My head hurts. I just spent 20 minutes reading the comments in this article and I need to lie down. It’s by Rizwaan Sabir, a PhD student who was arrested for downloading an Al-Qaeda manual (and being a bit brown). That seems fair enough, you might think: surely someone who downloads such a manual...
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Features
ZOMG, THEY’RE TEACHING TERRORISM!?!?!
Don’t worry: your university is not trying to kill you
Yesterday, I wrote: “Following Mutallab’s alleged actions, there will probably be a purported crackdown on ‘extremism’ within universities.” Today, as predicted, the Daily Telegraph contains an editorial jumping on this bandwagon, pointing the finger at universities for failing to fight Islamism. Its headline is the completely reasonable: “Academic liberalism is a danger to life”....
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Heads roll at the Student Loans Company
After months of incompetence and thousands of students stranded at university without any money, two members of the Student Loans Company have resigned. The man who oversaw the entire sorry operation remains, however. The two who took the buck were Wallace Gray, the SLC’s ICT director, and Martin Herbert, the marketing and customer services...
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My degree? It’s just an overpriced swimming certificate…
Congratulations! It’s been a hell of a ride but you’ve done it! You’ve negotiated the potentially hazardous route from undergraduate to graduate, stopping off at the somewhat superfluous graduand on route. What next? Photos outside the arts block, hugs from loved ones and a quick exercise in hat catching before you are flung out...
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A rose by any other name: is a university’s name important?
What do Anglia Ruskin, Edge Hill, Aston and Heriot-Watt all have in common? They are all universities in the UK that are part of a dwindling group of institutions in which their name gives no clue as to its location. So often university names are based on the city in which they are located....
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Website sells off desirable internships for charity
The Guardian’s Graduate section has a piece bemoaning the sale of internships and work experience. A charity, Pilotlight, have been selling placements with Channel 5 and the Daily Express, among others. (Let’s just ignore why on earth someone would want to work for either of these two companies, for now).
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Conservative’s plan to get more science grads teaching
Michael Gove, Shadow Schools Secretary, has announced a quite simple new policy to entice more science graduates into teaching science – graduates get their student loan paid off, if they go into teaching. It’s a good policy insofar that it gets lots and lots and lots of headlines. The downside is, it won’t make...
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Sex blogger is former University of Sheffield student
The news that the sex-blogger and former call girl Belle de Jour was a PhD candidate at Sheffield University is quite surprising. The average PhD student is lucky if they’ve actually had sex at all – never mind having someone pay to do it with them.
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OMG: Why a status like this could get you sacked, LOL
Facebook is everywhere. The social networking website recently passed the 300 million users mark, giving Facebook a population larger than any country, baring the USA, India and China. In the UK, nearly one in three have a profile. Due to its popularity, Facebook has become a ubiquitous part of everyday life. Similar sites, such...
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