Education Articles

Care order fees to be abolished
BBC - Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:35:34 GMT

Fees for bringing care and supervision cases to court are to be abolished, the Justice Secretary announces.

Ex-pats wait for pensions verdict
BBC - Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:15:52 GMT

More than half a million UK pensioners living overseas will find if they have won an appeal against freezing of their pensions.

Low-quality nursery food warning
BBC - Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:25:19 GMT

Nursery food is poor and could be subjected to new nutritional guidelines, a government-commissioned report says.

Balls criticises Bulger comments
BBC - Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:47:45 GMT

Children's Secretary Ed Balls criticises children's commissioner for "ill advised" comments about James Bulger's killers.

Universities heads' 'wages soar'
BBC - Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:12:55 GMT

The pay of university heads has soared with some now earning more than the prime minister, a report says.

Balls supports 'pupil premiums'
BBC - Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:13:20 GMT

Labour's Ed Balls stokes up the battle over school funding - putting forward his own plans for "pupil premiums" for poorer pupils.

Black fathers urged over children
BBC - Sun, 14 Mar 2010 00:00:34 GMT

Black fathers need to become more involved with their children to help tackle their social problems, an MP will say.

BNP teachers will not be banned
BBC - Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:06:48 GMT

Members of the BNP or any group that might promote racism will not be banned from teaching in England, the government says.

News Day highlights
BBC - Mon, 15 Mar 2010 17:43:41 GMT

BBC's School Report featured a raft of highlights from 25,000 students who produced some amazing reports and features.

Her Majesty invented the telephone, say schoolchildren
BBC - Sat, 13 Mar 2010 00:10:09 GMT

Children's strange misconceptions about science are revealed in a science knowledge quiz.

Say what? A guide to teen slang
BBC - Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:05:23 GMT

School Reporters up and down the country have been asked about teenage slang in their school.

Up
BBC - Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:19:50 GMT

Education spending has been rising for half a century

University targets
BBC - Sat, 13 Mar 2010 00:09:56 GMT

Is it a bad idea to send more children to university?

Five things
BBC - Sun, 14 Mar 2010 00:00:32 GMT

Lib Dem David Laws on what he has learned in life

Exploitation?
BBC - Sun, 07 Mar 2010 06:00:18 GMT

Internships for graduates 'may breach wage laws'

Back to school
BBC - Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:16:15 GMT

Ex-footballer tells how he has overcome cancer

E-mail us
BBC - Mon, 18 Jan 2010 12:44:27 GMT

How to contact the BBC News website education team

Schools 'force' young mothers out
BBC - Sun, 14 Mar 2010 12:34:22 GMT

Pregnant teenagers are being forced out of education due to a "lack of support", a children's charity claims.

Crackdown call over school cheats
BBC - Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:57:00 GMT

Whistleblowing hotlines and random checks should be used to catch parents who cheat over school places, a report says.

Social care 'badly under-funded'
BBC - Fri, 12 Mar 2010 08:14:23 GMT

Adult social care in England is "chronically under-funded" and "severely rationed", a cross-party group of MPs says.

Patchy picture on school places
BBC - Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:45:39 GMT

Most families in England were given their first choice of secondary school - but the picture is varied.

Schools offered gang trouble tips
BBC - Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:01:27 GMT

Schools in England are being issued with new guidance on how to spot signs that children are involved with gangs.

McDonald's offers work-based GCSE
BBC - Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:11:30 GMT

Teenagers who complete a period of work experience at McDonald's will be able to gain a qualification equivalent to a GCSE.

More schools fail Ofsted checks
BBC - Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:35:40 GMT

More schools in England are being judged as inadequate in Ofsted's new-style inspections, according to figures just released.

School lotteries 'destabilising'
BBC - Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:56:09 GMT

Lottery admissions can be destabilising for children and bad for their welfare, the Schools Secretary, Ed Balls, says.

Labour holds education line
BBC - Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:02:10 GMT

A BBC Newsnight poll suggests that the Tories are failing to win over voters unsatisfied with Labour's record on education.

£10m to get students into sport
BBC - Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:56:10 GMT

Universities are to be given £10m of National Lottery money to encourage more students to get involved in sport.

Call to scrap 50% student target
BBC - Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:57:44 GMT

Targets for getting young people into higher education should be scrapped and top-up fees raised, say graduate recruiters.

Tory review urges science boost
BBC - Mon, 08 Mar 2010 23:47:05 GMT

A Tory-backed report urges incentives for schools and tax breaks for researchers to raise the profile of science.

TV 'makes up for history lessons'
BBC - Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:11:50 GMT

TV documentaries like the Seven Ages of Britain fill in the gaps left by a "less impressive" school curriculum, says David Dimbleby.

Warning on 'corner shop' schools
BBC - Sun, 07 Mar 2010 11:01:03 GMT

Head teachers warn that Tory plans for free schools could lead to a system of 20,000 "corner shop" schools.

BBC Schools
BBC - Tue, 12 Jan 2010 11:55:07 GMT

BBC School Report
BBC - Thu, 21 Jan 2010 12:22:27 GMT

BBC World Class
BBC - Tue, 12 Jan 2010 11:55:07 GMT

Cases of self-harming rise by 50%
BBC - Fri, 12 Mar 2010 08:09:51 GMT

The number of young people admitted to hospital after cutting themselves deliberately rises 50% in five years

Baby P rules 'may increase risks'
BBC - Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:16:16 GMT

Rules to improve child protection after the Baby P case may leave children more vulnerable to harm, council leaders warn.

Call to identify children's needs
BBC - Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:50:17 GMT

High-quality childcare helps identify the needs of the most vulnerable children early on, an Ofsted study finds.

Grandparent carers 'risk hardship'
BBC - Wed, 03 Mar 2010 04:22:01 GMT

Grandparents in low-income families risk financial hardship by giving up work to help look after grandchildren, a report says.

Young 'exposed to sex imagery'
BBC - Fri, 26 Feb 2010 09:10:15 GMT

Children are being over-exposed to sexual imagery and tighter media controls are needed, a report for the Home Office says.

Teenage pregnancy rate falls
BBC - Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:08:28 GMT

Teenage pregnancies in England and Wales have fallen by 4%, statistics show but a target to halve rates is set to be missed.

Social care 'fails deaf children'
BBC - Thu, 25 Feb 2010 13:12:56 GMT

The majority of local authorities in England are failing deaf children and their families, research suggests.

'Good progress' at Baby P council
BBC - Tue, 23 Feb 2010 12:08:09 GMT

Children's services at the council criticised over the death of baby Peter Connolly have received an improved Ofsted report.

Children 'missing out on sleep'
BBC - Thu, 18 Feb 2010 10:46:38 GMT

Children questioned for the BBC's Newsround programme admit video games and mobile phones are keeping them up at night.

Don't sexualise children - Tories
BBC - Thu, 18 Feb 2010 22:24:42 GMT

Conservative leader David Cameron calls for an end to the "inappropriate sexualisation" of children by companies.

Ageing 'a problem for councils'
BBC - Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:28:38 GMT

Councils will struggle to cope with the financial challenge posed by England's ageing population, a regulator says.

BBC Parenting
BBC - Tue, 12 Jan 2010 11:56:47 GMT

Woman's hour family archive
BBC - Tue, 12 Jan 2010 11:58:38 GMT

Schools 'break law' to spy
Education Guardian - Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:19:55 GMT

<div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/60521?ns=guardian&pageName=Schools+%27break+law%27+to+spy+on+pupils%3AArticle%3A1371955&ch=Education&c3=GU.co.uk&c4=Schools%2CTeaching%2CEducation%2CPrivacy%2CSurveillance+%28News%29%2CUK+news&c6=Jessica+Shepherd&c7=10-Mar-15&c8=1371955&c9=Article&c10=News&c11=Education&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FEducation%2FSchools" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">Pupils are monitored by CCTV cameras as frequently as inmates in prisons and passengers at airports, research shows</p><p></p><p>Most schools in the UK are probably breaking the law by failing to alert students to the scores of cameras capturing their conversations and movements in playgrounds and classrooms, a study has claimed.</p><p>Pupils in schools are as frequently monitored by CCTV cameras as inmates in prisons and customers at airports, the report by Salford University says. Most secondary schools have at least 20 cameras.</p><p>Schools have installed cameras to improve teaching, as well as detect vandalism, intruders and bad behaviour. At least one school has put cameras with microphones in classrooms and corridors, and given staff earpieces to listen in on what the cameras pick up.. It is now common for secondary schools to fingerprint pupils.</p><p>Researcher Emmeline Taylor examined surveillance practices in 24 comprehensives in north-west England and analysed the law governing CCTV use in schools as part of her PhD thesis.</p><p>Under the Data Protection Act, schools are required to tell pupils where cameras have been installed and for what purpose the images and sounds captured on them are being used. But Taylor found schools were not aware of this requirement and did not make it clear to pupils where cameras were located.</p><p>Schools do not have to ask pupils for their consent to capture images or sounds of them, she discovered. They must notify the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) that they are using surveillance practices, but they don't have to say what these are.</p><p>The act states that the data being captured "should be adequate, relevant and not excessive". This vague wording has allowed schools to become testbeds for the latest surveillance technologies, Taylor says, and is "habituating young people to accept a heightened level of scrutiny for increasingly mundane activities, such as borrowing a book from the school library".</p><p>Parents in a Philadelphia suburb filed a lawsuit recently claiming that the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/8976531" title="">Lower Merion school district had "spied" on their families</a>. It had given 1,800 students at two high schools laptops which allowed them to view school materials at home through webcams. But the webcams worked both ways, and allowed the local authority to see what was happening in the pupils' homes.</p><p>Young people are being stripped of basic liberties, Taylor said. "There is this idea that CCTV is a panacea to a lot of society's ills, but there is nothing to suggest that this is the case," she said. "We need specific guidance for pupils on how far schools can monitor them.</p><p>"The dearth of concrete legislation permits ever more invasive surveillance practices to be introduced in schools. Pupils are definitely the most surveilled non-criminal population."</p><p>Shami Chakrabarti, director of the civil rights campaign group Liberty, questioned how pupils would learn to respect themselves and others if their own privacy and dignity were taken away.</p><p>"How do you teach kids about good behaviour if its only basis is the fear of being caught?" she said. "How will they learn to respect themselves and other people if their privacy and dignity are traded for administrative convenience? It's a sad state indeed if children grow up to expect prison-type monitoring. By over-watching young people, with cameras and computers, we may be overlooking our real duties to respect and protect them."</p><p>Angus Drever, managing director of Classwatch, which installs CCTV cameras in schools so that teachers can be shown "good practice" and to improve pupils' behaviour, said the ICO and the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) should ensure schools are up to date with the law.</p><p>He said: "Schools use CCTV because they are under enormous pressure to meet their obligations to protect the children in their care, and to safeguard their assets. Classwatch has always taken the issues of data protection and respecting the privacy of children very seriously, which is why we approached the ICO for advice."</p><p>A spokesman from the DCSF said: "There are no grounds for suggesting that schools are being used as testbeds for surveillance."</p><p>He said clear guidance had been issued by the ICO and the government's information technology arm, Becta.</p><p>Taylor's research – I Spy With My Little Eye: Exploring the Use of Surveillance and CCTV in Schools – will be published in journals later this year.</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/schools">Schools</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/teaching">Teaching</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/privacy">Privacy</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/surveillance">Surveillance</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/jessicashepherd">Jessica Shepherd</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/MliqznWc8Dgs3KHY5Nou4xkrA_Q/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/MliqznWc8Dgs3KHY5Nou4xkrA_Q/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/MliqznWc8Dgs3KHY5Nou4xkrA_Q/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/MliqznWc8Dgs3KHY5Nou4xkrA_Q/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p>

Salaries soar for university heads
Education Guardian - Sun, 14 Mar 2010 21:50:06 GMT

<div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/8567?ns=guardian&pageName=Salaries+soar+for+heads+of+British+universities%3AArticle%3A1371713&ch=Education&c3=Guardian&c4=University+administration%2CHigher+education%2CUniversity+teaching%2CEducation%2CUK+news&c6=Rob+Evans%2CDavid+Leigh&c7=10-Mar-15&c8=1371713&c9=Article&c10=News&c11=Education&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FEducation%2FUniversity+administration" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">More than 80 university heads, generally known as vice-chancellors, now earn more than the prime minister<br />• <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/mar/12/universities-high-pay-top-data">Datablog: get the data behind this story</a></p><p>The income of thousands of the most senior British academics has soared over the past decade, far outstripping growth in average lecturers' pay, according to a Guardian inquiry.</p><p>More than 80 university heads, generally known as vice-chancellors, now earn more than the prime minister, and some have seen their annual earnings double or even triple in 10 years. Some got 15% or 20% pay rises last year alone, compared with a 45.7% rise over 10 years for average higher education teaching professionals.</p><p>The hightest-paid VC gets £474,000, and 19 get more than £300,000, including employer pension contributions. By contrast, the prime minister, Gordon Brown, gets £197,000 plus a pension.</p><p>Salaries of more, sometimes much more, than £100,000 are paid to almost 4,000 other academic administrators, consultants and scientists in Britain's 150 university institutions, compared with only a handful at that level a decade ago.</p><p>The Guardian has identified eight universities at the head of a league table based on a combination of chief executive pay and the proportion of high-earning staff.</p><p>In order of vice-chancellor income they are: the London Business School; UCL; Liverpool; Imperial College; Nottingham; Oxford; Kings, London; and Bristol.</p><p>The Guardian findings led the general secretary of the lecturers' union, UCU, Sally Hunt, to protest about "snouts in the trough".</p><p>She said: "The pay rises senior staff, in particular vice-chancellors, have enjoyed in recent years have been a constant source of ridicule. There is no transparency for the arbitrary rises they receive. Those at the top hide behind the clandestine world of remuneration committees as an excuse for their massive salaries."</p><p>All universities face savage funding cuts, with students asked to pay higher fees to help balance university books.</p><p>Wes Streeting, president of the National Union of Students, said today: "The fact they are giving themselves and other managers huge pay rises will raise questions about whether students' money is being well spent."</p><p>At Oxford, where the income of the VC – currently Prof Andrew Hamilton – has more than tripled since 1999 to its present £327,000, a spokesman defended the rises because Oxford was "the number one university in the country" and the biggest research provider.</p><p>Hamilton's predecessor had succeeded in doubling research income and fundraising £770m, the university said.</p><p>Oxford has the highest-paid university employee in the country: the fund manager Sandra Robertson is paid £580,000 to manage its billion-pound endowments.</p><p>Many universities defend their exploding top pay bills as a reflection of competition among universities, or "comparability" with other heads of big organisations. One small former technical college, Aston in Birmingham, however, refuses to explain the £309,000 package awarded to the engineering professor Julia King on the grounds that it "does not comment on the pay of any staff member".</p><p>By contrast, another vice-chancellor, Prof Eric Thomas at Bristol, decided to give some of the money back from his £309,000. The university said: "The VC took no pay rise last year, and made a donation to the university of £100,000.".</p><p>Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of Universities UK, which represents vice-chancellors, said todaythat universities were "highly complex businesses". "Salaries of university heads in the UK are comparable with those in competitor countries and are also in line with remuneration packages for directors and chief executives of public and private organisations of a similar size. As the role and importance of higher education have grown, so have the demands on the offices of vice-chancellors."</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/administration">University administration</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/higher-education">Higher education</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/universityteaching">University teaching</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/robevans">Rob Evans</a></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/davidleigh">David Leigh</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/75DNwHeMx1j5VHDrIeG3qTDUb7k/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/75DNwHeMx1j5VHDrIeG3qTDUb7k/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/75DNwHeMx1j5VHDrIeG3qTDUb7k/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/75DNwHeMx1j5VHDrIeG3qTDUb7k/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p>

Deprived students to get extra – Balls
Education Guardian - Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:22:58 GMT

<div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/93459?ns=guardian&pageName=Deprived+students+to+get+more+funds%2C+government+says%3AArticle%3A1372043&ch=Education&c3=GU.co.uk&c4=School+funding%2CSchools%2CEducation%2CEducation+policy%2CEd+Balls%2CPolitics%2CUK+news&c6=Jessica+Shepherd&c7=10-Mar-15&c8=1372043&c9=Article&c10=News&c11=Education&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FEducation%2FSchool+funding" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">'Pupil premium' is pledged by all three main parties to alleviate effects of deprivation</p><p>The government today entered the battleground of a key education election issue – how to narrow the achievement gap between the poorest and richest pupils – with a promise to "more fairly" distribute funds to the most deprived students.</p><p>The Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives have already set out their ideas for a "pupil premium" – a fixed financial incentive for schools to take pupils from the most disadvantaged backgrounds.</p><p>At the moment, local authorities receive nearly £4bn each year for deprived students, but not all the funds are given directly to the schools that take in the poorest students. Forums made up of teachers and officers at the local authority decide how the money should be spent. Under the current system, the poorest parts of the country receive more funds than the richest. This puts poor pupils in rich areas at a disadvantage and means that the funds do not necessarily go to the most deprived children.</p><p>The Lib Dems have pledged to give an extra £2.5bn each year to deprived pupils. Their pupil premium would be introduced a year after they came to power. The money would go directly to schools, rather than be allocated by the forums.</p><p>The Conservatives have said they would give "extra money" for their pupil premium, but have not stated how much. They have talked about modelling their policy on the recommendations of the Policy Exchange, a right-of-centre thinktank. It advocates scrapping the way schools receive the majority of their funds – based on complex criteria laid down by local authorities – and funding them instead using a single national formula that includes a pupil premium. Under their plans, the money would not be allocated through a forum.</p><p>Ed Balls, the schools secretary, today waded into the debate by promising to allow local authorities and schools the right to decide how to distribute funds for the most deprived pupils. He said this was the fairest way to ensure schools had the "additional resources they need to provide them with the necessary support".</p><p>He said: "A nationally set pupil premium would not take account of local need and would prescribe a single amount of funding to overcome deprivation across the whole country and would ... require severe and immediate cuts to school budgets or other public services to pay for it."</p><p>Some local authorities keep some of the funds and distribute them to all pupils in their area. Balls added that this would be stopped by 2015, and all funds for deprived pupils would follow the poorest students. All local authorities would be required to have a local pupil premium in place in three years' time, he said.</p><p>A study by the Institute for Fiscal Studies this month found that a pupil premium would lead to a "modest" closing of the gap in attainment between rich and poor children, and could boost schools' intake of poor pupils and reduce house prices near "good" schools.</p><p>The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) said any pupil premium needed to be introduced slowly, otherwise it would destabilise schools.</p><p>Malcolm Trobe, ASCL's policy director, said: "The introduction of a pupil premium will need to be carefully modelled and managed. The government has accepted that a rapid introduction could financially destabilise a number of schools. It is essential to get the basic funding entitlement level right for all pupils as a precursor to the introduction of a premium for deprivation."</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/school-funding">School funding</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/schools">Schools</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/education">Education policy</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/edballs">Ed Balls</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/jessicashepherd">Jessica Shepherd</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/o6wtHupP1M0R3GWWNQwWjVr3q5w/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/o6wtHupP1M0R3GWWNQwWjVr3q5w/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/o6wtHupP1M0R3GWWNQwWjVr3q5w/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/o6wtHupP1M0R3GWWNQwWjVr3q5w/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p>

Universities must deliver more with less
Education Guardian - Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:05:05 GMT

<div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/13528?ns=guardian&pageName=Universities+must+deliver+more+with+less%3AArticle%3A1371277&ch=Education&c3=Guardian&c4=University+funding%2CStudents%2CTuition+fees%2CHigher+education%2CEducation&c6=Harriet+Swain&c7=10-Mar-16&c8=1371277&c9=Article&c10=Feature&c11=Education&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FEducation%2FUniversity+funding" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">At the Guardian's fourth annual higher education summit, there was debate about what priorities should be, given that the pot of funds will shrink in the future</p><p>Three big unknowns hung over the Guardian's fourth annual higher education summit in London last week: which party will be in power after 6 May, how hard the sector will be hit in this month's budget, and the future of tuition fees after Lord Browne reports this summer. But delegates were sure of one thing: they will be delivering more for less. Trickier was deciding what kind of more should come first – serving more students, providing more quality, becoming more global or working more closely with business.</p><p>"We need to know, when we are being asked to deliver more for less, which more is more important to the UK economy," said one summit panellist, Tony Downes, chair of strategic planning and resources policy at the 1994 group of research universities.</p><p>Earlier in the week, Carl Gilleard, chief executive of the Association of Graduate Recruiters, had decided more students was not the answer – he called on the government to abolish the target of 50% of people under 30 going into higher education and to shift the focus back to "quality".</p><p>Addressing the summit, both the higher education minister, David Lammy, and David Willetts, shadow minister for universities and skills, said Gilleard's views were wrong. But exactly where each stood on the question was harder to pin down.</p><p>Lammy insisted there would be no retreat on the "50% aspiration", saying it was part of Britain's attempt to build a knowledge economy, and spoke with passion of his own good fortune in being able to come from a poor background and benefit from higher education. He stressed that it was important not to alarm students into thinking that universities were now shut to them.</p><p>But he also savaged Conservative proposals to fund 10,000 extra student places by offering discounts to students who repaid their student loans early, describing the idea as regressive, unworkable, expensive and disingenuous.</p><p>Willetts defended his scheme, saying the important thing was what his party planned to do with the money – pay for extra places. "We cannot afford to waste the talent of people who could contribute by having a university education," he said. He insisted one of the reasons the Conservatives put forward the proposal was to answer past criticisms that they had cut the unit of resource too much.</p><p>Neither disputed that money would be tight. Lammy put a positive spin on it, emphasising the way universities had responded to the recession by strengthening links with local and regional employers. Willetts, meanwhile, said that, if in power, his party would look to universities to improve efficiency, suggesting back-office costs, in particular, could be cut.</p><p>Money was top of delegates' minds because, while the summit was taking place in the City of London – "close to the crime scene" as one put it – back home, funding letters were landing on doormats.</p><p>Alan Langlands, as chief executive of the Higher Education Funding Council for England, the ultimate author of those letters, urged delegates to think about what to do with the £7.5bn the sector had to spend in the next financial year, rather than dwell on the £3.5m or so it was losing.</p><p>He stressed the importance of institutional autonomy, saying: "I really believe the future of the sector lies in individual institutions weighing up all the different environments, issues and questions bearing down on them and forging a way forward in their own right."</p><p>But he acknowledged that times were hard – and could get harder. The government's deficit meant that of the £7bn allocated, nearly £2bn would be borrowed. While the sector was generally in a strong position, universities' cash balances and reserves had already begun to erode, and they were facing a "rare cocktail" of financial uncertainty and high levels of student demand, combined with the need to become more international and to respond to new technologies.</p><p>It would therefore be vital to continue to make the case for higher education, he said, "as part of the solution, rather than the problem," to economic difficulties, whoever comes to power in May, and to support whatever comes out of Lord Browne's recommendations on student fees.</p><p>These, he described as a potential "game changer" and warned that they were likely to come with strings attached, such as giving students more information about their courses, and exercising needs-blind admission policies.</p><p>In a discussion about what higher education is for, Peter Scott, vice-chancellor of Kingston University, had attacked the "silly clubs" of vice-chancellors from different kinds of institutions. But when it came to discussing Browne, there was plenty of agreement between representatives from the 1994 Group of research-intensive universities, Russell Group of leading research universities and Million+, the post-92 institutions thinktank.</p><p>All agreed that extra money for higher education was essential if quality was to be maintained, and that it would have to come from students, rather than taxpayers or business, but with a proviso: "There is very little case for increasing fees from students if that would mean a decrease in funding from the funding councils," said Les Ebdon, chair of Million+.</p><p>None would venture a figure for the fee that should be charged, although Downes suggested that it would need to be substantial. "Some people suggest it could be £5,000 before you redress the balance," he said.</p><p>And there was particular concern about the need to correct the unfairness of the system for part-time students, who have to pay fees upfront and are eligible for less help, in spite of often contributing to the Exchequer while studying.</p><p>Claire Callender, professor of higher education policy at Birkbeck, University of London, described part-time students as vital to widening participation and to other elements of the government's skills agenda. Yet the number of part-time students had been decreasing and this would only get worse if full-time fees went up under the present system.</p><p>"We cannot rely on employers," she said. "Employers are very selective and picky about who they support and they pick winners. In other words, those most disadvantaged lose out."</p><p>Speakers also suggested that if students were being asked to pay more money, they would need to be given more say in how their education was delivered, marking a shift in the balance of power.</p><p>Paul O'Prey, vice-chancellor at Roehampton University, said: "By 2013, I think it is quite likely that the student will be contributing more to their education than the state. Roehampton has been giving a lot of thought to that change."</p><p>He suggested that students would expect a more personalised service, direct contact with the best teachers and a great job at the end of their degree. "Our job is to manage their expectations, meet their aspirations and offer the best possible student experience we can without selling out to consumerism, or going bust."</p><p>Representing the view from across the Atlantic, Donald Heller, director of the Center for the Study of Higher Education at the Pennsylvania State University, said the notion of a government setting fee levels was nearly as alien in the US as that of a government capping student numbers, because of their greater tradition of private involvement in higher education. While the percentage of GDP the US and UK invest in higher education is similar, private investment in the US is substantially higher, with students paying fees of up to $25,000 a year for their undergraduate degree.</p><p>He said that in spite of huge bursaries being available to subsidise poorer students, it remained difficult to get the message across to students that they would not necessarily be paying the headline fee figure.</p><p>Meanwhile, he said, fear of economic competition from countries such as India and China had recently prompted Barack Obama to take the unusual step of setting a target for the number of Americans having a post-secondary qualification.</p><p>Guardian columnist Mike Baker described the pace of change in higher education over the past year as breathtaking, with a new government department, new secretary of state, the fallout from the budget deficit and announcement of Lord Browne's fees review. Langlands warned that the period immediately after the election would again be one of rapid developments. He advised delegates, "Book your holidays early."</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/universityfunding">University funding</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/students">Students</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/tuition-fees">Tuition fees</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/higher-education">Higher education</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/harrietswain">Harriet Swain</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Ckw_Zo3uCAOb_UmwEqjXge-KDGM/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Ckw_Zo3uCAOb_UmwEqjXge-KDGM/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Ckw_Zo3uCAOb_UmwEqjXge-KDGM/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Ckw_Zo3uCAOb_UmwEqjXge-KDGM/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p>

Marmite – more than just a condiment
Education Guardian - Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:05:03 GMT

<div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/83654?ns=guardian&pageName=Marmite+*+more+than+just+a+condiment%3AArticle%3A1370444&ch=Education&c3=Guardian&c4=Research+%28Higher+education%29%2CFood+and+drink+%28Life+and+style%29%2CHigher+education%2CEducation%2CLife+and+style&c6=Marc+Abrahams&c7=10-Mar-16&c8=1370444&c9=Article&c10=Feature&c11=Education&c13=Improbable+research+%28series%29&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FEducation%2FResearch" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">You either love it or you hate it – just don't put it on your nipples</p><p>Britain is trying to come to terms <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2010/mar/05/marmite-toast-xo-yeast-extract" title="">with the launch of extra-strong Marmite</a>, but it seems the original born-in-Blighty foodstuff with a whiff-of-superhero-comic-book name is more than just a condiment. Marmite, together with its younger, Australian kinsman Vegemite, is an ongoing biomedical experiment.</p><p>Streaky dabs of information appear here and there, spread thin, on the pages of medical journals dating back as far as 1931.</p><p>The 30s were a sort of golden period for Marmite. A steady diet of Marmite reports oozed deliciously from several medical journals. Likely many physicians ingested them whilst munching Marmite on toast.</p><p>Dr Alexander Goodall of the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh regaled readers of The Lancet with a case report called <a href="http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0140673601208952" title="The Treatment of Pernicious Anmia by Marmite">The Treatment of Pernicious Anæmia by Marmite</a>. Goodall told how a British Medical Journal article, published the previous year, had inspired him and benefited his patients:</p><p>"The publication by Lucy Wills of a series of cases of 'pernicious anaemia' of pregnancy and 'tropical anaemia' successfully treated by Marmite raises many questions of importance ... Since the publication of Wills's paper I have treated all my 'maintenance' cases with Marmite. Without exception these have done well."</p><p>Two weeks later, also in The Lancet, <a href="http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0140673601181377" title="Stanley Davidson">Stanley Davidson</a> of the University of Aberdeen disagreed. "It would be very unwise at the present stage," he wrote, "to suggest that Marmite can replace liver and hog's stomach preparations."</p><p>Lancet readers have also been able to learn about Marmite in Sprue, The Treatment by Marmite of Megalocytic Hyperchromic Anemia: Occurring in Idiopathic Steatorrhœa, and The Nature of the Hæmopoietic Factor in Marmite.</p><p>Vegemite starred quietly in a 1948 monograph in the Journal of Experimental Biology called <a href="http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/reprint/25/2/123.pdf" title="Studies in the Respiration Of Paramecium caudatum">Studies in the Respiration Of Paramecium caudatum</a>. Beverley Humphrey and George Humphrey, of the University of Sydney, described how they grew and nurtured their microbes:</p><p>"The culture medium consisted of 5 mililiters of Osterhout solution and 5 mililiters of 20% Vegemite suspension in 1 liter of distilled water. The Vegemite is a yeast concentrate manufactured by the Kraft-Walker Cheese Co. Pty. Ltd., Australia, and served to support a rich bacterial flora upon which the Protozoa fed."</p><p>Humphrey and Humphrey's Vegemite adventure contributed, they said, to "the slow advance of our knowledge of the nutrition of most types of Protozoa".</p><p>In a very few cases, people thought they saw hints of a dark side to Vegemite and Marmite.</p><p>A 1985 report called <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3969049?itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum&ordinalpos=3" title="Vegemite Allergy?">Vegemite Allergy?</a>, in the Medical Journal of Australia, told of a 15-year-old girl with asthma: "She has noted over the last 2-3 years that ingestion of Vegemite, white wine or beer seems to induce wheezing within a short period of time." The doctors concluded that hers was a "suspicious theory".</p><p>Four years later, Dr Nigel Higson, of Hove, issued a bitter warning in the British Medical Journal under the headline <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1835465/?tool=pubmed" title="An Allergy to Marmite?">An Allergy to Marmite?</a> He wrote: "Some health visitors advise mothers to put Marmite on their nipples to break the child's breastfeeding habit; in a susceptible child this action might possibly be fatal" – although he also says: "although I know of no major anaphylactic reaction occurring".</p><p>• Marc Abrahams is editor of the bimonthly Annals of Improbable Research and organiser of the Ig Nobel prize</p><p>• <a href="http://improbable.com/improbable-research-shows/ig-uk-tour" title="">Information on the Ig Nobels tour</a></p><p></p><p>• Marmite: What do you mix yours with? Tell us below</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/research">Research</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/food-and-drink">Food & drink</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/higher-education">Higher education</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/marcabrahams">Marc Abrahams</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/d_Bx4y8zrZwDtaAavdP9EsPI4-E/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/d_Bx4y8zrZwDtaAavdP9EsPI4-E/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/d_Bx4y8zrZwDtaAavdP9EsPI4-E/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/d_Bx4y8zrZwDtaAavdP9EsPI4-E/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p>

Slumdog reveals learning treasures
Education Guardian - Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:05:05 GMT

<div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/7762?ns=guardian&pageName=Slumdog+reveals+learning+treasures%3AArticle%3A1371025&ch=Education&c3=Guardian&c4=Literacy%2CSchools%2CEducation%2CDanny+Boyle%2CFilm&c6=Lucy+Tobin&c7=10-Mar-16&c8=1371025&c9=Article&c10=Feature&c11=Education&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FEducation%2FLiteracy" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">The education project that inspired an oscar winning film is now being tried in schools in the north-east</p><p>In the most destitute slum<a href="mailto:sugata.mitra@newcastle.ac.uk" title="">s of India, many children </a><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/mortarboard/2010/mar/16/reading-stories-indian-children-slumdog" title="">lack any formal education. Where schooling is available, t</a>he classes are enormous, spanning young and older pupils and offering little one-to-one attention. It's an unlikely source of inspiration for a teaching method to boost attainment, self-confidence and behaviour in Britain's classrooms. But, then again, Professor Sugata Mitra has never been one to follow established educational philosophy.</p><p>It's a year since Education Guardian exclusively reported Mitra's Hole In The Wall learning project, in which he installed computers with internet connection in Delhi slums for local children to discover. He found that the children began to teach themselves English, computing and maths, just a month after starting to use the PCs. The project inspired Vikas Swarup's Q&A, the novel that became the film Slumdog Millionaire.</p><p>Like the film, Mitra's project has since found massive success: there are more than 500 PCs in walls across India and Africa. Now, as professor of educational technology at Newcastle University, Mitra is turning his eye to Britain. Working with eight- to 12-year-olds at schools across Tyneside, he is helping them to use computers to carry out "self-activated learning" in the classroom.</p><p>"Having watched hundreds of Indian children learning without teachers at the Hole In The Wall computers, it became obvious that all children can work by themselves, if they want to," Mitra says.</p><p>"Most British children grow up with the internet and have the means to learn what they want in minutes, and this challenges the traditional idea of school being about learning things that will come in handy in the future. They become disengaged."</p><p>Mitra is not alone in noticing this problem. John Dunford, head of the Association of School and College Leaders, last week told the group's annual conference that computer games and websites have made children impatient and harder to motivate.</p><p>But Mitra thinks he has found a solution, with Hole In The Wall. "It proved that if you encourage individual learning, and give children interesting questions to look into independently, the learning process is sparked by curiosity." With that in mind, he is working with three schools – White Mere community primary and St Aidan's church of England primary in Gateshead and Bedlington community high school – to encourage children in school years 4-7 to become partial autodidacts.</p><p>On each visit, Mitra asks students to divide into small groups to answer GCSE-level science questions on topics such as how animals adapt to their environments, and how the human body works. The children can change groups at any time, look at what other groups are doing, chat and freely use computers. The effects, as recorded by the teachers, are astonishing.</p><p>Asked "why do we slip on wet surfaces?" pupils initially looked confused. But 15 minutes later, their answers ranged from "because friction occurs when two surfaces meet, and there's little friction on wet surfaces," to a complicated discussion of traction.</p><p>"If you give children time to investigate an answer, it's surprising what they can learn," Mitra says. "Instead of guessing, they do their own research, and acquire an advanced, university-style of learning. The children have a common goal, and bounce ideas off each other – in the friction session, for example, they started to discuss everyday examples, such as tyres, snow chains, carpet burns, and Olympic swimmers' shaved bodies."</p><p>Emma Crawley, a year 4 class teacher at St Aidan's, confirms the scheme's success. "I'd seen footage of children using the computers in India," she says. "The children were learning things far beyond their years in a short time, without a teacher. It made me think we should give it a go here."</p><p>So Mitra was invited to St Aidan's, where he asked the eight-year-olds to look at fractals (repeating patterns in geometry). "That was in November, and the children are still talking about it," Crawley says. "What's really noticeable is they seemed to understand it better – they've been linking the research to everyday life, noticing fractals in pineapples and trees."</p><p>Perhaps because it seems like fun, the knowledge seems to stick. Three months after one session, Crawley gave the children a surprise test. "I was shocked when I marked the papers: they had all remembered everything, even though the test was a surprise."</p><p>Mitra acknowledges the well publicised dangers of the internet, but tackles the problem in the same way as in India. "In the slums, I put the computers in highly visible places. If using a computer is public, there's very little danger of children visiting inappropriate sites. Because they are working together in groups, on screens that everyone can easily see, the children stick to the task in hand."</p><p>He hopes to develop the project so that all schools will put autonomous learning in the timetable. "It could be a whole new way of schooling and will help people who have been excluded, or can't attend school, or are just struggling with homework," Mitra says. "Technology has given children the potential to be far more independent at learning, and we should embrace that."</p><p>Crawley now uses the method every time she introduces a new science topic to her class. To other teachers she advises: "You have to let go a bit and trust the children. At first, they get excited and move around a lot, and noise levels rise, but a calm atmosphere will develop. Try not to get involved."</p><p>Mitra recently met the Lord Mayor of Newcastle upon Tyne and told him about bringing the ideas from the Hole In The Wall to Tyneside. "His reaction was to say that there are lessons from developing countries that can be useful to countries that have stopped developing," Mitra says. "I think that's the ideal way of looking at it. The scheme means hundreds of English teachers are now teaching children in Indian slums, whilst the kids there are teaching us a thing or two about education – it's a perfect circle."</p><p>• Last year in Education Guardian Professor Sugata Mitra appealed for volunteers in the UK to read stories over the internet to children in Hyderabad. "When I last visited India, I asked the children what they would most like to use Skype [the internet telephone service] for. Surprisingly, they said they wanted British grandmothers to read them fairytales – they'd even worked out that between them they could afford to pay £1 a week out of their own money," Mitra said.</p><p>He had already recruited one woman to spend a few hours a week reading fairy tales to the children, with her life-size webcam image projected on to a wall in India. He appealed to Education Guardian readers to volunteer. And some 200 people stepped forward.</p><p>"Many are retired teachers, who are now regularly on Skype teaching children in the slums," says Mitra. "The children are forming relationships with them, and the teachers, many of whom were upset at the thought of having finished their careers, have realised they're more important than ever."</p><p>In the future, Mitra wants to create a "cloud" of working and retired teachers as a resource for children all around the world to tap into. He has teamed up with distance-learning company ICS and, in India, hundreds of children are now learning from "Skype grannies".</p><p>He is now looking for experienced maths and science teachers to work with students in Hyderabad.</p><p>Readers, over to you...</p><p>• Contact: <a href="mailto:sugata.mitra@newcastle.ac.uk" title="">sugata.mitra@newcastle.ac.uk</a></p><p><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/mortarboard/2010/mar/16/reading-stories-indian-children-slumdog" title="">• One of Mitra's volunteers describes the rewards of reading to the children of Hyderabad</a></p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/literacy">Literacy</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/schools">Schools</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/danny-boyle">Danny Boyle</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/lucy-tobin">Lucy Tobin</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/R2kear0XmyJuHW10Jwb1t_ynRr8/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/R2kear0XmyJuHW10Jwb1t_ynRr8/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/R2kear0XmyJuHW10Jwb1t_ynRr8/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/R2kear0XmyJuHW10Jwb1t_ynRr8/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p>

British education could lose appeal
Education Guardian - Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:05:01 GMT

<div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/65290?ns=guardian&pageName=British+education+is+in+danger+of+losing+its+appeal%3AArticle%3A1370407&ch=Education&c3=Guardian&c4=International+students%2CTuition+fees%2CStudents%2CHigher+education%2CEducation&c6=Mike+Baker&c7=10-Mar-16&c8=1370407&c9=Article&c10=Comment%2CFeature&c11=Education&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FEducation%2FInternational+students" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">Rising costs for overseas students could well mean that we lose them to foreign competition</p><p>The Sri Lankan family I joined for dinner at their home in the suburbs of Colombo last month is proud to have a son studying at a British university. It is a struggle to find his fees and living costs, not to mention the costs of his student visa, but they consider it worthwhile because "UK education is the best".</p><p>The father, who runs his own business, does extra work as a tour guide to fund his son's studies. The son works at a fast-food outlet in London (within the strict limits allowed by the Home Office) in order to help cover his living costs.</p><p>But it is a long slog, six years so far to attain a first degree. He cannot afford trips home so his mother has not seen him since he left for the UK. For overseas students like this, and their families, it is a big financial sacrifice. Their hope is that a British degree will lead to a well-paid job, preferably abroad where pay is higher. But it is a gamble, especially in the current economic climate.</p><p>It is also very hard for overseas students to know quite what sort of education they will get. The image of UK education sold abroad draws heavily on the traditions of Oxford and Cambridge. But what do overseas students make of newspaper adverts for places such as Magna Carta College, Oxford, which is not actually part of the University of Oxford but offers degrees validated by the University of Wales?</p><p>What's more, it is getting tougher on several fronts for overseas students. The visa hurdles are getting higher, fees are rising, competition for places is stiffer and graduate jobs are harder to win. Is the overseas student market being squeezed too hard?</p><p>The 250,000 non-EU overseas students in UK universities bring vital income. With the squeeze in domestic funding, universities are seeking to maximise other sources of income. Last year, it is estimated the level of fees charged to overseas students rose by 5%. Average fees for undergraduate courses now cost between £9,300 for standard courses and £11,500 for laboratory-based courses.</p><p>The government is also raising costs for overseas students. The standard application fee for the tier 4 student visa rises next month from £145 to £199. For many, costs are even higher. Students who can only afford to build a degree out of a number of short courses will often have to apply for extension visas after they have arrived in the UK. The charge for a student visa in such cases is a whopping £357 for postal applications or £628 for applications in person.</p><p>In another change, following the review of visa requirements ordered by the Prime Minister, it was announced earlier this month that overseas students applying to come on courses that are below degree level will now have to prove that they already have intermediate English language skills, rather than the beginner level that was required previously.</p><p></p><p>And students on courses below degree level will now only be able to do 10 hours a week of paid work during term time, rather than the 20 hours allowed previously. This will be tough for students on diploma courses, for example, who need to work to pay their way.</p><p>Meanwhile, the visa application process gets ever more complex. The current adult student visa application is 41 pages long. Many students fork out considerable extra fees to lawyers and specialist agencies to help them to complete the forms.</p><p>For now, the overseas student market is still booming. The latest figures from Ucas show that applications from non-EU students to degree courses are up by 21%. Interestingly, though, applications from EU students from outside the UK – who are not subject to visa requirements and pay the same fees as domestic students – are up by over 33%.</p><p>For a long time the UK has been able to rely on the reputation of British education to keep applications rolling in. But competition is intense. Australian and North American universities now recruit aggressively throughout Asia.</p><p>For now, the goose is still laying the golden eggs. But there is a real risk that overseas students will start to feel they are not getting a good deal from the UK. With government funding being squeezed, that would be a double whammy for universities.</p><p><strong>www.mikebakereducation.co.uk</strong></p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/internationalstudents">International students</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/tuition-fees">Tuition fees</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/students">Students</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/higher-education">Higher education</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/mikebaker">Mike Baker</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/AKPLsj4yGQSPn69bSEuRT_7vDB4/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/AKPLsj4yGQSPn69bSEuRT_7vDB4/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/AKPLsj4yGQSPn69bSEuRT_7vDB4/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/AKPLsj4yGQSPn69bSEuRT_7vDB4/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p>

A snapshot of history
Education Guardian - Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:05:18 GMT

<div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/91532?ns=guardian&pageName=A+snapshot+of+history%3AArticle%3A1370490&ch=Education&c3=Guardian&c4=Schools%2CEducation%2CLabour%2CPolitics%2CPhotography+%28Art+and+design%29%2CArt+and+design%2CLabour+leadership&c6=Rebecca+Smithers&c7=10-Mar-16&c8=1370490&c9=Article&c10=Feature&c11=Education&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FEducation%2FSchools" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">Fred Jarvis's 10th exhibition captures the best of his photos over half a century, from school pupils to Labour politicians</p><p>He has been dubbed "the Labour movement's very own paparazzo" by Tony Blair and his work once prompted Peter Mandelson to put pen to paper to praise him as "a great photographer".</p><p>As a former general secretary of the National Union of Teachers and president of the Trades Union Congress, Fred Jarvis is best known for his working life in trade unionism, education and political activism, but over the years his enthusiasm as a keen amateur photographer has also attracted recognition.</p><p>Later this month Jarvis's 10th photographic exhibition goes on display in central London. It represents the best of his work over the last 50-odd years, reflecting his interests and passions for education and politics, not forgetting his beloved Hammers (West Ham football club).</p><p>In total, 150 images will appear, including signed photographs of the six successive Labour education secretaries since the party was elected to government in 1997. Some will be auctioned on the opening night of the exhibition, and offers will be invited for others in a fundraising drive for the north London hospice where his late wife, Anne, a teacher and Labour party activist, died three years ago.</p><p>Jarvis first started taking photos in 1947 when he won a Voigtlander camera in a Naafi raffle while serving in the army in Germany. Since then, he has captured the rallies, demonstrations and marches that were integral to his life as a student (president of the National Union of Students) and teachers' leader. As an official and then general secretary of the largest teachers' union, the NUT, schools have been a source of inspiration.</p><p>"The lovely thing about photographing children in schools – and in particular younger ones in primary schools – is that they are so absorbed in their work," Jarvis says. "And I have always enjoyed the colour and vibrancy of primary schools, with all the work displayed on the walls." He admits he has been fortunate to have visited so many schools, camera in hand: "It dispels the myth that there is anything like a 'one-size-fits-all' comprehensive," he says. " To label them all the same is an insult to the schools and to their communities. You walk in the door and instantly get a sense of their ethos, character and&nbsp;history."</p><p>Also in the exhibition are numerous shots of the Labour election campaign machine at work in its Millbank headquarters in the run-up to the 1997 election, along with celebratory scenes of the victory party at the Festival Hall. "I was lucky that [then Labour party general secretary] Tom Sawyer gave me a free run," Jarvis grins.</p><p>On the day that we meet in his London home, he shows me a colour picture of five Labour leaders in one room, taken in February 2000. Alongside a fresh-faced young Tony Blair are James Callaghan, Michael Foot, Neil Kinnock and Margaret Beckett (briefly leader following the sudden death of John Smith). In a twist of fate, I learn after leaving of Foot's death that same day, at the age of 96.</p><p>• Pictures for a Hospice, 22–26 March 2010 at the TUC Centre. www.congresscentre.co.uk</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/schools">Schools</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/labour">Labour</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/photography">Photography</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/labourleadership">Labour party leadership</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/rebeccasmithers">Rebecca Smithers</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/hsunCDaa05XmnUEaxGmU7fhGALc/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/hsunCDaa05XmnUEaxGmU7fhGALc/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/hsunCDaa05XmnUEaxGmU7fhGALc/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/hsunCDaa05XmnUEaxGmU7fhGALc/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p>

Universities face going to the wall
Education Guardian - Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:05:08 GMT

<div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/6213?ns=guardian&pageName=Universities+face+going+to+the+wall%3AArticle%3A1371145&ch=Education&c3=Guardian&c4=University+funding%2CHigher+education%2CEducation%2CAnglia+Ruskin+University%2CDerby+University%2CManchester+University%2CGreenwich+University&c6=Tariq+Tahir&c7=10-Mar-16&c8=1371145&c9=Article&c10=Feature&c11=Education&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FEducation%2FUniversity+funding" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">The banks were bailed out – but in this financial climate, will universities be so fortunate?</p><p>The phrase "moral hazard" – the idea that a bank should be allowed to fail in order to encourage others to clean up their act – came into common parlance during the early days of the current financial crisis.</p><p>In the end, banks were bailed out – the result of which is beginning to affect the public purse and now higher education is facing a budget cut.</p><p>Despite the generous funding of recent years, many universities are running deficits. Given the pressure on public finances, is it time for the government to allow a university to face bankruptcy?</p><p>The question was asked by the free- market thinktank Policy Exchange last year, even before Lord Mandelson announced funding cuts to higher education. The thinktank concluded that the idea of the government stepping in to stop a university going to the wall had passed.</p><p>Its report, Sink or Swim: Facing Up to Failing Universities, argued that the urge to shore up financially struggling institutions through mergers meant there had been a failure to learn from past mistakes. Since 1997, there have been 27 mergers, many of which, it says, have been done to prop up struggling institutions. The "no-fail culture" should cease, said the thinktank.</p><p>According to Anna Fazackerley, one of the report's authors, the financial situation facing the sector now brings the competency of management and the role of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce) in dealing with failure into even sharper focus.</p><p>"The notion we've had in the sector that no institution should be allowed to fail is profoundly wrong. Given that this is taxpayers' money, the idea you will be cushioned no matter how badly you perform and no matter what you do, is wrong.</p><p>"I would imagine there will be one institution and probably more that will face the risk of bankruptcy."</p><p><strong>Restructuring</strong></p><p>When two institutions merge it can be a straightforward case of the financially stronger one absorbing the weaker one. Hefce provides management support and assistance where it is needed, for example in restructuring.</p><p>But the merger of the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology and Manchester University, which had the backing of the prime minister, was helped with £80m from the government and regional development bodies.</p><p>Charles Clarke, a former education secretary, reveals that when he was in office he considered forcing universities to merge. "There are over 40 institutions in London. I would say there was a case for mergers there, and in other parts of the country."</p><p>Fazackerley also questions the viability of the capital's 42 institutions. "There are a number of small specialist institutions and one question they will all be thinking about right now is whether or not it is sustainable for them to remain as they are."</p><p>The higher education minister, David Lammy, said in 2008 that he believed there were too many universities.</p><p>If the recent cuts weren't bad enough news, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) is predicting that there will be further cuts of £1.6bn. By 2013, the total reduction in the HE budget will be £2.5bn.</p><p>A recent report from accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers shows that even in the boom years 2004-08, some 41 institutions – about a quarter of the total – operated with deficits.</p><p>Another insight into the financial health of parts of the sector is the figure for how many days HE institutions can survive on their reserves should all revenue cease – the so-called days ratio of total general funds to total expenditure.</p><p>The latest figures (2007-08) from the Higher Education Statistics Agency show that while the average English university could survive for 105.96 days on reserves, for Anglia Ruskin the figure was 12.57, for the University of Derby, 13.58, and the University of Greenwich, 14.39.</p><p>One vice-chancellor says the recent budget cut is just the beginning of the woes facing the sector. The vice-chancellor, who did not wish to be named, predicted that universities could face problems stemming from funding cuts and a curtailed revenue stream from students. That would push some to the edge of bankruptcy.</p><p>"Would a government allow that to happen? I think the answer now is a lot different to what it was 10 years ago. I [don't] think that, with local government being savaged, there is going to be as much concern that a university will go bust, and at that point the issue of merger emerges."</p><p>The vice-chancellor questions whether, in future, guarantees about staffing levels and contracts could be made. "In the real world, when mergers take place, there is always a shedding of staff."</p><p>Chris Higgins, vice-chancellor of Durham University, recently said: "Some universities are not doing anything very well. They should be allowed to close because that's not a good use of public money."</p><p>Others believe there will have to be rationalisation. Philip Harding, chair of the British Universities Finance Directors' Group, says: "It will be as a result of the realisation that collaborating offers [universities] the best opportunity to operate and maintain quality. There will be fewer higher education institutions in five years' time, but I don't think it will be as a result of some going bust."</p><p>Paul Marshall, chief executive of the 1994 Group of smaller universities, says: "It's unlikely a university would go bankrupt. But if you look at the additional cuts predicted … those institutions that are borderline will find it very difficult."</p><p>In the coming years, he argues, these universities will be pushed towards a more focused delivery of what they are good at, which will include closing departments.</p><p>The idea that smaller institutions are the most vulnerable is disputed by Alice Hynes, chief executive of Guild HE, the umbrella group for these institutions. "Smaller specialist institutions are in some ways better suited to deal with the current situation than many of the larger, more generalist ones. I don't think we will come under any financial pressure to merge."</p><p>Hefce says it has a support programme to help institutions at risk and is making the sector aware of its powers."We don't believe we require additional powers to provide support," a spokesman says.</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/universityfunding">University funding</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/higher-education">Higher education</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/angliaruskinuniversity">Anglia Ruskin University</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/universityofderby">University of Derby</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/universityofmanchester">University of Manchester</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/universityofgreenwich">University of Greenwich</a></li></ul></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/19eSrgkxwRhESCE1wH4diLhnNbo/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/19eSrgkxwRhESCE1wH4diLhnNbo/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/19eSrgkxwRhESCE1wH4diLhnNbo/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/19eSrgkxwRhESCE1wH4diLhnNbo/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p>

What your brain does in an emergency
Education Guardian - Tue, 16 Mar 2010 03:32:00 GMT

<div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/25385?ns=guardian&pageName=What+your+brain+does+in+an+emergency%3AArticle%3A1370513&ch=Education&c3=Guardian&c4=Higher+education%2CMathematics+%28Education+subject%29%2CEmergency+planning+%28Society%29%2CNeuroscience%2CScience%2CEducation%2CSociety&c6=Lucy+Tobin&c7=10-Mar-16&c8=1370513&c9=Article&c10=Feature&c11=Education&c13=Research+notes+%28series%29&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FEducation%2FHigher+education" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">Research into people's reactions to emergencies aims to make sure there are more survivors in future</p><p>Imagine you're stuck in a burning building, trying desperately to escape. After stumbling to the end of a smoke-filled corridor, you have to choose whether to turn left or right. The decision could determine whether you live or die – but the way you make it is not as random as you might think, according to Ed Galea, professor of mathematical modelling at the University of Greenwich.</p><p>Galea has forged a career out of working out the science and psychology behind how people's brains function in disaster zones. He has interviewed thousands of survivors, from 300 people who escaped the World Trade Center on 9/11 to plane crash and Paddington rail disaster survivors. The results of his research are used by governments, building designers and emergency workers around the world to try to plan for the effects of future catastrophes.</p><p>His latest project, funded by a €2 million (£1.8m) European Union grant, is BeSeCu (Behaviour, Security and Culture), which involves trying to understand whether culture affects the way people behave in emergency situations. "The question we're answering is, do people from different countries behave differently in a crisis?", says Galea. "Most of the data that's used in evacuation analysis is from the UK, US and Australia. There's an implicit assumption that people everywhere behave the same, but we're not sure that's true."</p><p>So BeSeCu is carrying out "unannounced evacuation drills" in multistorey university library buildings around Europe, including Poland, Czech Republic and Turkey, and comparing the results with evacuation data from Brazil and the UK. "We're going to compare the data on response time and behaviour. If it varies in different places, that will suggest a need to change how we plan for emergency situations – we'll have to take a much more localised approach."</p><p>Galea's interest was triggered by victims' responses to a tragic fire in the Daegu underground in Korea. "I looked at photographs of the inside of burning carriages, and collaborated with a Korean researcher who interviewed survivors. Most sat around, waiting for instructions from an authority figure. When I presented the findings at a UK conference, it was suggested that my data was irrelevant because 'that would never happen in the UK'. So I started wondering whether people around the world react differently."</p><p>Working at Greenwich's Fire Safety Engineering Group, Galea and his team have designed Exodus, a computer modelling system that can simulate how people behave in emergency evacuations, which is used in 33 countries. It was used in the design of London's O2 arena, Sydney's Olympic stadium, the "bird's nest" arena in Beijing and the Airbus A380.</p><p>Now he is adding to the model by analysing data from interviews with survivors of the 7/7 terrorist attacks in London and the Madrid bombings. "By studying how people responded on the underground trains and in the stations, we hope to better understand how the perception of risk, reaction to authority figures and interaction with other survivors influences emergency behaviour." The findings will be used to improve computer software so it better reflects how people behave in emergencies and can be more reliable in building design.</p><p>There are also practical ideas that are easier to implement, Galea says. "I'm looking at how people respond to alarms and instructions. If people on trains always wait for an official to tell them what to do, then perhaps we need to improve communication systems on trains so they have a better chance of working in extreme situations."</p><p>Galea is also investigating how people think when trying to escape house fires or a flooding house. "We've set up an online survey looking at how people move – at intersections, do they go left or right, for example. So far it seems that left-handed and right-handed people behave differently, and so do people who drive on different sides of the road. Working out the patterns will give people a better chance of surviving future disasters."</p><p>Galea, who spends his days mapping human behaviour, fell into his work "completely by accident". More than two decades later, he has amassed plenty of advice on getting out of a fire or crash alive. "The main thing is having good situational awareness," he says. "Understand the environment you're in, whether it's a plane, train, ship or building, know where your nearest exit is and how you'd escape in a hurry. If you're travelling with family, plan what you would do in an emergency, like whether you'd try to reunite before escaping, or meet outside."</p><p>On planes, Galea recommends choosing a seat close to an exit. "I always try and sit within five rows of an exit on an aisle seat," he says. "Once you're seated, count the rows to your nearest two exits in case it becomes too dark to see." Galea stresses, however, that planes are "really quite safe".</p><p>One thing that does make him upset, however, is disaster movies. The latest to hit our screens is 2012, which Galea says makes him "frustrated about how badly Hollywood gets it wrong".</p><p>"Disaster films convey completely the wrong view of how most people behave in these kind of situations," he says. "Hollywood shows people panicking, but my research shows that 9.9 times out of 10, people don't turn into crazed individuals, but behave quite rationally. They tend to help each other, too."</p><p>That, says Galea, is a crucial part of his job. "The knowledge that most people react in a humanist way helps me to get in up in the morning – I come to work knowing that people tend to behave in a supportive, helpful way in emergencies, so any way we can help inform intelligent building design and disaster strategies will help them to survive."</p><p>• Galea is keen to hear from survivors of particular emergencies, including: • People who have experienced domestic fires in the last 10 years that required evacuation and the emergency services • People involved in the Royal Marsden hospital fire in January 2008 • Anyone who was on a train that was evacuated or in one of the stations that was evacuated during the 7/7 London bombs • Anyone who has been forced to evacuate their home due to floods Find out more: http://fseg.gre.ac.uk/fire/besecu.html</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/higher-education">Higher education</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/mathematics">Mathematics</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/emergencyplanning">Emergency planning</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/neuroscience">Neuroscience</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/lucy-tobin">Lucy Tobin</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Byf1jbFOerZ1IIAD0YeP8Yeh_gg/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Byf1jbFOerZ1IIAD0YeP8Yeh_gg/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Byf1jbFOerZ1IIAD0YeP8Yeh_gg/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Byf1jbFOerZ1IIAD0YeP8Yeh_gg/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p>

Punitive cuts
Education Guardian - Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:05:07 GMT

<div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/89515?ns=guardian&pageName=Punitive+cuts%3AArticle%3A1370738&ch=Education&c3=Guardian&c4=Further+education%2CLecturers%2CLecturers%27+pay%2CPrisons+and+probation+%28Society%29%2CEducation%2CSociety&c6=Andrew+Mourant&c7=10-Mar-16&c8=1370738&c9=Article&c10=Feature&c11=Education&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FEducation%2FFurther+education" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">Prison education is threatened by plans to axe 300 jobs by the country's biggest provider</p><p>What price a decent education for those in jail, one that could help offenders to go straight? The government says prison education is a priority. But prison reformers are worried about the future as it has emerged that the country's biggest provider of prison education plans to cut 300 jobs around the country.</p><p>Contracts to deliver education in more than 90 – around 60% – of the country's penal institutions are run by The Manchester College. Last year, the college extended its prison teaching empire after successful bids for new contracts. But some months after the deals were done it discovered, according to a letter to staff from Peter Tavernor, the principal, that the contracts were "financially challenging ... due to unforeseen hidden costs that could not have been reasonably anticipated".</p><p>In December, TMC imposed a pay freeze on prison education staff. The college now says it needs to save £5m across the service. In a letter to staff, Tavernor said that redundancies would be necessary. This would be a "managed process", focusing primarily on management and higher-paid staff; and also those approaching retirement or of post-retirement age.</p><p>Consultation over the proposed redundancies has begun. The University and College Union, which represents lecturers, says prolonged uncertainty means that many classroom lecturers have lost heart and says it fears problems could be caused by the loss of more senior managers who support less experienced colleagues in the service. "They play a crucial role in mentoring and helping them handle difficult learners," one official says.</p><p>Someone who has already seen the impact on morale is Jonathan Wells, who runs software development company Guroo and trains lecturers in prisons and young offender institutions in the north-east, where prison education is now run by TMC. "I have been in a dozen [institutions] and what I'm hearing from people is 'we have absolutely no idea if we will have a job in two months' time, so we don't know why we should bother planning for curriculum change'. They say they can't plan anything beyond the next month."</p><p>Wells says lecturers fear bigger classes. "In a room of eight, you have eight different problems and you need eyes in the back of your head. You could end up with having 10 to keep an eye on, so things will be at least 20% worse, and exponentially it could be even more serious."</p><p>In December 2008, the standard of prison education delivered by Olass, the offender learning and skills service, was condemned by the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee. However, last December, prisons minister Maria Eagle told the Guardian: "If you look at offender learning ... there is a good story to tell."</p><p>That was a month before TMC announced its redundancies. Eagle's office has declined to discuss the possible consequences. "The Learning and Skills Council [LSC] are responsible for Manchester College and are therefore better able to assist," a spokeswoman said.</p><p>The LSC said in a statement: "The college is contractually obliged, in accordance within the agreed service requirements, to ensure it meets the needs of both young people and adults in custody." A spokesperson said the LSC was not able to comment on the college's staffing arrangements. "It's responsible for decisions necessary to ensure delivery of the service. The LSC will, through its contract management, monitor this."</p><p>Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, feels any cutbacks are short-sighted amid reoffending rates of around two-thirds. "The prisoners' perception of education, learning and skills is as a kind of oasis," she says.</p><p>Pat Jones, director of the Prison Education Trust, says the prospect of redundancies raises questions about the contracting process. "Why did things go wrong so quickly?" she asks.</p><p>The Conservatives' prisons minister, Alan Duncan, says: "If I were prisons minister I would want to see how the contracts are worked out, how they were drawn up, what Manchester's obligations are and whether the prisons service has been left in the lurch. This looks as if it will need a serious post mortem."</p><p>The LSC said that in December TMC decided to withdraw from offender learning contracts in the south-east and north-east. "LSC entered into these in good faith, with every confidence that the college would be able to deliver, given their extensive experience in delivery of offender learning and the opportunity they had to conduct due diligence," a spokeswoman said. However, TMC later withdrew the threat after the LSC made £2m available to cushion the cost of redundancies.</p><p>TMC declined to elaborate on what "unforeseen hidden costs" caused problems with the contracts won last year.</p><p>However, the college, which formed in 2008 when Manchester College of Arts and Technology (Mancat) and City College merged, was "in a strong position" to tender, as the latter college had been "a high-quality provider of offender learning," a spokeswoman said.</p><p>"Its experience and successful track record presented an unprecedented opportunity to influence quality and policy around the education of offender learners. The college achieved the first ever Ofsted grade 1 for its provision at Askham Grange [prison and young offenders institution]."</p><p>She said college finances were "currently robust, although with major funding cuts it needs to protect its financial health and avoid destabilisation in the future". Additional savings and efficiencies were needed that could result in up to 250 staffing reductions within offender learning, less than 7% of the workforce.</p><p>"Much work is being undertaken to ensure the long-term viability of an effective learner-focused service, and there will be no compromise on quality," she said. The college was recently awarded Investors in People accreditation, which covered offender learning. Moreover, there had been "an excellent response" to registering interest in voluntary severance, which would help to cut compulsory redundancies, she added.</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/further-education">Further education</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/lecturers">Lecturers</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/lecturerspay">Lecturers' pay</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/prisons-and-probation">Prisons and probation</a></li></ul></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/3hyK6wfRVu7W4xPqoFaZBrv588E/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/3hyK6wfRVu7W4xPqoFaZBrv588E/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/3hyK6wfRVu7W4xPqoFaZBrv588E/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/3hyK6wfRVu7W4xPqoFaZBrv588E/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p>

The expansion of higher education is a key element in our democracy
Education Guardian - Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:05:06 GMT

<div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/12339?ns=guardian&pageName=The+expansion+of+higher+education+is+a+key+element+in+our+democracy%3AArticle%3A1370644&ch=Education&c3=Guardian&c4=Higher+education%2CEducation%2CUniversity+administration&c6=Peter+Scott&c7=10-Mar-16&c8=1370644&c9=Article&c10=Comment&c11=Education&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FEducation%2FHigher+education" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">Whatever the arguments about 'dumbing down' and the over-production of graduates, widening participation means higher education is no longer linked to elitism, but to citizenship</p><p>What is higher education for? Not a question, the makers of our modern system of higher education would have liked much. They would probably have preferred a gentler, more liberal and plural, formula – such as the "purposes of higher education".</p><p>Language is always revealing. Today there seems to be a black and white choice between "what is higher education for", bristling with instrumentality, and "higher education for its own sake", all blue-skies. The truth is neither serves. Higher education can never be reduced to an academic services industry mass-producing expert skills and useful research. But nor, in an age of mass access and a knowledge society, can it be a purely "donnish dominion". Universities touch the fabric of our society at too many points.</p><p>A rather similar black and white contrast is drawn between higher education as a quasi market enterprise run on corporate lines, and higher education as a social project – widening participation, student expansion and maybe even a little bit of social engineering. Or a third contrast between the idea of the university as a "delivery organisation" for political agendas (the very phrase used to me by a civil servant a few months ago, in all innocence) and the university as an autonomous, even critical, institution right at the heart of civil society.</p><p>None of these contrasts captures the complexity of roles of higher education today. The modern university is all of these things, and none of them entirely, and more besides. The one thing we never really "get" about the mass higher education system we have created over the past half century, which is central to defining its purposes, is its essential link with democracy.</p><p>Buried deep in the psyche of British (certainly English) higher education there are still residues of noblesse oblige and its historical role of co-opting the best of the brightest into the ruling class. So widening participation is all very well at the margins. But it becomes a threat if it moves centre-stage.</p><p></p><p>The contrast with the US is stark. Going to college is part of being American; it has a direct link through to the founding values of the republic. So big books like Amy Gutmann's Democratic Education get written – and noticed. The fact that she is now president of the University of Pennsylvania, a world-class research university, (and was provost at Princeton) only emphasises how wide the Atlantic is. Her peers here mainly obsess about improving their performance in the forthcoming Research Excellence Framework.</p><p>Higher education in Britain suffers from this "missing link" in two ways. First, debates about charging fees or encouraging greater diversity of institutional missions become instantly toxic because they are seen as rooted in unjust class distinctions, (even though the social profiles of leading universities in the US and Britain – and the rest of Europe – are remarkably similar).</p><p>Second, we may fail to recognise creeping social realities. Despite everything, the expansion of higher education has been a key element in the progress of our democracy. Higher education is no longer about elites but about citizens – because going to college is a quasi-compulsory precondition for full participation in our society, the gateway into Middle England.</p><p>A lot of the ambivalence about the – now sadly abandoned – 50% participation target can be explained by a worry that regarding higher education as a life-style choice opens the door to "dumbing down" – and the over-production of media studies graduates at the expense of plumbers (or, within higher education, of Stem graduates). So it is argued that universities should concentrate on producing the human capital required by the knowledge economy, not on a rootless, potentially under-educated and discontented, graduate class – which is the inevitable result of extending a general academic education to too many people.</p><p>The flaw with this choice between expert skills and intellectual values is that creative entrepreneurs and critical citizens are not different people. Very often they are the same. Another American, Richard Florida, has written about "clever cities", places where social progress, cultural experimentation, scientific advance, technological innovation and wealth generation come together. It is from the evidence of such places, nearly always university cities, that we should derive the many purposes of 21st-century higher education – not from past ghosts and present obsessions.</p><p>• Professor Sir Peter Scott is vice-chancellor of Kingston University. This article is adapted from his speech to the summit</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/higher-education">Higher education</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/administration">University administration</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/peter-scott">Peter Scott</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/eH4zXetlTE4Z1rQNY2Qos3sj9_o/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/eH4zXetlTE4Z1rQNY2Qos3sj9_o/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/eH4zXetlTE4Z1rQNY2Qos3sj9_o/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/eH4zXetlTE4Z1rQNY2Qos3sj9_o/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p>

Education letters
Education Guardian - Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:05:04 GMT

<div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/7194?ns=guardian&pageName=Education+letters%3AArticle%3A1370500&ch=Education&c3=Guardian&c4=Ofsted%2CHigher+education%2CEducation&c6=&c7=10-Mar-16&c8=1370500&c9=Article&c10=Letter&c11=Education&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FEducation%2FOfsted" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">Under fire: Ofsted, and the 50% target for participation in university</p><h2><strong>Ofsted is the problem </strong><br /></h2><em>Rachel Williams reported that one in seven secondary schools inspected last term were graded inadequate by Ofsted under its new regime. A comment from our website:</em></p><p></p><p>Ofsted is part of the problem and not part of the solution. Ofsted is predicated on the Henry VIII principle of government and social life. If you don't like it, chop its head off. The repeated utterances of education ministers in league with Ofsted directors are of a kind: education can be improved by making loud aggressive noises about failing schools and failing teachers.</p><p>What is the philosophy behind this? That telling people they're crap improves them? After more than a decade of this approach, where's the evidence that this kind of approach gets results?</p><p>I would suggest that if all the time, money and effort expended on this useless and painful way of going on had been expended instead in assisting teachers and schools, and facilitating dialogue between the most experienced, successful teachers and the least experienced, weakest teachers, we would have progressed enormously.</p><p>Ofsted is merely the police force that enforces this state of affairs.</p><p><strong>MichaelRosen</strong></p><h2><strong>Meaningless target</strong><br /></h2><em>Rachel Williams reported on graduate recruiters' calls for the 50% target for participation in higher education to be abandoned because it had driven down standards. Some comments from the website:</em></p><p></p><p>It is worth pointing out that Blair's 1999 pledge was extremely imprecise. What he said was: "So today I set a target of 50% of young adults going into higher education in the next century." But when in "the next century?" And "going into higher education" doesn't mean getting a degree, does it? The "pledge" was a typical piece of political obfuscation – at bottom, it was virtually meaningless.</p><p><strong>Geoffrey Alderman</strong></p><p></p><p>• What is the need for 50% of school leavers to go to uni? We don't have enough electricians or plumbers, or other vocational professions, which is why they are able to charge such astronomical fees for their services.</p><p><strong>Wowza</strong></p><p>• I am a teacher. I have seen entire fields of interview candidates for jobs as SEN assistants, on a tiny salary, who have degrees. I also teach a lot of lovely students who are aiming for university without the ability, the drive or the interest to go. What a mixed-up world we live in.</p><p><strong>suzysoo</strong></p><h2><strong>Bra-vo!</strong><br /></h2><em>Last week Dr Elena Bodnar wrote about her award-winning invention, a bra that can quickly be turned into an emergency mask for two people. This prompted some excruciating puns on our website: </em></p><p></p><p>Thanks to the Guardian. Always helping the reader keep abreast of events.</p><p><strong>Clagnut</strong></p><p></p><p>I wish her luck – and hope the company doesn't go bust.</p><p><strong>DukeOfBuckby</strong></p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/ofsted">Ofsted</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/higher-education">Higher education</a></li></ul></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/ibir0SMah1lDBQOBICJIin3inRo/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/ibir0SMah1lDBQOBICJIin3inRo/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/ibir0SMah1lDBQOBICJIin3inRo/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/ibir0SMah1lDBQOBICJIin3inRo/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p>

University challenge: our students continue their quest
Education Guardian - Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:05:02 GMT

<div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/26631?ns=guardian&pageName=University+challenge%3A+our+students+continue+their+quest%3AArticle%3A1370617&ch=Education&c3=Guardian&c4=Students%2CHigher+education%2CA-levels%2CEducation&c6=Lucy+Tobin&c7=10-Mar-16&c8=1370617&c9=Article&c10=Feature&c11=Education&c13=The+university+challenge+%28series%29&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FEducation%2FStudents" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">Our series following four students applying to university continues as choices need to be confirmed and student finance organised</p><p>With A2 exams looming and student finance still to sort out, Catherine Westbrook, 18, has set herself a deadline to confirm her first- and second-choice university offers to Ucas. There's just one problem – she has been so focused on winning a place to read maths at her first choice, Reading, that she's not sure what to put down as an insurance offer.</p><p>"I want to tell Ucas my final choice by Easter, because I want to then focus on A-levels and doing well at my exams after that," explains Catherine, one of four students who have agreed to let Education Guardian into their lives. "The problem is, I'm still deciding whether to put down an insurance offer at all, because I only really want to go to Reading. I honestly don't know what I'll do if I don't get in there – I might take a gap year, study harder, and apply again."</p><p>The final date for most students to inform Ucas of their first place and insurance offers is 5 May, although it may be later if you haven't heard back from all your universities by the end of this month. But Catherine, who is blind, has had difficulties using the Ucas website. "I've been struggling to work out the site – I use a normal computer with an extra speech programme to read out the page, but it doesn't work very well on the internet, so I'm going to ask the head of sixth form if she can do it with me at school."</p><p>Apart from Ucas obligations, Catherine, who is studying at Dane Court grammar school in Kent, admits that the year 13 workload is piling up. "We've just finished our mocks, which is a huge relief. I did exams in all my subjects – music, physics, maths, further maths and general studies –– so it was a busy week. Plus, my exams are twice are long as everyone else's, because they're in Braille, which takes longer to read, and I dictate my answers to a scribe. It was really tiring, and I've since discovered I did quite badly on some papers. But I know I can improve with more practice, and it was useful to work out how long to spend on each question."</p><p>Catherine is also beginning to think about applying for student finance. "I've started to look into the money stuff, because I'll have to move out of home to go to Reading and will need support. But the forms are quite daunting and I keep putting it off. Still, I know I'm going to apply for a loan and possibly a grant, too. My parents and I are researching the Disabled Students Allowance, which could be worth up to £20,000 a year."</p><p>Now is a good time to start researching how you're going to cope financially while at university, and the first thing to do is to check whether you are eligible for student finance – most people will be, but there are certain conditions. For example, you must have UK resident status, or meet certain other requirements such as having refugee status. Your course must lead to a recognised qualification, and your university or college must be publicly funded and based in the UK.</p><p>The exact cost of your uni life will depend on a range of factors, like where you study, (people based in London will face higher living costs, but are also eligible for larger loans), and your family's background. For most students, the two biggest expenses will be living costs and tuition fees. Living costs will obviously vary wildly depending on where, and how, you live: Spam-munchers will live more cheaply than caviar-chompers. Tuition fees are easier to budget for: most unis will charge £3,290 a year for 2010 starters. However, you don't have to pay up immediately – all British students are eligible for a loan to cover the fees. You won't have to pay the money back until you have graduated and are earning more than £15,000 a year.</p><p>Other sources of funding for students include the maintenance loan and maintenance grant. The maintenance loan is available to everyone, although the amount you receive will depend on your family income. The maximum you could scoop is just under £5,000 if you're living away from home. This loan is also repayable after graduation.</p><p>Even better, the maintenance grant offers free money: you can receive up to £2,906 if your family earns less than £25,000. If your family income is higher than that, but less than £50,020, you can still receive some money – it goes down incrementally, with the smallest payout £50 a year. Also, as Catherine mentioned, students with a disability, special educational needs or who are single parents may be eligible for extra funds – ask your student funding body for information about the Special Support Grant.</p><p>Bursaries and scholarships are another source of cash – some universities give extra help, depending on your personal situation. The government has set up this map to help you work out what you could be eligible for, so it's worth taking a look – the time it takes could be the best-paid five minutes of your life: bursarymap.direct.gov.uk.</p><p>These issues might seem a long way off for year 12s, but it is time to consider your Ucas form and personal statement. Miriam Rose, 17, a BTec student at Barnet College in north London, has already attended tutorials at college about writing a personal statement. "I'm starting to think about what kind of message I want to broadcast about myself, what interests and ideas I want to discuss," she says.</p><p>"I'm worried about what exactly unis want to see in a personal statement and what's the best way to write it up. Everyone is really worried and stressed about getting into a university – it's all I can think about at the moment – but my workload is growing, so I'm trying to focus on that, too."</p><p>• To order a copy of Lucy Tobin's book A Guide to Uni Life (Trotman) for £9.99 with free UK p&p go to guardian.co.uk/ bookshop or call 0330 333 6846</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/students">Students</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/higher-education">Higher education</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/alevels">A-levels</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/lucy-tobin">Lucy Tobin</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/TGCkJb1EF9BQ9wPM9xv6gw5k3Ns/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/TGCkJb1EF9BQ9wPM9xv6gw5k3Ns/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/TGCkJb1EF9BQ9wPM9xv6gw5k3Ns/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/TGCkJb1EF9BQ9wPM9xv6gw5k3Ns/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p>

Wolf at the door
Education Guardian - Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:05:02 GMT

<div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/20436?ns=guardian&pageName=Wolf+at+the+door%3AArticle%3A1370620&ch=Education&c3=Guardian&c4=Schools%2CEducation%2CEducation+policy%2CConservatives%2CPolitics&c6=Peter+Wilby&c7=10-Mar-16&c8=1370620&c9=Article&c10=Feature&c11=Education&c13=The+profile+%28education+series%29&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FEducation%2FSchools" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">'Free schools' are the Tories' latest Big Idea. Their chances of making them happen seem to depend largely on one woman – Rachel Wolf</p><p>Ever since the Tories set up their city technology colleges in the 1980s, no prospective government can go into a general election without a promise to establish a new kind of school. We've had grant-maintained schools, specialist schools, beacon schools, city academies (now just academies) and a host of others. Now, if the Tories return to power, we shall have – well, they don't seem officially to have a name yet, but "free schools" is what they're usually called, despite the distant associations with the 1970s and the de-schooling movement started by the libertarian Catholic priest Ivan Illich.</p><p>The Tories' idea is that, with suitable safeguards, parents, teachers, voluntary groups or co-operatives can apply for and get state funding to set up a new school. But will enough aspirant school founders come forward? Who will check their credentials? And, most crucially, will a Conservative chancellor, impatient to cut the budget deficit and hungry for public spending cuts, give them the money?</p><p>Rachel Wolf – aged 24, recently graduated from Cambridge, rapid of speech and apt to use words such as "brilliant" and "phenomenal" every second sentence – has the answers. Last year, she set up the New Schools Network (NSN) to provide advice on business plans, planning applications, publicity and everything else needed to set up a school. It is also doing research on "free schools" elsewhere, particularly in America and Sweden, to establish which ones succeed and why.</p><p>The Tories' chances of turning their idea into more than an electoral soundbite depend to a great extent on Wolf. Not, she assures me, that she is a Tory, even though her only previous post-university jobs involved working for Boris Johnson, now Tory mayor of London (then shadow higher education spokesman), and Michael Gove, the shadow children's secretary. Her tiny, bare office, near St James's Park in London, is shared with CentreForum, a Liberal Democrat think-tank, and the NSN advisers include Sally Morgan and Julian Le Grand, both of whom worked for Tony Blair in Downing Street. It's a classic example of an arm's-length organisation that allows Tory leaders to disclaim responsibility for anything it does or says, while also, as one senior Tory told me, "involving people who wouldn't want anything to do with the Conservative party".</p><p>Wolf won't tell me where the money for herself and three other full-time staff comes from, saying donors wish to remain anonymous. But a glance at the six trustees – who include four prominent associates of academy sponsors, notably Edutrust and Ark, which have eight academies each and more planned – has raised suspicions. Many critics think the Tories' free schools will be just another vehicle through which such private providers increase their stake in the state-funded education system and Wolf says, at one point, that much of her work involves putting parents and teachers "in touch" with established operators.</p><p>She talks a lot about how she wants the new schools to work with deprived children, helping them to acquire "cultural capital" they would otherwise lack. She cheerfully acknowledges that she started with ample cultural capital. Her mother, Alison Wolf, now a professor at King's College London, once wrote a book called Does Education Matter? – the answer, interestingly, was "no" – and her father, Martin Wolf, writes an economic policy column of awesome erudition in the Financial Times. She went to a local primary in Dulwich, south London, and then to Alleyn's, a nearby independent school. At Cambridge, she read natural sciences, specialising in chemistry, and "hoped to do research into cancer drugs and things like that, but then realised I didn't have the right gifts". Was she involved in politics at Cambridge? "Absolutely not, not at all, and certainly not student politics." Indeed, she says, she has very little interest in politics, but she's "passionate about policy", which, from a 24-year-old, sounds as improbable as being passionate about Ovaltine until you think what the breakfast chat must have been like at home.</p><p>While she was backpacking in Mexico with friends, the university careers service alerted her to "a brilliant job advert" for research with Boris Johnson (pictured below), which required her to write two essays, one on universities, the other on the Taj Mahal, a trip on a spaceship or a country ramble (she chose the Taj Mahal). She got the job and then moved on to working for Gove.</p><p>The Tories make no secret that their free school schemes are modelled largely on American charter schools. Wolf did much of the legwork on finding out how the schools operate. While in New York, she visited the Charter School Center, which offers help to groups starting up schools, plus later support on leadership training and suchlike, as well as doing PR and lobbying for the charter school movement. She came back to London determined to start a similar organisation.</p><p>Since the early 1990s, several thousand charter schools have opened in America. They are independent schools financed from public funds, but free from the direct political and bureaucratic control that, in America, is sometimes so onerous that principals can't choose their own textbooks. They are accountable – through aims and objectives set out in charters they write themselves – but not necessarily to a political body. As well as local school districts and state boards of education, "authorizers" include universities and, in some states, private corporations. Here, says Wolf, someone wanting to start a school in north London could apply to the local council, the mayor of London, a London university or central government.</p><p>NSN's website says baldly that "professors ... have carried out evaluations of charter schools and found that they improve attainment". Wolf admits the true picture is more mixed. One study, probably the most comprehensive and authoritative to date, from Stanford University in California, did indeed find success in New York and Chicago but, across the country, concluded that in only 17% of charter schools did pupils make more progress than their equivalents in regular public schools, and in 37% they made less.</p><p>Wolf says: "What seems to make the difference is the level of accountability. The areas such as New York that have successful charter schools are more rigorous in looking at applications in the first place and more willing to refuse charter renewals. Some people talk about it all being a matter of free market choice. I don't think it is. It needs to be very regulated."</p><p>Again, the NSN website reports that Swedish free schools – which have flourished since 1992 when a centre-right government introduced a new regime of school choice – deliver "much better scores" for their pupils. But here, too, the evidence is mixed. One research paper concludes that the improved scores don't feed through to better performance in post-compulsory education and notes that, in international tests, Sweden's performance has recently slipped. Another says free schools lead to increased costs and more class and race segregation. The day before I interviewed Wolf, Per Thulberg, director general of the Swedish National Agency for Education, told the BBC's Newsnight programme that free schools had not led to better results.</p><p>Wolf remains unfazed. "All the academic evidence seems to say not only that free schools do better, but that they stimulate neighbouring schools to improve. And Sweden's fall in the league tables should be put down to primary teachers not needing subject knowledge any more."</p><p>Whatever the merits of free schools, I suggest, they're unlikely to happen any time soon. Will any government allow new and mostly small schools to mushroom across the country at public expense when there's supposed to be a budgetary crisis? Surely such schools will need capital investment, mainly on buildings, if they are to launch? Wolf insists they didn't in America and Sweden. "They got no set-up funding. They either had to lease buildings from revenue or borrow against future revenue. It helped that it was made much easier for them to use cheap buildings – such as disused office blocks – and to use public space so that, in America, you'd often see a conventional school on the first two floors of a building and a charter school on the third." Even so, I say, there will be extra current spending as new schools start with small numbers, and other schools dwindle but still have to see cohorts through their education. A proper market in schools, it is generally agreed, requires surplus places (providing what economists call elasticity of supply), a notion that has hitherto horrified the Treasury.</p><p>Wolf doggedly insists that "money will follow the pupil" and that's all there is to it. Free schools will get exactly the same as established schools for each pupil they recruit and, since they will be free to design their own curriculum and pay teachers whatever they wish, they can use the money in different ways. If established schools lose pupils and therefore lose money, she says, they will have to become more efficient and more appealing to parents, as many did in Sweden and America. "Very few closed," she insists.</p><p>If Wolf is right, anybody starting a new school will need to borrow and, whoever does the lending, somebody, somewhere will take a high degree of risk. And people don't usually take risks without the prospect of a significant return. Does this mean free school providers will be allowed to make profits, as they do in Sweden? To my surprise, Wolf doesn't recoil in horror, but then, as she has told me, she is no politician. She points out that, even now, there is nothing to stop UK providers, including local authorities, contracting out management functions (if not the actual teaching) to profit-making firms such as Edison. "You don't really have to change anything. You can use that kind of body while remaining a charitable trust. It's just a question of scale."</p><p>Where Wolf does recoil is when I suggest that some free schools may want to levy small fees from parents, possibly means-tested, to top up per capita public funding, particularly where they have to cope with diseconomies of scale. "No," she says firmly, "that won't happen. The most important thing is that children from poorer backgrounds can access these schools. But I would like to see parents contribute more, either through donations or in kind."</p><p>Wolf is equally adamant that free schools won't just be about a traditionalist curriculum and teaching methods. She says she's had 350 groups making inquiries, many of them parents and young teachers who want a less rigid approach to teaching – "something more child-centred", as she puts it – and there's been very little interest from religious groups. Wolf may be a supporter of Conservative education policy –after all, as Gove's aide, she helped to write most of it – but, she says, she doesn't agree with things like the emphasis on narrative British history. "I'm in favour of diversity; I don't think there's one model that's perfect. Different schools suit different children." But, she says, all schools, including free schools, should be set minimum benchmarks for their results. "I think 30% getting five or more GCSEs at higher grades is too low. I'd put it up. And as time goes on, I'd expect the benchmark to be raised."</p><p>I got two verdicts on Wolf, one from a Tory MP, another from a supporter of conventional state-funded comprehensives. "A very naive, one-trick pony, with little understanding of what goes on in schools or of what make schools and children fail," said the latter source. "Smart, bright and genuinely convinced intellectually of what she's doing; she's not trying to advance a political career," said the MP. There is truth in both verdicts, and it's hard not to admire Wolf's enthusiasm, confidence and lack of dogmatism. I ask about her long-term ambitions. "Absolutely no idea," she replies. She repeats that she has no interest in politics, least of all in a political career. All the same, I suspect we shall hear much more of Wolf and that, if the free schools prove successful, she could walk into a safe Tory seat at the election after next.</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/schools">Schools</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/education">Education policy</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/conservatives">Conservatives</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/peterwilby">Peter Wilby</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/po52QtReVAvngaazqlki5HhxahQ/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/po52QtReVAvngaazqlki5HhxahQ/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/po52QtReVAvngaazqlki5HhxahQ/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/po52QtReVAvngaazqlki5HhxahQ/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p>

Government rediscovers industry by funding nuclear firm Sheffield Forgemasters
Education Guardian - Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:05:01 GMT

<div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/37351?ns=guardian&pageName=Government+rediscovers+industry+by+funding+nuclear+firm+Sheffield+Forgem%3AArticle%3A1372201&ch=Business&c3=GU.co.uk&c4=Manufacturing+sector+%28Business+sector%29%2CEnergy+industry%2CNuclear+power+%28Environment%29%2CEnergy+technology+%28Technology%29%2CEnergy+%28Environment%29%2CCarbon+emissions+%28Environment%29%2CSheffield+University%2CPeter+Mandelson%2CUnions+%28UK%29%2CPolitics%2CBusiness&c6=Tim+Webb&c7=10-Mar-16&c8=1372201&c9=Article&c10=News&c11=Business&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FBusiness%2FManufacturing+sector" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">Mandelson to announce £170m funding for nuclear manufacturer that could lead low-carbon industrial strategy</p><p></p><p>The government's much-vaunted "low-carbon industrial strategy" is set to receive a boost on Wednesday with the announcement of a long-awaited £170m funding package for the British nuclear manufacturer, Sheffield Forgemasters.</p><p>The company, which has been in funding negotiations for more than six months, has secured the last remaining £20m from bank loans, the Guardian has learnt.</p><p>It means Sheffield Forgemasters will be able to build a 15,000-tonne press to make large forgings used in modern reactors being built in the UK and overseas.</p><p>The business secretary, Lord Mandelson, and the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, will travel to Sheffield, along with the business minister, Pat McFadden, to make the announcement on Wednesday.</p><p>Boosting the hi-tech industrial economy in the UK will become a key political battleground in the run-up to the general election after the credit crunch exposed the dangers of becoming over-reliant on financial services. Official data recently showed that in its first decade in power Labour had allowed the manufacturing sector to shrink at a quicker rate than under Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.</p><p>In response, Mandelson, who has been heavily involved in the complex negotiations, has been championing a new policy of "industrial activism". Ministers say that without more government support for industry, the tens of billions of pounds of new reactors and wind turbines planned to reduce carbon emissions would have to be imported. British manufacturers and workers would miss out.</p><p>To secure the funding, the government has pledged £65m in soft loans, with £35m from the European Investment Bank. The nuclear reactor firm Westinghouse is paying £50m upfront for its orders.</p><p>The deal also provides a much-needed boost to the north-east, where traditional manufacturers such as Corus have been hammered by the recession and which has one of the highest UK jobless rates. Mandelson wants to create a hub of low-carbon manufacturers in the region with ties to Sheffield University. He recently opened a new £25m research facility in Rotherham for Britain's civil nuclear industry where Sheffield Forgemasters can work with other UK firms in the supply chain.</p><p>Dougie Rooney, of the Unite union, said: "The only hope for the nation in terms of being able to pay off its debts is for the UK's engineering industry to become a global supply-chain player supplying components and equipment for new energy projects."</p><p>The Sheffield firm is one of only a few around the world that can make the special forgings for reactors. There is increasing political pressure on nuclear companies to source as many components as possible from the UK. The deal will create 150 jobs directly, but thousands more could be created in the wider nuclear supply chain as a result, according to Unite.</p><p>Sheffield Forgemasters, whose origins go back to the 1750s, became notorious in the 1990s after becoming embroiled in the "Supergun affair" over arms sales to Iraq.</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/manufacturing-sector">Manufacturing sector</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/energy-industry">Energy industry</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/nuclearpower">Nuclear power</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/energy">Energy</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/energy">Energy</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/carbon-emissions">Carbon emissions</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/universityofsheffield">University of Sheffield</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/peter-mandelson">Peter Mandelson</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/tradeunions">Trade unions</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/timwebb">Tim Webb</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/qpXEG0V1eec2FkTkbWERy0ecB4U/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/qpXEG0V1eec2FkTkbWERy0ecB4U/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/qpXEG0V1eec2FkTkbWERy0ecB4U/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/qpXEG0V1eec2FkTkbWERy0ecB4U/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p>

Alien Ofsted
Education Guardian - Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:01:00 GMT

<p>School inspectors are on another planet</p><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/ros-asquith">Ros Asquith</a></div><br/><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Bw9DW7oBx9MmLAzHwHDBti0YyGo/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Bw9DW7oBx9MmLAzHwHDBti0YyGo/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Bw9DW7oBx9MmLAzHwHDBti0YyGo/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Bw9DW7oBx9MmLAzHwHDBti0YyGo/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p>

The definitive Marmite poll
Education Guardian - Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:01:00 GMT

<p>Marmite divides society, into those who love it, and those who hate it. Which side are you on?</p><br/><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/-8AFaXxu0P0eUwbyGaQIJmCeBTs/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/-8AFaXxu0P0eUwbyGaQIJmCeBTs/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/-8AFaXxu0P0eUwbyGaQIJmCeBTs/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/-8AFaXxu0P0eUwbyGaQIJmCeBTs/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p>

Postgrad programmes: personal accounts
Education Guardian - Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:00:03 GMT

<div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/29484?ns=guardian&pageName=Postgrad+programmes%3A+personal+accounts%3AArticle%3A1372006&ch=Education&c3=GU.co.uk&c4=Postgraduates%2CEducation%2CMaster%27s+degrees+%28Education%29&c6=Stephen+Hoare&c7=10-Mar-16&c8=1372006&c9=Article&c10=Feature&c11=Education&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FEducation%2FPostgraduates" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">Three MA students give their views on the postgraduate experience</p><h2>Matthew Crowley</h2><p><br />Matthew Crowley, 29, is a primary school teaching assistant in Hackney by day and studies for a master's in modern and contemporary literature by night. Birkbeck College, University of London, specialises in full- and part-time evening study at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. Students support themselves with a day job while studying, while a lucky few manage to get bursaries that cover part of their course fees.</p><p>Combining study with employment is a difficult juggling act even if you work part-time like Crowley, who, a few months ago, became a father. "I work 30 hours a week at Lauriston primary school helping special needs pupils to read," he says, "and I attend lectures or seminars one night a week in addition to a lot of reading for my class preparation and&nbsp;essays. "</p><p>Half of Crowley's course fees are paid for by a £1,500-a-year, means-tested bursary from international law firm Denton Wilde Sapte. The grant was set up with Birkbeck and is currently offered to 12 students.</p><p>After his master's, Crowley hopes to move into teaching, doing either a PhD and teaching at undergraduate level, or a postgraduate certificate in education.</p><p>Birkbeck development manager Kate Glennie says that their "limited research council funding" goes mainly to doctoral students, "so we put&nbsp;a lot of emphasis on fundraising for postgraduate bursaries and scholarships. This can be individual donations from former students or by establishing programmes with prominent local businesses such as Denton Wilde Sapte and Man Group." Birkbeck's alumni office has around £1m to distribute in bursaries and is one of only a few universities to have this kind of scheme in&nbsp;place.</p><h2>Fiona Stow</h2><p><br />Mature postgraduate students are mainly self-financing. Studying for her master's in cities and culture (London studies), former secretary Fiona Stow, 56, works part-time for the Rothschild Archive in the City. She says: "I'd just taken early retirement and was offered the job in the archive at more or less the same time I started my MA. My pension covers my small mortgage and my work covers my course fees and living expenses. It was a wonderful coincidence. I'd recently finished a history degree with the Open University and the opportunity to take it to the next level was not to be missed."</p><p>Stow has the added advantage that her work in the archive has provided the inspiration for her dissertation. "I came across some household receipts for a Rothschild house in Mayfair, and intend to examine those in conjunction with contemporary topographical sources of the shops and commercial outlets that existed at the time."</p><h2>Jay Amin</h2><p><br />Jay Amin, 26, is studying for an MA in 3D computer animation at Bournemouth University. He chose Bournemouth because of its close links to the industry and the fact that it is home to the National Centre for Computer Animation. The MA is the realisation of a long-cherished ambition: "I had begun a degree in fine art at Portsmouth University which I never completed. I got married and my wife gave birth to twins, so I had to find a job to support my family."</p><p>In the intervening years and by now head of catering at a local restaurant, Amin honed his artistic skills and created a showreel which persuaded the course tutors at Bournemouth to accept him on the MA. His employer is part-funding his degree in recognition of his loyal service.</p><p>"It's a very full-on course," he says. "The degree is a good combination of technology and artistry."</p><p>Amin's ultimate goal is to work as a 3D animator with Pixar or Dreamworks, both of which are based in California. The aims are realistic as every week Bournemouth postgrads are given master classes by practising animators. He says: "I would uproot the whole family, if it meant following my dream." His wife and kids welcome the idea. "When I create my cartoons, I'm testing them out on my five-year-old daughters," he says. "They laugh their heads off: they're my biggest fans!"</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/postgraduates">Postgraduates</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/masters-degrees">Master's degrees</a></li></ul></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/uQSScZRHeKVnyCynZSCB29g8R58/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/uQSScZRHeKVnyCynZSCB29g8R58/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/uQSScZRHeKVnyCynZSCB29g8R58/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/uQSScZRHeKVnyCynZSCB29g8R58/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p>

'They are like whirlwinds, brimming with confidence'
Education Guardian - Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:00:02 GMT

<div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/20695?ns=guardian&pageName=%27They+are+like+whirlwinds%2C+brimming+with+confidence%27%3AArticle%3A1371928&ch=Education&c3=GU.co.uk&c4=Literacy%2CSchools%2CInternational+education+news%2CUK+news&c6=Val+Almond&c7=10-Mar-16&c8=1371928&c9=Article&c10=News%2CBlogpost&c11=Education&c13=&c25=Mortarboard+blog&c30=content&h2=GU%2FEducation%2Fblog%2FMortarboard+blog" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">Retired teacher Val Almond volunteered to read to children in India in response to a request in Education Guardian. One year and many stories on, she shares her experience</p><p>Last March I read an article in Education Guardian that called for volunteers to read stories to Indian children for one hour a week using Skype. I am a retired teacher and I still love working with children, so I applied and have been working with children in Hyderabad since last summer.</p><p>The first problem was to find suitable stories to read as I was told the children liked books with pictures. I decided to read fairy stories and have read many of the traditional fairy stories like Jack and the Beanstalk, Cinderella and Goldilocks and The Three Bears. These went down well, especially when I managed to show them how to make a beanstalk and a 'Jacob's ladder' out of paper.</p><p>In an effort to keep the boys interested I decided to read about Robin Hood. By this time I had learnt how to screen-share and I took photographs of the local woods, countryside and deer so that they could imagine what Sherwood Forest might have looked like and could identify the deer that were mentioned in the story. I also showed them a bow and arrow and a 'Robin Hood' hat with a feather in it, and we discussed the use of the weapons, what they were made of and why they wore 'Lincoln green'.</p><p>Current films like Fantastic Mr Fox, Where The Wild Things Are and The Princess and the Frog have been helpful, because as well as acting as triggers for stories to read, I have been able to show them clips and photographs from the films.</p><p>Local events have also been useful. I took lots of photographs of the visiting fair and showed them the dodgems, waltzer and 'scary' rides. I also showed them the side stalls where you could 'hook a duck', throw a ball to knock cans down or play hoopla. The children took great delight in spotting various animals that were hanging from the stalls for prizes like tigers, lions and dolphins and easily recognised Superman and Spiderman dolls. I explained what candy floss, toffee apples and hot dogs were, but they were already familiar with tomato ketchup!</p><p>I used the beautiful autumn to show the way the landscape changed in the UK and the snow in January to show children sledging and throwing snowballs.</p><p>As the sessions have progressed, we have all gained in confidence. We have progressed to play games like 'the odd one out', 'true or false' statements, a form of 'hangman' using a white board and even dingbats.</p><p>The girls I know best in my group are Rajini and Meghana, and latterly Pallavi. They are the stalwarts in that they are always there. I think my relationship with them is growing in that they are now beginning to tell me what they want to do. One day last week they said they wanted to play games and do puzzles and we didn't get round to reading a story at all. I think it has taken time for them to grow in confidence as initially it was just 'yes, ma'am', 'no, ma'am'! They are beginning to take the initiative and joined in the game by giving me a question to answer: the clues they gave me involved them reminding me which country my daughter was currently living in. They had obviously remembered what I had told them about my family.</p><p>I took on an extra group for a few weeks while their usual mediator was away, and although I have only managed to interact with them about 3 times (due to technical problems) they are so enthusiastic and exuberant that I hope to maintain the contact. They are a group of 5 girls whom I estimate to be about 12 and they are desperate to make contact. When we do, they are like whirlwinds. They are brimming with confidence and tell me what they want and what they want to do.</p><p>I find all the children irresistible and working with them is just delightful. The challenge is to keep them interested, to increase their confidence as well as their English speaking, writing and reading skills. They have made much progress in a short period of time. I feel the possibilities of this scheme are endless.</p><p></p><p>• Val Almond is a retired history teacher from Loughborough</p><p></p><p>• Professor Sugata Mitra, the academic behind this project, is now seeking maths and science teachers to work with children in India. If you are interested, contact <a href="mailto:sugata.mitra@newcastle.ac.uk" title=""><strong>sugata.mitra@newcastle.ac.uk</strong></a></p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/literacy">Literacy</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/schools">Schools</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/internationaleducationnews">International education news</a></li></ul></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/fy-4EEpaQ67apLgNfvE3v4lHinE/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/fy-4EEpaQ67apLgNfvE3v4lHinE/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/fy-4EEpaQ67apLgNfvE3v4lHinE/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/fy-4EEpaQ67apLgNfvE3v4lHinE/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p>

What to look for in a research degree
Education Guardian - Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:00:02 GMT

<div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/1826?ns=guardian&pageName=What+to+look+for+in+a+research+degree%3AArticle%3A1372010&ch=Education&c3=GU.co.uk&c4=Postgraduates%2CEducation%2CMaster%27s+degrees+%28Education%29&c6=Stephen+Hoare&c7=10-Mar-16&c8=1372010&c9=Article&c10=Feature&c11=Education&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FEducation%2FPostgraduates" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">Choosing the right postgraduate course requires research and commitment. What questions should prospective students ask?</p><p>The overriding factor that persuaded Daisy Whichelo, 22, that she wanted to study for a master's in digital documentary (media and film) at the University of Sussex was the opportunity to learn on the job. "Brighton has a lot of fantastically vibrant small film and TV companies," she says. "The university's careers database helped me find an internship working one day a week for a digital documentary distribution company. I'm not being paid but I am doing a real job, phoning TV channels all over the world and marketing the work of independent documentary makers. It's a fabulous networking opportunity, so when I start my career, I can hit the ground running."</p><p>Besides the obvious questions that prospective postgraduate students need to ask, such as what is the quality of teaching and the department's research ranking, they need to research their application thoroughly. Professor Vince Emery, vice-head of University College London (UCL) graduate school, advises students to look beyond the academic ranking. "I say to students, 'Don't just go for the Russell Group. A university further down the league table might have a really cracking department in your subject area'," he says.</p><p>Quality of life issues are important, too. Emery says that, when they start a course, students can find themselves isolated within a specialist department or a narrow discipline: "At UCL we believe in cross-fertilisation. We run social and cultural events where postgraduates can mix. Meeting people from other disciplines such as medical students and engineers can make a real difference to the breadth of a postgraduate student's research."</p><p>Students hoping to take more vocationally oriented postgraduate degrees are likely to head for a business school. Located next to the Gherkin in the City of London, BPP Business School is privately run and accredited to offer its own master's programmes in subjects like marketing, finance and investment.</p><p>Caroline Purser, student recruitment manager, says that students need to ask about contact time with staff. "As we are not a research-based institution and there are no doctoral students, our staff are 100% present and available for the students," she says. "And, besides academic qualifications, they have up-to-date business experience."</p><p>A mixed international cohort makes for a richer student experience and BPP attracts students from all over the world. "Our students love the London social life and we support them in finding student accommodation and through the clubs and societies that we support," says Purser.</p><p>Word of mouth and online research are two of the most important sources of information for prospective postgraduates. It is also worth drawing up a detailed list of questions to ask at a face-to-face interview. Saf Efstathiou, course leader in computer animation at Bournemouth University, runs a highly vocational department. Students learn about life at Bournemouth from the university's own Twitter site and from student blogs. His advice? "Don't just believe what you read on our website – talk to real people."</p><p>These sources should be supplemented by more detailed inquiries. The hardest question to tease out is the academic reputation of your course. "Approach the sort of companies that you hope will employ you after your master's degree and ask them what they think of the course," says Efstathiou. "Animation film companies like Disney or ILM [Industrial Light and Magic] have lists of approved courses on their website. Talk to your contacts working in the industry and ex-students. This applies to whatever degree you're studying."</p><p>He recommends that students question course leaders about employability and the relevance of the curriculum: "Ask how often the course content is updated. You don't want to be studying a vocational master's degree that is five- or six-years-old. Business links are a good sign that content meets industry best practice. We have master classes every Friday where leading practitioners come and talk about what it's like to work in the industry."</p><p>Bournemouth's alumni Facebook site provides feedback about where former students have reached in their careers and how long it took them to get there. Simply asking about how many graduates found employment within three months of leaving the course is not enough.</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/postgraduates">Postgraduates</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/masters-degrees">Master's degrees</a></li></ul></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Dtv6robOZqytRKwbwNxZSXDGY0U/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Dtv6robOZqytRKwbwNxZSXDGY0U/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Dtv6robOZqytRKwbwNxZSXDGY0U/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Dtv6robOZqytRKwbwNxZSXDGY0U/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p>

Postgraduate research degrees lead to greater employability
Education Guardian - Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:00:01 GMT

<div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/24647?ns=guardian&pageName=Postgraduate+research+degrees+lead+to+greater+employability%3AArticle%3A1371993&ch=Education&c3=GU.co.uk&c4=Postgraduates%2CEducation%2CMaster%27s+degrees+%28Education%29&c6=Harriet+Swain&c7=10-Mar-16&c8=1371993&c9=Article&c10=Feature&c11=Education&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FEducation%2FPostgraduates" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">As MA and PhD students grow in numbers, a new government scheme is being implemented to emphasise their extensive skills and potential to employers</p><p>A ny new postgraduate hoping to spend a year or four alone with their subject and emerge with an original thesis had better think again. Ever since the 2002 Roberts review into science careers stated that skills training was vital to a research degree programme, postgraduates have increasingly been expected to be not only brilliant researchers but team players, communicators, and, above all, employable.</p><p>Even before the Roberts review, educators and employers were becoming concerned that not enough attention was being paid to what postgraduates could do other than research. In 2001, the UK Research Councils, in collaboration with what was then the UK Grad Programme, an organisation that champions the career development of researchers, issued a joint statement on skills, setting out the skills that postgraduate researchers would be expected to develop during their research training. They ranged from understanding the processes for the funding and evaluation of research, to the ability to show initiative, respond perceptively to others and write an effective CV.</p><p>That statement is now being updated into a new framework of skills due to be published in the next few weeks. Janet Metcalfe, chair of UK Grad's successor, Vitae, says: "The environment in which people are doing research has changed from what it was 10 years ago. Research is broader now. It incorporates more need to have public engagement, to communicate science and to make an impact."</p><p>She says the new framework will also acknowledge the changing environment in which research is carried out and the characteristics needed by researchers. "While the joint skills statement looked at what skills and competencies you should have by the end of a doctorate, this is looking at how you develop as a researcher," she says. It starts earlier, going right back to skills developed during a research project for a master's degree.</p><p>The aim of the new framework is to enable researchers to trace their progress and identify areas they need to work on, as well as providing them with a basis for discussions with supervisors. Institutions will be able to use it to help them develop postgraduate training programmes and careers services to offer the right kinds of support, and funders will be able to get an idea of where their grants are going. The hope also is that employers inside and outside academia will use the framework to discover what exactly postgraduates can offer them.</p><p>This is the latest in a raft of initiatives by institutions, the government and postgraduate organisations aimed at boosting recognition by employers of the generic skills acquired by postgraduates during their degrees.</p><p>Last October, Universities UK (UUK), the umbrella group of university vice-chancellors, brought out a report entitled Promoting the UK Doctorate, in which UUK president Steve Smith stressed the need to promote the attractiveness of a PhD from a British institution to employers as well as to students. UUK wants this to form a key part of the postgraduate review announced by business and skills secretary Lord Mandelson and due to report in July.</p><p>Earlier this year, Vitae launched its career stories portal, revealing, through case studies, what postgraduate students end up doing and how they get there.</p><p>It has also recently surveyed employers in various sectors about their attitudes to employing postgraduates. The survey found that, of the 100 respondents, nearly three-quarters would welcome more applications from doctoral graduates and more than a third were already targeting them.</p><p>This focus on employability is partly because there are so many postgraduates now – more than 140,000 studying for master's degrees and 90,000 for doctorates. There is also a realisation that half of those graduating with postgraduate degrees do not continue into academia, and that many never intended to. The recession has increased the numbers opting for a postgraduate qualification to avoid a tricky jobs market while boosting their CVs.</p><p>But it is also because of government emphasis on the "knowledge economy" and the importance of high-level skills in helping the UK out of recession.</p><p>Last year, a government report, Building Britain's Future: New Industry, New Jobs, highlighted the economic impact of research and encouraged closer ties between researchers and industry, arguing that "Britain is, and will continue to be, an economy driven by the creation and exploitation of knowledge."</p><p>Metcalfe says the contents of the new Vitae framework have "definitely been influenced by a change in the environment in terms of researchers being seen as important for the knowledge economy".</p><p>While Kyle Wedgwood, who is in his first year of a Phd in mathematical neuroscience at the University of Nottingham, is wary of a tick-box approach to developing skills by simply accumulating credits from training courses, he recognises that reflecting on the skills he has gained will be a valuable way to collect his thoughts when preparing job applications.</p><p>But more important to his future job prospects, he says, is his involvement in activities outside his study. "On a social level, and purely from a developmental point of view, it gives you an appreciation of where your work fits in and how people perceive what you do."</p><p>While his course has boosted his ability to communicate what he does and to work in a team, he argues that it is by organising dodgeball sessions and taking part in other extra-curricula activities that he has really honed the kinds of skills likely to be appealing in the workplace.</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/postgraduates">Postgraduates</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/masters-degrees">Master's degrees</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/harrietswain">Harriet Swain</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/AzDMJAyK_gMQKM5DI5_J7tei4Dw/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/AzDMJAyK_gMQKM5DI5_J7tei4Dw/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/AzDMJAyK_gMQKM5DI5_J7tei4Dw/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/AzDMJAyK_gMQKM5DI5_J7tei4Dw/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p>

Black boys are too feminised | Tony Sewell
Education Guardian - Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:30:00 GMT

<div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/24593?ns=guardian&pageName=Black+boys+are+too+feminised+%7C+Tony+Sewell%3AArticle%3A1372089&ch=Comment+is+free&c3=Guardian&c4=Parents+and+parenting%2CRace+in+schools%2CWorld+news%2CSociety%2CEquality+%28Society%29%2CPolitics%2CRace+issues+%28News%29%2CDavid+Lammy+%28kw%29%2CEducation%2CUK+news%2CRace+in+education&c6=Tony+Sewell&c7=10-Mar-15&c8=1372089&c9=Article&c10=Comment&c11=Comment+is+free&c13=&c25=Comment+is+free&c30=content&h2=GU%2FComment+is+free%2Fblog%2FComment+is+free" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">More than racism, the absence of father figures is the main problem holding back black kids in school</p><p>Martin, a mixed-race 15-year-old south Londoner, had just downed half a bottle of vodka. The boy was already known for attention-seeking, bad behaviour and aggressively challenging authority figures. But in his drunken state, with his inhibitions gone, he wasn't more threatening. He was crying – violently sobbing – for his father. "I want my dad. It's not fair. I've only spoken to him once on the phone. Why does he hate me? I fucking want to see him now."</p><p>Martin was taking part in a residential summer camp run by my charity, which takes black boys and offers them educational coaching and mentoring. Martin had smuggled in the alcohol without us realising. Raised by a single white mother, he had never known his dad.</p><p>Higher education minister David Lammy today <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8565277.stm" title="">appealed for black fathers</a> to become more involved with their children. He is aware, as I am, of the devastating consequences of absent fatherhood within the black community: 59% of black Caribbean children live in lone-parent households, compared with 22% of white children.</p><p>Another boy at camp couldn't get along with the others; he told me that he loved fighting and displayed an excessive amount of attention-seeking. The headteachers of each boy's school – who were also both black – told me that the mothers blamed school for making their sons behave badly. The heads spoke of a personal dislike shown by the students, which they reported as a wider dislike of black male authority. When the boys did open up at camp, it was to our female staff whom they felt they could trust.</p><p>Psychologists have known for some time that children's attachment to fathers and mothers derives from different sets of early social experiences. Specifically, mothers provide security when the child is distressed, whereas fathers provide reassuring play partners. As part of our orientation we played a simple game called Trust; I stood behind Martin who had to blindly fall into my arms. He refused to do it.</p><p>Typically, this kind of tough play love would never come from his mother. Instead of allowing him to fall, she would probably grab him from behind and whisper in his ear: "This game, it's too dangerous; I'll buy you a PlayStation instead." A typical father would say: "Come on, son, fall. I'm behind and you'd better not look back."</p><p>We have been running summer camps for five years: boys are taken from their familiar environment and work on high-level science projects at universities. All the boys have bucked the trend for inner-city African-Caribbeans, scoring an average of nine high-grade GCSEs.</p><p>When we set up the programme, we had high aspirations to nurture the next generation of black Britain's intellectual best. However, our academic ideals soon became secondary; many of the boys, once freed from the arms of their single mothers, suddenly had to cope with a world run by adult black males – figures in their lives who were mostly absent, unreliable, despised by their mothers, and usually unsuccessful.</p><p>These boys kicked up against us. It was like we were their dads who had walked out of their lives, and suddenly we demanded their respect.</p><p>More than racism, I now firmly believe that the main problem holding back black boys academically is their over-feminised upbringing. First, because with the onset of adolescence there is no male role model to provide guidance and lock down the destructive instincts that exist within all males. Second, in the absence of such a figure a boy will seek out an alternative. This will usually be among dominant male figures, all too often found in gangs. This is the space where there is a kind of hierarchy, a ritual and, of course, a sense of belonging.</p><p>We have wasted years, and lives, looking in the wrong direction as to the causes of crime and education failure. We've had endless studies attempting to prove institutional racism – while all along our boys' psychological needs weren't met.</p><p>The current government policy of rolling out role models to black youngsters is another attempt to externalise the problem that lies within. It has left us with little research and knowledge about a group that gets kicked out of school the most. Meanwhile, the black family continues to disintegrate and it seems no one dares say a word.</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/parents-and-parenting">Parents and parenting</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/raceinschools">Race in schools</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/equality">Equality</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/race">Race issues</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/david-lammy">David Lammy</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/raceineducation">Race in education</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/tonysewell">Tony Sewell</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/-WdRDX3m0DkeS5rWaS4Bgy9xC9A/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/-WdRDX3m0DkeS5rWaS4Bgy9xC9A/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/-WdRDX3m0DkeS5rWaS4Bgy9xC9A/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/-WdRDX3m0DkeS5rWaS4Bgy9xC9A/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p>

Confucius would be confused
Education Guardian - Mon, 15 Mar 2010 17:19:17 GMT

<div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/86551?ns=guardian&pageName=Confucius+would+be+confused%3AArticle%3A1370502&ch=Education&c3=Guardian&c4=Modern+languages+%28Education+subject%29%2CSchools%2CEducation&c6=Alistair+Macnaughton&c7=10-Mar-15&c8=1370502&c9=Article&c10=Feature&c11=Education&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FEducation%2FModern+languages" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">How can we offer children Mandarin lessons when schools are struggling to teach French and German?</p><p>As the general election begins to hove into view, the din in our ears is growing louder, and one of the voices is that of Ed Balls. But as we strain to listen, it becomes evident that he is speaking a language many of us can't understand.</p><p>Balls's latest new word is Mandarin. He says he believes that every pupil should have the opportunity to learn this language, just as at times he has said the same about Polish, Russian, Arabic and Bahasa Indonesian, to name but a few.</p><p>At the moment the inconvenient truth that only 3,500 – or approximately 1% of all language entries – actually took Mandarin or Cantonese at GCSE last year does not deter Balls. He is determined to square and cube this number in a jiffy and, beyond that, to share his vision of Britain as China's 23rd sheng (or province), a world in which British businessmen and women will sit at the same table as Chinese industrialists and exchange <em>bon mots </em>in Mandarin about the pitiful state of our failing economy.</p><p>Of course, he is dimly aware that there are practical difficulties. There is the fact that Mandarin is a language entirely unlike English in its multiple stresses, meaning that the tiniest shift can mean you have called your mother-in-law a horse or "buried" your dog rather than "bought" it. Then there is the fact that standard Mandarin is only standard as far as it describes a number of related dialects spoken in northern and southwest China. Or what about the fact that Mandarin simply doesn't have the tenses that are so much a part of our idiom?</p><p>Beyond even these difficulties, Balls seems oblivious to the point that spoken and written Mandarin are so different – or that there is a staggering lack of accessible literature for British students or, for that matter, that there are simply not enough qualified teachers of Mandarin to go round. Even if we open the gates and invite thousands of teachers from China to come, it doesn't follow that such expediency will work. A teacher from Tianjin or Guangzhou cannot simply arrive and jump in, even if they can speak good English to start with, for the best teaching is surely born out of familiarity and a proper understanding of both countries' cultural norms.</p><p>Balls, the present government and whatever government is to follow need to think about these things, but mostly they need to yield up their romantic vision of Britain whispering sweet somethings to China when our language teaching is, in any case, a national and international embarrassment.</p><p>Since the disastrous decision of 2004 in which modern languages were made optional after the age of 14, the maintained sector has struggled to keep modern foreign languages programmes intact, while the gap with the independent sector has widened accordingly. Some 60% of modern language A grades now go to students in independent schools, ie to just 7% of all Britain's pupils. And nearly 50% of those reading languages at our top 10 universities are independent school products, something that looks like a growing statistic.</p><p>Carry on eroding language skills across the country and those who actually acquire qualifications in Mandarin will definitely not be the constituency of which Labour dreams – and will be a constant reproach to the decade of failed education policy that has left our schools in the maintained sector gasping like dying fish on a desolate shore.</p><p>Balls and his like seem more and more preoccupied with India and China as the tiger economies. They are probably right in assuming that these are countries destined to achieve more power and influence, but even if this does happen, it is plain common sense that Britain's best chance of competing lies in strengthening our ties with the rest of Europe. It is tempting to taste Mandarin as one of the exotic fruits that Balls is offering us, but what about the apples and pears? In my view, there is no better time than now to consider where we went wrong with supporting and resourcing the teaching of French, Spanish and German.</p><p>Confucius may indeed once have said that "to have friends from afar is happiness", but there is another Chinese proverb that I prefer by far, which goes: "If you see in your wine the reflection of a person not in your range of vision, don't drink it".</p><p>It is a salutary warning.</p><p>• Alistair Macnaughton is the headmaster of The King's School in Gloucester</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/modernlanguages">Modern languages</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/schools">Schools</a></li></ul></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/jL4XEghhd6o65jyl5iHAY5q-N1g/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/jL4XEghhd6o65jyl5iHAY5q-N1g/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/jL4XEghhd6o65jyl5iHAY5q-N1g/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/jL4XEghhd6o65jyl5iHAY5q-N1g/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p>

Sleep lessons: sweet dreams are made of these?
Education Guardian - Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:56:53 GMT

<div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/3262?ns=guardian&pageName=Sleep+lessons%3A+sweet+dreams+are+made+of+these%3F%3AArticle%3A1371929&ch=UK+news&c3=GU.co.uk&c4=Scotland+%28News%29%2CStudent+health%2CSleep+problems+in+children+-+insomnia+in+children%2CHealth+and+wellbeing+%28Life+and+style%29%2CHealth+%28Society%29%2CStudents%2CSociety%2CEducation%2CLife+and+style%2CUK+news&c6=Adam+Gabbatt+%28contributor%29&c7=10-Mar-15&c8=1371929&c9=Article&c10=Blogpost%2CNews&c11=UK+news&c13=&c25=News+blog&c30=content&h2=GU%2FUK+news%2FScotland" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">Charity Sleep Scotland provides free slumber classes to teenagers in effort to improve behaviour and learning</p><p>Parents have struggled for years to encourage children to go to bed on time. In Scotland, however, all the family should be enjoying sweet dreams in the future, as pupils are to be given lessons in how to sleep. The charity <a href="http://www.sleepscotland.org/index.php" title="">Sleep Scotland</a> is providing classes free of charge in a pilot scheme at three schools in Glasgow in an attempt to tackle problems caused by a lack of sleep.</p><p><a href="http://www.glasgow.gov.uk/" title="">Glasgow city council</a> estimates that as many as one in four teenagers are not getting the appropriate nine hours of slumber a night, and said there was "increasing evidence" suggesting a link between lack of sleep and obesity, lower academic achievement and depression. Jane Anstell, the director and founder of Sleep Scotland, said lack of sleep among UK teenagers was a "huge problem".</p><p>"We started off working with kids with special needs with sleep problems," she said. "And basically in my teenage clinic I felt I'd got a lot of kids who maybe didn't have ADHD or Asperger's – they had total sleep deprivation." Ansell said the classes could help improve teenagers' behaviour, and she hoped to roll out lessons across Scotland.</p><p>Nikki Cameron, a sleep counsellor at Sleep Scotland, put together an outline for the lessons and offered them to the council using funding from <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/pudsey/" title="">Children in Need</a>. "The idea was we could talk to teenagers and say: 'This is what we know happens if you don't sleep; these are all things that we can see in behaviour, in attainment at school, in your general mental and physical health and wellbeing that we know are linked to sleep,'" she said. "And if you were able to take responsibility about when to go to bed and to sleep for nine hours, then you will benefit from it."</p><p>The classes will be offered as workshops for groups of 20 secondary school pupils, with an after-school session for parents and staff advising how to support teenagers to get good sleep. Cameron said just two classes could successfully advise pupils on how to adjust their sleeping habits for the better.</p><p>Councillor Paul Rooney, the executive member for education at Glasgow city council, said it was important to make parents aware of the importance of good sleep. "We are committed to providing guidance to young people so they can do what they can to get the right amount of sleep and maximise their learning potential," he said.</p><p>Here are Sleep Scotland's top tips for better sleep:</p><p>• Make sure you have a substantial main meal at a regular teatime.</p><p>• Restrict homework, exercise and computer games to the early evening.</p><p>• The hour before bedtime should be for relaxing and bathing, and should include no stimulating activities.</p><p>• Switch off the computer, mobile and television before having a bath. Try listening to music, radio, or read a book.</p><p>• Avoid chocolate, caffeine, additives, alcohol and nicotine before bedtime. Have have a warm milky drink instead.</p><p>• Your bedroom should be quiet and dark; make sure it is a media-free zone.</p><p>• Keep to a regular bedtime.</p><p>• In order to have a good sleeping pattern it is important to be consistent. This also includes having a set waking time.</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/scotland">Scotland</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/studenthealth">Student health</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/sleep-problems-in-children">Sleep problems in children</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/health-and-wellbeing">Health & wellbeing</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/health">Health</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/students">Students</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/adam-gabbatt">Adam Gabbatt</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/ETX1uZbgq54wKrJCqGfuWb0hc3E/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/ETX1uZbgq54wKrJCqGfuWb0hc3E/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/ETX1uZbgq54wKrJCqGfuWb0hc3E/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/ETX1uZbgq54wKrJCqGfuWb0hc3E/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p>

Fighting talk as Boris Johnson contemplates head-butting Ed Balls over minister's comments about Latin | Hélène Mulholland
Education Guardian - Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:17:07 GMT

<div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/87428?ns=guardian&pageName=Fighting+talk+as+Boris+Johnson+contemplates+head-butting+Ed+Balls+over+m%3AArticle%3A1371930&ch=Politics&c3=GU.co.uk&c4=Ed+Balls%2CBoris+Johnson%2CPolitics%2CUK+news%2CLondon+%28News%29%2CLondon+politics%2CLocal+politics+%28Politics%29%2CLocal+government+%28Society%29%2CSociety%2CEducation&c6=Helene+Mulholland&c7=10-Mar-15&c8=1371930&c9=Article&c10=Blogpost&c11=Politics&c13=&c25=Politics+blog&c30=content&h2=GU%2FPolitics%2Fblog%2FPolitics+blog" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">Mayor of London describes schools secretary's comments about Latin as 'death-defyingly stupid'</p><p>Boris Johnson may condemn violence and antisocial behaviour in his day job as mayor of London, but he is not averse to expressing a rather violent desire to "end what is left of my political career with one almighty head-butt" levelled at Ed Balls, the schools secretary.</p><p>Johnson's tirade against Balls was a response to what the Conservative mayor described as "death-defyingly stupid" comments from Balls on the subject of Latin in schools.</p><p>"There are times when a minister says something so maddening, so death-defyingly stupid, that I am glad not to be in the same room in case I should reach out, grab his tie, and end what is left of my political career with one almighty head-butt," said the mayor, renowned as a passionate classicist. "Such were my feelings on reading Mr Ed Balls on the subject of teaching Latin in schools."</p><p>Johnson's comments, provoked by the minister's claim that "very few parents" are pushing for Latin in state schools, were not blurted out in a red mist moment, but crafted for his <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/borisjohnson/7445850/This-lunacy-about-Latin-makes-me-want-to-weep-with-rage.html" title=" Daily Telegraph colum">Daily Telegraph column</a>, for which he earns £250,000 a year.</p><p>Is this fighting talk fitting for such a key Tory figure?</p><p>Conservative Central Office did as it often does when the mayor says or does something potentially embarrassing and declined to comment, saying it was a matter for City Hall, not them – which is strange since the mayor is spending his spare time at the moment visiting London constituencies with Tory candidates.</p><p>Emily Thornberry, a north London MP, appeared to be more shocked by the mayor's priorities than his colourful language.</p><p>"Perhaps if Boris Johnson cared as much the pressing needs of London as he does about Latin there would be lower bus fares, no cuts to police numbers, no cuts to tube ticket office staff and a much smaller list of broken manifesto commitments," she said.</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/edballs">Ed Balls</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/boris">Boris Johnson</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/london">London</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/london">London politics</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/localgovernment">Local politics</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/localgovernment">Local government</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/helenemulholland">Hélène Mulholland</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/hmR7tMBLYJprqjy_haqBgdlS5OQ/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/hmR7tMBLYJprqjy_haqBgdlS5OQ/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/hmR7tMBLYJprqjy_haqBgdlS5OQ/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/hmR7tMBLYJprqjy_haqBgdlS5OQ/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p>

Children of migrant workers in China
Education Guardian - Mon, 15 Mar 2010 09:03:00 GMT

<p>Children of migrant workers at the Blue Sky school in north-east Beijing</p><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/danchung">Dan Chung</a></div><br/><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/6hwnJ22Oe9E7P6cxE35XR0QCLIw/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/6hwnJ22Oe9E7P6cxE35XR0QCLIw/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/6hwnJ22Oe9E7P6cxE35XR0QCLIw/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/6hwnJ22Oe9E7P6cxE35XR0QCLIw/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p>

David Leigh on survey showing top university pay is soaring
Education Guardian - Mon, 15 Mar 2010 08:51:55 GMT

<p>David Leigh, investigations executive editor, on a survey showing pay is soaring for top academics</p><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/davidleigh">David Leigh</a></div><br/><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/b_qkntlrK9mvoC9IN_zm08llhYY/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/b_qkntlrK9mvoC9IN_zm08llhYY/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/b_qkntlrK9mvoC9IN_zm08llhYY/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/b_qkntlrK9mvoC9IN_zm08llhYY/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p>

Animal rights activist using FOI laws to target universities
Education Guardian - Mon, 15 Mar 2010 07:00:07 GMT

<div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/16726?ns=guardian&pageName=Animal+rights+activist+using+FOI+laws+to+target+universities%3AArticle%3A1371680&ch=Science&c3=Guardian&c4=Animal+research+%28science%29%2CMedical+research+%28Science%29%2CScience%2CAnimal+welfare+%28News%29%2CWorld+news%2CAnimals+%28News%29%2CEducation%2CActivism+%28Environment%29%2CEnvironment%2CUK+news&c6=David+Adam&c7=10-Mar-15&c8=1371680&c9=Article&c10=News&c11=Science&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FScience%2FAnimal+research" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">Luke Steele, spokesman for Stop Animal Experiments at Bradford is forcing institutions to reveal vivisection details</p><p></p><p>A convicted animal rights activist is using freedom of information laws to force universities to reveal details of their animal experiments, raising fears that scientists involved could suffer renewed intimidation.</p><p>The requests for information, which have been sent to every university in Britain, ask for details of facilities and laboratories licensed for such experiments, as well as breeding centres and a list of different animals used, by species.</p><p>The requests were sent by Luke Steele, an animal rights activist based in Yorkshire. He was last year convicted of conspiracy to interfere with a contractual relationship, so as to harm an animal research organisation, after being arrested near an isolated Lincolnshire farm that supplies rabbits for research.</p><p>Several universities have already replied to the FOI requests. Steele said the information gathered would be used to publicise research and target demonstrations, some of which are planned for next month.</p><p>"We're putting the FOIs in just to find out what is happening with vivisection at the universities. If they've got nothing to hide, then it's not a problem for them to put the information out there," he said.</p><p>Groups promoting next month's planned protests against university research, such as Stop Animal Experiments at Bradford, for which Steele acts as spokesman, encourage people to carry out "filming inside these laboratories". Steele said he did not want people to break the law, and that protestors could find imaginative ways to get inside. "Obviously we can't control what everybody does," he said. The requests from Steele have triggered concern among some university researchers. "The way these questions are phrased, I don't think this is an exercise in openness," said Syed Khawar Abbas, veterinary officer at the University of Leeds. "This information can be used for intimidation. In the wrong hands, this information can cause problems for our scientists."</p><p>An information officer at a different university, who did not want to be identified, said: "This has caused a great deal of concern among our staff who are worried about receiving threats or worse. Most scientists faced with FOI requests are happy to put stuff into the open and welcome the scrutiny, but in this case they are having to second guess the motives of people who might use this information."</p><p>Some of the information requested by Steele is already published, in summaries of Home Office licenses and academic papers. Other details, such as specific laboratory locations, can be refused under FOI exemptions.</p><p>One university scientist said: "The most likely motivation here is that they want to catch somebody out. If they can find some bad wording in minutes from a meeting, then they can use that to claim we are up to no good."</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/animal-research">Animal research</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/medical-research">Medical research</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/animal-welfare">Animal welfare</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/animals">Animals</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/activism">Activism</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/davidadam">David Adam</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/wmzLknxOwTBN98CDIeOLHijFzlU/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/wmzLknxOwTBN98CDIeOLHijFzlU/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/wmzLknxOwTBN98CDIeOLHijFzlU/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/wmzLknxOwTBN98CDIeOLHijFzlU/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p>

University pay survey: hallowed halls of earning
Education Guardian - Mon, 15 Mar 2010 05:00:01 GMT

<div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/94651?ns=guardian&pageName=University+pay+survey%3A+hallowed+halls+of+earning%3AArticle%3A1371723&ch=Education&c3=Guardian&c4=Education%2CHigher+education%2CUK+news&c6=David+Leigh%2CRob+Evans&c7=10-Mar-15&c8=1371723&c9=Article&c10=News&c11=Education&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FEducation%2FHigher+education" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">• <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/mar/12/universities-high-pay-top-data">Datablog: get the data behind this story</a></p><p>To chart the dramatic rise of university management pay, we have combined two sets of figures from their accounts.</p><p>The first is a pay league of more than 150 vice-chancellors, including pension contributions: from £474,000 for the head of the London Business School, down to a relatively modest £122,000 for Michael Earley, principal of the Rose Bruford drama college in Sidcup. The second is of senior staff paid more than £100,000 a year, adjusted to reflect university sizes.</p><p>Eight appear in the top 20 of both lists: the London Business School, University College London, Liverpool, Imperial College London, Nottingham, Oxford, King's College London and Bristol. On analysis of these eight, we discovered that the earnings of their vice-chancellor,the chief executive, have sometimes doubled or tripled over the past decade, vastly outpacing the 30% rise in inflation. The number of other top academics paid more than £100,000 has also mushroomed; some universities now have hundreds, and the overall total runs into thousands.Whitehall does not require universities to disclose staff identity or the job titles, other than vice-chancellor.</p><p>The rise in the cost of vice-chancellors partly comes through the dramatic increase in institutions classed as universities, previously only colleges of various kinds. Part of pay inflation also comes from NHS distinction awards to medical consultants, often the bulk of higher-paid academics.</p><p>The London Business School easily tops the league, but is a largely commercial operation, and only gets 7% of research funds from the taxpayer.</p><h2><strong>1 London Business School 78%</strong></h2><p><strong>Dean </strong>Prof Sir Andrew Likierman</p><p><strong>Paid, 08-09 £474,000 </strong>(up <strong>15%</strong> on year before)</p><p><strong>Staff paid more than £100k 100</strong></p><p><strong>They say </strong> "We compete in a global market … to attract the best business and management thinkers. School is ranked world's no 1 for its full-time MBA"</p><p><strong>The future </strong>"Increases in academic fees are planned to continue into 2010 … Emerging from the market uncertainty it is difficult to predict growth in our executive education programmes"</p><h2><strong>2 University College 137%</strong></h2><p><strong>Provost</strong> Prof Malcolm Grant</p><p><strong>Paid, 08-09</strong> <strong>£404,000</strong> (up <strong>15%</strong>)</p><p><strong>Number paid over £100k</strong> <strong> 311</strong></p><p><strong>They say</strong> In "strong period of growth … the provost's salary reflects the view of UCL Council [of] his outstanding leadership … Along with the university's senior management team, [he] has agreed to forego a discretionary pay rise for the current year"</p><p><strong>The future </strong>"We and other universities face the prospect of real and significant cuts in funding"</p><h2><strong>3 Liverpool University 188%</strong></h2><p><strong>Vice-chancellor</strong> Prof Sir Howard Newby</p><p><strong>Paid, 08-09</strong> <strong>£386,000</strong> (up <strong>20%</strong>)</p><p><strong>Number paid over £100k</strong> <strong>112</strong></p><p><strong>They say</strong> "What it takes to attract, retain and reward individuals of sufficient calibre, experience and talent in an increasingly competitive sector"</p><p><strong>The future </strong>"An anticipated worsening fiscal backcloth"</p><h2><strong>4 Imperial College 162%</strong></h2><p><strong>Rector </strong>Sir Roy Anderson</p><p><strong>Paid,</strong> <strong>08-9 £339,000 </strong>(rector changed last year)</p><p><strong>Number paid over £100k</strong> <strong>227</strong></p><p>10-year rise for rectors: 162%</p><p><strong>They say </strong>"[As] a globally renowned institution … providing competitive salaries is a key part of recruiting and retaining world-class staff"</p><p><strong>The future</strong> "High levels of public debt will mean tough decisions "</p><h2><strong>5 Nottingham University 103%</strong></h2><p><strong>Vice-chancellor</strong> Prof David Greenaway</p><p><strong>Paid, 08-09 £338,000 </strong>(Up <strong>7.7%</strong>)</p><p><strong>Number paid over £100k</strong> <strong>112</strong></p><p><strong>They say </strong>"An institution... with a turnover of almost £500m is complex and demanding. Therefore, we would expect to be paying a higher than average salary… Student numbers… have nearly doubled since 1999."</p><p><strong>The future</strong> "The economic situation has presented challenges … and will continue to do so"</p><h2><strong>6 Oxford University 220%</strong></h2><p><strong>Vice-chancellor </strong>Prof Andrew Hamilton</p><p><strong>Paid, 08-09 £327,000 </strong>(up <strong>20%</strong> on year before)</p><p><strong>Staff paid more than £100k 238</strong></p><p><strong>They say </strong>"No 1 university in country … biggest research provider ... External research income doubled over five years of [predecessor's] vice-chancellorship and fundraising raised £770m."</p><p><strong>The future </strong>"Government budgets under immense pressure …. financial challenges facing university are significant"</p><h2><strong>7 King's College 100%</strong></h2><p><strong>Principal </strong>Prof Rick Trainor</p><p><strong>Paid, 08-09 £312,000 </strong>(up <strong>6.8%</strong> on year before)</p><p><strong>Staff paid more than £100k 202</strong></p><p><strong>They say </strong> "Competes internationally for the very best staff … Substantial increases in clinical academic staff pay follow[ed] introduction of consultants' contract in 2004. The principal, along with his senior team, has also agreed to freeze pay for 2009/10" <strong>The future </strong>"Tough times … are ahead… resulting in large reductions in funding for all UK universities"</p><h2><strong>8 Bristol University 125%</strong></h2><p><strong>Vice-chancellor </strong>Prof Eric Thomas</p><p><strong>Paid, 08-09 £309,000 </strong>(up <strong>8%</strong> on year before)</p><p><strong>Staff paid more than £100k 91</strong></p><p><strong>They say </strong> "Normal comparators …are the salaries of leaders at other [elite] Russell Group universities…The VC took no pay rise last year, and made a donation to university of £100k…He and rest of the senior team requested they receive no rise this year"</p><p><strong>The future </strong>"Severe pressures on the public sector"</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/higher-education">Higher education</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/davidleigh">David Leigh</a></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/robevans">Rob Evans</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/b9pxxlbsVRkUxyRhPaWrPzeFElo/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/b9pxxlbsVRkUxyRhPaWrPzeFElo/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/b9pxxlbsVRkUxyRhPaWrPzeFElo/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/b9pxxlbsVRkUxyRhPaWrPzeFElo/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p>