Education

Postgraduate education is vital for the economy, so a system of government financial support like the one for undergraduates - is needed to help students When the government publishes its white paper on the funding arrangements for university teaching, many will be looking at its approach to postgraduate master's degrees. The Browne report gave scant attention to this sector, concluding only that its authors had seen no evidence that the absence of student support has harmed access to postgraduate education, and recommending that no action be taken. The fatal flaw in this position is that it is based on "evidence" relating to the current system. The future system, the one that Browne has helped to create, will be vastly different. There is a strong likelihood that postgraduate fees will rise to match the full cost of teaching. It is probable that there will be an abrupt decline in the number of UK students who are willing and able to continue their education. Universitie...

Report expected to recommend Ofsted is stripped of some powers following Baby P tragedy Ofsted's role in investigating suspicious deaths of young children is likely to come under critical scrutiny today in the aftermath of the Baby P tragedy. A report commissioned by the Department of Education will propose ways of simplifying child protection inspection procedures following the death of Peter Connelly in Tottenham, north London, in 2007. The paper by Eileen Munro, a professor of social policy at the London School of Economics, is one of a series of inquiries into the way in which safeguarding of children is conducted. Ofsted's main function is to carry out reviews of schools to ensure they meet specified academic criteria, but the inspectorate also has the less publicised role of examining the performance of children's social workers. In an interview with Community Care magazine, Munro said: "In my second report, to be submitted to ministers ... I shall outline some ...

Pete Waterman blames the decline of the working-class pop star on snobbery ( James Blunt's parents put (posh) accent on talent in pop class row , 29 January). I fear it has more to do with the abandonment of music in state schools. Classical music has seen a similar trend. The profession of opera singer used to produce world-class British artists from all social backgrounds a voice, after all, is the only musical instrument that you don't need money to buy. Now singers seem to be recruited from an ever-narrower social stratum. The great Margaret Price, who died last Saturday ( Obituaries , 31 January), is a case in point. She only went into opera because her talent was spotted and nurtured by a school music teacher in South Wales. Could that still happen? So let's not blame Chris Martin and James Blunt for going to posh schools with music departments, or for having parents who could put guitars into their hands. Let's ask why we're no longer providing these opportu...

Legislators in Arizona are pursuing a white supremacist campaign to erase Mexican American presence from teaching The onslaught in Arizona of reactionary and immoral racially-based laws has managed to attract worldwide attention. The brown peoples of this state are being relentlessly persecuted by a majority population that wants to forcefully remove us and suppress our rights and deny our humanity. Here, the state has even gone so far as to, via HB 2281 , to prohibit the teaching of ethnic studies in Arizona schools. Unquestionably, the brown peoples of this state are treated as less than human. Not everyone treats us this way just the majority: mostly conservative Republicans, many of them with a supremacist ideology. Their general attitude is: if you're brown (read Mexican), get the hell out of our God-given country. And for those of you who remain, either assimilate and abide by our [contrived and unconstitutional] laws or face the full wrath of the state. There is embedded ha...

Number of student places on courses this year down from 16,845 to14,555, with English, art and music suffering most The number of students funded to train as secondary school teachers was cut by more than 2,200 today as the government wiped funding from 14% of the places on courses. There will now be just 14,555 places on secondary school teacher training courses starting this autumn, compared to 16,845 last year. The number of English, art and music trainee teachers will drop substantially. The government will fund 2,100 trainees to teach English in secondary schools which is 315 fewer than last year. There will be 220 less trainee art and design teachers, and 180 fewer trainee music teachers. The number of trainee business studies teachers has almost halved, from 428 to 235, while the number of physical education trainee teachers has fallen from 1,180 last year to 890. The figures do not include teachers on the Teach First trainee scheme, which trains about 560 students from top un...

Our father, Ken Thomas, who has died aged 84, had an unusual capacity for inspiring affection and trust in those who knew him. Although he lacked formal education, he was the embodiment of a lifelong learner. Highly skilled with his hands, and meticulous in his approach to work, Dad excelled at carpentry, making, in his 70s, a beautifully crafted toybox for his granddaughter. He also studied calligraphy in evening class; among the many works he produced, his favourite, summing up his attitude to life, displayed the words of Thomas Paine: "The world is my country; to do good, my religion." He also displayed an unusual quickness with numbers that remained with him even after a stroke. Born in south Wales to Robert, a miner, and his wife, Hannah, Ken was the youngest of five children. His childhood was extremely poor, even by the standards of the times, and when Ken's mother died in 1932, the younger children were brought up by Robert's sister Elvira. Ken attended Maeste...

As street demonstrations gain traction even in the UK, what can our young radicals learn from the cinema of protest? Even a cursory look at the news over the past few months will tell you one thing: street protests and radical movements are gaining traction. Our students would seem to so far have had somewhat less political impact than the demonstrators in Tunisia , but they don't appear to have been disheartened, calling for a national walkout in favour of the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) on Wednesday, and a national demonstration on Saturday against fees, cuts, and general swinishness from those on high. So what can our own young radicals learn from the movies? The first port of call for any budding revolutionary has to be The Battle of Algiers , Gillo Pontecorvo's thrillingly realistic recreation of the urban guerrilla campaign during the Algerian war of independence. Obviously, the stakes were higher back then it's unlikely paratroopers will blow up Laurie Pe...

For the school bully, secondary school graduation is the high point of their life; for the nerd, it's the beginning of their life At age 16 I was a member of my school's titration team. That is all the information you need to roughly gauge how well I got on with girls. And bullies. And girls who were bullies. I didn't do well with any section of the girl-bully Venn diagram. But it was those experiences that made me what I am today. While the ability to accurately measure the concentration of chemical solutions in a competitive environment is not a skill I now use everyday, I definitely use other skills I developed at the same time. You cannot explain to your peers that you're off to the chemistry department for a practice session without developing all forms of survival tactics. Ed Miliband recently admitted that he was a bit of a square in his youth , and specialised in solving the Rubik's Cube. You cannot walk around with a Rubik's Cube in a north London comp...

Or so argues Alain de Botton. Personally, I'd rather they spoke to the intellect, and let the soul take care of itself Alain de Botton's A Point of View (broadcast on BBC Radio 4 at the weekend, with full text published on the website) took on museums this week. His argument was that while museums might be thought of as fulfilling some of the functions of churches in the modern world, they fall short in certain ways. "While exposing us to objects of genuine importance, they nevertheless seem incapable of adequately linking these objects to the needs of our souls," he writes. He continues: I try to imagine what would happen if modern secular museums took the example of churches more seriously. What if they too decided that art had a specific purpose - to make us good and wise and kind - and tried to use the art in their collections to prompt us to be so? What if they gave up on the neutral, bland captions they tend to use and put beneath each picture a really directiv...

Ucas: university applications reach record high Record numbers of students are applying to university this year in a rush to beat a major hike in tuition fees, figures suggest. Figures from Ucas show a 5.1 per cent rise in university applications this year. Photo: GETTY IMAGES By Graeme Paton, Education Editor 1:14PM GMT 31 Jan 2011 Comments Some 583,500 people submitted applications by the end of January as demand for degree courses soared by more than five per cent this year. Numbers have been swelled by rising demand among students aged 19 to 21, suggesting many are reapplying after being rejected in previous years. Applications from students living in European Union member states, who are eligible for the same subsidised loans as their British peers, have also soared by 17 per cent, it was revealed. The rise in figures published by the Universities and College Admissions Service (Ucas) comes amid claims that more students are pushing for higher education places th...

Local support for deaf children who attend mainstream schools is vital and put at risk by funding changes It'd be fair to say I wasn't the coolest kid in school. I wore boring beige hearing aids behind my ears and a black box as big as a small book clipped to my belt. A long, thin piece of grey wire ran from the box to my ears, which occasionally would get caught on door handles, sending my hearing aids flying through the air. Classrooms were often so noisy that I was unable to pick out what my teacher was saying. So at the start of each lesson I gave them another black box with a microphone attached to it. This sent a clear feed of my teacher's voice across radio waves straight into my ears. Every few weeks I was visited by a peripatetic teacher of the deaf who'd check my equipment and offer me structured advice. They also worked with my teachers, helping them adapt lessons to suit my needs. I may not have been cool, but through a combination of consistent, specialise...

Sarah Ismail is shocked at the way those fighting against the removal of disability benefits were treated Last week, a group of people gathered in London's Triton Square to protest against the actions of Atos Origin, the company contracted by the government to deal with the administration of disability benefits. Atos have so far carried out this task in a way that has led to many disabled people losing benefits they desperately need. Disabled people, and organisations such as Disabled People Against Cuts , were joined by members of anti-poverty groups such as London Coalition Against Poverty . Yet the mainstream press completely failed to cover the event. Many disabled people are disappointed by this one person even said they had emailed the BBC to ask why, but had not yet received any response. Disabled people following the event on Twitter were shocked when a member of Disabled People Against Cuts asked their followers to spread the word that protesters were being kettled. Later...

Extra efforts at bringing all students up to grade C level means brighter ones are not pushed, says Oxford admissions chief A target-driven culture in state schools is putting potential Oxford University applicants at a disadvantage, with teachers focusing on lower achieving pupils to ensure their school is well placed in league tables. The claim comes from Oxford University's head of undergraduate admissions, Mike Nicholson, who said that "extra effort" on raising the achievements of C grade and D grade students meant the "solid B" student was being missed. Changes in the state education system and an emphasis on rankings and exam results meant it was sometimes harder for state school pupils to go on to meet Oxford University's admissions criteria, said Nicholson. In an interview with BBC Radio 4, to be broadcast tonight, he said: "There is a target-driven culture. "GCSE performance is one of the few indicators used to demonstrate school success. ...

Million+ thinktank warns that coalition's university plan risks making bursary and grant system even more complicated A scheme to waive university fees for poor students is unlikely to help the most deprived, a thinktank warned today. Last month, the coalition announced that clever students from low-income homes would be eligible for up to two years of free university tuition. The announcement was made days before MPs voted to raise fees from 3,290 a year to up to 9,000. It was perceived to be a concession to wavering Lib Dems. Under the 150m scheme, students would have their first year of university paid for by the state if they had been eligible for a free school lunch. This would mean their parents' joint annual income was 16,040 or less. Universities that charge more than 6,000 a year could be forced to pay students' fees for a second year, David Willetts, the universities minister, said. The government believe up to 18,000 students could benefit from the scheme. But Mi...

David Cameron rejects concerns of teaching unions, as education secretary says school could be set up at his HQ The government today gave the green light for the first eight "free schools" to open in England, with the prime minister, David Cameron, pledging they will bring greater opportunity to the poorest pupils. The education secretary, Michael Gove, used a conference in London to announce that the business plans of eight schools four in the capital and the remainder in Suffolk, West Sussex, Norwich and Leicester had been approved and will open in September in a move that has been attacked by teaching unions. Gove also revealed that he was open to the idea of establishing a free school in the Department for Education's central London headquarters. "We have been trying to see how we can make use of DfE estates to make space available for schools," he said. The free schools, which will be funded directly by Westminster and operate outside local authority cont...

Extra efforts at bringing all students up to grade C level means brighter ones are not pushed, says Oxford admissions chief A target-driven culture in state schools is putting potential Oxford University applicants at a disadvantage, with teachers focusing on lower achieving pupils to ensure their school is well placed in league tables. The claim comes from Oxford University's head of undergraduate admissions, Mike Nicholson, who said that "extra effort" on raising the achievements of C grade and D grade students meant the "solid B" student was being missed. Changes in the state education system and an emphasis on rankings and exam results meant it was sometimes harder for state school pupils to go on to meet Oxford University's admissions criteria, said Nicholson. In an interview with BBC Radio 4, to be broadcast tonight, he said: "There is a target-driven culture. "GCSE performance is one of the few indicators used to demonstrate school success. ...

UK plastic surgery is on the increase, despite the recession. Find out which procedures are going up - and which are down Get the data Plastic surgery statistics in the UK show a record number of "man boob" reduction operations as the rise in demand outstrips that for all other procedures - including women's breast enlargement. Figures published by the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPs) - that really is its acronym - showed operations to correct gynecomastia in men grew by 27.5%, while overall male cosmetic surgery grew by 6.6%. The association's audit reveals 581 male breast reduction operations were performed by members in 2009, up from 323 in 2008. Five years ago, just 22 gynecomastia operations were performed on men. The association represents one in three plastic surgeons, so the UK total is likely to be more than 1,000 operations. The figures are only surgical procedures. They do not include non-surgical "lunchtime" plastic pro...

Ieuan Jones implicated in employment case brought by a black policewoman that was settled out of court by the Met in 2004 Kate Middleton's personal police bodyguard was implicated in a long-running campaign of racial and sexual harassment of a black policewoman. The case, which was settled out of court in 2004, saw the Metropolitan police pay 300,000 to Joy Hendricks to compensate for what she claimed was "five years of systematic victimisation" during her time in the Met's Territorial Support Group (TSG). In legal papers lodged at an employment tribunal in 2003, Hendricks named Ieuan Jones, now a detective sergeant and one of Middleton's armed protection officers, as being one of the senior officers responsible for a TSG team which subjected her to abuse and harassment. Hendricks said that a team of officers destroyed her through racist and sexist abuse. She has not been able to work since 1999, when she was forced to leave the Met because of stress caused by th...

Avant-garde American composer who championed electronic music Milton Babbitt, who has died aged 94, was one of the most eminent, and controversial, American composers of the 20th century. Deeply influenced by the 12-tone music of Arnold Schoenberg, whom he met in New York in the 1930s, Babbitt extend- ed Schoenberg's serial organisation of pitch structure to other parameters, including rhythm, dynamics and instrumentation, an approach that came to be known as "integral serialism". With his Three Compositions for Piano of 1947, Babbitt slightly preceded his European contemporaries Olivier Messaien, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Pierre Boulez in producing the first work in this new and stricter manner. Babbitt wanted "a piece of music to be literally as much as possible", meaning that it should possess as many related internal associations as it could. He was thus often viewed as a cerebral composer, someone who approached music as if solving a problem. In a 1987 arti...

Tory party conference teacher accused of causing school closure The teacher who exposed the chaos in Britains classrooms in a speech to the Tory Party conference is at the centre of a row over the closure of her old school. 12:19AM GMT 30 Jan 2011 Katharine Birbalsingh, who received a standing ovation for her attack on the broken education system, is being blamed for the sudden closure of the inner-city academy where she was deputy head. St Michael and All Angels in Southwark, south London, has been declared non-viable after applications fell dramatically in the wake of Ms Birbalsinghs remarks. Canon Peter Clark, the chairman of the schools governors, said that her attack on incapable teachers blinded by Leftist ideology had dealt a fatal blow to the school. The publicity that she generated was very unhelpful, which certainly didnt help in terms of pupil recruitment, said Canon Clark. He added that an inspection of the school held shortly before Christmas had sh...

Run by former soldiers, they could be a real boon for problem pupils Michael Gove, education minister, is a "veni, vidi, vici" kind of man. An advocate of free schools, his heart lies with an education system marinated in the classics. He has never seemed comfortable with khaki. It came as a surprise and a joy to some when he announced last week that when the education bill becomes law, one group of pupils at least will discover it's a case of goodbye Mr Chips, hello sergeant major. Gove wants "disruptive pupils" to have access to "military-style education" run by former soldiers: a kind of boot-camp baccalaureate. Should we be alarmed? At present, expelled pupils attend one of the 400 pupil referral units (PRUs) that Gove rightly says are "not up to snuff". A teenager, often semi-illiterate, and with multiple family problems, is chucked out of school to the relief of many fellow pupils and staff and sent to a PRU. He or she is then given ...