“One of the main reasons is that there is a lot of interest from overseas students to start in January – it fits in more easily with the study programmes in some countries.”Although overseas demand has been a significant driver, Middlesex has not stopped there. “We’ve opened it up to UK and EU students too and we’re getting increasing interest,” he says. Last year, the university had 300 students from overseas and 200 from the UK beginning in the new year – this year it hopes those numbers will rise significantly.Many are mature students, Butland points out. “After all, half the students in our university are not 18-year-olds. Why should a mature student start in September? An added starting date gives them a lot more flexibility.”Sukhvinder Chonk runs the learning advice centre at Thames Valley University, which has offered a new year start for undergraduate courses for 2-3 years. “We were still getting enquiries in October and November for the autumn start courses, so we thought it would be a good idea to offer them again in February.”Last year 300 students applied for its undergraduate courses with a February start, in subjects including accounting, business studies, computing, counselling, management, healthcare, catering, human resources, languages, marketing, media, midwifery, music, nursing, psychology, teaching and travel.”Our postgraduate professional courses have had a new year starting date for some time,” says Chonk, “Professional courses have always been flexible because this is what employers require, but we’ve extended it to undergraduate because we’ve got to comply with what other people want. Markets are changing, especially with the advent of online and distance learning courses, and with international competition as well we’ve got to become more flexible.”Students still complete the full three years, she explains.

“We give them the option of picking up a module in the summer so they can make up the lost time, but if they don’t want to do that they can finish in February.”Offering more flexible starting dates depends on having a modular course structure in place, says Butland. On a one-year postgraduate course, for instance, teaching staff face some students finishing in the summer and some at the end of the year. “If the course is broken down into very clear modules you can have both cohorts doing the same things at the same time,” he says.It’s a win-win situation all round, he believes. “Although at first those starting in the new year were a bit out on a limb because the social groups had already developed, now there is quite a large group starting in January they are no longer the exception.”It has been so successful that Middlesex is even considering a summer start.. “Innovation is inseparable from risk-taking,” says Philip Britton, director of the Centre of Construction Law at King’s College London, “but we are convinced we must think and act internationally.” As a result the college has come up with its first degree to be awarded with another university – an MSc in Construction Law and Arbitration. It will also cover all the legal aspects involved in construction projects and dispute resolution and arbitration.”We feel there is a real need for this in Singapore,” says Britton, “A lot of projects in South-east Asia are based there – it’s a very busy market for construction in its own right, but also tends to be a regional centre for many multinationals.

And Singapore has acquired English law and therefore shares a common legal background. All in all, we feel it’s a natural home.”Both partners will contribute to every aspect of the programme, with King’s staff visiting Singapore for intensive periods of teaching. Students will also come to London for a study visit between their first and second years.¿ Every year crime costs the UK economy £50bn, and in an attempt to reduce this the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) has earmarked £20m for crime prevention and detection research.”The new funding aims to get people thinking beyond their usual agenda, and to undertake fundamental and applied work that will bring a new dimension to our ability to tackle crime,” says Jane Sykes, who manages the Crime Prevention Programme on behalf of the EPSRC, “Researchers are being asked to think ahead of the game – reducing new opportunities for criminality or providing new methods for prevention, detection and reduction. This means continued advancement in forensic science techniques, anti-terrorism technologies, personal and property security and crime detection, and developing a safer living environment.”The EPSRC’s current crime prevention portfolio includes projects on image processing/person recognition, cryptography, security of transactions, digital watermarks, biometrics (identifying unique physical characteristics using biological methods), brand protection, computer/ network security, investigation management systems, screening equipment, forensic analysis and explosive detection.¿ Thanks to support from the Film Council’s training fund, this year five students on Royal Holloway, University of London’s MA in Feature Film Screenwriting will receive scholarships to offset the cost of training. Now expecting its third cohort, the two-year part-time course is taught entirely by screenwriters and people working in film, and is devised and led by Susan Rogers, a screenwriter and former head of development for United Artists and for Francis Coppola’s company, Zoetrope Studios.”We look for innovative writers who are really committed, and who want to get away from the narrow conventions that dominate British cinema,” she says “It’s a very non-prescriptive course We don’t believe in formulas. There is a taught element, but for virtually everything you teach about screenwriting there’s a couple of films that disprove it.”For John MacInnes, 33, a film-maker for the past 10 years, the course offers a chance to develop his ideas in a creative environment.

“It attracts students from all over the world and one of the best things is the creative mix this throws up. Also, it’s taught by people in the business – not just ’script gurus’ – so there’s a real relationship between what we do and the wider industry.”"What I hope to gain is – obviously – to write better scripts, but also scripts that people are going to read. People in the industry – agents, producers – keep an eye this sort of course, and so much of getting on in this business is about networking and your ability to reach the people that count.”emma haughton . When Abu Thottathil, a Keralan waiter at Cafe Spice Namaste in London, was given the chance of free English lessons in work time he leapt at it. So did eight other catering staff at the upmarket Indian restaurant near Tower Bridge. Now they can explain complex menus to customers and how to deflect the racist jibes they occasionally receive from drunken City bankers on Friday nights.