Notable stories appearing on the HE Scotland Twitter feed in the last seven days included...
In policy and funding news:
- After last week's A-level results and the high demand for places, media attention turned to Clearing in the early part of the week. The BBC reported on the 'scramble' for university places and The Guardian suggested that there were 14 students chasing every available university place. Alongside the news agenda, there was ongoing reflection on the unfulfilled demand for places. Whilst The Guardian's web site featured a piece asking 'Why does Labour bail out bankers, yet deny the young?', The Times Online posed the question 'Who wants to go to university, anyway?'.
- Changes at the upper levels of the Scottish Funding Council were announced with John Kemp being appointed as Director of Strategic Development and research supremo, David Gani, moving on to become a deputy Principal at the University of Strathclyde. In a further change at Strathclyde, Professor Gani will be joined by Professor Philip Winn who is currently Vice-Principal of Learning and Teaching at St Andrews University.
- Just as the Clearing stories started to dry up, an Institute for Public Policy Research press release got people talking by suggesting middle class pupils should be denied student loans and grants. A response from the NUS made it quite clear they were none too keen on the suggestion.
- In other policy news, RCUK extended and invitation to contribute to the Review of e-Science 2009 and Eduserv published the result of its survey into web content management in higher education.
In student news:
- In what was generally a quiet week for student news, there was less positive news over the weekend with Saturday's Scotsman reporting that there was no job for 86% of trainee teachers and Scotland on Sunday suggesting that dole fears were keeping gap year students abroad.
- Elsewhere, Glasgow Caledonian University released information on podiatry students who had decided to return to the country after travelling overseas to carry out foot and ankle screening at the Special Olympics.
- This week's student sport headlines saw Stirling University golfers representing Europe in the USA and a Robert Gordon University sports scholar crowned Pony Club champion, despite the lack of a horse.
In research news:
- Physics and astronomy featured heavily this week, with St Andrews researchers turning up a new planet and University of Glasgow scientists participating in an international search for gravitational waves.
- Stem cell research was similarly prominent, with The Scotsman reporting that research at Edinburgh University offers hope in the battle against motor neurone disease and the University of Dundee issuing a media release on new findings about the 'Guardian of the genome'.
- News desks liked a press release from the University of Glasgow entitled 'Should females trust showy males?', with the BBC one of many to cover news of researchers' findings about mating behaviour in three-spined stickleback fish.
- Edinburgh Napier University's news of an online toolkit for the evaluation of festivals' impact was well timed as Edinburgh's Festival Fringe entered its third week and the story was duly picked up by The Scotsman.
- In other research news, there was a rash of awards for researchers at the University of St Andrews; bees featured in news releases from both the University of Stirling and the Scottish Agricultural College; there was news that Edinburgh University was to participate in an "urgent" £2.25 million research project into swine flu ; the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama made the news in relation to the discovery of what may be the oldest piece of Scottish music; and the University of Aberdeen's purchase of the Cromarty lighthouse was covered by both STV and the BBC.
Finally, to close, the usual contest for the best media release title of the week. HE Scotland liked this one from St Andrews:
However, this week it is the Scottish Agricultural College which wins out with:
We can only assume that the SAC press office thought Politician Milks Publicity was just too risque...
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