about to be republished thanks to recent sector enthusiasm for identifying trains from the end of the last century with a university name on them.

SILENCED! No More Free Speech in Universities – serialised in all the papers, companion to the TV channel and podcast series and regular university and chat show appearances in which every view is aired loudly, this book explains at inordinate and improbable length why free speech has been killed by universities. With a foreword and afterword (and plenty of in-between words too) by Toby Young.

We’re all Doomed! Grim reading this, a collection of essays from sector miserabilists who are convinced that every university is going to collapse.

Always Look on the Bright Side! A useful antidote to more gloomy analyses of sector woes. A set of pieces by authors who are refreshingly untroubled by the challenges currently facing universities.

It Really is a Bit More Complicated Than That – no exclamation marks here. A further collection of articles setting out why the future is neither catastrophic nor fantastic for the sector but will require time, creativity and collective endeavour to navigate successfully. Unlikely to take off.

Rough Guide to University Mergers – Hastily cobbled together manual drawing on all the supremely helpful advice published by consultants with a passing interest in higher education but a keen nose for commercial opportunity.

The Past, Present and Future of Data Futures – this one has been eagerly awaited for over a decade now. A comprehensive history of everyone’s favourite data collection and delivery programme. Publication has been delayed (again and again and again….) but we are really confident it will be out in 2025.

Carry on Camping on Campus – a collection of tips and hints for those looking to launch tent-based protest on university campuses.

Cancelling Camping on Campus – a collection of tips and hints for those looking to end tent-based protest on university campuses.

How to Chair the OfS Board – something of a niche publication but is expected to be extremely useful for whoever will be taking on this particular task later this year. With a foreword by Sir David Behan.

Student Number Forecasting for Beginners – will be essential reading for every senior university leader this.

From Aye-Aye to AI – Speculative thesis on how the world’s largest nocturnal primate has influenced the latest technological advances.

In the Red – An extremely detailed compilation of university financial statements showing deficits.

All You Need to Know About the Spending Review But Were Afraid to Ask – With a foreword by Rachel Reeves. This slim volume answers all your questions both succinctly and vaguely.

Employment Legislation for Beginners – A must-read for everyone working in HE right now.

I Spy Universities in Deficit – a much more entertaining and engaging spotters’ guide to universities in the red. How many can you find?

Imaginary Universities – A glossy and hefty coffee table collection of transcripts of all the best bits from the mildly popular podcast My Imaginary University. With pictures.

The Sign of Four Star: Sherlock Holmes and the REF – unfortunately, publication of this long-awaited tome has been delayed yet again but it is going to be really great when it finally emerges in 2025. Maybe.

Top of the Quads – A comprehensive survey of some of the best and most photographed university quadrangles from institutions across the world.

PQA: An idea whose time has come – Yet Again? No, really, you think it might really happen this time? Tenth Edition, newly updated with over-optimistic observations for 2025.

Understanding University Pensions The Twelfth Edition of this seminal publication, now in 16 comprehensive volumes featuring a major new update on TPS.

The big sellers from 2024 you might have missed

That’s not all though. These are undoubtedly some of the biggest books from 2024 and you may have missed a few of them so now is your opportunity to catch up.

Ding Dong Merrily. A detailed and rigorous academic study of university clocks and clocktowers and their cheery chimes from around the higher education world. Featuring Birmingham’s ‘Old Joe’, Heidelberg’s ‘Young Luther’ and Sydney’s ‘Knackered Keith’.

What Has The OfS Ever Done For Us? In this witty stocking filler some amusing higher ed types riff on the theme of the famous Monty Python Life of Brian sketch, ‘What have the Romans ever done for us?’ With hilarious consequences. Note, over 18s only, contains very strong language and adult themes.

The OIA Catalogue of Complaints. All the best complaints from the Office of the Independent Adjudicator. Whether justified or not, this bumper book has the lot. Who can forget the case “Industrial Action – CS05199A Partly Justified”, the remarkable “Coronavirus – CS11808F Not Justified” and, of course, “Accommodation – CS012407 Partly Justified”

I’ve Got a Brand New Combine Harvester – a critical analysis of the representation of agricultural economics in the Archers (a huge hit with all social scientists this one).

Fleetwood MAC – the implications of the Migration Advisory Committee report on student populations in towns in the north west.

The Friday Timetable Club – very much in the Richard Osman vein, this light and somewhat bureaucratic tale has been credited with starting the whole ‘cosy campus’ genre (see also Murder at Matriculation) and features a group of very stressed administrators trying to fit too many students into too few classrooms without anyone having to teach on a Friday (or a Monday, ideally).

The Secret Agents – a surprising tale about the way in which one university secured significant growth in its international student recruitment thanks to a network of undercover agents in South East Asia who remained entirely unknown to anyone until recently.

Postcards as Proxies – Higher Education consultant Hugh Jones presents his passion for postcards all about universities with some surprising findings. Richly illustrated. Few words but excellent value for money (it says in the blurb).

Dons on the Catwalk – a review of all the best in contemporary academic gowns and hoods produced by the Burgon Society and featuring many of the UK’s most popular professors gowned up in the latest 19th century fashions.

And a few other best sellers and favourites recommended by some people we bumped into on campus: