An ambitious free festival exploring everything from the iconic London Underground map to brain scans of cab drivers and novelist Will Self will take place at University College London later this week.
Labour’s shadow business secretary has warned that moving responsibility for universities from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to the Department for Education would cause “disruption and uncertainty” for the sector.
Ministers are to move forward with plans to lower the qualifying threshold for university title from 4,000 to 1,000 students, the government has confirmed.
More international students cite safety as a factor in their decision to study in the UK than was the case five years ago, despite worldwide coverage of the violence and looting that swept many English cities last August.
Astronomers have welcomed a partial reprieve granted to the UK’s northern hemisphere telescopes, but have described the closure of two major facilities in Hawaii as a “sad day for British astronomy”.
The US Department of State has been accused of making “ill-informed and misguided” policy statements against the use of international student recruitment agents and “doing significant harm to the higher education industry” in America.
Publishers of humanities and social science journals could go bankrupt if all academic papers became freely available after six months, a report commissioned by publishers has warned.
A senior civil servant in charge of implementing the government’s higher education policies has been named the new vice-chancellor of the University of London.
Barriers to entering many professions are being reinforced by employers who recruit from a small cohort of socially exclusive universities, according to the government’s independent reviewer of social mobility.
Dozens of university chancellors and heads of governing councils have written to the prime minister backing calls for international students to be removed from net migration statistics.
Imperial College London, University College London and the computer firm Intel have launched a research institute they hope will help to shape the way cities work in the future.
The results of a new method of distributing money for bioscience institutes based on their contribution to strategic programmes and national capacity have been announced by the government.
Coalition government ministers have written to England’s funding council and the Office for Fair Access asking them to develop a “shared strategy” on helping students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
One of the longest-serving vice-chancellors in the UK higher education sector has announced he will retire next year to pursue activities including a master’s degree in philosophy.
Private school pupils are three times more likely than their state-educated peers to reach the high-achieving AAB grade threshold at A level that affords entry to “the most selective universities”, Nick Clegg has warned.
Confidence in the graduate jobs market has dipped among final-year students and salary expectations have stagnated as universities prepare to introduce fees of up to £9,000 a year in the autumn.
Universities UK is appealing to the prime minister to remove overseas students from the net migration count, ahead of a possible backlash against the sector arising from the next batch of immigration figures.
Students and academics have condemned the University of Salford’s plans to shut down its Italian department, warning of damage to British graduate skills in a globalised economy.
The University of Abertay Dundee has appointed a new vice-chancellor and principal almost a year after the previous head of the institution left amid a row over his retirement.
The head of a new protest group campaigning for reform of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council has called for its chief executive, David Delpy, to take action or step down
Including students in net migration statistics creates a “perverse incentive” for the government to drive down foreign student numbers even though this does relatively little to cut long-term immigration, a report has argued.
Universities will be able to bid for up to £35 million in matched public funding for major research capital projects as part of a new programme, the government has announced.
A university has decided against a controversial proposal to establish a chair in a brand of alternative medicine that advocates mistletoe as a cure for cancer.
A group of leading scholars has presented a petition to Oxford University Press calling on the renowned publisher to uphold what it describes as “basic scholarly standards”.
The different means-tested bursary and fee-waiver schemes introduced by universities to mitigate the impact of higher tuition fees on poorer students will create “further complexity”, including “cliff edges” where support disappears at particular income levels.
Almost a quarter of students and school-leavers in the UK intend to study abroad, with the main motivators being a desire for adventure, plans for an international career or financial worries about pursuing university at home, a survey has found.
David Willetts has reaffirmed his support for full open-access publishing and has drafted in the Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales to advise the government on how best to make the transition.
Imperial College London on 30 April announced that is to create two leadership roles of “president and rector” and “provost” in a shift to a US-style senior structure.
Former prime minister Tony Blair has called for UK higher education to be seen as “a major export” – but warned that universities risk being “left behind” if they do not adjust to change, including public-private partnerships.
The government has announced that uncapped recruitment of the highest-achieving students at A-level will be extended to the ABB threshold in 2013-14, while a further 5,000 places will be allocated to cheaper institutions through the margin system.
Two Islamic societies at London Metropolitan University have launched a scathing attack on “undemocratic, ill devised and misleading remarks” by the vice-chancellor, who proposed banning alcohol from parts of the campus in case it offended Muslims.
The University and College Union has called on the governors of London Metropolitan University to “intervene and re-direct” the institution after a survey returned a 91 per cent vote of no confidence in the vice-chancellor.
Universities have pitched their latest pay offer for next year well short of the 7 per cent claim from the unions, tabling a 0.8 per cent offer that was quickly rejected.
The Arts and Humanities Research Council has insisted that the appointment of more than 200 new members to its peer review college is unrelated to a spate of resignations last year.
David Willetts has said that he intends to let universities know “by the end of the month” whether the grade threshold at which university places are removed from the cap on numbers is to be lowered in 2013-14.
Graduate starting salaries are set to fall to their lowest real-terms level since 2003 this summer as 90 per cent of businesses freeze their offers to recruits, according to analysis released today.
