Today's news

Offtoff may break the law
Universities UK, which represents vice-chancellors, says it is taking advice on the legal implications of the recent white paper, in particular investigation of the linkage of funding to the terms and conditions of admission of students contradicting elements of the 1992 Further Education Act. The conundrum for the lawyers is whether fees can count as grants.
(Guardian)

Birkbeck team wins University Challenge
Birkbeck College, University of London, last night beat postgraduates from Cranfield to take the University Challenge 2003 title. The team of adult part-time students won by 180 points to 155. On the way to the final they beat two Cambridge colleges and two Russell Group institutions. Only six years ago Birkbeck scored a mere 40 points - the lowest in that series - leaving the studios with the nickname the "berks from Birkbeck".
(Independent)

Education plans for postwar Iraq
The US government is already planning what kind of school and university system Iraq will have in the future. Washington is putting out contracts to tender in the US private sector to help deliver it. Observers are asking whether the US is dusting off its post-second world war models from Germany and Japan.
(Guardian)

Most Americans want UN in charge of Iraq
While Americans are still overwhelmingly supportive of President George W. Bush's decision to go to war with Iraq, a new poll yesterday released by the University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes suggested they did not believe the United Nations should be considered irrelevant because of its refusal to endorse military action. The poll found that 52 per cent of Americans believed the UN should be in charge of governing postwar Iraq, while only 30 believed the US should do it.
(Financial Times)
• Don't miss Lord Desai's feature on why the UN must change, in The THES this Friday.

OU says bye-bye kipper tie
Following a shock report from management consultants, the Open University is ditching its lonely and dull distance-learning image and is evolving into a teaching machine built to serve the flexible needs of the modern student.
(Guardian)