EDUCATION - FURTHER EDUCATION
Colleges head quits over botched building programme
Guardian
23/03/2009
Mark Haysom, chief of Learning and Skills Council, takes responsibility for mistakes over suspended budget-breaking college building programme.
Every penny for building spent
Times Educational Supplement
27/03/2009
Colleges look for other cash sources as £6bn of projects put on hold.
Government launches learning revolution
DIUS
23/03/2009
The Learning Revolution White Paper launched to inspire and increase opportunities for adult education learning for pleasure and personal and community development.
Ministers - any room at the inn for evening classes?
Guardian
23/03/2009
National effort to open up at least 7,000 spaces to teach courses is key proposal in new white paper on adult education.
Should they stay or should they go?: Sixth-form colleges are being cut loose. Will the further education sector now start to fragment?
Guardian
17/03/2009
The Apprenticeship Reform Bill going through parliament confers a separate legal status on sixth-form colleges for the first time. Henceforth they are to be neither schools nor further education colleges. They are to be in a category of their own, and so their thoughts have naturally drifted towards their representation - by themselves and not by proxy via the Association of Colleges (AoC).
UKCG calls for cabinet-level action on stalled colleges
Building
27/03/2009
The UK Contractors Group has written to cabinet ministers in an attempt to kick-start £2.5bn-worth of stalled college work. In addition the letter confirms that the UKCG has been told by the Learning and Skills Council that no more money is available during the current spending review period, which ends in 2011.
EDUCATION - HIGHER EDUCATION
Bursaries must rise in line with fees
Guardian
26/03/2009
Director of Office for Fair Access says that universities will have to give students more money if they raise fees to £5,000 or more.
Free university courses for unemployed proposed
Guardian
24/03/2009
Million+, the group representing post-92 universities, is arguing that the unemployed and short-time workers should be allowed to take part-time university courses for free.
Government renews its commitment to Daresbury Science and Innovation campus
DIUS
26/03/2009
The Government today announced a renewed commitment to the further development of the national Science and Innovation Campus at Daresbury and announced a stronger leadership structure to deliver it. This commitment was made in the Governments response to the Manchester Independent Economic Review (MIER) on Daresbury published today.
Higher education gets £20m boost
BBC News
23/03/2009
Scottish universities and colleges have been given speeded up funding of more than £20m to pay for improved buildings and facilities.
Science research threatened by new funding rules
Guardian
25/03/2009
Britains largest research council, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, is to blacklist academic researchers who submit three unsuccessful research proposals in any one year and have a low personal success rate of winning grants.
Thematic enquiries into concerns about academic quality and standards in higher education in England
QAA
30/03/2009
QAA is conducting a series of enquiries in response to public concerns about higher education raised in the media, funded by HEFCE. The work focuses on five areas - student workload and contact hours, English language requirements for international students, recruitment practices for international students, use of external examiners, and assessment practices.
Watchdog considers more intensive inspection regime
Times Higher Education
26/03/2009
The Chief Executive of the Quality Assurance Agency has said that universities could face more intensive scrutiny during future inspections.
EDUCATION - SCHOOLS
Bills critic cut to the chase on search powers
Times Educational Supplement
27/03/2009
One of the aims of the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill is to stop offensive weapons being brought into schools.
Child database halted as safeguards fail
Times
24/03/2009
Security flaws have halted work on the internet database designed to hold the details of 11 million children and teenagers.
Government places trust in Partnerships for Schools
Education Investor
23/03/2009
The government is set to place a further £50 billion of capital investment in the hands of Partnerships for Schools, the body responsible for the Building Schools for the Future programme.
Government will have power to prescribe basic exam content
Guardian
27/03/2009
A contested clause in the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill will allow the schools secretary to dictate the basic content of every public exam in England and decide which books children must study at GCSE or A-level.
Improving safeguarding in independent schools
DCSF
24/03/2009
The Government accepts Sir Roger Singletons findings in his report Keeping our schools safe, and will look at how best to implement his recommendations alongside those made by Lord Laming in his recent report, The Protection of Children in England: A Progress Report.
Private schools still in dark on public benefit
Times Educational Supplement
27/03/2009
Publication of vital guidance on how independent schools should meet public benefit tests by the Charity Commission has been postponed until this summer.
