Today's news

Ucas applies pressure for more exam information
The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service is to discuss with exam boards whether they could reveal marks for the six parts of the A-level course in addition to the overall grade in an attempt to help higher education institutions distinguish between students with straight As. ( Financial Times, Times, Daily Telegraph )

'Graduate glut' claim rubbished
Claims that the expansion of higher education will create a "glut" of graduates who cannot find well-paid jobs are wrong, according to a report on the country's skills gap published this week by the Council for Industry and Higher Education. The report argues that Britain continues to suffer from a shortage of university leavers, particularly in science subjects.
( Times Higher )

Students queue to help wealthy buy best homes
Businessmen with more money than time are advertising on student noticeboards in Scotland for queue-sitters to wait on their behalf outside the offices of property developers during sales of new residential developments in the most desirable areas.
( Times )

Oxford law scheme to help inner-city pupils
Talented A-level law pupils at inner-city state schools are to get a chance to study with senior lawyers at Oxford University. The Law Programme of Excellence, part of a scheme to attract students on low incomes to Oxford, will offer 50 places involving summer seminars, mentoring and open days.
( Times )

Universities and industry try for better collaboration
Report looking at the issues surrounding the government's developing strategy to improve the way in which intellectual property is transferred from academia to industry.
( Financial Times )

Swiss find way to clock longer life
Scientists at the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research have identified the DNA clock that controls how fast we age, how soon we die and regulates our susceptibility to cancers. Their findings, reported in the journal Cell , could lead to a new class of drugs that are both elixirs of youth and effective tumour destroyers.
( Times, Guardian )

Door opens to genetics attack on cancer
Research into lung cancer has identified how tiny genetic flaws appear to drive the growth of some tumours. A paper written by a team from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston will be published today in Science magazine. Another, by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, will appear in the next issue of the New England Journal of Medicine .
( Financial Times )

Hope for neonatal diabetes sufferers
The underlying cause of around one-third of the cases of neonatal diabetes has been discovered by an international team, including scientists in Exeter's Peninsula Medical School and the University of Oxford, led by Andrew Hattersley. The study, published in the Ne w England Journal of Medicine , shows that mutations in a gene called Kir6.2 are a common cause of this disease. Instead of controlling blood glucose with insulin injections, at least some of the babies can now be treated by taking pills called sulphonylureas.
( Times )

Australian students forced to live on charity
An increasing number of Australian university students are so impoverished they are turning to free food services from their universities and charitable organisations to survive.
( Times Higher )

US scholars woo Iran with ancient tablets
Three hundred ancient clay tablets that helped to provide information on the languages and daily life in the Persian empire 2,500 years ago are on their way back to Iran. The tablets are being returned by the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, which is trying to re-establish relations with Iranian scholars and archaeological sites. Tens of thousands of tablets were found in Persepolis, the ancient Persian capital, by Chicago archaeologists in 1933.
( Guardian )

Profile of Susan Greenfield
In the media and on the lecture circuit she is a star, a rapid-fire expert in neurochemistry. She has been showered with honours. But she is not a fellow of the Royal Society, and the leaking of her rejection rankles.
( Guardian )
See Greenfield fails to get on society shortlist  in The Times Higher .