The social impact of universities over and above their direct economic contribution to the UK is worth 拢1.31 billion a year, a report published as part of Universities Week says.
Welsh universities have had their initial plans for higher tuition fees in 2012-13 rejected by the country鈥檚 funding council in a move that will be closely watched in England.
The University of Cambridge has set up its own small grants scheme for research in the arts, humanities and social sciences following the decision by two bodies to end similar programmes at the national level.
The number of student complaints referred to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator shot up by a third last year, according to figures released today.
The UK should look at the way other countries are 鈥減rofessionalising鈥 teaching in higher education, mindful of the fact that "not everyone takes [existing] courses seriously".
Steve Smith has been knighted in the Queen鈥檚 Birthday Honours after steering Universities UK through one of the higher education sector鈥檚 most turbulent periods.
A 拢5 million-a-year partnership between India and the UK is to help the world's second most populous country in its bid to treble the number of university places to 40 million.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews has written to vice-chancellors urging them to consider derecognising the University and College Union if it "refuses to address claims of institutional racism".
The backlash against plans for a new 拢18,000-a-year college for the humanities intensified when protesters set off a flare during a talk by the institution鈥檚 founding master.
An influential cross-party committee of MPs has warned that the government could face a funding gap of 鈥渟everal hundred million pounds鈥 as a result of its policy on tuition fees and raised the prospect of student places being cut to address the deficit.
Universities have been urged to use financial worries as an opportunity to reassess their internationalisation strategies in the spirit of 鈥渘ever letting a good crisis go to waste鈥.
Hundreds of the University of Sheffield鈥檚 lowest-paid workers are on strike today in a dispute over pension cuts, while union officials at the University of Salford claim that a multimillion-pound 鈥渨hite elephant鈥 development is costing administrative staff their jobs.
Manchester Metropolitan University has said that it will "take all means to defend itself" over allegations of low standards on an exam after appearing to agree with a student that the test was "very similar" to a practice paper taken a week before.
These are among the 800 objects and about 1,200 patterns which, along with tools, photographs and postcards, make up the Knitting Collections and Knitting Reference Library at the University of Southampton.
Sweeping reforms of French higher education were prompted in part by its performance in world university rankings, the country's higher education minister has suggested.
An international group of more than 60 academics has accused a controversial evolutionary psychologist of refusing to engage in scientific dialogue, highlighting long-standing criticism of his work in an attempt to protect their discipline from further attack.
Questions have been raised over how the decision to merge the School of Pharmacy with University College London was reached, as a bitter rift between senior managers and some staff continues to overshadow the move.
A diverse range of motions at the University and College Union congress covered worries over student-to-staff ratios, vice-chancellors standing "snout-to-snout in the trough" against their employees, and a bid to annul the general election result.
