- A senior Aids researcher killed aboard Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 has been praised for his 鈥渢ireless efforts towards defeating the disease鈥, the Independent on Sunday reported on 19 July. Joep Lange, a clinical researcher from the Netherlands, and his wife Jacqueline van Tongeren were on their way to the 20th International Aids Conference in Melbourne, Australia, when the Boeing 777 crashed in Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board. Peter Piot, director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said Professor Lange, a past president of the International Aids Society, was 鈥渙ne of the most creative Aids researchers, a humanist, and tireless organiser, dedicated to his patients and to defeating Aids in the poorest countries鈥. The death of six conference delegates cast a shadow over the opening of Aids research鈥檚 biggest annual event, which welcomed more than 12,000 activists and researchers.
- 鈥淪he came from Greece, she had a thirst for knowledge,鈥 sang Jarvis Cocker in the 1995 Pulp hit Common People. 鈥淪he studied sculpture at St Martin鈥檚 College.鈥 However, had 拢9,000 tuition fees been in place in the late 1980s, when Mr Cocker was considering his application to the London institution (now part of the University of the Arts London), he would have been put off by the price and the song would not have been written, The Times reported on 17 July. 鈥淚f you are going to fork out that money you鈥檙e going to want to know there鈥檚 a career at the end of it and that鈥檚 not artistic thinking,鈥 he said, adding that the fee increase would 鈥渘arrow the band of people鈥 that choose to attend art school to those who can afford it. The girl from Greece was not available for comment, although it is thought she would still have attended St Martin鈥檚 despite the tuition costs, because her dad is 鈥渓oaded鈥.
- The principal of the University of St Andrews has revealed that she has been mocked by members of the town鈥檚 famous golf club after it refused her membership based on her gender, despite it being a right of St Andrews vice-chancellors. In an interview with The New York Times, Louise Richardson said that some members of the Royal and Ancient have waved their club ties at her, thinking it was a 鈥渇unny鈥 way to rub in her exclusion. But there is hope: in an act of revolutionary thinking that puts Rosa Parks to shame, the club is to vote in September on whether to allow women membership, a mere 260 years after it was founded.
- A photography firm has been criticised for offering a 鈥渄igital slimming鈥 service to make students look thinner in their graduation pictures, The Independent reported on 17 July. Success Photography, which works with a number of institutions including the University of York, offers students the chance to have their apparent size reduced electronically for an extra 拢9.95, the paper said. 鈥淲ith advanced digital technology, we can reduce the gown鈥檚 appearance making it more fitting to your body shape,鈥 said the company鈥檚 website, perhaps to help graduates banish signs of their fast-food habits. York鈥檚 student union condemned the practice, saying it could 鈥減romote negative body image鈥, but Success, which also offers 鈥渄igital complexion enhancement鈥 and 鈥渟mile enhancement鈥 for an extra 拢7.95, said digital slimming applied only to the gowns, which can be 鈥渂ulky and unflattering鈥.
- The 糖心Vlog Policy Institute won the 鈥淥ne to Watch鈥 category in the Prospect Think Tank of the Year Awards 2014. The judges cited Hepi鈥檚 analysis of the costs of the new student loans system as well as its works on the quality of the student academic experience. Under its previous director, Bahram Bekhradnia, Hepi said the government was implementing a policy on loans 鈥渁bout whose cost, on its own admission, it can have no clear idea and which is potentially building up large liabilities for future generations to redeem鈥. Nick Hillman, the new Hepi director, said he was 鈥渙ver the moon that Prospect has recognised the work of a small specialist thinktank in this way鈥. It might have felt a little awkward for Mr Hillman, as he worked on the government鈥檚 student loans policy as special adviser to the former universities and science minister David Willetts. But that, in its own way, might be seen as a contribution to Hepi鈥檚 successful hit on student loans.
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