Old rocks put people at risk
The legacy of a 7,000-year-old metal-mining and smelting centre is still polluting the neighbouring environment. A team of British researchers has found that copper mining in southern Jordan, which...
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Endangered lists danger
Lists of endangered species designed to protect flora and fauna may themselves be condemning a substantial proportion of plants and animals to extinction. Australian botanist Mark Burgman, of...
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Welsh plan for a gene park
A proposal from Cardiff University and the University of Wales College of Medicine for a multi-million pound "virtual genetics" knowledge park for Wales was unveiled this week. The Wales Gene Park...
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30% dropout rate dismays Australians
More than one in three Australian undergraduates fails to complete their three and four-year bachelor degrees within six years and at least three in every ten are unlikely ever to graduate, new...
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Foreign intake fires NZ growth
New Zealand universities are predicting growth of more than 20 per cent in international student numbers this year, due to a low exchange rate, agreements with Chinese universities and a flood of...
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Revenue alarm as US downturn hits home
An international bond-rating agency has reported that the recession and concerns about terrorism will cut revenues from tuition, private contributions and income from investments at American...
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Calls grow to bolster cash for Fulbrights
United States secretary of state Colin Powell is pushing for more money for the prestigious Fulbright programmes in the wake of the September 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington. Precise...
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Catholic faculty under fire
Catholic theology professors at Prague's Charles University must overhaul and modernise the way their faculty works to avoid closure, university rector Ivan Wilhelm has said. The long-running dispute...
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France puts art in the big picture
The arts will play a greater part in mainstream university studies following an agreement signed last week by education minister Jack Lang and culture minister Catherine Tasca. The agreement brings...
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Universities resist SA streamline plan
The South African government is facing fierce resistance to its efforts to streamline higher education, with one university going to court to stop an ordered merger and another successfully fighting...
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Don's diray: Scientist and MP trade places
Constituency day I am sitting in the staff room of a primary school in Chandler's Ford in Hampshire. The staff and governors are rushing around because it's an open day and local Liberal Democrat MP...
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Best of a beard lot
Terry Eagleton, literary critic and professor of cultural theory at the University of Manchester, has won the winter beard award. He received the prize, bestowed by the Beard Liberation Front, "after...
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Poisonous payments
The introduction of the euro presents a hidden health threat, said Klaus Ammann, director of the botanical garden at the University of Bern in Switzerland. He warned that as euro banknotes are made...
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On the way up
The Diary would like to welcome two new female heads of institution. Ann Tate, pro vice-chancellor for quality and enhancement at the University of Ulster, has been appointed rector of University...
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Take a history, nurse
Bamber Gascoigne, former presenter of University Challenge, has teamed up with the Wellcome Trust's Carole Reeves to launch an online account of medical history. HistoryWorld covers seven significant...