Arsenal sign youngster Thomas Eisfeld from Borussia Dortmund

Arsenal have confirmed the signing of attacking midfielder Thomas Eisfeld from Borussia Dortmund on a long-term contract.

The 19-year-old came through the German outfit's academy and leaves after seven years with the club.

Eisfeld has impressed for Dortmund's Under-19 side this season and has now completed a move to the north Londoners.

"I feel very proud to have signed for Arsenal," Eisfield told the club's official website, www.arsenal.com.

"This is a great club, with many great players, and I'm so happy to be joining Arsenal.

"It's a real honour to be team-mates with the great players at Arsenal, and also training every day with players like Tomas Rosicky - who I grew up watching play at Dortmund.

"I will give it everything I have here and do my best to make the manager, players and fans happy.

"I would also like to thank Borussia Dortmund, where I played for the last seven years, for everything they have done for me.

"I had a great time there, and there were many wonderful coaches who helped me get to where I am today."

Eisfeld has featured at youth level for the German national team and can play in a variety of positions.

Speaking on the addition, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said: "Thomas is a player we have liked for some time.

"We've watched him closely this season, where he has excelled for Dortmund's youth team.

"He is young but has proven to us that he can play, that he has the attitude and technical ability to be a valuable addition to our squad.

"We're very pleased to welcome him to the club and look forward to his contribution in the coming seasons."

Louis Saha omission fuels Tottenham transfer speculation

Louis Saha was missing from Everton's teamsheet for tonight's Barclays Premier League clash against Manchester City, fuelling speculation he could be leaving Goodison Park.

The 33-year-old French striker has been linked with a deadline day move to Tottenham throughout the afternoon.

Saha has struggled for form this season, scoring just twice, and was left on the bench for last Friday's FA Cup fourth-round win over Fulham.

Saha joined Everton on a free transfer from Manchester United in 2008 having previously played for Fulham and Newcastle.

He scored 15 goals in the 2009-10 campaign but has had numerous fitness issues since.

Everton are close to completing a deal for Rangers striker Nikica Jelavic and could have the flexibility to allow Saha to go.

Everton complete deal for Rangers striker Nikica Jelavic

Everton have completed the signing of Croatia striker Nikica Jelavic from Rangers on a four-and-a-half-year deal.

The 26-year-old completed a medical and agreed personal terms at Everton's Finch Farm training base earlier before finalising the details of his contract at Goodison Park.

Jelavic was expected to be introduced to the crowd at half-time of their home game against Manchester City.

He becomes David Moyes' third signing of the January transfer window, following a loan for Los Angeles Galaxy forward Landon Donovan and a permanent deal for Manchester United midfielder Darron Gibson.

Jelavic scored 36 goals in just 55 appearances for Rangers having been signed from Rapid Vienna for £4million in the summer of 2010.

Manchester United youngster Ravel Morrison joins West Ham

West Ham have confirmed the signing of midfielder Ravel Morrison from Manchester United for an undisclosed fee, on a three-and-a-half-year contract.

More to follow...

Party over: Student life is serious business

As official figures reveal that fees of £9,000 have created a record slump in applications, Richard Garner discovers how economic reality is already transforming universities

It used to be about daytime TV, being carried home from bad nightclubs, and halls of residence awash with half-eaten pot noodles and stolen traffic cones, but for the new breed of university student weighed down with the pressures of inflated tuition fees, it's all about business. Today final student application figures are being released by the Universities and Colleges Admission Service (UCAS) and are expected to show record falls in student numbers.

Earlier fears of a 15 to 20 per cent decline are unlikely to be confirmed, but vice-chancellors still predict an overall drop of about 6 per cent (with a larger fall among UK applicants) – up to 30,000 down on last year.

However, it is as much the change in culture in reaction to the tuition fees hike as the drop in numbers which is significant.

Students are shunning the traditional three-year campus course and all its quirks in order to ensure they gain qualifications more quickly, more conveniently, and if necessary while living at home.

London's Birkbeck University, for example, has seen a huge influx of school leavers opting for its "night school" degree course. This consists of three hours' teaching a night, four days a week, crucially leaving students free to take a day job to finance their studies.

This year has seen overall applications for courses in a range of subjects including English, geography, history, law and the psychological sciences soar by 153 per cent to 1,142.

The biggest rise has been among 17 to 20-year-olds – where applications have more than tripled from 219 to 739.

For 19-year-old Tasneem Yahya, the decision to study psychology at night school was a "no brainer". "I live in Central London – only a 15 to 20-minute walk away from the university," she said. "I can save a lot of money."

Similar motives have led to a growth in popularity for two-year degrees – advocated by the Universities Minister, David Willetts, and his predecessor, Lord Mandelson – whereby students forgo their long summer breaks to cut down on the cost of a three-year course.

Then there are a raft of schemes being introduced by employers whereby school leavers get a job and their fees paid while they study. KPMG took on 90 students under this scheme last year, offering them £20,000 a year as long as they worked for the accounting firm while they were not at university.

It has proved so successful that the numbers have doubled this year and many of the major graduate recruiters have followed suit. Those recruited will study for accountancy degrees at Durham or Exeter.

Add to the mix the fact that applications to the Open University are increasing, with the latest figures showing a 4 per cent increase to 260,000. Again the rise is fastest among 18 and 19-year-olds where the numbers have shot up by 30 per cent to 1,611.

Today we will see just how much impact the new fees regime has had on student applications as UCAS publishes details of the numbers that have applied by what is commonly termed the final deadline – January 15. In actual fact you can apply afterwards – it is just that you cannot guarantee being treated equally to those who have met the deadline.

In addition to a drop in student numbers, expect a shift in the pattern of courses students are applying for. Research among school leavers shows they are considering their options more seriously this year – "hard work" has replaced "hard partying" as their motto.

Arts and humanities courses such as creative art and design seem to be the main victims (down 14.6 per cent). The biggest sufferer, however, is non-European languages – which includes Mandarin and Japanese, both considered essential to the UK's future competitiveness.

On the up or holding their own are medicine, law and business studies because of their capacity to lead to well-paid employment.

University applications down 8.7 per cent

Look and learn: New university tribes

THE NIGHT OWL: Niall Quilligan

Niall had already made the decision that he wanted to live in London before opting for Birkbeck College's "night school" degree programme. It gave the 19-year-old from Cheshire the chance to earn while he learns, taking a job to help him finance his way through his course. "You're able to work 9 until 5 if you want to, while other students are studying," he says. "I worked in market research for a bit of cash."

The course in psychology involves him turning up Monday to Thursday between 6pm and 8.30pm for lectures. "It is quite flexible provided you put the main core of learning in between 6pm and 8.30pm," he said. Another student on the Birkbeck night course, Tasneem Yahya, said it was an easy decision because of the money she saved by living at home.

"I'm also able to mix with people of all ages on this course which is what I will have to do when I go out to work," she says. "That wouldn't be the same if I went away to university."

THE DISTANCE LEARNER: Kelly Cutsforth

An Open University degree allowed Kelly to gain work experience while completing her law degree.

The 24-year-old from Hull had already bought her own home when she opted to go on the course soon after completing her A-levels.

"Rather than go to university and come out with a huge debt after three years, I thought it would be good to have a fee earner while I studied," she says. "I wouldn't have been able to afford to go to university and I gained practical skills as well during the course – it is quite difficult to get a job at a solicitor's office."

THE HIGH-EARNER: Joshua Bellamy

Joshua is on the pioneering KPMG scheme. It earns him a £20,000 annual salary while the firm pays his tuition fees for an accountancy degree at Durham University. For the first three years, he spends six to eight weeks on campus and the remainder at work. In the fourth year he completes his course by spending the whole time studying.

The 18-year-old, a former pupil at Holland Park School in west London, says: "It means you're earning a wage while your studying. It did play a large part in my decision that – rather than ending up in debt – I would be earning."

THE CRASH-COURSE KID: Chris Doe

Chose a two-year degree because "I didn't want to spend the summer holiday sitting in bed until 10 o'clock".

It also helped him save on his living costs while he was studying. Critics claim those who opt to study this way deny themselves valuable work experience that will help them get a job – because they will not have the time to fit it in. Chris, 22, studied marketing and media communications at Buckingham University. "I think it gives you something unique to offer [employers]," he says. "Not many people had heard of two-year degrees so I think it proved to them I was prepared to work hard."

Extreme close-up: German film brings the spread of neo-Nazi gangs into focus

For a film that has touched a raw nerve in Germany with its portrayal of neo-Nazi violence, the opening of Kriegerin, or Combat Girl, is deceptively benign: the camera pans to a 10-year-old girl on a lonely Baltic beach weighed down by a heavy load on her back.

"Can I stop now grandpa?" the girl asks the kindly looking pensioner who greets her with open arms. "Of course you can, my darling," he replies with a smile as he removes her rucksack. It proves to be full of wet sand. "You've done well, my little Kreigerin," he tells her. It turns out that Marisa, the young east German girl, has just undergone some Hitler Youth-style military training enforced by the beloved grandfather she idolises. He is an unreconstructed Nazi who is convinced that the Jews have gained the upper hand with "their lies" since Germany's defeat in World War II.

 Fast forward a decade and Marisa, now in her early twenties, has her arms, chest and neck covered with Nazi Swastika tattoos. She and the ultra-violent gang of neo-Nazis she now belongs to are in the process of "doing" a train. Middle aged women passengers, who protest, are slapped in the face as the skinhead gang members storm through the carriages chanting "Sieg Heil" and giving the Nazi salute. A group of Vietnamese immigrants are set upon and brutally beaten up with baseball bats. Finally the guard is set upon and pushed off the train. The gang disappears laughing.

 "Kriegerin", by the young German director David Wnendt, went on general release this month. Less than six months ago, it would have been dismissed by many as an exaggerated if not fanciful depiction of the far-right skinhead problem which has been commonplace in eastern Germany since reunification over two decades ago.

But recent events have led critics to declare that the film an example of how fiction sometimes matches reality. Rolling Stone magazine hailed it as the "best film to come out of Germany for years". Its screening follows last November's deeply disturbing discovery of a far right hit squad comprised of neo-Nazi terrorists bent on murdering foreigners.

The organisation calling itself "National Socialist Underground" (NSU) was comprised of male and female east German neo-Nazis who were found to have been responsible for the murder of eleven foreign immigrants who were shot dead at point blank range in a series of deliberate racist killings. Most of the gangs victims were Turkish doner kebab stall-holders.

Two of the gang members committed suicide after police traced them to a caravan in eastern Germany. One survivor of the gang was a young east German woman, whose background is strikingly similar to the Marisa of "Kriegerin". She is currently in police custody awaiting trial.

Politicians from all parties have since acknowledged that the murders have given neo-Nazi violence a new and shocking dimension. Police last week raided the homes of other suspected NSU members and confiscated weapons as politicians launch a renewed attempt to ban the country's neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (NPD) which holds seats in two east German state parliaments.

Wnendt's film captures the far-right scene in the unemployment-wracked and largely depopulated east German countryside with depressing accuracy. Skinhead neo-Nazis and their girlfriends hang out in cramped communist-era apartment blocks where they drink themselves senseless and watch banned Third Reich propaganda films which liken Jews to vermin. Gang members drive around the streets of run-down eastern towns giving the Nazi salute and terrorising immigrant stall-holders by beating them up or threatening to shoot them with a wartime service issue pistol bought from a fascist gun dealer.

Wnendt hit upon the idea of making a film about neo-Nazis after touring the region to take photographs of its derelict landscapes. In the small towns he visited he encountered far-right gangs. He was surprised to find that many had women members: "Women are no longer just onlookers, they've taken on important positions within these organisations," he said in an interview last week.

Germany's domestic intelligence service estimates that women make up around 20 per cent of neo-Nazi organisations. Many are involved in ostensibly middle-class social welfare groups which campaign against immigrants and asylum seekers with slogans such as "German town and villages can't be expected to heal the misery of the world."

 Wnendt maintains that, in eastern Germany in particular, many are simply losing their faith in democracy. "The views of the extreme right are becoming increasingly acceptable in mainstream society," he says.

A report published in the run up to Holocaust remembrance day last Friday partially bears him out. It concluded that around one in five Germans held anti-Semitic views and that the problem was prevalent. The survey also revealed that one in five Germans under 30 did not know what Auschwitz was.

Japan's population to fall by third in 50 years

Japan's government yesterday released stark new evidence that the nation is on the brink of a demographic crisis, forecasting that its population will shrink by 30 per cent in the next half-century, while soaring life expectancy will further burden the state.

Click here to see the 'Demographic timebomb - ageing Japan' graphic

The report estimates that by 2060 the number of people in the Asian powerhouse will have fallen from 128 million to about 87 million, of which almost 40 per cent will be 65 or older. The report by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research warns that by 2110 the number of Japanese could plummet to 42.9 million – a third of the current population – "if things remain unchanged".

Japan's population began falling in 2004 and is ageing faster than any other on the planet. More than 22 per cent of Japanese are already 65 or older and women will have roughly 1.3 children, well below the population replacement rate. Experts have warned for years that the inverted population pyramid is a harbinger of economic and social disaster, but the institute's prediction is one of the grimmest yet.

The report will also have ramifications for other developed nations grappling with similar logistics of citizens having smaller families and living longer. "This is Japan's biggest problem," said Florian Coulmas, who heads the Tokyo-based German Institute for Japanese Studies. "It affects every aspect of the country's society, economy, culture and polity. Japan is ahead of the rest of the world. That requires adjustments that no other country has had to make in the absence of war, epidemics or famine. But Japanese politics is totally incompetent. The politicians haven't woken up to the fact that this is a national crisis."

Japan's low birthrate is not seriously out of kilter with the rest of the developed world, but the country is unusual among its economic competitors in shunning mass immigration – roughly 2 per cent of the population is classed as "foreign".

The shrinking and ageing population means the government will struggle to cope with ballooning social welfare costs, and to pay for Japan's enormous public debt – at $12 trillion, the worst in the industrialised world.

Yesterday's report predicts that Japanese women will live, on average, to 90.93 years in 2060, up from 86.39 years, and men will live to 84.19, up from 79.64. "The trend of the ageing society will continue and it is hard to expect the birth rate to rise significantly," said the government's spokesman, Osamu Fujimura.

The earthquake and tsunami last March and the costs of cleaning up after the Fukushima nuclear meltdown have added to the burdens on state coffers. The disasters – which killed more than 19,000 people – caused a short-term dip in average life expectancy in 2010.

Japan's leading business federation, Keidanren, has for years called for importing up to six million foreign workers. And a report in 2007 by a prominent group of conservative politicians said: "In order for Japan to survive, it must open its doors as an international state to the world and shift toward ... accepting immigrants."

In the meantime, millions of young Japanese are putting off marriage and childbirth until their thirties, forcing governments in some rural areas to set up matchmaking agencies.