Update 13:00

Drop in Scottish Highers 'no cause for concern'
The Scottish Qualifications Authority was today expected to explain a 2 per cent drop in Higher and Advanced Higher pass rates as a natural fluctuation rather than a cause for concern. An urgent inquiry into the results was ordered by Scottish education minister Cathy Jamieson.

Highlands institute bids for university status
The UHI Millennium Institute, the high-tech federation of colleges and research institute in the Highlands and Islands, has published a strategic plan for the next four years which it hopes will lead to university status by 2007. The Scottish Parliament designated it a higher education institute in April 2001.