Vocational reform cannot afford delay
Throughout October there has been a bitter row rumbling over national vocational qualifications. How many were taking them, how many achieved them, had they done more than displace existing...
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War of new campus
The University of Alicante and the Valencian regional government are locked in a bitter struggle over plans for a new institution in the city. In an outbreak of open warfare, Andres Pedre$o, Alicante...
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Dorms offer taste of the good life
When Christian Riser told his classmates at the University of Maryland that he lived on a dormitory floor where smoking and drinking were banned, they asked him what on earth he did for fun. "People...
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Insurance firms facecost of genetic secrets
People who know they have adverse genetic traits, but are not compelled to declare it to insurance firms, could expose the industry to extra costs, according to a study by Angus Macdonald of Heriot-...
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Ethicists tread the moral maze
Public concern over euthanasia, foetal pain, assisted fertilisation and gene therapy has left western ethicists working overtime to draw the elusive line between "right" and "wrong". But there will...
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Beware of the eco crisis mongers
WESTERN predictions of environmental crises caused by the feckless management of natural resources in developing countries are often inaccurate and misleading, British and United States scientists...
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Irish squeezed out with a tear
At least a third, and possibly half, of young people leaving Northern Ireland to study on the mainland do so reluctantly, claims Ulster University. Students are being forced to leave because of an...
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Daisy the drunk
Must-read headline of the month for October goes to the Warwick University NewsLetter and its front-page story "Warwick Scientists Devise Breathalyser For Cows". The bad news for those scenting the...
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Web Des Res
It is refreshing to learn that not everyone thinks of the Internet as an ephemeral concept floating around in cyberspace. In a paper proposing a strategic alliance of HE institutions to provide...
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There was Nel, Nel . . .
Warm congratulations to the publishers of The Science Reporter, august organ of the Association of British Science Writers, for a classic display of the havoc that can be wrought by omitting a single...
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Skulking admiration
International misunderstandings No. 357: an eastern European academic, visiting Edinburgh for a higher education conference, congratulated his hosts on the attractiveness of the city's prostitutes....
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Degree critic faces legal action
A lecturer who circulated criticisms of business degree programmes franchised in Singapore by a British university is facing legal action. The Management Development Institute of Singapore terminated...
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Beyond their Ken
(Photograph) - Labour MPs Ken Livingstone and Tony Benn have lent their weight to a student campaign of opposition to tuition fees. Mr Livingstone said that to impose fees "would create a two-tier...
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Japan faces number crunching future
World market success is forcing a once tightly knit nation to unwind. Tony Tysome takes a look Leaders of Japanese higher education are fighting to avert a financial and educational crisis they fear...