Today's news

Oxbridge 'snub' to intake targets
Private school pupils are expected to take a greater share of Oxford and Cambridge places this year, it emerged yesterday. The findings suggest the elite institutions are resisting Government pressure to increase their intake of state school students.
Daily Mail

1 million students start university
The number of students starting university courses in the UK has topped 1 million for the first time, according to figures released by the Higher Education Statistics Agency.
Guardian

Nelson never had a patch
Nelson would not have needed to cover his blind eye because there was no disfigurement, according to research by Colin White, a leading Nelson expert and curator of maritime history at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.
Times

Traditional grammar teaching is a waste of time, say academics
Teaching formal English grammar to children does not help to improve their writing skills, a government-funded study by academics at York University has concluded.
Times

Is psychology as good as physics?
The Conservative Party says it is "profoundly worrying" that more university students are studying psychology [50,700] than physics, chemistry and general engineering put together [50,100]. Should they be, asks John Clare
Daily Telegraph

Pioneers who proved women can do science
Larry Summers, the president of Harvard, believes that women's genes make them less suited to the sciences, but the plethora of discoveries by women suggests that any differences are cultural. Susan Greenfield, Nancy Rothwell, Frances Ashcroft and Judith Howard take issue with his comments.
Independent

Or maybe he has a point
Tell me exactly why is it so terrible to theorise that women might be naturally worse than men at maths and science, asks Lucy Mangan
Guardian