Today's news

Students go for Lib Dems
Students will shun Labour in favour of the Liberal Democrats at the next election, according to a poll published today.
Daily Express, Times Higher Education Supplement

Visa fees 'will deter overseas students'
Universities that rely on income from foreign students face an uncertain future if the Government presses ahead with proposals to triple the cost of visas, vice-chancellors warned last night. Overseas students must pay £155 to extend their visas if they need to stay in the country to finish a course. But ministers are considering increasing the charge to £495.
The Guardian, The Independent, The Times

Warning over drop in number of Scots going to university
The number of Scots going to university has dropped for the first time in five years despite attempts by the Scottish Executive to get more people into higher education. Statistics published yesterday by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service showed that fewer Scots applicants had been accepted to attend UK universities than in the previous year. The last time there was such a drop was between 1998 and 1999.
The Scotsman

Scientists fears as protesters use law to track them down
Animal rights activists are using new freedom of information laws to seek the names and addresses of academics involved in experiments. Universities fear that if they were to provide the details it could lead to a new wave of threats or even physical attacks on their staff.
Daily Mail

Web creator named top Briton 2004
The creator of the internet, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, has been named Great Briton 2004, it was announced yesterday. The physicist, who created the building blocks of the modern internet and wrote the first web browser, was chosen as the winner at an awards ceremony at the Royal Courts of Justice in London last night.
The Guardian, Daily Telegraph

Furnace creates instant fossils
A group of US researchers has petrified wood in record time, compressing a process that normally takes eons into a matter of days. Yongsoon Shin and his colleagues at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington, have developed a technique that converts an average two-by-four into a hard, fossil-like sponge in about five days.
Nature

Letters
Regarding Oxford's new admissions bill (Daily Telegraph)
From Kenneth Baker regarding university fees (The Times)