By Sarah Lewthwaite. Cuts to the Disabled Students' Allowance have repercussions for higher education as a whole, not just students. In September 2015 swingeing cuts to Disabled Students' Allowances (DSAs) will be implemented. These cuts, estimated at nearly 70% of the total DSAs budget, will put the studies of disabled students at risk. DSAs currently support 53,000 disabled students, paying for assistive technologies, non-medical assistance and other costs incurred by studying with a disability. More...

By Rosabelle Boswell. South African universities and academics pay for the privilege of publication – money that could be better spent supporting poorer students. In the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, where I live, I usually dodge cows on the way to work. Cows are also in the suburbs, grazing on street corners, meandering across soccer fields. More...

Over the past four years, education in Britain has been the subject of a failed experiment in fees and marketisation. We are witnessing a crisis of cuts, indebtedness and access to education – and widespread attacks on staff working conditions. The coalition government now wants to deepen this experiment with plans to sell off the student loan book and further slash education budgets in the pipeline. Before the general election and beyond, we intend to put free, accessible, public education back on to the political agenda, not by softening our position but by making our ideas impossible to ignore. Free education is not a fantasy – this year Germany has decided to scrap tuition fees. That is why we are supporting the call for a national student demonstration on 19 November, as part of an autumn of protests and direct action in coalition with trade unions and workers. More...

By William Annandale. Removal of the cap will unleash fierce competition – universities need to rethink how to market themselves to students. The surprise decision to remove the cap on the number of undergraduate students that universities may take was one of many steps towards the marketisation of university taken by the coalition government. More...

By Rowena Mason. Business secretary to meet agency about tactics in which more than 300,000 graduates sent misleading 'Wonga-style' letters. The Student Loans Company is facing calls to compensate more than 300,000 graduates sent misleading "Wonga-style" debt collection letters, as it emerged that the business secretary, Vince Cable, is to meet the agency to question its tactics. More...

By Ian Sample. Report from psychologists at Virginia and Harvard Universities tackles question of why most of us find it so hard to do nothing. It was not so much how hard people found the challenge, but how far they would go to avoid it that left researchers gobsmacked. The task? To sit in a chair and do nothing but think. More...

By Winifred Okocha. From making contacts, to building a website, you need to learn how to prioritise if you want to find freelance work. If you freelance while you study you can build up a body of work and earn money. It can be tough, but it is also flexible, rewarding, and a great way to get your work out there. More...

By Guardian readers, James Walsh and Elena Cresci. Banks and the Students Loan Company have come under fire after sending debt collection letters from 'pseudo' solicitors' firms. We'd like to hear from people who have experience of this. More...

By Academics Anonymous. Publicity-hungry journals have created a climate in which dishonest scientists can thrive Earlier this year, newspapers reported on the discovery of a simple protocol that could turn any kind of cell into a super-pluripotent stem cell – referred to as a Stap cell. The discovery, published in two articles in the prestigious scientific journal Nature, held out the promise that scientists could develop simple procedures to create patient-matched stem cells. More...

By Richard Adams. However, some arts, disabled and ethnic minority students are less happy than their peers, report finds. Students are more satisfied with their university education despite the imposition of £9,000 in annual tuition fees – although some disabled and ethnic minority students are less happy than their peers, according to a new report. More...