From today's UK papers

THE GUARDIAN

The top freshers are again female and the gender gap is still growing.

Stephen Court of the Association of University Teachers reports on the fallout of devolution, which in 2001-02 will see Edinburgh spend nearly £1,400 more on each student than Westminster - and £1,600 more than Cardiff.

Geoffrey Alderman argues that ultimatums, taxes and absurd laws are just some of the barriers to free trade in education.

Huw Richards profiles Bahram Bekhradnia, the Higher Education Funding Council for England's director of policy.

Post-coup crime and tension are still hurting Fiji's seat of learning.
            
Sue Dutton, deputy chief executive of the Association of Colleges, says most college lecturers have had the national pay rise.

THE TIMES

The language of Homer is under threat from the internet and English-based "computerese", say 40 Greek intellectuals, who have called on their government to stem the alien cyber flood.

MISCELLANY

Brian Edwards, a researcher at the University of the West of England, claims that the Stonehenge of today bears little resemblance to the original Stonehenge because of changes made in the past 100 years ( Independent , Daily Mail , Times ).

Scientists from the Australian National University in Canberra have extracted DNA from the fossilised bones of  Mungo Man, an anatomically modern Australian who lived 60,000 years ago, casting doubt on the theory that humans originated in Africa ( Independent , Daily Telegraph ).