Today's news

Cuts mean universities risk loss of 1,400 jobs
Universities are axing at least 1,400 jobs after a raft of poor budget settlements and falls in student numbers on some courses.
(Guardian)

UN experts attack UK over student loans
Britain’s record on social issues including student loans has been strongly criticised by the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
(Daily Telegraph)

Verdict of unlawful killing returned on student
An inquest yesterday returned a verdict of unlawful killing on a student who died after being hit by a train while working part-time for a railway maintenance subcontractor. Michael Mungovan, 22, a student at Brunel University, west London, was struck in the early hours on October 9, 2000, near Vauxhall station, south London.
(Guardian, Daily Mirror, Financial Times, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, Times)

Scientist Stephen Jay-Gould dies
Scientist Stephen Jay-Gould, who influenced the debate on evolution, has died of cancer aged 60 in New York city.
(Guardian, Financial Times)

London cost of living is dividing students
The higher cost of studying in London is leading to increasing polarisation between universities in the capital along ethnic and class lines, MPs will be told tomorrow by Claire Callender, a professor at South Bank University.
(Guardian)

BNP student faces boycott
Lecturers will decide this week whether to try to force Burnley College to stop teaching one of the town’s newly elected British National Party councillors, Carol Hughes. The college’s branch of lecturers’ union Natfhe meets on Friday to decide what action, if any, to take.
(Guardian)

Leading industrial sectors to lose training bodies
Some of the country’s main industrial sectors, such as steel, will not get their own training bodies it emerged yesterday. Ministers want to build a smaller, sharper network of well-funded sector skills councils, replacing national training organisations.
(Financial Times)

Chinese aim to put mine on the moon
Chinese scientists are aiming to put a man on the moon in 2010 and to set up a base to mine minerals there.
(Daily Mirror, Guardian)

Berkeley offers course in peace and love
The University of California at Berkeley is to open a department of social psychology dedicated to finding out what makes us mellow. The Centre for the Development of Peace and Well-being will focus on research into what makes us happy.
(Times)

Quarter of mammals faced with extinction
Almost a quarter of the world’s mammals face extinction within 30 years, scientists who contributed to a United Nations study on the state of the global environment will announce tomorrow.
(Independent)

Genetic scientists breed a chicken without feathers
Geneticists at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem have produced a featherless, genetically plucked chicken that they believe could lead to cheaper, leaner and more eco-friendly meals for millions.
(Daily Mirror, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph)

White wine can help look after your lungs
Red wine helps protect the heart, but choosing white wine can help look after the lungs, according to scientists at the University of Buffalo, New York.
(Independent, Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, Guardian, Times, Daily Telegraph, Financial Times,)