News

The world's largest tobacco company is putting pressure on a Scottish university to release its research on teenage smokers and their smoking habits.

Stirling University‘s Centre for Tobacco Control Research has spent the past decade questioning 6,000 young people about why they smoke and what they think of tobacco marketing. The department was set up by Cancer Research UK with the hope of trying to cut the numbers of teenagers who start smoking.

However, Philip Morris International, which makes Marlboro cigarettes, has recently become very interested in the findings. The company has submitted a Freedom of Information request to the university, showing particular interest in the research done into plain packaging for cigarettes.

"Deeply Concerning"

The request has angered academics and researchers at Stirling, who claim that revealing the results would be a breach of confidence and could out any future research at risk. Prof Gerard Hastings from the Centre said:

As England enjoyed its last Bank Holiday of the year, Notting Hill Carnival hit the streets of London with its usual colour and vibrancy, as even the rain managed to just about hold off.

Europe's biggest street festival covered the Notting Hill area in West London on Sunday and Monday, as more than one million people turned up to celebrate Caribbean culture. The annual carnival boasts colourful parades of floats and costumes, dozens of sound systems and enough jerk chicken to feed an army.

Since 1964 the carnival has been arranged by West Indian communities in London, and takes place on the August bank holiday every year. This year, due to the recent riots, there was a special sense of both concern and anticipation. There was a huge police presence making sure the carnival would be remembered as a celebration of London rather than the start of a second wave of riots.

"True Spirit of London"

Indeed, Mayor boris Johnson revealed that he hoped that the carnival would 'let the true spirit of London shine through', adding:

"It's right that the carnival goes ahead so we can show the world that the overwhelming majority of London's people are decent, law-abiding citizens who respect the law, love their city and want to celebrate our vibrant, diverse and historical culture."

The biggest annual arts festival in the world has been taking place in Edinburgh over the past month, as thousands of comedians, actors, dancers and singers gathered for the Edinburgh Fringe.

The event is held in Scotland's capital every year throughout the month of August and attracts some of the most famous acts from around the world. It has a mixture of stand-up comedy, sketch shows, dance acts, and theatre ranging from the contemporary to Ancient Greek Classics. The size of the festival is quite amazing- in 2009 there were 34,265 performances of 2,098 shows in 265 venues and almost 2 million tickets sold.

This Year's Winners

As this year's festival begins to wind down, various awards are being given out for stand out performances. One of the most coveted awards in comedy circles is the best joke of the festival. This year, the honour went to relatively unknown comedian Nick Helm (pictured above) with this joke:

"I needed a password eight characters long so I picked Snow White and the Seven Dwarves."

If you think that is bad, then think again, as at the other end of the scale, Paul Daniels, an old, famous entertainer and magician, was awarded the ‘honour' of worst joke of the festival with this terrible effort:

A survey has shown that the British public are still five times more likely to recommend higher education than not, even though the gap in graduate vs non-graduate earnings has dropped in recent years.

Despite plans for higher tuition fees and the fact that graduates now earn comparatively less than twenty years ago, the majority of the British public would still recommend higher education to young people.

A recent survey carried out by YouGov Cambridge asked the public how likely they were to recommend higher education to young people, on a scale of 0 (not at all likely) to 10 (extremely likely). The respondents were clearly on the side of university.

Higher Education Recommendations

Overall, 69% answered at least six out of ten, whilst just 16% said four or below. Out of those asked over the age of 55, the figures were even more emphatic, with 50% answering eight or above, compared to only 42% of 18-34 year olds.

The survey was carried out with the fact that fees are increasing in 2012 in mind, and seem to suggest that the general public are not as worried about the increases as has been suggested. A spokesman for the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills backed the survey results and defended the increased fees, saying: 

Every week we bring you a round up of all the student news from the past week, as well as the trends hitting the web at the moment. This week's includes record university numbers, the top gap year destinations and a new discount iPhone 4.  

Student News

University Spaces Fill up in Record Time

The spaces left at universities after the initial intake of students, called 'Clearing', are being filled faster than ever before. Nearly a third more of them have been taken than at this time last year, with almost 18,000 having been filled by Monday morning. Overall, there have been around 10,000 more university applications than there were last year, but the number of places available has remained unchanged.    

READ MORE...

Top 10 Gap Year Destinations

Every year thousands of students finish school and decide to take a year out before starting university to travel the world. Here, the Huffington Post makes ten suggestions for the best destinations to visit during your time away, including tropical beaches, ancient ruins and exotic carnivals.