Today's news

Graduate debt hits £10,000
The class of 2002 will graduate with average debts of £10,000, according to research by Nat West. The first graduates to feel the full force of tuition fees will start their working lives paying an average of £200 a month to clear debts.
( The Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, Financial Times )

‘Take state pupils or face severe cash penalties’
Elite universities could be stripped of millions of pounds if they fail to take more students from state schools. The Higher Education Funding Council for England is drawing up a much tougher system under which institutions could face severe financial penalties if they fail to show preference to those from modest backgrounds. The system may come into force from September 2003.
( Daily Mail )

Cancer gene found
A mutated gene that can double a woman’s chances of developing breast cancer has been identified. CHK2 may account for up to 1 per cent of all breast cancer cases in women and 9 per cent in men, according to a report in Nature Genetics . Researchers from Cambridge University and the Institute of Cancer Research compared 1,000 breast cancer patients with a family history of the disease with a second group of 1,600 healthy women.
( The Times, The Guardian, The Independent )

Short fuse can increase risk of heart disease
Men who have short tempers are much more likely to suffer heart disease or a cardiac arrest, even if they have no family history of the condition, according to scientists at Johns Hopkins University, US.
( The Times )

Caesareans linked to infertility
Caesarean births have been linked to infertility and a fear of further childbearing, according to the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology .
( Daily Mail )

High-flying women ‘leave it too late to have children’
Almost half the women at the top of the corporate ladder have ended up childless, and not by their own choosing, according to American economist Sylvia Ann Hewlett, in her book Baby Hunger . Research in the UK shows that 59 per cent of female executives do not have children.
( The Times )

Archaeologists’ dream hangs on lottery bid
The survival of a scheme that has uncovered a treasury of objects and thousands of sites previously unknown to archaeologists hangs on a lottery application to be decided this week. Portable Antiquities, a five-year voluntary scheme to encourage amateur metal-detector users to report finds has been a huge success with one volunteer locating a large Roman site within the M25.
( The Guardian )

Emailing is a just the tonic
The first study to examine the effect of sending emails has shown that it has psychological and health benefits, according to an American study. Researchers at Texas University found that students who wrote emails about traumatic experiences were healthier in the weeks that followed than those who wrote about non-emotional topics or who did not send emails.
( The Daily Telegraph )

‘Most paedophiles do not reoffend’
Paedophiles and other sex offenders pose a lower risk of reoffending than has been generally thought, according to a report. Less than 10 per cent of 200 sex offenders who were studied were convicted of another crime within six years of being released, says Roger Hood, professor of criminology at Oxford University.
( The Daily Telegraph )

‘An urban Midwesterner’
Interview with George Daly, the dean who has shaken up New York University’s Stern School of Business and propelled it into the world’s top rankings.
( Financial Times )