Tories to crack down on UK visas for foreign students

The Tories are set to clampdown on UK visas for foreign students, particularly those from Afghanistan and Pakistan. The proposal, put forward by Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Grayling, aims to offset what the Conservatives describe as “the weakest link in Britain’s border controls.”

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Sussex fraudster Kofmel faces expulsion

The University of Sussex has finally expelled Erich Kofmel this summer following a disciplinary hearing. Mr Kofmel, a former Dphil student at the University, is wanted internationally for his alleged role in a number of fraud scams since 2006.

Science Po University in Paris has similarly expelled Mr Kofmel after learning of the allegations against him. He is currently believed to be Switzerland.

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Sussex boycotts Israeli goods

Last Thursday 29th October, Sussex students voted in favour of a Student Union boycott of Israeli goods. Turn out at the referendum totalled 1038 students; 526 votes were cast for a boycott, 450 against. 26 votes were deemed invalid.

Simon Englert, a member of Friends of Palestine (PalSoc), beamed: “This is a historical victory for Sussex. Today we have become the first British university to boycott Israel.”

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Fry condemns Tories’ homophobic links

 

Steven Fry spoke out last week amid concern over the Tories’ links with Poland’s Law and Justice Party. The party, which was founded in 2001 by the Kaczyński twins, has been condemned for its racist, anti-Semitic, nationalistic, and mostly homophobic views. The Tories joined forces with the party earlier this year in the European group, European Conservatives and Reformists.

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British school leavers flock to the US

Increasing numbers of British school leavers are opting to undertake their degrees in the United States, leading teachers have warned.

At a conference held last week to promote American higher education, Andrew Halls, headmaster of Kings College School in Wimbledon, argued that American institutions provide “a far broader education” with more “lavish” facilities.
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Eras‘mess’ as French strikes continue

Ongoing university strikes in France could result in Erasmus students not sitting exams and going back to the UK with insufficient course credits. Since the 4th of February, thousands of students and university staff throughout France have been on indefinite strike. They are demonstrating against higher education reforms proposed in November last year, which they believe amount to the “marketisation of academia.” The ongoing action is not only unprecedented in length, but also unusual because of the involvement of over half of all university lecturers and researchers – a group who haven’t declared a national strike for more than 30 years. Read more

Pinker to VC: “I hope you will reconsider this decision”

Steven Pinker, the prominent experimental psychologist, cognitive scientist and best-selling author, yesterday wrote to Michael Farthing, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Sussex, urging him to revisit and reconsider the controversial decision to cut linguistics courses. Read more

Drunks lead university to withdraw support for RAG

Senior management at Galway University in Ireland have withdrawn their support for the long-running tradition of RAG (Raising and Giving) week after 42 arrests, all related to RAG events, were made during the week.
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‘Invisible Children’ come to Sussex

Last week The ‘Invisible Children’ came to Sussex University a debate to promote their campaign for awareness of Civil Rights atrocities in Uganda. The group focuses on the ongoing Ugandan civil war and its use of abducted young children that are forced to fight for Joseph Kony’s Lords Resistance Army (LRA). Read more

Religious conflict in secular India

There has been an explosion of outrage in the Muslim community in India following the publication of a newspaper article claiming the fallibility of religion and the right to criticise all faiths. Two Indians responsible for publishing the ‘offensive’ article have been arrested. Read more