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After coming in for criticism over harsher student visa restrictions and new measures that have made international students feel less welcome, the British government has unveiled plans to recruit almost 100,000 more overseas students over the next five years.

The plans were part of a new governmental strategy for international education, called International Education - Global Growth and Prosperity that was revealed on Monday. With the sole aim of encouraging students to study in the UK, the initial report said that it is ‘realistic' for overseas student numbers to grow by 15-20% in the next five years, meaning an extra 90,000 students by 2018.

The scheme comes in part as a reaction to the growing dissatisfaction amongst higher education experts at government actions that have been perceived as making international students feel unwelcome in the UK. Indeed, this year, the number of overseas applications for UK universities fell for the first time in 16 years.

Business secretary Vince Cable addressed this issue and emphasised how he hopes to prevent the downturn from becoming a trend:

"We have created an attractive environment and we should sell this in a positive way. We are anxious to reassure you we welcome overseas students and there is no cap on numbers."

A future king was born yesterday after Kate Middleton and Prince William gave birth to a healthy son. After months of speculation and weeks of rumours, the world's attention was on St Mary's hospital in Paddington when Kate went into labour early Monday morning.

It had been expected that the first news would come from the traditional placing of a medical bulletin on an old wooden frame on Buckingham Palace's forecourt. However, in the end tradition was slightly rewritten, with the first news coming at around 8.30pm last night in a statement from Kensington Palace that read:

"Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge was safely delivered of a son at 4.24pm. The baby weighs 8lbs 6oz. The Duke of Cambridge was present for the birth. The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh, The Prince of Wales, The Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Harry and members of both families have been informed and are delighted with the news. Her Royal Highness and her child are both doing well and will remain in hospital overnight."

Britain awoke to the exciting news this morning that Kate Middleton had finally been admitted to hospital after going into labour.

After several false rumours in the last 10 days, a statement came from Kensington Palace at 7.30am this morning that read:

"Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge has been admitted this morning to St Mary's hospital, Paddington, London, in the early stages of labour. The duchess travelled by car from Kensington Palace to the Lindo wing at St Mary's hospital with the Duke of Cambridge."

A spokesman has since added that "things are progressing as normal". We will be bringing all the latest updates live over the course of the day as things progress:

The British media got very excited last week when rumours started going round that Kate Middleton had gone into labour. On Friday afternoon, Twitter was awash with claims she had moved to St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, and, inevitably, blogs and national papers soon followed suit.

FOLLOW OUR LIVE BLOG OF THE BIRTH HERE

It turned out that none of it was true, but it has led to fevered speculation about when the royal baby is due. The fact is that other than the royal family and a few doctors, no one really knows. Despite repeated attempts to find out from reporters, the couple and their spokespeople have remained tight-lipped.

However, there have been a few clues dropped. Earlier this year, whilst she was meeting the public, Kate let slip that she was due around "mid-July". This led many to guess that the baby was due this weekend just gone. Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, gave an even clearer indication yesterday though, revealing:

"We don't know what's going to happen. We're all waiting at the end of a telephone. I hope by the end of the week he or she will be there."

Chances are you've heard a few jokes and a few arguments over the last week about whether Andy Murray is Scottish or British. The old joke is that when he is losing, the English refer to him as Scottish, but when he is winning (like last weekend) he is most definitely British.

If you're not from Britain all the terminology and minor differences can get very confusing. Many other nationalities seem to use the terms ‘English' and ‘British' interchangeably- which is certainly not the case and can get you into a spot of bother.

Indeed, even the New York Times struggled with it this week, announcing Murray's win as one for England rather than Britain, despite the fact Murray is from Scotland: