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Athenaeum opens doors to women
The first female academics have joined the Athenaeum Club in London. Oxford academic Baroness Greenfield, Rabbi Julia Neuberger and author Victoria Glendinning are among 25 women invited to join the 800 existing male members of the club, which prides itself on linking science, religion and the arts.

SNP backs education at home
The Scottish National Party has defended parents’ rights to educate their children at home in the wake of Scottish Executive plans to trace thousands of children who have never attended school, using birth registers, census information, health visitor records and nursery enrolments. The education provided by parents will be monitored.

Brief history of a birthday
Distinguished academics from around the world will gather at Cambridge University next week to celebrate the 60th birthday of Stephen Hawking. Professor Hawking, Lucasian professor of mathematics and author of the best-selling A Brief History of Time , was born on January 8, 1942, in Oxford.