EDUCATION
Tough visa rules deterring overseas students coming to UK
Guardian
21/07/2009
Universities and schools face international student shortfall as new visa system causes rejections and delays.
Unleashing Aspiration: The Final Report of the Panel on Fair Access to the Professions
Cabinet Office
21/07/2009
The report, commissioned by the Prime Minister following the New Opportunities White Paper, examines the barriers and pathways to reaching professions for all people. The report makes over 80 recommendations including:
- All young children need dedicated careers support from primary school.
- The closure of the careers service, 'Connexions'.
- Every state school should provide soft skills training and Ofsted should inspect schools on their extra curricular training.
- Cadet schemes should be available for all state schools.
- Parents should have the right of redress for schools consistently failing their children and have the right to move children to better schools.
- The professions should review their recruitment and internship practices and report to Government by 2010 on improvements.
- Statistics should be published on university admissions annually with more detail on pupil backgrounds.
- Universities should offer modular degrees and flexible learning.
- Student finance should be available for part-time students, as it is for full-time students.
- People needing training should have their own Government funded budget which individuals control through a new ‘Lifelong Skill Account’ worth up to £5,000.
http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk
/media/227102/fair-access.pdf
EDUCATION - FURTHER EDUCATION
Bogus colleges: Eleventh Report of Session 2008-09
HC Paper No.595 (Session 2008/09)
21/07/2009
A Home Affairs Committee report looks at illegitimate educational establishments and finds that insufficient quality assurance procedures on the part of DIUS for private educational establishments on the Register of Education Providers, which facilitated the issuing of student visas between 2005 and 2009, allowed bogus colleges to bring foreign nationals into the UK on fraudulent student visas. The Committee recommends the Government uses the Companies Act 2006 to restrict use of the term "college" in future to properly accredited institutions and implements an inspection regime to enforce this.
http://www.publications.parliament.uk
/pa/cm200809/cmselect/cmhaff/595/595.pdf
College goes to court for capital compensation
Times Educational Supplement
24/07/2009
The first legal challenge against the Learning and Skill's Councils' refusal to pay compensation in the capital funding fiasco has been launched. Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education is seeking a judicial review of the LSC's decision to fund new projects rather than compensating colleges that have lost money.
Funding fraud claims up 20% to record high
Times Educational Supplement
24/07/2009
The Learning and Skills Council annual report and accounts reveals that reports of alleged fraud and financial irregularity have hit an all-time high.
LSC capital programme prioritisation
LSC
21/07/2009
The Learning and Skills Council have published the details of the process and criteria that were applied to select further education capital projects; including the needs-based scores awarded to all projects.
Raising expectations for adult learners
Ofsted
23/07/2009
A revised framework for the inspection of the further education and skills sector has been launched by Ofsted.
Skills training scheme under fire for not providing value for money
Guardian
21/07/2009
The government's £1.5bn flagship Train to Gain scheme to improve workers' skills has failed to provide value for money, according to the National Audit Office.
When it comes to colleges, some are more equal than others
Guardian
21/07/2009
Rural college chiefs wonder how they can pass new Ofsted diversity inspections when guidance has yet to be given.
EDUCATION - HIGHER EDUCATION
10,000 extra higher education places to help more students go to university this year
BIS
20/07/2009
The Government will pay the student support costs for an additional 10,000 full time undergraduate entrants to science, technology, engineering and maths subjects.
Abandon ‘out-of-date’ Haldane principle on research priorities
Times Higher Education
23/07/2009
The long-standing principle that dictates that decisions about how to spend research funds should be made by researchers rather than politicians is “dead and out of date”, the chairman of the Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Committee has said.
Institutions think the unthinkable and model 20% budget reductions
Times Higher Education
23/07/2009
Hefce says scale of cuts is nowhere near mooted 'worst-case scenarios'.
Let's have a heated debate
Guardian
21/07/2009
Discusses the best approach for Universities that are about to be given targets for carbon reduction.
Poor students' bursaries pegged
BBC
23/07/2009
Bursaries for England's poorest students will no longer have to cover the gap between grants and fees. The Office for Fair Access has decided the minimum bursary universities must offer if they charge fees should be 10% of the fee level.
Review of teaching funding: Consultation on targeted
Hefce
23/07/2009
This consultation seeks comments on proposals to withdraw from 2010-11, possibly phased over a number of years, the following three targeted allocations from recurrent teaching funding: old and historic buildings, accelerated and intensive provision of postgraduate taught subjects in price band D, and foundation degrees.
Student fees for those who live at home should be axed – report
Guardian
19/07/2009
The Guardian highlights some recommendations in the Fair Access to the Professions Panel, most notably no-fee degrees for students who stay at home.
Unions' dismay at Ucea's 'appalling' pay offer
Times Higher Education
23/07/2009
The five higher education trade unions have indicated they are likely to reject a 0.5 per cent pay offer made by employers.
Universities are central to economy and social mobility - Lord Mandelson says in keynote speech
BIS
27/07/2009
In his first major speech on higher education since taking responsibility for the sector, Lord Mandelson outlined his views on the essential issues facing universities ahead of an HE Framework on the future shape of the sector that he will publish later this year.
Universities may cancel freshers' week over swine flu
Guardian
23/07/2009
Universities are working on emergency plans to postpone freshers' week activities and shut down parts of their campuses if the swine flu pandemic peaks when students return in September.
University teaching cut by £65 million
BBC
24/07/2009
Funding for teaching at England's universities is being cut by 1.36% next year to save £65m. Every university is affected by the revised grant allocations from Hefce, but the biggest cuts are at those with the most students.
What sets you apart?
Times Higher Education
23/07/2009
Discusses the importance of branding for universities in telling the world what the organisation stands for and about its core values.
EDUCATION - SCHOOLS
A Carbon Management Strategy for Schools
DCSF
21/07/2009
The school sector is responsible for 15% of public sector carbon emissions arising from energy use in school buildings, school travel and transport, the procurement of goods and services and the production of waste in schools. This consultation paper seeks views on the feasibility and priority of options to reduce carbon and greenhouse gases arising from the operation of the school system.
Heads who take on procurement risk legal backlash
Times Educational Supplement
24/07/2009
The recent schools white paper proposes that once the National Strategies are abolished in 2011, their funding will be delegated straight to schools, which can use the money to buy in the support they want. Local education officers fear that head teachers could end up breaking the law due to lack of knowledge of strict procurement rules for publicly funded bodies.
Maintaining an influence over an Ofsted inspection
Education Management Update
23/07/2009
Examines ways that schools can take a more active role and stop the Ofsted process feeling something over which they have no control.
Nursery jobs under threat as schools remain oblivious to funding switch
Times Educational Supplement
24/07/2009
Some schools are unaware of a massive shake-up of nursery funding next April that could cause staff cuts, according to the DCSF report on the lessons learnt from the 11 authorities that have already piloted the switch.
Ofsted’s new arrangements for inspecting schools under section 5, from September 2009
Ofsted
23/07/2009
Ofsted have published the final versions of the new arrangements for inspecting schools from the beginning of September.
Parents get 'licence to complain'
BBC
23/07/2009
Parents in England are to be given the right to complain about other parents who do not make sure their children behave in school, it has emerged. Schools Secretary Ed Balls says it will help stop a single pupil disrupting the education of a whole class.
'Virtual schools' swine flu plan
BBC
23/07/2009
Emergency plans on how schools could continue to educate pupils if they were closed through swine flu are being updated.
