Today's news

Universities warn UK could lose students to US
British vice-chancellors today appealed to the Home Office to follow moves by the United States to make it easier for overseas students to study here. The appeal comes after the US state department announced it was planning to relax its visa rules in a bid to attract more Asian scientists to the country.
The Guardian

How computer sleuths can weed out university cheats
Universities are being urged to use computer detection services to curb the increasing numbers of students who cheat by using the internet. They are warned that plagiarism will soar due to the increasing ease with which students can download ready-made answers.
Daily Mail, Times Higher Education Supplement (February 11)

Oxford votes to stay green
Oxford University has decided to stick with its green electricity sources despite doubts last night that it would renew its current contract. The university blamed "significant financial constraints" in the sector after it announced last month that it might not be able to afford the contract with Scottish and Southern Energy PLC.
The Guardian

Cox-2s safety summit sees FDA scientist censored
David Graham, the high-profile scientist at America's Food and Drug Administration, has been banned from presenting new information about a controversial type of painkiller at a three-day summit on their safety starting today. Dr Graham, who works in the FDA's office of drug safety, said yesterday that he had been "threatened with being called insubordinate" by the FDA when he said he wanted to include the findings of an unpublished study he has completed as part of his testimony on Cox-2 inhibitors.
The Independent

'We feel we're never going to own our own place'
On average students leave university with debts of £12,000 – and are taking until their early 30s to pay them off. Small wonder that the prospect of taking a first step on the property ladder seems very distant indeed.
The Telegraph

World's biggest spider is downsized
The biggest spider ever to have walked the earth was today exposed by a British scientist as a "mistake". Dr Paul Selden, an arachnid expert at the University of Manchester was allowed special access - and found the "spider" is in fact more crab than creepy-crawly. His conclusion solves one of the greatest mysteries in the study of palaeontology or fossils. "As soon as I saw it I knew it wasn’t a spider, but an ancient aquatic creature called a sea scorpion," Dr Selden said.
The Scotsman

Fen tries to be a valley
In the last of a series, Maija Pesola looks at how Cambridge can keep up with California.
Financial Times

'I wanted to be a scientist but wasn't brave enough'
The Princess Royal calls for more to be done to attract women into science and engineering.
Daily Telegraph

Letter
Regarding fees charged to overseas students.
The Guardain