Oxford degree honour for Indian premier
Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh is to return to his old British university to receive an honorary degree. The leader of the world’s largest democracy will be presented with a Doctor of Civil Law degree in a special ceremony at Oxford University next Friday. Dr Singh, an economist credited with crafting India’s economic liberalisation policies during his tenure at the country’s finance ministry, took office last year when the Congress Party returned to power after eight years on the sidelines.
The Scotsman
Trainee teachers to pay full top-up fees
Trainee teachers will have to pay full top-up fees, the Office for Fair Access confirmed today. From 2006, graduates will have to pay up to £3,000 for the one-year postgraduate certificate in education, despite fears from the teaching profession that recruitment could suffer. Universities will be obliged to give the poorest trainee teachers a minimum of £300 in bursaries, Offa said today. Universities that specialise in teacher training, such as Roehampton University, have expressed fears that recruitment will fall and it will not be able to afford large bursaries to attract students.
The Guardian
Blair accused on migrant cover up, after academic's estimate
Tony Blair was accused last night of "misleading the country" over immigration during the general election as the Home Office admitted for the first time that half a million illegal immigrants may be living in Britain. When an independent academic, Professor John Salt, of the Migration Research Unit at University College, London, suggested before polling day the true figure could be about 500,000 - equivalent to the population of Sheffield - he was shot down by ministers. One called this "wildly inaccurate" and denied there were any official estimates.
The Daily Telegraph, The Scotsman
Student anger at gigolo and prostitute ban
Students at a Chinese university are protesting against new rules banning them from using prostitutes and gigolos or indulging in one-night stands. Alarmed at the loosening of China's puritan morality, Chongqing Normal University pinned the guidelines in all classrooms last month. "The discovery of escort girls, mistresses, gigolos, or anyone caught having a one-night love affair will result in expulsion," it said.
The Daily Telegraph
By gum! A prize solution to a very sticky problem
Scientists at Bristol University have come up with the answer to street cleaners’ prayers: non-stick chewing gum. The gum could save local authorities hundreds of thousands of pounds in cleaning bills. An estimated 28 million Britons chew their way through 935 million sticks of gum each year and much of it ends up on pavements or stuck beneath bus seats. The secret of the new gum is a polymer called revolymer, developed by Terry Cosgrove, Professor of Physical Chemistry at Bristol University, and his team.
The Times, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph
Aberdeen scientists clone marine DNA for cancer drugs
Scientists have made a major breakthrough which could help in the treatment of cancer patients through the cloning of marine DNA, it emerged today. The pioneering work, led by a scientist from the University of Aberdeen, is designed to eliminate the “supply” obstacle that has in the past stopped the development of many marine-derived drugs. The research, by Professor Marcel Jaspars from the Marine Natural Products Laboratory, found that chemicals from marine organisms, such as sponges and seasquirts, show great promise in the treatment of cancer, inflammation and viral diseases.
The Scotsman