UK and US: Education News

The TopUniversities.com guide to the latest higher education news from around the world, on 10 April 2013.

US: A third of students who play drinking games have experienced memory loss

A psychology professor at Loyola Marymount University in California has complied and categorized a list of 100 drinking games played by university students in order to study their harmful effects. The study was based on surveys carried out at two unnamed universities in southern California, involving 5,000 students. White males in fraternities were, perhaps unsurprisingly, the group most likely to take part in the games, favoring extreme consumption over the chance games preferred by other demographics. Around 70% of the 3,400 students who reported drinking at least one alcoholic drink a week said they played drinking games. Worryingly, a third of these students reported experiencing memory loss at some point.

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UK: National Union of Students elects non-university attendee as president

The National Union of Students (NUS), the UK’s largest student organization, has elected a president who has not attended university as its president for the first time. Toni Pearce, who has served as the NUS’s vice president for further education for the past two years, has previously explained in an interview that the idea of attending university didn’t appeal to her, citing debt and the inability to earn much money for three years. She has previously criticized Michael Gove, the UK’s education secretary (not unusual for an NUS leader!) and has bemoaned the dominance of graduates from Oxford and Cambridge, the UK’s two most famous universities, reports The Telegraph. She will replace outgoing president Liam Byrne.

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UK: London Metropolitan University allowed to recruit non-EU students again

A government ban on London Metropolitan University admitting students from outside the EU has been lifted, reports The Guardian. The ban was imposed after it was found that the university had been admitting students who were not allowed to study in the UK, or that couldn’t speak English to a sufficient level. There was no evidence, either, that students were turning up to lectures – a key issue for a government which is cracking down on students who come to the UK to work rather than study. The decision left over 2,000 international students unsure of their fates, with many choosing to leave, and cost the university a huge sum of money in lost tuition fees. The university is deemed to have improved in monitoring standards enough for the ban to be lifted, but numbers will be restricted and it will remain on probation for a year.

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US: Monkey sounds may hold clues to origins of human speech

Lip-smacking sounds made by Ethiopian gelada monkeys may hold a clue to origins of human speech, researchers at the University of Michigan have speculated. The researchers have been working with the monkeys since 2006, and noticed that they produced a complex stream of sounds which echoed the rhythms found in all human speech. It is unknown, of course, what the monkeys are actually communicating via their lip smacks, but in terms of the noises and tempos, the lip-smacking affords a hint of the beginnings of human speech, reports Wired.com.

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US: Knife attack at Texas community college leaves 14 injured

At least 14 have been left injured after a student went on a rampage with a boxcutter knife at a community college in Texas. Four of the victims were seriously injured and were airlifted to hospital. The attacker, Dylan Quick, was restrained by police and students and has been charged with aggravated assault, reports The Guardian. Quick has been described as a quiet, friendly student, but also a “target for bullies”. A statement from a local sheriff said that Quick had been planning the attack at Lone Star College’s Cypress campus for some time.

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