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28 Jan

Evangelicals remain outlawed

Following a vote at the council of the Birmingham University Guild of Students the Evangelical Christian Union is to remain suspended as a society. The organisation refuses to add a clause in its constitution allowing for equality between the genders and religious groups

Evangelicals remain outlawed

Following a vote at the council of the Birmingham University Guild of Students the Evangelical Christian Union is to remain suspended as a society. The organisation refuses to add a clause in its constitution allowing for equality between the genders and religious groups

8 Jan

Anti-war students expelled

Two students at Matthew Boutlon College in Birmingham have been expelled for distributing a newsletter to students. The newsletter called for the college to allow students to form religious societies and featured articles against the war in Iraq.

The NUS has condemned the college for the explulsions.

7 Jan

Rice wants students

Addressing a summit aimed at promoting international links at the level of Higher Education, Condoleezza Rice called for more foreign students to visit the US according to a report by the State Department.

27 Oct

New VC not a fan of top-up fees

Wolverhampton's new vice-chancellor has won herself some friends among students by slagging off top-up fees days after taking up the post. Professor Caroline Gipps said that the government had made "quite the wrong decision about fees and student support".

She also predicted that the government might have to back down on its plans if there is a "rapid decline" in applications to university – something she admitted to being "quite nervous" about.

27 Sep

Muslim students begin legal action against uni

The eight Muslim students, some of them now graduates, who had their election victories declared void by Birmingham Uni last year have begun legal action. As we reported at the time, the results were annulled because of allegations of fraud, but the eight students say they were victims of religious discrimination.

Visa extension scam in the spotlight

The Guardian has a story from a journalism graduate who decided to investigate visa extension scams which allow international students to stay in the UK to work when they should be studying.

She was able to get promises from two colleges in London to register her as a student, in the full knowledge that she did not intend to go to classes.

Fletcher glad to have been cleared

Kat Fletcher has used her latest Guardian column to write about the recent report into anti-Semitism in the NUS. The NUS President is evidently happy that it has been cleared, and even more so that she herself has been cleared after some personal attacks, but what she doesn't mention is the poor working relationship some of the officers had.

Nor does she discuss the culture of political-infighting that the report described. In the long run that might be the greater of the problems.

17 Sep

Man steals personal data of 98,000 students

A man has been arrested after he nicked a laptop holding personal data about 98,000 students and applicants at the University of California, Berkeley.

It could potentially have been used for all sorts of mischievous things, including opening bank accounts and applying for credit cards.

The laptop was taken from the graduate admissions office back in March.

16 Sep

Glasgow trying to lose staff

Glasgow University is trying to shed staff in an attempt to reduce its £10.5m deficit. It's been offering voluntary redundancies for a while but so far only half have been taken.

If the redundancies turn compulsory the AUT union is threatening to "greylist" the university, meaning that members in other universities may refuse to cooperate with it. When that happened at London Met, external moderation got held up and some students are still waiting for their marks.

14 Sep

UK unis to help Katrina students

Universities in the UK are offering discounted fees and accommodation to the thousands of students who lost places at the 24 universities affected by hurricane Katrina. Deadlines are also been extended, and some are offering travel bursaries to enable students to get here.

The University of Newcastle is even promising to give back a portion of the fees it collects from displaced students to the universities they would have gone to.

13 Sep

Flogging a dead horse

Those relentless eBay-watchers over at El Reg found another gem today: a dead horse. It came with no description, so we are sadly unaware of the cause of death, but the seller was happily willing to answer questions.

Unfortunately the listing has now been removed by eBay (perhaps the animal was not dead after all?), but bidding at the time of the article was £0.01 with nine days to go. Bargain.

12 Sep

Half of student nurses consider quitting over debts

The debts incurred by student nurses are so great that more than half of them have considered quitting, according to a survey by Unison.

Nearly two thirds said that having a second job was essential but had a detrimental effect on their studies, with a quarter working up to 15 hours a week extra.

2 Sep

Fall in Chinese students alarms universities

Universities are worried because not enough Chinese students were accepted this year. The reason for their alarm is obviously because of the cultural and academic contributions made by international students and not because they pay huge fees.

1 Sep

Debate over Warwick's Singapore venture

Debate is raging among staff and students in Warwick over the university's plan to open a campus in Singapore, according to The Independent.

Some are opposed because they believe funding and time will be diverted away from UK students, while others are concerned about human rights issues.

Fletcher on selling top-up fees

The NUS President, Kat Fletcher, has been discussing her decision to support the government's information campaign about variable tuition fees.

Despite her opposition to introducing them, she believes that it is essential to better inform potential students so that they are not put off applying to university.

Student loses out in 49p TV 'deal'

A student who bought 80 28" televisions and DVD players for 49p each this weekend is set to be disappointed: Argos, the company advertising the deal on its website, made a "genuine internal error" in pricing the package – it should have been £350.

As a result, it is refusing to honour the deal and thousands of customers are having the 49p payments refunded.

31 Aug

Parents invited to sit in on lectures

Students in the German city of Münster have had their parents invited to their university to sit in on lectures, join them for meals and go to concerts. It's all part of an attempt to bring parents and students closer together, but so far the take-up has been minimal.

30 Aug

Bursaries on offer to go down under

Students who didn't get the university place they wanted this year are being offered the chance to study at a university in Australia or New Zealand instead thanks to a new scholarship aimed at high-fliers.

Their academic year starts in February, so there's plenty of time to apply.

Asthmatics: don't get emotional

American scientists have been torturing asthmatics in order to prove that their condition can be brought on by emotions.

Rather than stabbing them or killing their pets, the University of Wisconsin-Madison team asked six (count 'em) volunteers to inhale asthma triggers like dust while reading certain words.

Red-heads should probably avoid reading psychology textbooks in fields on hot summer days.

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