EU exit could be bad for British Universities: The President of Universities UK has warned that if Britain leaves the EU, it will lose the right to influence policies affecting our higher education system. Moreover, the fees which British students pay whilst studying in the EU may be liable to increase.
NUS LGBT student survey: A recent survey by the NUS into the wellbeing of LGBT students has revealed that 56% of students have considered or dropped out of uni as they felt they did not ‘fit in’, and 1 in 5 have experienced harassment on campus. NUS say the survey is the first step in ‘changing the world around LGBT students for the better’.
Turnitin aiding cheats? University chiefs are questioning whether plagiarism checking software Turnitin is being manipulated by students to cheat. The software, used by many RHUL departments, allows students in some cases to check their course work for plagiarism before submitting, meaning they can tweak ‘copied and pasted’ passages to pass off as their own work.
93rd place for Holloway: Royal Holloway has ranked 93rd out of 109 universities in the 2014 Student Beans sex survey with an average of 3.28 sexual partners per person, an increase from 1.61 partners the previous year. However, Holloway is still far off from Brighton University, who hold the number one position with an average of 10.59 partners.
NUS withdraws support for Student Rights: The NUS executive committee have unanimously voted to condemn the presence of the Student Rights group on UK campuses. The group, which was founded to monitor extremism on campus, has been accused of intimidating Muslim students and heightening the sense of Islamaphobia within the UK.
Water into wine? American Mark Phillips has created a powdered alcohol, or ‘Palcohol’, which can be added to water to create alcoholic drinks. However the product, which comes in seven flavours, has been banned from UK shores for fears it may be consumed irresponsibly; the product’s website even advocates snorting the powder for a faster effect.