Fettes staff sacked

The Scotsman

- Two members of staff at one of Edinburgh’s most exclusive private schools have been sacked after a pair of teenage pupils had a sleepover at their home after meeting in a nightclub. The two S6 Fettes pupils, who were also expelled, spent the night at the home of a pair of gap students who were working at the prestigious school’s junior establishment.

`Hire and fire’ hassle

The Times

- Education Secretary Michael Russell is interfering with the independence of university principals and risks undermining the “survival and success” of the higher education sector in Scotland, university governors have warned. The chairmen of the courts of 13 universities voiced their concerns about a suggestion, welcomed by Mr Russell, that lecturers should be allowed to hire and fire principals by election. They believe this would “politicise” the role.

Suspension to promotion

The Herald

- An academic suspended last year by a Scottish university has been dramatically reinstated - and given the institution’s top job. Professor Nicholas Terry has been made acting principal of Abertay University just weeks after disciplinary action was initiated against him. The leadership crisis at Abertay is further confused by the suspension of current principal, Bernard King.

Academy’s lack of land

Press and Journal

- Concerns have been raised that land needed to build an academy in the north east has not yet been bought. Plans to replace Mearns Academy at Laurencekirk have been approved but the land opposite the current school, where councillors want the facility to be built, is still in private ownership.

Cash crisis brings job cuts

Scotland on Sunday

- A world-class Scottish academic institution that does vital work to provide food for developing countries is set to axe up to a third of its workforce to cope with a cash crisis. Around 20 staff at Stirling University’s Institute of Aquaculture face redundancy as the university tries to claw back a pound;2m deficit.