Plan to make EU students pay
Scotland on Sunday
- Scottish students could be charged tuition fees and then reimbursed under plans being considered to make their EU counterparts pay towards their education at Scottish universities. EU sources say the plan is the only way the SNP government can “get away with” charging European students while maintaining free access to those based in Scotland.
Suspect university applications treble
The Scotsman
- The number of budding students suspected of plagiarism in their university applications more than tripled last year, new figures show. A total of 8,458 university applicants were flagged up as having similarities in their personal statements in 2011, compared with 2,450 in 2010, according to Ucas figures. Ucas uses specialist software CopyCatch to check personal statements for similarities.
Child screen addict fears
The Herald
- A generation of children risks forming an addiction to devices such as smartphones, games consoles and televisions in the way drinkers and drug users become dependent on substances. Dr Aric Sigman, a clinical biologist and psychologist, said heavy users of “screen media” could see long-term changes in the brain due to excessive production of the chemical transmitter dopamine.
Fear factor affects aid for neglected children
The Times
- Scotland’s first national inquiry into child neglect has heard that normal caring has become “over-professionalised” at the expense of children. Richard Holloway, the former Bishop of Edinburgh, who is chairing the panel, also said there was a “fear factor” in looking after other people’s children. The inquiry, held by Action for Children Scotland, will also debate new research which shows 20 per cent of professionals encounter neglected children every week.
Cops `forced girls to stand in poo’
The Sun
- Two cops have been charged with abducting a pair of teenage girls - and forcing them to stand shoeless in poo. PCs Robert Ovenstone and Stuart Kelman, who have been suspended by Northern Constabulary, are accused of snatching the 15-year-olds from a children’s home and handcuffing them during the stunt.
