Today’s physics news: Friday, 15 January

Shortage subjects will struggle under Tory ‘elite’ teachers

Focusing on Maths and ICT, the Times Educations Supplement’s front page runs comment from the Universities’ Council for the Education of Teachers who claim that Tory plans to eliminate 3rd class degree holders from the classroom could deeper entrench the problem of specialist teacher recruitment for shortage subjects, of which physics is one.
Front page of TES (no link)

A quarter of universities already in the red

 A new PricewaterhouseCoopers report – Weathering the storm: Coping with financial challenge in the higher education sector – is raising alarm bells as the report shows that a quarter of all universities are already in debt, despite years of healthy return on investment before the financial crisis took hold.
THE

Chair of IPCC apologises for Himalayan glacier claim

The chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Dr Rajenda Pachauri, has taken the unprecedented step of apologising for the headline claim that the Himalayan glaciers could vanish in 25 years.
Daily Mail
Nature

Friends of the Earth prepare legal assault on nuclear plans

Friends of the Earth, supported by the RSPB and WWF, is preparing a legal assault on Government against plans to build new nuclear plants. The conservationists claim the plans have been cobbled together o’erhastily – alternatives not explored and carbon-emitting effect of building new power plants not properly considered.
Guardian

2009 was record year for university applicants

More than 480,000 students started university in September but, after UCAS figures have been released, many are now worried that too many missed out – only 75% of applicants received an offer. There is also concern as it transpires universities have taken on 12,000 more students than the Government agreed to pay for.
Guardian