Daily Higher Education News: 8 February 2013

The TopUniversities.com guide to the latest higher education news from around the world, on 7 February 2013.

New app makes referencing easy

One of the biggest challenges that faces students starting university is learning how to reference properly. Get it wrong, and you’ll lose marks unnecessarily – potentially affecting your grades. Well, you’ll be happy to know that a recent sports marketing graduate in the UK has developed an app for iPhone, iPad and Android which shows you the correct way to reference a book. All you need to do is scan the barcode of the book and your device will you show the right way in one of seven different widely recognized referencing styles, reports Leeds Metropolitan University. The app is priced at £0.69, which is around US$1.10 at today’s rates.

Embry-Riddle University launches commercial spaceflight program

With commercial spaceflight set to become a potentially big industry in the near future, it was almost inevitable that eventually a degree program designed to train experts in the field would be established. Well, that day has come, with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida, US, set to offer an undergraduate program in commercial spaceflight – the first of its kind. The course will aim to prepare graduates for non-engineering roles in the industry, such as regulation, policy and safety. Other universities are planning to follow suit, reports Florida Today.

Credit can be given for five MOOC courses, says American Council on Education

The American Council on Education has advised that credit can be awarded for five courses offered by Coursera, a provider of free online courses, reports The Chronicle of Higher Education. Two of the courses are from Duke University, another two from the University of California at Irvine and the last from the University of Pennsylvania. However, universities are not obliged to take the advice of the council, which serves an advisory body for university presidents, recommending courses for which credit should be awarded. You can learn more about MOOCs here.

University of Sussex students campaign to save dissertation dash

For the past two decades, final year arts & humanities and social science undergraduates at the UK’s University of Sussex have celebrated the submission of their final piece of coursework with the ‘dissertation dash’. In this annual deadline-day occurrence, students run from the library to the shared dissertation hand-in point 300 meters away. However, this year, the university has announced that there will be multiple hand-in points across the university, meaning that the communal dash can no longer take place. The university says it is working on a replacement ceremony, but the university’s student union has started a campaign to save the 20 year tradition. You can read the story on The Guardian, or see what students have been saying on the campaign’s Facebook page.

University of York researchers to study Irish pubs for a year

If you were told that a team from a university was to spend a year focusing on Irish pubs, you would probably assume it was a bunch of, shall we say, less motivated students. But, it is actually a team of researchers, doing serious academic work, reports the BBC. The research group, from the University of York’s management school, is doing a year long study into the economic role pubs play in Irish rural life. Pubs serve not just as businesses in themselves, but also as hubs for other money making enterprises. Among other things, the group is looking to study the effect of post credit crunch closures on the communities around them.