Kelly loses education as Johnson's rise continues
Tony Blair is today expected to make Alan Johnson, the former trade union leader, education secretary, replacing the embattled Ruth Kelly. He would be given a mandate to push through the government's controversial education bill and sell the concept of independent school trusts to a sceptical public. In the reshuffle, which Mr Blair has brought forward from Monday, Ms Kelly will stay in the cabinet, though it was not clear which post she would hold as MPs moved straight from campaigning in the local elections to speculation about the ministerial changes.
The Guardian, The Times, The Independent
Lecturers back pay deal as national talks deadlock
Lecturers at Scotland's oldest university have voted overwhelmingly to accept a new wage deal, despite the fact that the national wage negotiations remain deadlocked. A ballot of academic staff at St Andrews University found that 94 per cent were in favour of accepting a 12 per cent wage rise over the next three years. The local branch of the Association of University Teachers claimed the result was not valid because fewer than half of their members had participated in the vote. But officials vowed to introduce the wage rise and said they expected the boycott of marking and assessment by lecturers to come to an end.
The Scotsman, The Guardian
College head to face grilling on £3.7m debt
The outgoing principal of a college which is millions of pounds in the red has been ordered to appear before a committee of MSPs. Professor John Little, of Inverness College, will be grilled by the parliament's audit committee, which is conducting an inquiry into concerns raised by Robert Black, the auditor general. The college has a deficit of £3.7 million and has been forced to revise its prediction that it would break even by 2009.
The Scotsman
Wolverhampton bucks China trend with Kenyan alliance
While most UK universities are looking east to China and India to forge links with higher education institutions, one English university has set its sights elsewhere: Africa. The University of Wolverhampton announced this week that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Kabarak University in Kenya, which will involve student and staff exchanges, research collaboration and the development of degree programmes.
The Guardian
Cumbria finds home for university plans
The proposed University for Cumbria moved a step closer to reality yesterday when it was promised campuses in Carlisle and Penrith. The University of Central Lancashire confirmed it would be transferring its two campuses in the county to the project, which already includes St Martin's College and the Cumbria Institute of the Arts. The new university is expected to launch in September 2007.
The Guardian
Researchers expose the myth of 'disappearing' puppy fat
The concept of childhood "puppy fat" that disappears in teenage years is a myth, researchers say. Children who are overweight or obese at 11 remain so through adolescence and probably into adulthood, a study in the British Medical Journal found. Experts said obesity was established earlier than previously thought and dismissing the problem as puppy fat could have serious health implications later. Researchers from the Cancer Research UK health behaviour unit at University College London followed almost 6,000 children from age 11 to 16.
The Independent, The Times, The Scotsman, The Daily Telegraph
Under the bandages King Tut is all man
An ancient riddle of the sands has been solved by modern hospital technology. The mummified remains of King Tutankhamun have been found to be, let us say, intact. When a team from Liverpool University X-rayed the body in 1968, about 3,300 years after the 19-year-old king’s death, they could find no sign of his penis. There was speculation that it had been stolen and sold to a private collector. There are people who do collect such things. But Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, discovered the missing member using a hospital CT scanner during a recent study of the remains.
The Times
Cosmos 'in constant cycle of renewal'
One of the greatest challenges facing physics today could be solved with a return to a picture of the cosmos familiar to the ancients, where there is an endless cycle in which the universe dies and is reborn. The radical picture of a renewing universe has been put forward by Professor Neil Turok of the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, Cambridge University, and Professor Paul Steinhardt, of Princeton University, to explain a profound mystery concerning the Cosmological Constant.
The Daily Telegraph, New Scientist