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University boss in funding plea

graduatesGraduates may have to pay for their education once they are working

The principal of a leading Scottish university has said that a graduate tax could be one way of helping to fund the country’s higher education sector.

Professor Anton Muscatelli believes the current fiscal crisis has emphasised the need for a fresh revenue.

He said up-front tuition fees were incompatible with Scotland’s philosophy of higher education.

But Prof Muscatelli has instead argued that those who earn more after graduating should contribute more.

He denied that the suggestion for a graduate tax or a graduate contribution was tuition fees by the back door.

The academic, who is on the executive of the umbrella body Universities UK, suggested that allowing the public purse to continue to pay the full costs of higher education was not sustainable unless the sector became a higher priority for funds.

In general, Scottish universities are concerned that cash problems may lead to them falling behind their counterparts around the world, notably in England where tuition fees are expected to rise.

Scottish students pay no charges at all for tuition.

Prof Muscatelli believes the time is right to consider whether students should make a contribution.

However, he insisted that if it happened it should be payable once students have graduated and are earning salaries.

Top priority

Scottish ministers have ruled out fees before graduation but they appear open to ideas regarding changes to university funding.

Prof Muscatelli said: “There is no reason to go down the route of tuition fees, up-front. It’s certainly incompatible with Scotland’s philosophy of higher education.”

He added: “Unless the public sector wants to make higher education a top priority then we have to look to other solutions and this could be either a graduate contribution or it could be a graduate tax. But we have to look at all of these alternatives.

“Graduate taxation would be a tax that applied only to graduates after they graduate and based on the ability to pay – and a graduate contribution would be very similar in some respects.”

Prof Muscatelli said some of the money from the graduate contribution might help provide bursaries for students who need extra help.

He went on to say that the debate was not for his university alone but for the country as a whole and “how it invests in higher education”.

The principal said Scotland currently had a level of funding which matched England but his plea for change was focused on the next five to 10 years.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

London shop rent ‘top in Europe’

New Bond StreetNew Bond Street is home to some exclusive brands

London’s New Bond Street is now the most expensive retail location in Europe, according to a report.

Rents for shop premises have topped those on Paris’s Avenue des Champs-Elysees, real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield said.

The street, through Mayfair, is home to many exclusive brands including Armani.

New York’s Fifth Avenue remains the most expensive shopping strip in the world for firms, followed by Causeway Bay in Hong Kong and Ginza in Tokyo.

Rents on New Bond Street jumped by 19.4% year-on-year to £925 per square foot per year, the report said.

Demand from firms to secure premises was easily outstripping supply, driving rents higher said Cushman & Wakefield’s head of central London retail, Peter Mace.

“New Bond Street remains one of the most sought after locations in the world for luxury brands.

“This trend is likely to continue for the foreseeable future on the basis that there are still a large number of retail requirements that remain unsatisfied.”

International retailers looking for prime locations and strong tourism meant that emerging markets were seeing steep rent rises, added the report which looked at data from 59 countries.

Haddock Lobo street in Sao Paolo, Brazil saw rents climb by 92%. In Asia, costs on Mumbai’s Linking Road climbed 33%. But some Bulgarian streets saw retail rents slide by 50%. Paris’s Avenue des Champs-Elysees fell by 9.5%.

The report said that, having seen sharp dips of up to 25% in some parts of the world in 2008-09, two-thirds of locations had seen retail rent prices rise or remain static in the year to June.

“The aftershocks of the global economic recession are still being felt in the retail property market and the path leading from recession to recovery has been far from smooth,” said John Strachan, Cushman & Wakefield’s global head of retail.

Avenue des Champs-ElyseesRents fell sharply on the Avenue des Champs-Elysees.

“In the more mature markets, occupiers are expected to remain cautious and selective about the space they take. However, on the great shopping streets of the world in cities such as London and New York, demand has continued to exceed supply and the appetite of international brands has resulted in rental uplift.

“The world’s emerging economies looks set to experience significant growth in the retail sector, thereby boosting demand for good quality, well-located property.”

The UK’s five most expensive retail areas were all in the English capital, with Birmingham’s High Street ranked number six, followed by Newcastle’s Northumberland Street.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Shot lawyer ‘asked for his wife’

Mark SaundersMr Saunders’ family say he posed no real risk to the public

An alcoholic barrister who was shot dead by police during a stand-off sent a text to his friend saying, “This is the end”, an inquest has heard.

Mark Saunders, 32, was hit in the head and chest by five police bullets at his Chelsea home in May 2008, following a five-hour siege.

Westminster Coroner’s Court heard he texted Alex Booth, the best man at his wedding, during the stand-off.

The message said: “This is the end, my only friend, the end.”

Mr Booth told the court they would often quote films and music to each other, and the message appeared to be quoting from a song by The Doors used in the film Apocalypse Now.

The hearing was told Mr Saunders had been attending Alcoholics Anonymous and sought help from his GP to control his drinking.

The family law expert had been prescribed anti-depressants and had also taken cocaine in the months leading up to his death.

His widow Elizabeth said she thought he had been drinking heavily on the day of his killing.

She said her husband was a “very sensitive and caring man” with “huge energy and love for life”.

Mrs Saunders, also a lawyer who worked at QEB chambers with her husband, said he had been teetotal apart from a few “blips”.

She said: “What Mark wanted to do was control the drinking, to be able to be a social drinker.

“He was successful in that for most of the time. There were occasions, probably every three months or so, when it went wrong.”

The death of Mr Saunders, who was once in the Territorial Army, was filmed from a police helicopter.

Police had been called after neighbours saw him firing a shotgun into a neighbouring flat.

The officers say they were firing in self defence, or to protect others.

None of them are to be prosecuted, the Crown Prosecution Service has said.

Mr Saunders’ family maintain he presented no risk to the public.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Victim’s father in bomber meeting

Dr Jim Swire Lockerbie victim’s father Dr Jim Swire met the bomber in Libya last week

The father of one of the victims of the Lockerbie bombing has been to Libya to visit the only man convicted of the atrocity.

Dr Jim Swire spent about an hour with Abdelbasset Ali al-Megrahi in hospital in Tripoli last week.

Dr Swire lost his 24-year-old daughter, Flora, in the 1988 bombing, but he believes Megrahi is innocent and wants a full inquiry.

He said the Libyan, who has prostate cancer, looked better than he expected.

Megrahi was released from Greenock prison on compassionate grounds last year.

Megrahi invited Dr Swire to meet him.

The two men last met in December 2008 when Dr Swire visited him in Greenock prison.

Commenting on the Libyan meeting he said: “I was very relieved to see him as well as he was.

“He is a very sick man but he can get out of bed and walk though not very far.”

Megrahi was jailed for life for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 which exploded over the Scottish Borders.

He was given a fresh chance to clear his name after the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) said there were six grounds where it believed a miscarriage of justice may have occurred.

Megrahi dropped his second appeal against his conviction shortly before he was released by the Scottish government on compassionate grounds after he was given three months to live.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Shot lawyer warned of ‘the end’

Mark SaundersMr Saunders’ family say he posed no real risk to the public

An alcoholic barrister who was shot dead by police during a stand-off sent a text to his friend saying, “This is the end”, an inquest has heard.

Mark Saunders, 32, was hit in the head and chest by five police bullets at his Chelsea home in May 2008, following a five-hour siege.

Westminster Coroner’s Court heard he texted Alex Booth, the best man at his wedding, during the stand-off.

The message said: “This is the end, my only friend, the end.”

Mr Booth told the court they would often quote films and music to each other, and the message appeared to be quoting from a song by The Doors used in the film Apocalypse Now.

The hearing was told Mr Saunders had been attending Alcoholics Anonymous and sought help from his GP to control his drinking.

The family law expert had been prescribed anti-depressants and had also taken cocaine in the months leading up to his death.

His widow Elizabeth said she thought he had been drinking heavily on the day of his killing.

She said her husband was a “very sensitive and caring man” with “huge energy and love for life”.

Mrs Saunders, also a lawyer who worked at QEB chambers with her husband, said he had been teetotal apart from a few “blips”.

She said: “What Mark wanted to do was control the drinking, to be able to be a social drinker.

“He was successful in that for most of the time. There were occasions, probably every three months or so, when it went wrong.”

The death of Mr Saunders, who was once in the Territorial Army, was filmed from a police helicopter.

Police had been called after neighbours saw him firing a shotgun into a neighbouring flat.

The officers say they were firing in self defence, or to protect others.

None of them are to be prosecuted, the Crown Prosecution Service has said.

Mr Saunders’ family maintain he presented no risk to the public.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.