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By Andrew Marszal. A handy guide to the Telegraph's new and improved University Course Finder – our unique tool for searching and comparing universities and courses. We've re-launched our University Course Finderthis year with loads of extra detail and informative statistics to help you make the vital decision of which degree option – if indeed any – is right for you. For example, with students placing more emphasis than ever on good value, we've added up-to-date facts on employment prospects, including average salary, success in jobseeking and even the most common employment sectors for students graduating from each course. We've also got extra detail on how much accommodation will cost you, whether you choose to rent privately or through your institution. Read more...

A reform of the German university sector could be 'disastrous' for UK research, says Peter Mayr, with huge implications for the sciences globally. The influential German Council for Humanities and Science (Wissenschaftsrat) is discussing a reform of the German university sector that, if implemented, would affect innovation systems in Europe and beyond. At stake is whether or not the German university sector should be transformed into a three-class system – the good, the very good and the elite. This is likely to attract ambitious academics from English-speaking countries, as Germany's plan also includes more courses taught, and research conducted, in English. It could have a huge effect on other national science systems, as German universities shop around for highly qualified academics, scientists and science managers who are unhappy with their working environments in countries where research and science budgets have been slashed over recent years. Read more...

Reducing red tape around use of the word university will only exacerbate the problem of bogus universities and colleges, says Jayne Rowley.
In February 2013 the Department for Business Innovation & Skills (BIS) published its Company and Business Names Consultation document as part of the Red Tape Challenge programme to reduce the burden of unnecessary regulation. UK businesses, customers, suppliers and all interested parties, including the public sector, are invited to submit their views on whether regulations relating to names should be repealed or reduced by 22 May 2013. While on the surface this may seem to have little to do with higher education, if you dig a little deeper you'll see that the word 'university' appears on the list of names slated for deregulation. Read more...

By Kim Willsher. University lecturer Peter Gumbel turns his attention from education to the Gallic corridors of power and business. Left, right or centre, France's politicians are a ruling elite that resembles an ancien regime desperately clinging to its privilege and power, according to a new book by a Paris-based British author.
If you thought David Cameron and his Eton and Oxbridge clique were posh toffs out of touch with the real world, take a look over the Channel at the "tiny number of brilliant and charming men and women" who constitute the Gallic ruling class, says university lecturer Peter Gumbel.
In his new book, France's Got Talent: the Woeful Consequences of French Elitism, published on Wednesday, Gumbel takes a hard swipe at France's new nobility: the fewer than 500 graduates of elite schools that dominate the highest echelons of business and politics.
Often arrogant, untouchable, unaccountable – and almost certainly unsackable – Gumbel says France is still controlled by an "old boys' network", that makes the British government and business Britain appear a model of social diversity. Just three years after he rattled the French establishment with a scathing indictment of the country's highly selective education system, Gumbel has turned his attention to the Gallic corridors of power and business.
"Since the Revolution, France has had this mythology that it is a meritocracy, that anyone can rise to the highest positions in society by virtue of their intellectual brilliance," Gumbel told the Guardian. Read more...

It's good to hear that £9,000 tuition fees are purchasing 18 minutes extra teaching per week (Rise in university fees outpaces tuition time, 15 May), but it's difficult to find out where this is being delivered to arts students at one prestigious London university college. Students are offered eight hours of contact time per week (four of lectures, four of seminars) in the first term, seven per week in the second and no contact time at all in the third term. This amounts to 21 weeks of lectures and seminars during the year ie 165 hours at an average cost of £54.54 per hour per lecture or seminar. The quality of the lectures is reported to be mainly poor. Postgraduate students run the seminars and the quality of these is reported to be of better quality than the lectures. An explanation for this is that university reputations are based on the quality of their research and researchers are required to lecture undergraduates. But good researchers do not necessarily make good lecturers. Read more...