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Figures show boom in mature applicants
The number of people applying for a university or college place is up 1.5 per cent on last year, according to data released today by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service. Some 379,000 people had applied for a full-time undergraduate course by March 24. The number of mature applicants is booming, with applications from 21 to 24-year-olds up 7.8 per cent and applications from those aged more than 25 up 4 per cent.

Hunt is on for gap student's killer
Police in Australia were today hunting for a man seen walking behind a British gap-year student shortly before she was thrown to her death from a bridge. Caroline Stuttle, 19, was found dead at the foot of a 65ft road bridge in the quiet Queensland town of Bundaberg. She had planned to start a psychology course at Manchester University later this year.

Obesity campaign could 'backfire', warns psychologist
The campaign to tackle the growing problem of obesity among young people could backfire, a psychology professor will warn today. Marion Hetherington of Liverpool University, who has studied adolescent eating patterns in Scotland and Serbia, is to tell the Edinburgh International Science Festival that our society is so worried about obesity it leads some teenagers to diet even though they are not overweight.   

Wal-Mart pledges $300m to Arkansas
The Arkansas family that owns Wal-Mart Stores has promised US$300 million – the largest gift ever to a public university – to the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. If the university matches the pledge, two-thirds will be spent on a new undergraduate school and the rest on the university's graduate school.