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Top Scottish universities attacked over low numbers of poorest students. Student leaders have attacked top Scottish universities for their "awful" record on admitting impoverished students. National Union of Students (NUS) Scotland said several Scottish universities were among the worst in the UK for attracting poorer students. St Andrews University – a popular destination for English public school students after it was attended by Prince William – recruited just 13 people from the most deprived backgrounds, out of 7,370 undergraduates in 2010. The study, compiled using freedom of information requests, found that two other elite universities – Edinburgh and Aberdeen – had only 91 and 51 poor students respectively in 2010, out of total undergraduate numbers of 17,570 and 12,195. The universities defended their record, insisting they were increasing outreach work, bursaries and targeting of poorer students and were actively investigating new ways of improving recruitment.

On leadership and innovation: 'dogma has no place in university culture' | Higher Education Network | Guardian Professional. Higher education reform and innovation is a continuous, endless process. To remain in the same place one must keep moving; otherwise, one gets left behind. This dynamic requires social organisations to be more than passive onlookers. Universities should be at the cutting edge. They should develop their capacity for anticipation so that they are able to respond to the trust placed in them by society, acting as a compass that guides society's progress and wellbeing. Universities should have a long-term vision, nurture innovation and foster creativity. All university crises, acts of political reform and modifications made by the government or by university authorities have been superficial changes. There has been a general trend to equate university reform with changes in legislation.

Continuous reform and innovation require open and flexible regulatory bodies and a desire for change that should be imprinted on the consciences of the university community. University fees tipping point reached. Tuition fees and education contracts took over from funding body grants as the most important income source for UK universities in the most recent full academic year, according to the latest statistics. Figures released by the Higher Education Statistics Agency show fees and contracts accounted for 32.6 per cent of university income in 2010-11, up from 30.9 per cent in the previous year.

Income from home and European Union students’ course fees was £5.4 billion, or 19.6 per cent of the total income for UK institutions, while non-EU students’ fees totalled £2.9 billion in 2010-11, accounting for 10.7 per cent of overall income. Funding body grants meanwhile fell by 1.8 per cent between 2009-10 and 2010-11 to make up 32.2 per cent of overall income. It means the balance between tuition fee and contract income, and funding body grants, passed a tipping point even before the higher fees regime begins next year. simon.baker@tsleducation.com.

Cambridge students protest against Dominique Strauss-Kahn visit | World news. Student protesters fought with police outside the Cambridge Union on Friday as Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund who resigned over allegations that he had sexually assaulted a New York hotel maid, addressed the university's famous debating society.

The 62-year-old former French presidential hopeful, invited to speak on the European economy, slipped into the building by a side door and photographers were pushed aside by security guards minutes before up to 200 students arrived at the union building. Protesters claimed inviting Strauss-Kahn to speak at the Cambridge Union could be seen as legitimising sexual violence, while others defended the right to free speech. Demonstrators waving placards reading, "DSK not welcome here", and chanting, "No more violence, no more rape" marched through the city centre before gathering outside the building for speeches. Two people were arrested, one for assaulting a police officer and one for breach of the peace. We must see the gap to mind it. Academics should be able to find out how much their colleagues are paid to help reverse the growing pay gap between men and women.

That is the view of Geraldine Healy, professor of employment relations at Queen Mary, University of London, after a study revealed that pay inequality had worsened at UK universities. Men were paid £6,680 more than women in 2010-11 when mean average salaries for permanent academic staff members were compared - £51,300 against £44,090 - up from a £5,690 gap seven years earlier, according to a report by the Higher Education Funding Council for England. The biggest gap in pay was found in medicine and dentistry, where women's average median salary was £8,540 lower than men's - £44,020 compared with £52,560 - with pay differences of more than £8,000 also apparent in mathematics and physical sciences departments. "If you can make pay more transparent and also publicise the opportunities for promotion, you would see a reduction in pay inequality," she said. Letter: Young Labour support the Day of Action | Politics.

Professor: Just Sell a Kidney to Pay Off Student Loans. A Scottish professor is making the case for allowing students to sell one of their kidneys in order to pay off student loans. According to a report from The Scotsman, Sue Rabbitt Roff of Dundee University argues in an article in the British Medical Journal that students should be allowed to do whatever is necessary to pay off their crushing debt. "We are allowing young people to undertake £20,000 to £30,000 of university fee payments," she told The Scotsman. "We allow them to burden themselves with these debts.

Why can't we allow them to do a very kind and generous thing but also meet their own needs? " She said a kidney should go for £28,000 (around $45,000), which is the average annual income in the United Kingdom. The National Union of Students (NUS) in Scotland said the idea is "ludicrous. " It is illegal worldwide to sell organs and tissues under the Human Tissue Act of 2004, except for Iran, said The Scotsman. Tuition fees will deter state school students, admits Cambridge | Education | The Observer.

Cambridge University fears it will attract fewer students from the state sector next year, despite government expectations that universities charging £9,000 in tuition fees would "dramatically" increase their intake from disadvantaged communities. Documents submitted to the Office for Fair Access (Offa), and seen by the Observer, reveal that Cambridge's initial target, following the rise in fees, will be merely to maintain the status quo. A university source told the Observer there were even concerns that the proportion of students enrolled from the state sector could drop next year, as it did in 1999 when fees were first introduced, and in 2004 when they were increased. Offa can only reject Cambridge's plans to charge the maximum in tuition fees if it believes the university has been "seriously negligent" in its interpretation of the office's published guidance.

The plans appear to contradict assurances by the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg.