News

Feeder colleges for non-EU students may go under as third fall foul of rule change. Simon Baker writes

Australia is to relax its visa rules for overseas students, increasing the competition faced by UK universities just as the coalition government tightens British regulations.

...that is the question, but scholars are arguing over whether they should ask it. Matthew Reisz reports

Forty university chaplains have signed a letter criticising the coalition government’s White Paper for seeing higher education in “highly individual” terms.

Two unions are set for strike action at Middlesex University over job cuts that some claim could reduce the workforce by 15 per cent.

The vice-chancellor of the University of London has announced he is stepping down just one year into the post.

The University of Dundee is to introduce three year degrees to appeal to debt-shy undergraduates from England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Labour’s plan to cap tuition fees at £6,000 would be of greatest benefit to graduates in their 50s earning £72,500 a year, according to an analysis.

By Libby A. Nelson, for Inside Higher Ed

The Labour Party would reduce the annual tuition fee cap to £6,000 if it were in power, Ed Miliband has said, in an apparent move away from favouring a graduate tax.

Three European funding agencies have signed an open access funding agreement with journal publisher Wiley-Blackwell.

Six leading scientific bodies, including the Royal Society, have urged the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council to reconsider its controversial “shaping capability” measures.

Loose 'ties' with author emphasised after terrible notices for 'erotic capital' book. Jack Grove writes

Hughes issues plea to win back students' trust as party conference aims to overcome its 'sense of bereavement' over tuition fees. Simon Baker reports from Birmingham

The grade threshold at which student places are removed from the recruitment cap and thrown open to full competition should be lowered from AAB to ABB at A level, a mission group has argued.

Fury as chair suggests employers could question UCU's involvement in the USS. John Morgan writes

This 18-carat gold cigarette case belonged to Harry Price (1881-1948), a writer, amateur conjuror and ghost hunter who, in 1923, set up the National Laboratory of Psychical Research, in order "to investigate in a dispassionate manner and by purely scientific means every phase of psychic or alleged psychic phenomena".

Jack Grove reports from Copenhagen on the Arab yearning for academic partnership and cooperation

Universities in Europe have been advised by a World Bank official to look to developing countries for inspiration rather than copying British and US models of higher education.

Poetry contest reminds trainee medics that patients are people, not machines. Matthew Reisz reports

Scholars decry institutions' refusal to release data and desire for good news stories. Jack Grove writes

The University of Buckingham flies the UK flag in Uganda. David Matthews reports from Kampala

Debate has been further inflamed by claims that Turkey has paid off historians. Jack Grove reports

SNP plans for sector focus on mergers and research concentration. David Matthews reports

EPSRC chief provokes ire by saying scientists' views are not supported by evidence. Simon Baker writes

A lack of biomedical scientists on one of the subpanels for the research excellence framework has caused "grave concerns" over the credibility of the exercise, a representative body has warned.

V-c vaunts budget degrees and low cost of living to boost ex-NI enrolment. David Matthews reports

Institutions' locale and curricula can help graduates outearn Russell Group peers. Simon Baker reports

The Scottish government has pledged to increase funding for universities in a spending review that sets the budget for the next three years.

Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg has described the coalition government’s decision to increase university tuition fees – which went against pledges he made before the election – as “heart-wrenching” in his speech to the Liberal Democrat conference.

A decision to charge a group of Italian seismologists and officials with manslaughter for failing to predict an earthquake that killed over 300 people “defies belief”, according to a UK expert in the field.

Students should be able to view simple pie-charts showing how their university spends its tuition fee income, David Willetts has said.

Plans for students to apply to university after receiving their A-level results have been challenged as the consultation on the higher education White Paper draws to a close.

A “narrow, Oxbridge-obsessed” approach to higher education reform will thwart attempts to increase social mobility, according to a new report by a group of new universities.

Delegates at the Liberal Democrat party conference have supported a motion asking the government to look again at its proposals for the tuition fee loans given to part-time students.

By Steve Kolowich, for Inside Higher Ed

Only 4 per cent of international students use social media to select a foreign university, according to a worldwide survey of undergraduates.

Universities have been warned not to assume that “digital native” students will embrace all e-learning initiatives, or indeed prefer them to traditional forms of education.

A student who was arrested after downloading an al-Quaeda training manual from a US government website during research for his master’s degree has been paid £20,000 by Nottinghamshire Police in an out of court settlement.

University and College Union members have voted to hold “sustained industrial action” over cuts to their pensions, potentially disrupting exams and assessment at 67 universities.

Poor students thrive at elite university and go on to earn more than their peers. Jack Grove reports

Number of students aspiring to attend newer universities 'could halve'. David Matthews writes

Around 450,000 students a year could study abroad on the Erasmus scheme after a funding increase by the European Union.

Vice-chancellors rehearse their objections to 'risky' White Paper proposals, writes Simon Baker

These images of monkeys, from around 1840, are magic lantern slides.

EU-funded project will develop affinities between institutions on two continents. Paul Jump reports

Fresh worries have been raised that visa reforms could be damaging the ability of UK universities to recruit students from overseas after more evidence emerged of a large drop in demand from India.

Ucea chief tells John Morgan that national salary bargaining will be tested in the new fees order

Department's first scientific chief sets out his stall firmly in the middle of the road. Paul Jump reports

Wales fears losses as Scotland opens coffers in bid to keep its AAB students. David Matthews reports

Student officers are to receive training on how to comment on their university's quality assurance practices, enabling them to "challenge and shape the quality of teaching" under trebled fees.

Benjamin Zephaniah hopes to get poets performing in his first-ever university role. Jack Grove reports