The TopUniversities.com guide to the latest higher education news from around the world, on 7 January 2013.
Canadian university to remove more than a million books in digitalization drive
The University of Saskatchewan is to remove 1.1 million books from its libraries in forthcoming years, reports The Ubyssey, as the university moves towards a digital future. Four of the institution’s seven libraries – the Veterinary Medicine Library, the Engineering Library, the Law Library, and the Education and Music Library – will be completely emptied in the process. In the past decade, the number of books Saskatchewan students have been taking out has fallen by 42%.
Danish government considers cutting length of student grants for home and EU students
A Danish government education panel has discussed cutting the length of time for which home and EU students are permitted to receive the SU grant, which helps students to cover their living costs while studying. At present, students are permitted to receive the grant for one year longer than the time in which they would normally be expected to complete their course. Proposals include removing this potential extra year of funding, limiting the funding to the academic year as opposed to year round and offering different levels of funding depending on the course being studied. Most Danes, reports The Copenhagen Post, are opposed to the cuts.
UK student housing company donates items left behind in dormitories to charity
Unite, a private provider of student accommodation in the UK, has helped to raised £65,000 for the British Heart Foundation and £45,000 for Cancer Research (around US$105,500 and US$73,000 respectively) by donating items left behind in dormitories after students moved out this summer. The most commonly left behind item was textbooks, while more unusual findings include a live hamster and a collection of replica Roman artifacts, reports The Guardian.
Butler University bulldog mascot builds social media empire
If you think that you have a lot of followers on Twitter, then you might want to check out the profile of Blue II, the mascot of Butler University in Indianapolis. The bulldog has no fewer than 11,000 followers on the social networking site, on which he shares photos, comments on the progress of the university’s basketball team, and just generally tells the world what he’s been up to. The socialite dog also uses Facebook, Foursquare and Pinterest, and has his own blog, reports the Metro.
Leicester University students find flaws in Roald Dahl’s physics
A group of graduate physics students at the UK’s Leicester University has found that renowned children’s (and adult’s) author Roald Dahl made some wild miscalculations in his novel, James and the Giant Peach. In the book, Dahl claimed that James’ giant peach – the size of a small house, reportedly – was lifted by 501 seagulls. However, after calculating the potential weight of a peach this size, the students worked out that it would take around 2.5 million seagulls to lift such a peach, reports The Guardian.
