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Ministry bows to academic pressure and reverses stricter post-study rules. Clea Caulcutt reports

Job losses expected across all faculties as London Metropolitan bids to save £7m. Jack Grove writes

Brain-scanning equipment has been shut down and research projects have stalled at laboratories across the country because of a global helium shortage.

Open access may sound death knell for costly, little-read monographs. Matthew Reisz reports

Scholars should go easy on the jokes as a bad crack can cause all sorts of problems. Jack Grove reports

Young people who attend summer schools are significantly more likely to go to university, research by the Sutton Trust suggests.

University applicants are most likely to turn to their friends and families for advice about where to study, a survey of over 2,000 people suggests.

More than half of employers believe that graduates have unrealistic expectations of working life and more than four in 10 believe they lack the necessary interpersonal skills.

By Scott Jaschik, for

Welsh universities risk having their student numbers cut by up to almost 60 per cent if they do not reduce their fees in 2013-14, it has been announced.

The National Union of Students has proposed 10 alternative uses for the £60 million that ministers apparently wanted invested in a royal yacht for the Queen’s jubilee.

Students enrolling at university in 2012-13 will have to earn salaries of £50,000 a year immediately after graduating if they are to pay off their student loan debt before the 30-year government write-off threshold, a new analysis suggests.

Oil giant Shell is to close its main UK research and development base, moving the laboratory activities overseas.

A member of the Browne Review panel has expressed frustration that its plans for fees and funding were not met with a “more favourable” response by government, adding that the reforms subsequently implemented by politicians were “frankly a matter for them”.

A medical student who twice failed his final-year exams has lost a legal battle against the decision not to award him a degree.

The vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford has said academics at the institution have been left “profoundly saddened and shocked” by the death of a professor of astrophysics.

Research misconduct is “alive and well” at UK universities, the British Medical Journal has claimed.

The number of firsts and 2:1s awarded by UK universities has continued to rise, now accounting for almost two thirds of undergraduates completing their first degree.

Clarification needed on how any of the proposed consortia partners would benefit. Paul Jump writes

V-c forecasts sunshine for a leaner, more fiscally sound University of West London. Jack Grove writes

Online education will turn the academy inside out, argue US authors. Sarah Cunnane reports

US universities are offering alumni new levels of professional and intellectual support in an effort to build lifelong relationships that pay long-term benefits. Jon Marcus reports

Lack of v-cs who have come out is 'an issue across the sector', says Stonewall. David Matthews writes

A worsening in the student-to-staff ratio in midwifery courses in recent years could be compromising the quality of teaching, a union has warned.

Hefce announces second batch of Revolving Green Fund projects. David Matthews reports

The coalition's university reforms seem ill-conceived to Ireland's funding chief. Matthew Reisz reports

Accounts show Russell Group rises as politicians focus on executive salaries. John Morgan reports

Helen and Edith Chesebrough rest on the steps with their Airedale terriers - Rough, Radiance and Master Nobbler - in Burlingame, California in 1917. Three years later, Anita Blake poses with a lapdog and two borzois in the celebrated gardens of the Blake Estate in the San Francisco Bay town of Kensington, later bequeathed to the University of California, Berkeley.

The number of overseas branch campuses set up by universities has reached 200 with another 37 planned, as activity shifts from the Gulf region to Asia.

Segregating male and female students could lead to better results for both sexes, a psychologist at Manchester Business School has claimed.

A university is launching a training scheme for leaders of small and medium-sized enterprises on the open market after running over 1,000 heavily subsidised courses.

'Agile predators' deliver increased debt and lower pay, Harvard study suggests. Simon Baker reports

An overly biddable sector may have succeeded in making itself redundant, Matthew Reisz hears

Funding model for the world's research powerhouse may be irrevocably broken, Jon Marcus is told

Teaching-led universities have been more open than research-intensive institutions to adopting a Japanese manufacturing technique designed to cut out "wasteful" inefficiency as they face a tougher fight for survival, it has been suggested.

A pay-day loans company has been accused of preying on vulnerable students after advertising itself as an alternative to government-backed student loans.

An Iranian nuclear scientist has been killed by a car bomb in the capital Tehran.

More than 50 graduates are chasing every job offered by some of Britain’s top employers, new research suggests.

David Willetts has urged universities to redouble their efforts to boost knowledge transfer income from businesses despite a stagnant economy.

A former employee of Queen’s University Belfast has been arrested as part of an investigation into alleged threats to kill a former colleague.

By Scott Jaschik, for

A professor of pharmacology has been named as the new head of Brunel University.

The number of research council-funded doctoral students remaining in the academy beyond graduation is increasing, new figures reveal.

The president of Universities UK has written a letter to newspapers in India expressing his “deep sadness” at the murder of student Anuj Bidve and to reassure others planning to study in Britain that such events are “exceptionally rare”.

A researcher from Bournemouth University has published what he describes as a pioneering example of "scholarship in the guise of a film script".

US students flock to unmanned-aircraft degrees as civilian market beckons. Jon Marcus reports

While covering the Arab Spring, photography tutor Guy Martin was injured in a blast that has left a lasting legacy. Matthew Reisz writes

Local outreach initiatives forge ahead after 'absurd' closure of national programme. Jack Grove writes

Unexpected institutional failure would accelerate 'polarised' borrowing trend. Simon Baker reports

Willetts receives demand for ‘complete rethink’ of council’s structure and policies. Paul Jump reports

Whistleblowers contacted England's funding council 18 times in the past two years, alerting it to allegations that included pressure being put on staff to lie during an audit and the manipulation of National Student Survey results.

Bizarre FoI requests waste university resources, say fatigued staff. David Matthews writes

Big reductions in teacher training places could see 'infrastructure lost for ever'. Sarah Cunnane reports