- Universities and science minister David Willetts faces a long summer of uncertainty after David Cameron postponed a聽planned reshuffle that many observers predicted would see his two brains swapped for the frontal lobes of a younger 鈥 ideally female 鈥 rising star, such as junior education minister Elizabeth Truss. The incumbent鈥檚 cause cannot have been hurt by a聽17聽July editorial in The Daily Telegraph titled 鈥淪ave David Willetts!鈥. The newspaper lauded the 鈥渆xemplary鈥 minister for his role in protecting the science budget and securing investment in high-tech industry as well as for 鈥渞acking up a list of distinctly Tory accomplishments鈥 on university reform while working 鈥渨ithout apparent friction鈥 under the Liberal Democrat business secretary Vince Cable. It concluded that if the prime minister gave the boot to the 鈥渃lever, thoughtful and decent鈥 Mr Willetts, 鈥渢he loss will be entirely his own鈥. See leader (25 July 2013)
- Four students who were bitten by police dogs during an effort to halt a noisy party have been given 拢75,000 in compensation. The Daily Telegraph reported on 16 July that the students, from Leeds Metropolitan University, were among 鈥渉undreds鈥 of revellers at a house party in the city鈥檚 student district in 2007. A party organiser told the paper that one student had been bitten on his testicles. The out-of-court settlement amounts to almost 拢19,000 per victim. But with average student debt predicted to top 拢50,000, the four 鈥 who have since left university 鈥 may still feel that the Student Loans Company has them by the balls. We should all be grateful that a similar incident did not befall the Duke of Cambridge when he studied at the University of St Andrews or there might have been no news in the UK this week.
- On the subject of which, bookmakers William Hill beat all the universities to it in cranking out a royal baby-related press release this week. Among the odds it reported were those on which university the new heir will attend. St Andrews 鈥 where the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge met 鈥 is the 2/1 favourite, followed by Oxford and Cambridge (3/1), Edinburgh (6/1) and King鈥檚 College London (14/1). Oddly, no聽odds were offered on London Metropolitan University despite its handy location just a night bus ride away from Kensington Palace.
- Handily for the potential studies of the future King of England, Kensington Palace is also just a聽couple of stops down the Piccadilly Line from the proposed site of London鈥檚 new 鈥淢edical City鈥. The capital鈥檚 deputy mayor, Kit Malthouse, told The Sunday Telegraph on 21聽July that he wanted to create a 鈥済lobal brand鈥 that would attract investment from pharmaceutical companies and the City and ensure that advances in research were better exploited domestically. The hub would also 鈥渢hrow its arms鈥 around Oxford and Cambridge, 鈥渂ecause that is the golden triangle鈥. The proposed site on Euston Road, where University College Hospital, the Wellcome Trust and the Francis Crick Institute are already located, would be the medical equivalent of East London Tech City, aka 鈥淪ilicon Roundabout鈥. Mr聽Malthouse said he hoped that a new antibiotic would be discovered on the site. But with only 拢1聽million in seed funding potentially on offer, it remains to be seen if his enthusiasm proves infectious.
- Academics were 鈥 surely not for the first time 鈥 the target in the Mail on Sunday this week as it poked fun at weather experts for failing to predict the UK鈥檚 red-hot July. Usually its scorn for academia does not stretch to a professor being confronted by a聽journalist wearing a sombrero, a Hawaiian shirt and flip-flops. But that was what greeted Stephen Belcher, professor of meteorology at the University of Reading and head of the Met Office鈥檚 Hadley Centre for climate research, who had suggested at a climate summit in June that the UK could be locked into a cycle of washout summers. He avoided the bare-legged journalist鈥檚 invitation to 鈥渆mbrace summer鈥, according to the 21聽July story, although the paper did pour scorn on another expert from the Hadley Centre, Peter Stott, who warned that wet weather could still be on the horizon. To judge by this week鈥檚 thundery spectacle, it might be unwise to make a laughing stock of the weathermen just yet.
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