Today's news

3 in 4 women feel unsafe on campus
Three-quarters of female students do not always feel safe walking around their university campus at night, the Sodexho-Times Higher university lifestyle survey has found. The research, which will be released in full next week, reveals that while students generally feel secure during the day, fewer than four in ten feel safe all of the time when walking around the university site at night.
( Times Higher )

Universities cash in on creative writing courses
Aspiring writers are no longer likely to be found burning books for fuel in a freezing garret as they learn their craft from the real world. Today, it seems, they are far more likely to be signing up for a creative writing course. In 12 years, the number of universities offering postgraduate degree courses in creative writing has increased from eight to 85. And there are a total of 11,000 short-term creative writing courses and evening classes in the UK.
( Independent )

Bravehearts fear the fees
Scottish vice-chancellors are asked how they plan to stop their universities falling behind once top-up fees are introduced in England.
( Independent )

Manchester postgraduates to study the art of war
The impact of war on ordinary people will be the subject of a new MA at Manchester University from this autumn.
( Independent )

The universe is trumpet-shaped, scientists say
Scientists now believe the universe could be shaped like a flat-sided trumpet. That would lead to strange effects in some parts of the universe, where time and light would be so curved that you could see the back of your own head. Also, long-held theories that the universe looks much the same anywhere, and that it is infinite, would have to be abandoned. The research by a team of German physicists at the University of Ulm is reported today in New Scientist magazine.
( Independent, Guardian )

Sistine sketches by Michelangelo surface at Prado
British scholars have rediscovered two Michelangelo drawings, identifying them for the first time as studies for the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. The link has been made by Nicholas Turner, a former curator of the British Museum in London and the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, and Paul Joannides, a Michelangelo scholar from Cambridge University.
( Times )

Student who exposed Moscow rapes is shot
A 19-year-old student who unearthed an alleged police rape ring on the Moscow Metro was in a critical condition yesterday after being shot. German Galdetsky, a mathematics student, had been running a one-man campaign since February to expose officers. The self-appointed vigilante was shot in the head with a rubber bullet shortly after giving an interview to a newspaper.
( Times )

Half a second, that's all it takes to spot a liar
Psychologist Aiden Gregg, a research fellow at the centre for research on self and identity at Southampton University, has discovered that it takes longer to tell a lie than it does to tell the truth. On the eve of the British Psychological Society's annual conference in London, he said that his method proved to be more than 85 per cent accurate and could be adapted for the police.
( Daily Telegraph )

Cricket helmets may slow the brain, says study
Keeping a cool head may have real advantages for batsmen at the crease, according to research among cricketers that has found a measurable improvement in reaction times and vigilance when they did not wear protective helmets. Nick Neave of the human cognitive neuroscience unit at Northumbria University believes that the difference in performance may be linked to an overheating of the brain in players batting in helmets. However, he stresses that cricketers should not disregard safety: "Getting run out may be preferable to brain damage."
( Daily Telegraph, Times )