Today's news

Universities warned against offering cash for places
A stern warning to universities in England not to offer last-minute discounts or larger bursaries to fill places was issued today by the Office for Fair Access. This is the first year that students will be liable to pay tuition fees of up to £3,000 a year but, in an effort to woo students from low-income families, all universities are offering bursaries of different types and amounts. Sir Martin Harris, the director of Offa, said that making last-minute deals during clearing after A-level results are published would be unfair to students and cause future problems for universities.
The Guardian, The Times, The Independent, The Times Higher Education Supplement (May 26)

Pressure mounts to avert lecturers' strike
University vice-chancellors will be under pressure to settle the dispute with lecturers when the two sides meet today. Time is running out for thousands of students sitting exams over the next two weeks who do not know whether their papers will be marked in time for them to graduate. Students marched in protest at the University of Plymouth in Devon yesterday, claiming that their graduation and future careers were being put in jeopardy and in Bournemouth the students' union was consulting lawyers over possible claims for damages.
The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, The Financial Times

University employers apologise for misleading comments
University employers were yesterday forced to apologise "unreservedly" to a House of Commons committee for making misleading comments to the media after an inquiry last week. In an embarrassing development in the bitter lecturers' pay dispute, the Universities and Colleges Employers' Association was hauled back before the education select committee to explain its actions after last Wednesday's hearing. Ucea claimed in a press release that the committee was backing employers in the worsening pay battle.
The Guardian

Windfall for dons after £55m land sale
Dons at New College, Oxford, are to receive £30,000 each from the proceeds of a £55 million land deal. The payment, described by the college bursar as "the jam on the college scone", comes from the sale of land in Buckinghamshire donated to the college in 1386 by the Bishop of Winchester. The proceeds will make it the sixth wealthiest Oxford college, with assets of £125 million. A third of the money will go on pay, a third on repairing the roof of the 14th century building and the rest for "academic development" including bursaries. 
The Times Higher Education Supplement (May 26), The Daily Telegraph

Former Ulster VC banned from driving
A former university vice-chancellor was more than four times over the limit when he was caught drink-driving, a court heard yesterday. Former University of Ulster vice-chancellor Gerry McKenna was banned for two years and fined £500 today after pleading guilty to the charge last week. Magistrate Amanda Henderson told him: "This is one of the highest drink-driving recordings I have ever encountered." Professor McKenna was stopped by police who saw him mount a kerb in his Saab car near his home in Coleraine, Co Londonderry, last July, the North Antrim magistrates' court heard.
The Guardian

Education mandarin takes Cambridge post
The government's most senior adviser on higher education, Sir Alan Wilson, is leaving the Department for Education and Skills to head his old Cambridge college. Sir Alan, now on his third education secretary - Alan Johnson, following Charles Clarke and Ruth Kelly - was this month elected as a fellow of the Royal Society, the national academy of science. His appointment as director general for higher education was a sign that ministers wanted to take a closer interest in universities.
The Guardian

Mutant mice challenge rules of genetic inheritance
In a discovery that rips up the rulebook of genetics, researchers in France have shown that RNA, rather than its more famous cousin DNA, might be able to ferry information from one generation of mice to the next. DNA has long been credited with the job of passing traits from parent to child. Sperm and egg deliver that DNA to the embryo, where it ultimately decides much of our looks and personality. The new study thrusts RNA into the limelight.
Nature