- 鈥淥verseas students from wealthy families are renting some of London鈥檚 most desirable and expensive flats,鈥 the Evening Standard reported on 1 August. One estate agent said that at the new 65聽Duke Street development off Bond Street, where rents start at 拢1,950 a week, about a聽third of tenants are overseas students. A聽review by agents Wetherell and the market intelligence group Dataloft found that foreign students made up 35聽per cent of all Mayfair tenants in the 拢750 to 拢999 a聽week price band and 25聽per cent in the 拢1,000 to 拢1,999 band. A flawed market has helped produce some of the highest prices in the world 鈥 but at least England鈥檚 higher education system isn鈥檛 as dysfunctional as its property system.
- A US psychology professor has been 鈥渙uted as a killer who murdered his family as a teenager and was committed to a mental hospital for only six years after being found insane鈥. James Wolcott shot his parents and older sister in 1967 when he was 15 years old. After his release, he changed his name to James St聽James and built an academic career at an Illinois Presbyterian institution, Millikin University. The professor鈥檚 past was revealed after a聽local newspaper investigation, the Daily Mail reported on 3聽August. The university gave strong backing to the academic and said that he would stay on. 鈥淕iven the traumatic experiences of his childhood, Dr St聽James鈥 efforts to rebuild his life and obtain a successful professional career have been remarkable,鈥 Millikin said in a statement.
- In an excruciating press release headed 鈥淎dvertising space: the final frontier鈥, the University of Sheffield said on 5 August that it had 鈥渟ent a billboard into space advertising its 鈥楪o Higher鈥 campaign aimed at attracting high quality Ucas applications from students during this year鈥檚 clearing process鈥. An accompanying video shows a laminated 鈥淕o Higher鈥 card attached to a balloon rising above green fields and into the dark stratosphere. 鈥淲e have launched hundreds of thousands of people into the academic, professional, political and artistic stratosphere over the years and this campaign is a direct appeal to students who have set their sights higher,鈥 said Gavin Douglas, Sheffield鈥檚 head of聽student recruitment, admissions, international relations 鈥 and feeble, overextended puns.
- River Plate, one of Argentina鈥檚 leading football clubs, has set up a university 鈥 said to be the first institution of its kind operated by a football club anywhere in the world (although England does have UCFB, a college offering degrees that has a base at Burnley Football Club). Seventy students have entered the recently inaugurated River Plate University, the AFP news agency reported on 5聽August. The Buenos Aires club now has an entire educational system, having already set up a kindergarten, a primary school and a secondary school. The university offers four areas of study: sports marketing, sports administration, business administration and physical education. Being an Argentine football institution, it is likely to offer students a hands鈥憃n learning experience.
- Liberal Democrat members will be asked to endorse the current 拢9,000 tuition fees system as the party鈥檚 official policy while comprehensively ruling out a graduate tax. The proposal, which is to be voted on at the upcoming Lib Dem autumn conference and which was revealed in conference papers published on 6 August, is likely to encounter fierce opposition from some delegates. Although the majority of Lib Dem MPs voted to treble fees or abstained from voting on the issue in 2010, the party鈥檚 current official policy, decided by its conference, remains that it will phase out fees. Conference delegates will also be asked to support plans to create a聽single higher education regulator, to set up a聽review looking at the impact of the student loan system on the national debt, to introduce a postgraduate loans system offering loans of up to 拢10,000 a聽year, and to remove international students 鈥渇rom the immigration figures鈥. But do bear in mind that if the Lib Dems end up in coalition after the next election, they might turn around and do the exact opposite of any of this.
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