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The Home Secretary has exempted PhD-level jobs from a new pay threshold preventing lower-paid workers from settling in the UK.

The expansion of higher education over the past 15 years has largely benefited middle-class rather than working-class children, a study has suggested.

Nearly two thirds of people underestimate the value of international students to the UK economy, a new poll has found.

All undergraduates should be offered 10 to 12 week internships to improve their employability, according to a government-commissioned review of links between universities and business.

The Sutton Trust has launched a US version of its summer school camps to give UK students the chance to study at an American university.

Glyndwr University and controversy-hit recruitment company A4e have agreed they need more time to negotiate a partnership that would see the institution validate the firm’s awards.

Teachers and lecturers are more likely to work unpaid overtime than workers in any other occupation, according to union figures.

A record number of Americans are studying at British universities, new data show.

The quality of US physics has been surpassed by that of both Canada and the UK over the past decade, new analysis commissioned by the Institute of Physics suggests.

Universities must foster in their students the “benevolent and amiable temper of mind” defined by the novelist Henry Fielding, a leading international peacekeeper told the Association of International Education Administrators’ annual conference, this year held in Washington DC.

Les Ebdon has been formally appointed as the new director of fair access, with business secretary Vince Cable telling the parliamentary committee that rejected him there were no “new, relevant facts” preventing his selection.

A private company that specialises in long-term multi-million pound deals to build and run student facilities has extended its reach in the sector with a new £57.2 million contract with Nottingham Trent University.

The government has rejected calls for an amendment to the Freedom of Information Act that would specifically exempt pre-publication research data from release.

Two teenagers have lost their legal battle against the increase in tuition fees this year.

The UK Research Integrity Office has welcomed calls for it to be placed at the centre of a toughened research integrity oversight regime in the UK.

Students will not be penalised for paying back their tuition fees early, the government has indicated.

The US Department of Education has emerged as one of the winners in Barack Obama’s 2013 budget request, with a 2.5 per cent increase in funding and promises of support for community colleges.

Les Ebdon will be appointed as the next director of the Office for Fair Access after it emerged that the prime minister has no powers to block the decision of Vince Cable, the business secretary, to appoint him.

Graduates entrepreneurs with “world-class innovative ideas” will be allowed to remain in the UK beyond their university studies, as the government responds to criticisms of its new visa regime for overseas students.

By Mitch Smith, for Inside Higher Ed

University and College Union members in newer universities will be given a “consultative ballot” on whether to reject the government’s latest pensions offer and strike again.

Leading figures from higher education in the UK and US have agreed to serve on a major new independent commission looking at the future of the sector in England.

A political row over the next director of fair access has been sparked after Tory MPs on the Business, Innovation and Skills select committee rejected the selection of Les Ebdon as preferred candidate.

Ministers could still have the final say on whether Les Ebdon is appointed as the next director of fair access, even though it looks likely that a committee of MPs has voted against his appointment.

Speculation is rife that the government’s preferred candidate for the post of director of fair access – Les Ebdon – has been blocked from the role by Conservative MPs after a delay in the announcement over the appointment.

The potential takeover of a private higher education college with degree-awarding powers has entered a crucial stage, with education giant Pearson reportedly the front-runner to secure the deal.

An independent inquiry has been launched to investigate postgraduate education.

The University of Essex has appointed a senior manager at Durham University as its new vice-chancellor.

Further education colleges are set to receive more student places from the price-based “margin” than universities after the initial allocations were revealed by the government.

Les Ebdon has used his first appearance before MPs as the government’s preferred choice for the post of director of fair access to lay down the gauntlet to highly-selective universities with “patchy” records on access.

Expanding the number of international students in the UK is not necessarily a good thing, immigration minister Damian Green has suggested.

The head of the Student Loans Company is reported to be being paid through a private firm rather than directly, a mechanism that can be used to reduce income tax liability.

Universities in England will receive an extra £40 million to help fund taught postgraduate students next year but will lose around £30 million due to institutions admitting too many undergraduates last autumn.

Scientists should agree not to publish experiments into increasing the virulence of potentially dangerous microbes such as the bird flu virus until wider society can agree on “the balance that must be struck between academic freedom and protecting the greater good of humankind from potential danger”.

Obama higher education plan signals policy shift

University applications from UK-based students have fallen by 8.7 per cent, official figures show, with those in England falling further still.

The effect of the government’s student visa policies on private higher education colleges has been “swift and probably even more devastating than was predicted”, according to a think tank.

A professor of architecture has been appointed as the next head of Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design.

The government has named its preferred candidate to lead the university access watchdog the Office for Fair Access.

A motion of no confidence in University College London provost Malcolm Grant tabled by the institution’s students’ union has been defeated.

An independent commission has been set up to see if higher tuition fees are deterring poorer students from applying to university.

The government is to clamp down on over-recruitment of students by universities in order to keep costs under control, according to this year’s grant letter.

Barack Obama has called on state departments to prioritise higher education in their budgets – but has warned universities that spiralling tuition will be met with a cut in taxpayer funding.

The University and College Union is moving towards another strike in newer universities over lecturers’ pensions.

The government has launched a new cross-department venture to encourage universities to expand internationally.

The University of Sussex has been urged to rethink a decision to close most of its lifelong learning department.

Fourteen doctoral training partnerships for the biosciences have been unveiled.

David Cameron is reported to have made a dramatic intervention in the university reforms, shelving the higher education bill that was due this spring.

The University and College Union may suspend its work-to-rule industrial action on pension cuts in pre-1992 universities, after talks with employers.

Business schools are facing a 10-15 per cent drop in applications for MBA programmes, new figures suggest.

A team of academics is to help retailers make better use of social science research.

The British Academy and Leverhulme Trust have announced a major new investment in humanities and social sciences through the academy’s small research grants scheme.

Nations are “always in crisis”, a former director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts has argued, as he praised the arm’s-length system of public funding embodied by the Arts Council, which meant that artists did not have to be polite or grateful to governments.

Delays to the annual grant letter may be down to government plans to announce an easing of the AAB rules that are to introduce competition for students between institutions.

The number of people working within the higher education sector in the UK has dropped by 2 per cent over the last two academic years.

Measures to cut red tape and reduce tax burdens on universities will strengthen their autonomy, David Willetts has said.

After a feverish build up in which commentators forecast the “digital destruction” of the multi-billion dollar textbook industry, Apple has unveiled a “new textbook experience” and free online courses for students - as long as they own Apple products.

Young people who attend summer schools are significantly more likely to go to university, research by the Sutton Trust suggests.

More than half of employers believe that graduates have unrealistic expectations of working life and more than four in 10 believe they lack the necessary interpersonal skills.

University applicants are most likely to turn to their friends and families for advice about where to study, a survey of over 2,000 people suggests.