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The National Union of Students has proposed 10 alternative uses for the £60 million that ministers apparently wanted invested in a royal yacht for the Queen’s jubilee.

Students enrolling at university in 2012-13 will have to earn salaries of £50,000 a year immediately after graduating if they are to pay off their student loan debt before the 30-year government write-off threshold, a new analysis suggests.

Oil giant Shell is to close its main UK research and development base, moving the laboratory activities overseas.

A member of the Browne Review panel has expressed frustration that its plans for fees and funding were not met with a “more favourable” response by government, adding that the reforms subsequently implemented by politicians were “frankly a matter for them”.

A medical student who twice failed his final-year exams has lost a legal battle against the decision not to award him a degree.

The vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford has said academics at the institution have been left “profoundly saddened and shocked” by the death of a professor of astrophysics.

Research misconduct is “alive and well” at UK universities, the British Medical Journal has claimed.

The number of firsts and 2:1s awarded by UK universities has continued to rise, now accounting for almost two thirds of undergraduates completing their first degree.

The coalition's university reforms seem ill-conceived to Ireland's funding chief. Matthew Reisz reports

Accounts show Russell Group rises as politicians focus on executive salaries. John Morgan reports

The number of overseas branch campuses set up by universities has reached 200 with another 37 planned, as activity shifts from the Gulf region to Asia.

Helen and Edith Chesebrough rest on the steps with their Airedale terriers - Rough, Radiance and Master Nobbler - in Burlingame, California in 1917. Three years later, Anita Blake poses with a lapdog and two borzois in the celebrated gardens of the Blake Estate in the San Francisco Bay town of Kensington, later bequeathed to the University of California, Berkeley.

Segregating male and female students could lead to better results for both sexes, a psychologist at Manchester Business School has claimed.

A university is launching a training scheme for leaders of small and medium-sized enterprises on the open market after running over 1,000 heavily subsidised courses.

'Agile predators' deliver increased debt and lower pay, Harvard study suggests. Simon Baker reports

An overly biddable sector may have succeeded in making itself redundant, Matthew Reisz hears

Teaching-led universities have been more open than research-intensive institutions to adopting a Japanese manufacturing technique designed to cut out "wasteful" inefficiency as they face a tougher fight for survival, it has been suggested.

Funding model for the world's research powerhouse may be irrevocably broken, Jon Marcus is told

Clarification needed on how any of the proposed consortia partners would benefit. Paul Jump writes

V-c forecasts sunshine for a leaner, more fiscally sound University of West London. Jack Grove writes

Online education will turn the academy inside out, argue US authors. Sarah Cunnane reports

Lack of v-cs who have come out is 'an issue across the sector', says Stonewall. David Matthews writes

US universities are offering alumni new levels of professional and intellectual support in an effort to build lifelong relationships that pay long-term benefits. Jon Marcus reports

A worsening in the student-to-staff ratio in midwifery courses in recent years could be compromising the quality of teaching, a union has warned.

Hefce announces second batch of Revolving Green Fund projects. David Matthews reports

A pay-day loans company has been accused of preying on vulnerable students after advertising itself as an alternative to government-backed student loans.

An Iranian nuclear scientist has been killed by a car bomb in the capital Tehran.

More than 50 graduates are chasing every job offered by some of Britain’s top employers, new research suggests.

David Willetts has urged universities to redouble their efforts to boost knowledge transfer income from businesses despite a stagnant economy.

A former employee of Queen’s University Belfast has been arrested as part of an investigation into alleged threats to kill a former colleague.

By Scott Jaschik, for

A professor of pharmacology has been named as the new head of Brunel University.

The number of research council-funded doctoral students remaining in the academy beyond graduation is increasing, new figures reveal.

The president of Universities UK has written a letter to newspapers in India expressing his “deep sadness” at the murder of student Anuj Bidve and to reassure others planning to study in Britain that such events are “exceptionally rare”.

The winner of a university's Postgraduate Research Image of the Year posed the question: "Is technology the missing piece of the puzzle for cancer?"

London Metropolitan University is set to cut its administration costs by up to 50 per cent by sharing services with other institutions, bringing "some staff losses and some staff gains".

In 2010, sculptor Tom Harvey created this work from the remains of a 250-year-old cedar tree - the oldest on the campus of The Open University - which had fallen victim to an infestation of the small cedar aphid.

But undergraduates' confidence in their abilities isn't echoed by employers, as Jack Grove reports

Axed scheme had a wider reach than it was given credit for, attests academic. Jack Grove writes

British universities can learn lessons from the admissions reforms used in South Africa to recruit promising black students, a vice-chancellor has argued.

Members of 'the sensible group' must now decide on its direction, Paul Marshall tells Simon Baker

Links between universities and manufacturing could help make Britain 'great' again. John Morgan writes

Using consultants an 'excellent way to waste time and money', says scholar. David Matthews writes

Scientists and novelists have joined forces to pen dramatic tales of discovery. Matthew Reisz writes

A researcher from Bournemouth University has published what he describes as a pioneering example of "scholarship in the guise of a film script".

While covering the Arab Spring, photography tutor Guy Martin was injured in a blast that has left a lasting legacy. Matthew Reisz writes

US students flock to unmanned-aircraft degrees as civilian market beckons. Jon Marcus reports

Local outreach initiatives forge ahead after 'absurd' closure of national programme. Jack Grove writes

Unexpected institutional failure would accelerate 'polarised' borrowing trend. Simon Baker reports

Whistleblowers contacted England's funding council 18 times in the past two years, alerting it to allegations that included pressure being put on staff to lie during an audit and the manipulation of National Student Survey results.

Willetts receives demand for ‘complete rethink’ of council’s structure and policies. Paul Jump reports