- He may be hell-bent on destroying their 鈥淢arxist鈥 education departments, but universities are still dutifully helping education secretary Michael Gove with his A-level reform plans. After the Russell Group agreed to set up an advisory group to see how universities would sign off revamped A鈥憀evel curricula, Mark E. Smith, vice-chancellor of Lancaster University, will now chair a separate Ofqual panel on the content of the qualifications, it was announced on 6 June. Professor Smith said he was 鈥渓ooking forward to this process鈥 鈥 a chirpy contrast to previous statements from university leaders, which have criticised Mr Gove鈥檚 A鈥憀evel reforms as unnecessary, misguided and a waste of their time.
- Sleep-deprived men are more likely to try it on with women than those who have enjoyed a good night鈥檚 kip, a US study has claimed. Researchers at Hendrix College in Arkansas found that having just one night of poor sleep makes a man think he has a greater chance of sex with a聽woman even if she is not keen, the Daily Mail reported on 7聽June. Asked to rate a woman鈥檚 sexual interest level, the average score for a male university student was 13.5 before a聽bad night鈥檚 sleep but 17.5 afterwards. The same effect was not noted in female students, whose judgement of the opposite sex remained unchanged when they were tired. The difference may be explained by women seeking things other than sex when dating, the researchers said. 鈥淲omen may be making instinctive decisions rather than cognitive ones,鈥 said David Mastin, associate professor of psychology at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, who also worked on the study.
- A university exam board has defended its use of graphic descriptions of sex in an AS鈥憀evel Latin paper, The Times reported on 7聽June. Teenagers sitting the OCR board鈥檚 exam on The Amores, Ovid鈥檚 collection of erotic poetry, were set questions on Elegy 14, in which the author acknowledges to his mistress that she may sleep with her husband or other lovers. 鈥淟et him thrust his tongue as far as it will go into your coral mouth and鈥et the bed creak and groan as you writhe with pleasure,鈥 the translation goes, prompting one academic to say 鈥渘o one in their right minds would set it in an exam鈥. But OCR 鈥 part of the University of Cambridge鈥檚 examinations arm Cambridge Assessment 鈥 said that censoring material would 鈥渓eave young adults with a聽false perception of their area of study鈥. Cambridge classicist Mary Beard agreed. The days of censorship because 鈥渟ome old codger thought [teenagers] might get corrupted鈥 were over, she said.
- Three Oxford dons are paying to be deep-frozen when they die in the hope that they will be brought back to life decades later, The Sunday Times reported on 9聽June. Nick Bostrom, professor of philosophy, and his co-researcher Anders Sandberg at the Oxford Martin School will pay a聽US company anything up to 拢50,000 to have their heads frozen in liquid nitrogen at 鈭196掳C, the paper reports. Their colleague Stuart Armstrong will pay 拢25 a聽month in premiums to have his entire body preserved in a聽medical storage facility in the Arizona desert 鈥 a process that may cost up to 拢130,000. When they are revived after 200 years in cold stasis, there will surely be some unpleasant surprises. Of all the possible shocks, the state of TV viewing in the 23rd century might be the biggest, for ubiquitous talent show guru Simon Cowell, supposedly also a cryonics fan, is also likely still to be around.
- Questions have been raised about the academic credentials of a candidate in the Iranian presidential election after confusion over which UK university he attended. Official state biographies originally stated that Hassan Rowhani, now seen as the leading reformist contender in the 14聽June poll, had a PhD from the University of Glasgow, The Daily Telegraph reported on 11聽June. However, it was then claimed in a聽campaign film that Mr Rowhani had gone 鈥渢o England鈥 before graduating with an MA and a PhD from Glasgow Caledonian University. And mystery still abounds about when he is supposed to have studied, with the film implying that it was in the 1970s, before the university was established. Glasgow Caledonian said it was checking its records.
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