Oxford race case dismissed
A judge yesterday dismissed a case of alleged racism brought against Oxford University because of insufficient evidence. Judge Jonathan Playford, at Reading crown court, criticised Oxford lecturer Tom Paulin and his student Nadeem Ahmed for not making clear from the outset that the “mischievous” complaint was racially based and against an individual.
( The Independent, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Times )
‘We’re broke,’ says FE
Underfunding of further education means that many colleges are in effect “broke”, the Association of Colleges will claim today. It is lobbying parliament in an effort to secure an increase in funding in this summer’s spending review.
( Financial Times )
Activists’ release sparks fear of protest
The Bio-Industry Association has warned that animal rights protests could escalate following the release of three activists credited with leading a campaign of intimidation to close Huntingdon Life Sciences, despite recent legislation to curb extremists.
( Financial Times )
Royal College of Nursing Conference
Don’t bank on fertility treatment, women told
Young women could end up childless if they postpone motherhood in the hope that fertility treatment will help them conceive later in their lives, the RCN conference heard.
( The Independent, The Daily Telegraph )
Vital foreign nurses ‘endure poor conditions’
Foreign nurses have to endure low pay, poor conditions and exploitation despite the dependence of the health service on overseas recruits, a survey by the RCN has found.
( The Independent, The Times )
Hefce refuses to reveal lucrative postcodes
The Higher Education Funding Council for England has refused to identify the postcode areas in which universities are being paid to recruit students as part of the governments drive to widen participation. Damian Green, the Conservative education spokesman who has asked for the postcodes, said he was astonished that they were being kept secret.
( The Daily Telegraph )
Mobiles cleared of cancer risk
Mobile phones do not increase the risk of a type of brain cancer, according to scientists at the American Health Foundation in New York.
( The Times )
French students take to the streets after Le Pen victory
Several thousand young people, many wearing masks and holding banners saying “I’m ashamed to be French”, took to the Parisian streets yesterday as Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Front Party, won the right to challenge Jacques Chirac for the presidency.
( The Daily Telegraph )
Hard water linked to eye infections
Contact lens wearers in southern England are nine times as likely to develop eye infections as those living elsewhere, and hard water could be to blame, according to a study in the British Journal of Ophthalmology .
( The Daily Mail, The Independent, The Daily Telegraph )
Digital divide grows among governments
A digital divide is growing between governments as well as citizens, according to a study by management consultancy Accenture. Its 23-country survey of how well and fast governments are providing online services saw the UK move from eighth to sixth in a league table headed by Canada, Singapore and the US.
( Financial Times )
Murderous find is 36,000 years old
Scientists have reconstructed evidence of a murderous attack on a young man 36,000 years ago. The man, a member of the vanished Neanderthal species, was struck in the head by a bladed object. The findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
( The Guardian )
Poetic discovery is as old as the hills
A natural landmark in the Yorkshire Dales that inspired Wordsworth to write a gloomy sonnet is more than three times older than originally thought, according to an earth sciences technician at the University of Leeds. Philip Murphy says that Malham Cove is at least 50,000 years old.
( The Guardian )