Tough task for new head of Ruskin
Audrey Mullender will be the first woman to head troubled Ruskin College in Oxford when she takes up her post as principal in April. Professor Mullender, currently chair of the faculty of social...
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Germany to create elite institution to rival Oxbridge
Germany aims to create a university to rival Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard. The ruling Social Democratic Party admits that not even Germany's oldest university, Heidelberg, can compete at a global...
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Finns aim to curb length of courses
Finnish ministers are about to call time on students who take too long to complete their degrees. A working group said that faster graduation was essential because in the next ten years more people...
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European focus for Morocco reforms
Morocco's universities are in the first year of far-reaching reforms that aim to bring them into line with Europe and offer students increased flexibility. While welcoming the changes, lecturers...
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Israeli bid to widen access falters at first hurdle
Israel's universities have returned to psychometric testing after a year using an admissions system aimed at encouraging students from disadvantaged backgrounds. An evaluation of the system found it...
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Discrimination decree 'falls short'
An attempt by Silvio Berlusconi's government to resolve job discrimination against foreign-language lecturers with a decree issued just as Italy's presidency of the European Union ended has been...
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US industry 'misuses' law to query research
A business-backed lobbying organisation has used a little-known law intended to stop the use of government money for "junk science" to cast doubt on a study on climate change. The government has been...
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Rector demands lifeline for La Sapienza
Europe's largest university will survive for only three more years unless state funding is substantially increased. Giuseppe D'Ascenzo, rector of Rome's La Sapienza University, which has about 150,...
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Putin to revamp corrupt system
Russian president Vladimir Putin has expressed support for standardised school-leaving tests aimed at tackling corruption in higher education. Mr Putin gave his backing for unified state exams that...
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Final frontier requires pioneering solutions
Will science win or lose? The UK must decide where it stands on the future of European policy, says Ian Halliday Across Europe there is an acceptance that a knowledge-based economy, driven by...
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Alison Wolf
Civic universities are losing out in league tables, but a push to re-establish city identities could help to shake things up. I'm a child of the "home counties", a name that itself speaks volumes...
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Don's diary: New beginnings in Bhutan
October "So, when do you want the university to start?" I ask. "In June," answers Lyonpo Sangay Ngedup, the minister of health and education in Bhutan. I am leading a consultancy team charged with...
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Pre-emptive reaction
Tim Yeo, shadow health and education secretary, this week stood up in Parliament to denounce the higher education bill as "bad for students, bad for universities and bad for taxpayers". However, a...
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While they weren't sleeping
The latest academic to graduate from the Robert Winston school of media profile-raising is the University of Surrey's Neil Stanley. Fresh as a daisy from appearing as the sleep expert on Channel 4's...
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Loose language
Each month, the Annals of Improbable Research selects a report worthy of closer scrutiny. The Diary is pleased to bring you this month's choice: "Sars transmission: language and droplet production",...