Update 12:00

Medical schools braced for jobs cull
London medical schools are set to axe jobs despite government plans for the biggest single expansion in student doctors in a generation. Guy’s, King’s and St Thomas’s medical school, one of the largest in the UK, is to lose around 50 clinical academic posts as part of a cost-cutting exercise to save £3.5 million a year. Up to 100 jobs may also go at the school of medicine and dentistry at Queen Mary, University of London, part of Barts and the London hospital.

£120m extra needed to educate poorer students
Universities need nearly £120 million more to cover the extra costs of educating students from poor backgrounds, according to a forthcoming report from Universities UK and the Higher Education Funding Council. Interim findings show that the access premium for poorer students should be raised to around £165 million. Next year the access premium is worth £47 million to universities.
Baroness Warwick, speaking in the House of Lords yesterday, said: “We would not want to encourage more students from less well off backgrounds to enter higher education only for them to be deprived of a first-class education when they got there.”

Research councils forum provides 'single voice'
A new monthly forum for research council heads was launched yesterday by trade and industry secretary Patricia Hewitt. Research Councils UK - RCUK - will coordinate interdisciplinary programmes, providing a single voice for the seven research councils. It will also provide advice to government.

Oceanographer to receive MBE
Chris German, a scientist from the Southampton Oceanography Centre, is receiving an MBE at Buckingham Palace today for his “services to marine research”. Professor German has made his name in the world of deep-sea research, especially his work locating and studying hot springs.   

$1m legacy unlawful, Texas court rules
A foundation that provides financial support for students at Texas A&M University placed a 91-year-old alumnus under undue influence and pressure to sign a will giving it $1.1 million (£684,000), a Texas probate court ruled. A jury decided that C.E. "Pat" Olsen, did not have adequate mental capabilities when he signed the will in 1994, aged 91.

Ancient wartime find goes on display
A Libyan marble statue of Athene dating back to the 5th century BC, recovered by Australian soldiers from Germans they killed in the North African campaign during the second world war and brought back to Sydney in a soldier's kitbag, is on display at Macquarie University until the end of May. The statue was donated to the university by archaeologist Patricia Rovik, who met the finder 40 years later.