The theatre director, now teaching at Oxford after years running the RSC, thinks The Two Gentlemen of Verona is perfect for a young cast to argue over. We go into rehearsals

Which is Shakespeare’s least loved play? The Two Gentlemen of Verona would come high on many people’s lists. It is clearly apprentice-work. It has had few significant revivals. And it also raises problematic issues since the treacherous Proteus threatens at one point to rape Silvia who is betrothed to his best friend, Valentine. For these and other reasons it is no one’s favourite play.

This could, however, be about to change. Greg Doran – now officially Sir Gregory – is staging a production at the Oxford Playhouse with student actors . After 35 years as an actor and then director with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Doran is this year’s Cameron Mackintosh visiting professor of contemporary theatre at St Catherine’s College. It is a seductive post – whose previous occupants include Stephen Sondheim, Arthur Miller, Deborah Warner and Adjoa Andoh – which involves giving lectures and workshops. But Doran has had the bright idea of using his tenure to direct the one play in the First Folio that has so far eluded him: The Two Gents. After spending time watching him at work, I have a hunch that he may have cracked some of the problems posed by one of Shakespeare’s early works.

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Anti-Vietnam war activists from Tariq Ali to the Weather Underground on the remarkable parallels with today’s pro-Palestinian uprising – and authorities’ responses

Early last week, days before the NYPD raid, Eleanor Stein poked around the edges of the Gaza Solidarity encampment at Columbia University. The area was the hub of the pro-ceasefire, pro-divestment, pro-Palestinian protest movement that has, in recent weeks, spread across the United States (and, more recently, Canada and the UK). It wasn’t her first time witnessing clashes of protesters and counter-protesters on the lawns of the august Ivy League school.

In 1968, Stein was one of 700 students arrested at Columbia during protests targeting both the university’s ties to the US military apparatus at the height of the Vietnam war, and the college’s plan to build a segregated gym, at the height of the civil rights movement. “This was really a crisis moment,” Stein, 78, recalls. “Students were taking a moral stand. We were ready to risk our careers, and our lives and our futures, and take a leap into the unknown and say, ‘No. We are not going to budge.’”

Top: On the mall in front of Low Memorial Library at Columbia University, a young man with a microphone speaks to a crowd of students, faculty and onlookers during a protest in New York, 1968.

Bottom: Students camp on Columbia University’s campus to protest against the university’s ties with Israel in New York, 22 April 2024.

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Universities across the US are dropping or shrinking graduation ceremonies as pro-Palestinian protests continue. Some students feel they’re being punished

Spare a thought for the class of 2024. Some graduating seniors, many of whom did not receive proper high school send-offs due to early Covid lockdowns, once again face muted celebrations.

Though the majority of commencement ceremonies across the US are going ahead as planned, a handful of universities have pared down or outright cancelled festivities on the big day. Columbia University administrators announced plans to cancel its university-wide ceremony, citing security concerns, while Emory University will move its commencement off campus. The University of Southern California (USC) cancelled its main ceremony in favor of smaller receptions for different schools. Ditto for California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, in northern California, which has closed its campus entirely and will host smaller celebrations arranged off campus. Some students believe the move is intended to squash dissent by those protesting against Israel’s war on Gaza .

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Five-day encampment in university grounds that caused the college major loss of income ended in victory for campaigners

Students at Trinity College Dublin have ended a five-day encampment after the university pledged to cut ties with Israeli companies.

Student leaders claimed victory on Wednesday night for a US-style campaign that had disrupted the campus and blocked access to the Book of Kells .

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Ruth Allen says the soul has been knocked out of learning English and maths. Plus letters from Amy Lewis and Mary Smith

I read your editorial in delighted agreement with much of its argument ( The Guardian view on English lessons: make classrooms more creative again, 2 May ). My particular experience is working with the youngest children as they begin learning to read. Since 2021, schools in England have been required to follow the highly prescriptive systematic synthetic phonics (SSP) scheme. The “fully decodable” books approved for SSP schemes must focus on the spelling pattern to be learned, usually at the expense of a good story or any literary merit. Right from the start of school, enjoyment of books is being squeezed out.

However, your contention that the curriculum model of little blocks of tightly controlled content is “more suited to science and maths” must be challenged. My other role is as a maths tutor to teenagers. I find that they have been rushed to learn ever more complicated formulas and procedures without time to investigate ideas, to make links between topics or to develop thinking skills.

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Shalina Patel’s book highlights stories traditionally left out of the textbooks, particular those of women and people of colour

Adults need to revisit their history lessons to learn where their “blind spots” are after schools failed to thoroughly teach them about colonialism and empire, according to a leading history teacher.

This is the aim of a new book, The History Lessons, by the award-winning teacher Shalina Patel, which spotlights the historical figures and stories left out of the textbooks – in particular those of women and people of colour – to challenge entrenched narratives.

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Ceasefire and divestment calls have spread beyond US campuses, with more expected as Rafah offensive begins

University campuses around the world have been the stage of a growing number of protests by students demanding academic institutions divest from companies supplying arms to Israel.

The protests, which first spread across college campuses in the US, have reached universities in the UK, the rest of Europe, as well as Lebanon and India.

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Rishi Sunak warns of ‘unacceptable rise’ as Gaza protests escalate and 10 students vow to go on hunger strike

• UK politics live – latest updates

University bosses are to attend a Downing Street summit to discuss antisemitism on campuses, as Palestinian solidarity protests continue to escalate at UK universities, with 10 students now vowing to go on hunger strike.

Rishi Sunak told his cabinet on Tuesday that there had been an “unacceptable rise in antisemitism” on campuses and vice-chancellors would meet to talk about “the need for our universities to be safe for our Jewish students”.

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Shaima Dallali, ousted as NUS president in 2022, said to have accepted ‘substantial’ settlement before tribunal

A former president of the National Union of Students is said to have accepted accepted a “substantial” settlement to end her legal action against the union following her dismissal over allegations of antisemitism.

Shaima Dallali was ousted as NUS UK president in November 2022 after an investigation claimed she had made “significant breaches” of the union’s antisemitism policies. But shortly before Dallali’s legal challenge was to be heard by an employment tribunal, the NUS and Dallali’s lawyers said a settlement had been agreed.

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