Diploma pitched to tackle skill gap
Universities face pressure to support the Government's latest bid to widen participation, reports Claire Sanders. Universities are being urged to support a diploma for 14-to-19-year olds that could...
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Cut in fees for volunteers is just 'gimmick', say Lib Dems
Liberal Democrats leapt on last week's pre-budget announcement that students will be able to volunteer in return for a reduction in tuition fees as a "gimmick" for the few, writes Claire Sanders. "...
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UCL step ahead of Dearing language blueprint
University College London has decided that all its undergraduates must have a foreign language GCSE. The decision, agreed by UCL's academic committee this week, will be introduced gradually, with the...
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National credits aim to simplify course switching
English universities are to have a new uniform framework governing the academic "credit" students earn towards their degrees, making it easier to transfer between courses, study part time and...
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Plea for steady funding
UUK tells Chancellor not to cut cash if he wants results, Claire Sanders reports. Vice-chancellors have warned Chancellor Gordon Brown not to rock the boat if he wants universities to keep on...
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Medical research gets overhaul
Chancellor Gordon Brown has dropped plans for a single unified fund for UK health research, as exclusively predicted by The Times Higher last month. In his Pre-Budget Speech last week, the Chancellor...
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Call for steps to protect Russian
The world's fourth most widely spoken language is about to be overtaken. Nick Holdsworth reports Languages, institutions, students and academics face threats in Eastern Europe Viktor Sadovnichy,...
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Tensions mount as staff fired for using Hungarian
The dismissal of two ethnic-Hungarian lecturers from the Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj (Romania) has prompted a high-level response from the Hungarian Government. They were dismissed for putting up...
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'Exile needs links in the UK'
British universities are failing to develop academic ties with the "exiled" European Humanities University in Lithuania after its effective expulsion from Belarus, according to its rector. Agents in...
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Teacher training rejig follows sector merger
France's teacher training institutes face a major overhaul as they prepare to integrate with universities and make their programmes longer, with a greater emphasis on practical elements. Gilles de...
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Student ratings prompt sackings
For the first time an Italian university has decided which lecturers to sack based on student evaluation. After substantial cuts to funding in the 2007 budget, the engineering faculty of Bologna...
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Sell-off jeopardises e-university venture
New owner of the US partner in global e-learning scheme may withdraw cash support, reports Geoff Maslen The future of an online university established by the Universitas 21 international consortium...
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Citations game is a quick fix but unlikely to deliver
By switching to quantitative markers to assess research we risk missing out on key discoveries, argues Ole Petersen There is no substitute for expert judgment in assessing the research of a...
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Ruth Scurr
How illiterate are today's students? It is increasingly difficult to tell. Last month, I received an e-mail headed: "Proofreading your essays, reports, dissertations and other professional documents...
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Arguments to widen the competition
In the time it took one university to validate a foundation degree, 4 million people in India and China gained degrees of their own. The institution concerned no doubt had exceptional reasons for the...