Review could lead to shake-up in student loans and grants
Increasingly complex methods for student grants and loans could lead to a shake-up of the way the money was delivered and repaid, the government said yesterday. Announcing a review of student finance arrangements, the Department for Education and Skills said it was looking for better value for money and wanted technology to be used to improve efficiency and "customer service". Prospective students should also be given clearer advice. Last year, the Student Loans Company and local education authorities were criticised by universities, which feared a new online system for registration would lead to late delivery of some loans.
The Financial Times
Top-up fees are the right choice, academic claims
The government was right to develop a system which allows students to delay paying back their tuition fees as it would help to widen access to higher education, an academic claimed today. American economists had discovered that students from poorer backgrounds were reluctant to get into debt in order to pay for higher education tuition fees although they were prepared to borrow money to buy a new car, the pro-vice-chancellor of Bradford University, Geoff Layer, said.
The Guardian
Lethal bug is costing NHS £160m a year, says Leeds professor
Hundreds of hospital wards are being closed and the NHS is losing £160 million a year because of the lethal bug Clostridium difficile , affecting thousands of patients. Research by Professor Mark Wilcox at the University of Leeds has found that each case of C.difficile costs the NHS £4,000 in extended stays in hospital. The study by Professor Wilcox, a member of the Hospital Infection Society, also found that one in six hospitals had been forced to close wards because of C.difficile infections.
The Independent, The Times, The Evening Standard
Funding for health services researchers
NHS professionals wanting to begin a career in academia could get their masters degrees paid for by the University of Kent. The university's Centre for Health Services Studies is offering to pay fees of £3,000-a-year for two students taking an MA in health services research. The announcement coincides with the publication of a report by the heads of university medical and dental schools that showed a worrying decline in the number of clinical academics.
The Guardian
Falcons choose the University of Westminster for new home
Isolated marshes, estuaries and cliff faces would be their natural habitat. But a pair of peregrine falcons have not only managed to nest in the heart of London, they have raised five chicks. Once driven to the brink of extinction, the peregrine falcon has been helped by intensive conservation to recover to the point that there are about 1,300 pairs in Britain.
The Evening Standard
'Love comes in exactly nine forms', says Nottingham experts
There are a variety of different types of love shared by a couple – nine to be exact, according to new research. The question of what the “L” word means has mystified poets, writers and artists down the centuries, but a team of psychologists believe they may now have the answer. A study by experts from Nottingham Trent University and University College London suggests there are nine distinct kinds of “partnership love”.
The Scotsman, The Guardian
It's genes that make the earth move
Women who fail to orgasm during sex may be genetically programmed to weed out unreliable men who are a flop between the sheets, according to new research. Scientists who have studied the ability of thousands of women to climax say it is largely written in their genes - the most compelling evidence so far that the female orgasm has a biological role. The findings suggest the failure of some women to orgasm regularly is not a dysfunction, but a sophisticated mate-selection strategy that evolved during prehistoric times.
The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, Nature, The Independent
You'll need millions when you retire
The formula for a happy old age is: CI x {55-(A-1/3)-(RA-1/7)}, researchers claimed today. The formula, which was worked out by JPMorgan Invest and Edmund Cannon, a senior lecturer in economics at the University of Bristol, aims to calculate the level of annual income people would need in order to replicate their current lifestyle.
The Evening Standard, The Guardian