Arc of enterprise

Survey identifies areas of innovation, writes Alison Goddard.

Oxfordshire has the most innovative economy in the UK and Merseyside and Teesside outperform London and Manchester, according to an innovation map. The Financial Times reports that there is an arc of enterprise stretching from Cambridge through the southeast Midlands and along the M4 corridor to take in Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire. Liverpool, Middlesbrough and Southampton appear as hotspots.

Speaking of innovative practices, the University of Oxford has nominated a woman to be its next vice-chancellor. If she is approved by the the university’s ruling body, Louise Richardson, currently principal of the University of St Andrews, would take up the role in January 2016. The BBC says that Oxford is following the examples of Harvard University and Imperial College London. The Guardian reports that Professor Richardson, whose research focuses on terrorism and who is due to speak on universities and radicalisation at a British Council event next week, previously held a series of high profile positions at Harvard University. The Financial Times says that Professor Richardson was one of the first in her family to go to university. The Daily Telegraph highlights that her appointment will take the number of female leaders of Russell Group institutions to four. The Times calls the nomination "an Oxford first".