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David Miliband has slammed the recent government changes to the visa system that make it harder for international students to study in the UK. Speaking to Times Higher Education, the ex-foreign secretary argued that the changes are "curtailing the attractiveness of British higher education, [and] doing a great injury to our future".

International students have recently been dragged in to the immigration debate in the UK, due to the fact they are currently counted in the regular net migration figures. This has been a problem ever since the government pledged to cut immigration to under 100,000- a policy Mr Miliband called a "political slogan" rather than a "sensible" immigration policy.

Prominent figures in higher education have been arguing that international students should not be counted in these figures, though so far these calls have fallen on deaf ears. Instead Prime Minister David Cameron has introduced a number of new restrictions on both study and post-study work visas for non-EU students.

Mr Miliband has questioned the wisdom of such policies, saying:

As you may of heard, there is a US election taking place at the moment, with the results just a matter of hours away. Instead of going through opinion polls, repeating tired old quotes and trying to guess who is going to win, we're taking a look at the slightly more light-hearted side of things- how the internet has treated the election campaigns.

Just because Obama and Romney have spent billions of dollars over the course of months on their election campaigns, it doesn't mean everyone is going to take them seriously. Below you can find some of the funniest and weirdest memes that have come out of the last few months of campaigning.

1) Big Bird's Appearance

Things really started to take off once the presidential debates began. With a live audience of millions, any small mistake or odd phrase was quickly picked up on. The biggest thing to come out of the first debate in October was, strangely, Big Bird from Sesame Street.

A PBS (the public TV network) journalist was chairing the debate and Mitt Romney admitted that he would cut the government funding currently given to PBS. The quote that really grabbed everyone's attention was this: "I like PBS, I love Big Bird, but I am not going to keep spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for".

Hurricane Sandy has devastated the East Coast of America this week, leaving flooding, power cuts, fires and fallen trees. As with any big event these days, the internet has been awash with photos, updates and videos from people suffering the storm first-hand.

The storm has taken centre stage on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube as thousands of people share their experiences. Here we bring you a look at some of the most shocking, terrifying and amazing videos and photos to have appeared online. 

Whenever a new James Bond film is released it is always causes quite a stir. The quintessential British spy always manages to capture the world's attention in a way that few others can. However, even by Bond's standards, the latest film- Skyfall, has been HUGE.

Starring Daniel Craig as the lead role for the third time, and directed by Sam Mendes (of American Beauty fame), the film has been getting high praise from critics. This praise has translated in to cold, hard cash, with Skyfall taking £20.1m in its opening weekend in the UK alone.

This it the biggest opening of any film in 2012 so far, and the second largest ever after the final Harry Potter film. It is also the biggest ever opening for a 2D film and broke the record for highest ever Saturday attendance figures. All that is pretty impressive in anyone's book.

However, there is more. By the end of the weekend, the film was at the number 1 spot in 25 countries around the world, and is easily on course to become the most successful Bond film of all time. All this, and it isn't even due to open in the US for another two weeks.

If you haven't seen Skyfall yet, watch the trailer below to whet your appetite:

Early applications to certain courses and universities in England have been higher than ever before UCAS has revealed. Despite increased tuition fees, applications to Oxford and Cambridge universities as well as dentistry, medicine and veterinary courses are up 2% on last year.

These universities and courses have an earlier deadline for students than all others, with a cut off point of 15th October for applications. That didn't stop almost 57,000 hopeful candidates from applying and UCAS chief executive Mary Curnock Cook revealed she "remains optimistic about overall demand in the 2013 cycle".

Big Foreign Student Increases

Of the extra students, it is EU and international student numbers that have increased the most. Applications from Europe rose 1.8% on last year, whilst the international student applications increased a sizable 5.1%. This increase is in spite of the stricter visa laws that have been introduced over the past few years and shows quite how desirable the UK still is as a place of study.