Mr Shannon alleged his place on the year-long economic and social history course was withdrawn due to the "arbitrary figure" the college had set.

BBC: Damien Shannon

When describing the late medieval era which was her first academic love Ms Rubin draws on the nuances of social and economic history as well as art scholarship to produce a tableau as rich as any old-master crowd scene.

ECONOMIST: Virgin Mary

Or are we plagued forever with the social economic history of Glasgow and the West of Scotland and Ireland, of references to the establishment and men in bowler hats and claims that the outcome of the league championship is decided by a gathering of referees in a Masonic Hall in July?

BBC: Chick Young's view

The history of finance is also a history of inclusion and economic empowerment, and many of its success stories started as social innovations: from cooperative banks for farmers to community banks for the urban poor, all the way to microcredit for the bottom billion today.

FORBES: What Is The Next Banking Crisis? (Hint: It Cannot Be Solved With Money)

Jonathan Portes, director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, said there had been a long history of youth unemployment in the UK, but it had got considerably worse in the last couple of years.

BBC: Youth unemployment: Fears over record figures