Cutting Edge
Fossilised arthropod trackways provide 'palaeo-Polaroids', or snapshots, of the lives of earth's earliest living creatures. Behind the hype and the incredible claims from the "Jurassic Park...
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A measure of scalpel skills
Surgeon Ara Darzi is developing ways to test the dexterity of his theatre peers. Geoff Watts reports. Step aboard a commercial airliner and you can be certain that the skills of the pilot flying it...
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Spacecraft is to study explosions in space
British scientists hope to solve the mystery of gamma bursts soon, writes Alison Goddard. When a burst of gamma rays was detected in the sky in 1967, scientists at the Los Alamos laboratory thought...
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Comments sought as a boost to confidence
Researchers were asked this week to comment on the criteria and working methods for the next research assessment exercise, due for 2001. "There has never been a consultation at this stage before. I...
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RAE puts goodbooks on the back burner
Russell Jones's (above) PhD thesis was shortlisted for a major national prize but his supervisor's prediction that it was unpublishable proved frustratingly accurate. "None of the journals would take...
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Accused students claim they 'cooperated' not collaborated
Edinburgh University Students' Association has called for a full review of what constitutes plagiarism following university action against 117 students found guilty of "unacceptable collaboration"....
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Older students vote with feet
Mature students are turning away from full-time higher education, according to figures from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service out this week. Six days after the clearing process started...
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Parma
The University of Parma's science faculty is offering Italy's first postgraduate diploma in detection. The two-year forensic science qualification, popularly referred to as "the Sherlock Holmes...
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A-level benefits questioned
A study of students with different kinds of qualifications entering higher education casts doubt on the assumption that A levels are the "gold standard". Sarah Wilkinson, an education researcher at...
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Weeds invade GM row
English Nature this week expressed "deep concern" that large-scale farming in the United Kingdom of genetically modified crops resistant to herbicide could create weeds that cannot be killed. The...
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Critics admit teaching watchdog has teeth, but want to see its bite
The government has confounded critics who feared the new General Teaching Council would be little more than a government lapdog by confirming the body's independent status. The Department for...
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Powers go to funding council
Scottish colleges are relishing the chance to prove their independent mettle. This summer is a watershed for Scottish further education, according to Bob Kay, chairman of the Association of Scottish...
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Distance no barrier to learning as most students have access to local college
Gillian Raab and Kirsteen Davidson of Napier University's applied statistics group were commissioned by the Scottish Office to investigate the distribution of further education courses, writes Olga...
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Pay dispute set to escalate
Lecturers have warned university chiefs and the government that the gloves are about to come off in the fight over pay. The warning from the Association of University Teachers affirms members'...
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NI lecturers angered by 3% offer
Lecturers in Northern Irish colleges may strike over their 3 per cent pay offer after chief executives were awarded rises that were nearly five times greater. Lecturers' union Natfhe is to consult...