20 years ago

Six-figure salaries and disillusion with the Government's higher education policies are luring growing numbers of British university academics to work in the United States. A continuing flood of acknowledged leading figures in their fields are either joining the already large numbers of British academics at universities in the United States - or are actively considering doing so. Physicists, philosophers, historians and engineers have been snapped up to revive flagging departments and provide intellectual prestige.

The National Union of Students is considering a wave of bank and building society occupations as a protest against government proposals to introduce student loans. Other tactics could include queues of students opening accounts with small sums of money and then immediately closing them and daily withdrawals of less than £1. Around 40 students were arrested after clashes with the police at a demonstration in central London and the NUS now faces a dilemma over whether to proceed with the fight.