Update 12:30

Axe falls on Sheffield's 'risky' PPP
The Unite group has terminated its 30-year private/public partnership with Sheffield University to build and maintain student halls of residence. It decided that maintaining Sheffield’s beds would be too risky and unprofitable and wrote off £1.3 million in bid costs and axed its PPP team.

Church looks to build Muslim-Christian links
Church of England representatives are gathering at Birmingham University for a four-day conference to discuss Muslim-Christian relations. The conference will explore the Muslim and Christian faiths with a view to building stronger bridges in the wake of September 11.

Abertay Dundee backs clean water pledge
Environmental engineers at the University of Abertay Dundee’s urban water technology centre today launched a training course for African water agency managers to help deliver a key declaration at the recent World Summit to give some of the globe’s poorest people access to clean drinking water.