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The article focuses on the exhibition "Taking Liberties: The Struggle for Britain's Freedom and Rights" organized by historian Linda Colley, to be viewed at the British Library in London, England from October 31, 2008 to March 1, 2009. It notes that some of Colley's work, such as the book "Captives: Britain, Empire and the World 1600-1850, has given the exhibition considerable topical appeal. One of the topics of the exhibition is votes for women.

The article reports that the withdrawal of the discussion paper proposed by the University of Winchester of England by its vice-chancellor Joy Carter following complaints from academics. The document accuses the university of having an unhealthy committee culture and research academics of exploiting committees for their own gain. Academics argue against allegations that committees are wasting time with the imposition of bureaucratic structure and the undervaluing of research at the university.

The article presents a study which showed that over 50% of health research projects financed by the European Union (EU) do not result in any publications. In the study led by Mike Galsworthy of the England-based University College London, almost 3,700 health-related grants during 1998-2006 were examined. Based on the Google Scholar data, grants that did not result in publications totaled 570 million euros.

The article reports that University of Oxford's Bodleian University in England is facing 400,000 British pounds penalties from journal publishers following the university's decision to move from print editions to electronic journals. The charges stems from the cancellation of subscriptions at Oxford due to the decrease in the need for print journals with the increase in online access. It notes on that a number of publishers is facing a challenge on how to create a business model in the light of the increasing online access.

The article deals with the results of a review conducted by the School of Cancer Sciences at the University of Birmingham in England regarding a conference study conducted by the University of Sheffield's Academic Unit of Bone Metabolism research radiologist Gurong Jiang. The review team which was led by the school's head Paul Moss ruled that the move of the university to ask the researcher to pull her conference submission is reasonable. It mentions that Jiang accused the university of preventing the release of her findings.

The article discusses the controversy created by "Climategate," the release of emails from the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit at the end of 2009. It highlights the role of the details revealed in Climategate in demanding reform of the culture of science. Although a scope of openness exists in the peer-review based system which the author considers as the best the science community has, one proposes the ethics of judging a paper by its authors.

The article discusses the growing number of supporters for the open-access movement in England. Despite its continuous acceptance, Director Michael Jubb of the Research Information Network said that the movement still has a long way to go as access to majority of the paper materials still rely on subscriptions. It also cites the wholly open-access journals, with some coming from top-ranked publications, including BioMed Central, Hindawi and the Public Library of Science (PLoS). The two main open-access routes are also presented.

The article reports on the statement issued by the Manchester Metropolitan University in England over allegations of low standards on an examination after apparently agreeing with a student about its similarity to a practice paper taken a week before. At issue is a student complaint over a foundation-year economics test taken in February 2011 in which 13 of the 30 questions are identical to questions in a practice paper. According to the university's spokesman, they deny any erosion of standards on the foundation year.

The article focuses on allegations of failure to precisely mark examination papers denied by Annmarie Surprenant, professor of neuroscience at the University of Manchester in England, in 2009. Surprenant cited that she has never inaccurately or unfairly graded her students. The teacher also asserted that each paper had been annotated and marked in a diligent and accurate way. According to the university, an investigation into the complaints against her was launched.

The article reports on a research article about the creation of sperm from human embryonic stem cells whose introduction was said to be lifted from a 2007 paper not listed in its references. According to the article, the report titled "In Vitro Derivation of Human Sperm From Embryonic Stem Cells," was conducted by a group of researchers at Newcastle University. It says that on July 28, 2009, the "Stem Cells and Development" journal retracted the paper due to plagiarism.

The article reports on the detection of plagiarism in a paper through a student assignment given by the Open University in Milton Keynes, England. The paper in question is entitled "Open Source Reuse in Commercial Firms," written by T. R. Madanmohan and Rahul De and published in the periodical "IEEE Software" in 2004. A student writing blogs under the pseudonym Verity Stob found that the paper repeated passages of a 2003 paper by Tony Byrne but did not cite it as a source. The student criticized the OU for using the paper in an assessment.

This article focuses on the paper "Quality and Standards: The Challenge of the Professional Doctorate," published by John Taylor, director of the Centre for Higher Education Management and Policy at the University of Southampton, England, at the "Higher Education in Europe" magazine. The paper highlights concerns about dropout rates. The paper examines six professional doctorate programs. Taylor found a high proportion of students were failing to complete their course.

The article presents an overview of the plans of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce) for a new risk-based quality assurance standards. The Hefce proposal takes off from the White Paper of the government which would give power to students to trigger an institutional review by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA). It discusses sources of data on indicators of quality such as the National Student Survey (NSS), among others.

The article reports on the proposal made by Terrence Karran, senior academic in the Centre for Educational Research and Development at the University of London in England, that would establish a Europe-wide definition of academic freedom. Karran's proposal is outlined in his paper "Academic Freedom in Europe: Time for a Magna Charta?" However, there are concerns that a prescriptive definition of academic freedom could restrict, instead of bestowing freedom to scholars. Karran wants to grant academics the right to choose vice chancellors.

The article presents the highlights of the Cope's European Seminar 2013 that was held in London, England on March 22, 2013. In her address, Committee on Publication Ethics council member Irene Hames claimed that the practice of journal editors anonymously reviewing papers should be stopped. He also cited the "COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers."

The author discusses the lessons he learned from delving into old papers in the National Archives in Kew, England. From the archives, he learned that there was support for student loans, citing a 1964 Treasury note that portrayed the Robbins report on higher education as an argument for loans. The archives also disclosed that the modern English institutions have more autonomy than in the decades after the Second World War.

This section offers news briefs of interest to higher education. The periodical's Kirk Swavely describes the new university regulations relating to email representations of absences on statutory leave as a vital element of an extramural communicative approach. Sir Alan Langlands of the Higher Education Funding Council for England is being praised for his response to concerns about the impact of the reforms in the White Paper. The periodical's Roger Placement claims the recent phone-hacking revelations has not undermined investigative journalism.

The article stresses the importance of qualifications in choosing a research manager who would deliver a competent management credibility within the academy. This is the argument expressed in a paper by Rosemary Deem, dean of history and social sciences at Royal Holloway, University of London in England. According to Professor Deem, both academic research leaders and research administrators have vital roles in an increasingly tough academic environment. She also stresses the significance of research activity in the field of higher education.

The article reveals that researchers at the University of East Anglia (UEA) who are not into climate change studies are being affected by the 'Climategate" scandal where thousands of e-mails and documents were hacked from a server of the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia. An example was a research paper published by a professor in UEA's School of Chemistry which received online comments regarding its veracity just because it came from UEA. The CRU scientists have been accused of manipulating research data due to the scandal.

The article presents information on the journal "Public Policy and Administration," a collection of papers from the Economic and Social Research Council-funded seminar "Intelligence and Government in the 21st Century," held in Great Britain. Christopher Grey and Andrew Sturdy, both of Warwick Business School, explore the code-breaking operations at Bletchley Park during the wartime. Christopher Murphy of the University of Salford, details the wrong command structures made by the Special Operations Executive, which sent agents behind enemy lines.

The article focuses on the concepts depicted in the social science fiction television series "The Wire" which has made it the subject of a study during a conference to be held at the University of York, England on November 26-27, 2009. It says that the series has attracted several debates, papers and theses on sociology, economy and political science because of its theme on diverse issues such as school systems, the impact of dying industries on communities and the parallelism between life on the streets of Baltimore and certain parts of Great Britain.

The article discusses the highlights of the annual conference of the Royal Geographical Society, which took place at the University of Manchester in England on August 26, 2009. One of the papers presented during the conference is "Camping Across the Oceans: The Ship at Seas As Queer Space." Another report presented is titled "Moving Forward in Zimbabwe," from the University of Manchester's Brooks World Poverty Institute. A study on the long-term impact of flooding on human geography was also presented during the event.

This section offers news briefs on higher education as of August 2009. Annmarie Surprenant, a professor of neuroscience at the University of Manchester in England, is being investigated after being accused of marking examination papers without reading them properly. Trinity College is said to be in talks to purchase the O2, formerly known as the Millennium Dome. The University of Wolverhampton is set to lay off around 11% of its total staff after being asked by the Higher Education Funding Council for England to repay 3.5 million pounds.

The article focuses on the questions raised by the Tax Justice Network campaign group about the University of Oxford's Centre for Business Taxation. The campaign group has accused the centre of irregularities in supporting a research paper that it has published which said that improvements to its funding sources were unlikely to have any effect on international tax avoidance. According to David Byrne, director of postgraduate studies in Durham University, there must be transparency in the centre's funding sources.

The article reports that Chris Allen, a professor of sociology at Manchester Metropolitan University, has criticized academics who he says have promoted the Government's policies on housing market renewal (HMR) where terraced houses in North of England are demolished to revive the housing market. Aside from this, Allen is also planning to publish an academic paper outlining the politics of the area and exposing the attacks on academic freedom.

The article profiles Jonathan Silvertown, author of the book "An Orchard Invisible: A Natural History of Seeds." Born in London, England, Silvertown works as an ecology professor at The Open University and a specialist on plant population biology and evolution. His first scientific paper featured an epigraph written by English poet Walter de la Mare.

The article reports on the demand made by Leslie Woodcock, a professor in the School of Chemical Engineering at the University of Manchester in England for transparency with the research assessment exercise (RAE). Woodcock claims that he was not allowed to see the RAE submission of his school despite that his research papers are included in it. Demands made by Woodcock include the online publication of the submissions. A Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce) spokesman states that access is under the discretion of the college.

The article discusses the dominance of Anglophone higher education institutions (HEIs) in the field of social sciences and arts based on tables of the top HEIs published within the issue. It is said that Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts is regarded as the best HEI in the world for such fields. The London School of Economics (LSE) in England obtained the fourth place in the social sciences table. The most cited papers are said to have come from King's College London.

The article focuses on a research paper of Doctor Louise Archer, reader in education policy studies at King's College in London, England about the trials and tribulations of young academics in Great Britain. The research shows that pressure to publish, going after research grants, job security concerns and workplace harmony are the primary concerns of young academics. Doctor Archer argues that the unsound academic identities were the impact of new managerialism and performativity in the sector. INSET: AIMING FOR SUCCESS IN THE CAMPUS CULTURE: 'I TRY TO BE….

The article reports on the implemented action plans to improve staff morale by the University of Lincoln in England. It include development of a communication plan for major changes, framework for staff development and promotion, ways to lessen the use of papers and memos, and improve face-to-face and telephone communications. The initiatives were done in response to the results of an internal survey, which showed that only 49% of the respondents felt valued by the university.

The article offers news briefs on higher education in Great Britain. According to London Higher, international students still preferred London, England as the top destination during the academic year 2006-2007. Two heads of department have been made redundant resulting from the restructuring of the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales. Institutions are asked to shift from Athens, an Information Technology (IT) management system for research papers, to the new system, Shibboleth.

The article features a teaching and research centre at the Royal Veterinary College of Great Britain in January 2012 to address concerns that too many veterinary graduates forgo research to pursue a practice career. The profession and the government believe that veterinary scientists are failing to make the contribution that they should do to solve complex world food problems and environmental issues. It also notes the college's emphasis on research projects in the undergraduate curriculum.