The International Monetary Fund has announced it will use the edX massive open online course platform to deliver economics courses to government officials and eventually the public.
A firm grasp of written English and a passion for a chosen course subject are the most desired attributes in university applicants aside from exam grades, according to a survey of admissions officers, but their social background does not figure so highly.
Vince Cable, the business secretary, says he has “ruled out categorically” any rise in interest rates for graduates who took out student loans before 2012, while stressing that plans for a sale of student loans are ongoing
The proportion of students entering Russell Group universities who are state-educated has fallen in the last decade, a report from a government commission on social mobility has said.
The University of Liverpool has been accused of “putting a gun to the head” of almost 3,000 staff who a union says face losing their jobs unless they accept altered working terms and conditions
The government should urgently clarify its plans for the sale of the student loan book and reassure existing graduates that their repayments will not be raised, according to Labour’s shadow higher education minister.
Labour’s shadow business secretary is “open” to setting a target to increase overseas students if the party returns to power as the major export industry has been “taken hostage by the Home Office” under the coalition.
The University of Salford has confirmed plans to close virtually all courses in modern languages, politics and contemporary history and shut down an entire school “to secure the future of the university” after seeing falling student demand.
Fewer British universities are hitting their overseas student recruitment targets this year in the wake of the government’s visa changes and Indian student numbers have again been hit, according to Universities UK.
A student Islamic society has apologised after a video was posted on its Facebook site claiming the killing of a soldier in Woolwich was a government hoax.
Moving medical education and research funding to the Department of Health would “pose a significant threat to the UK’s leading position” in the fields, medical schools have warned George Osborne.
In the US, the Rate My Professors website has been used by students to dish out a “public scolding” to their lecturers – and now the UK has its own equivalent, possibly bringing a shiver of dread to academics and universities.
Leeds Metropolitan University is planning to change its name and is looking at three options: Leeds Beckett University, Leeds Headingley University and Leeds Ridings University.
Lecturers in the University and College Union have moved a step closer to taking industrial action after the union decided to urge members to reject a 1 per cent pay offer
Vince Cable has said any sense of “triumph” over new figures showing a decline in student immigration is “absurd”, as he issued a strong defence of international student movement
Stay-at-home students who attend a local university should be eligible for cut-price tuition fees of £5,000 a year, according to an influential commission of higher education experts
A major new academic study exploring the attitudes of women who have converted to Islam in Britain looks at issues ranging from dress codes to divorce, marriage to media stereotypes and spirituality to sexuality.
The University of Greenwich has launched an investigation into whether there has been extremism on its campuses after confirming that one of the suspects in the murder of a British soldier studied at the institution
Students at the University of Cambridge have written to an education minister attacking the government’s response to a petition against the plan to scrap AS levels.
The publisher Elsevier has disassociated itself from an article by a trade association it belongs to that condemns proposed open-access mandates in several US states.
The University of Glasgow has finally confirmed that a former professor was found guilty of falsifying data in five papers by an investigation that ended last August.
A US academic has proposed creating a massive open online course on Coursera that explores the effect of the company’s business model on global higher education.
Universities minister David Willetts has defended the student finance system against criticisms that it is unsustainable and will not bring in the amount of money required to fund the sector long term.
“It’s Mooc or die”, a university vice-chancellor has said, claiming that institutions must embrace the massive open online course movement and adapt their teaching methods or face a tough future.
The government would like to see more publishers take up schemes that waive open access publishing fees for researchers from universities that subscribe to its journals, a senior civil servant has said.
David Willetts has said the estimated public cost of the new student loans system “could rise further”, a factor that critics fear could leads to cuts elsewhere in the higher education budget and the redesign of the student support system.
