Tue 09 Feb 2010

 More fascinating information from the UCAS annual conference on admissions, which I am chairing in London today....

This morning we heard from Professor Sir Peter Scott, Vice Chancellor at Kingston University and former editor of the Times Higher Education Supplement.

His view is that you have to go right back to the 1930's to find a period when there was last a period when university student numbers in the UK were not generally increasing. And, as he points out, unlike now there was no general rise in demand in the 1930's when loans and grants were not available.

So,with UCAS figures showing a rise of 106,000 applicants this year, and the number of places available due to fall by 6,000, he says we are in 'genuinely unexplored territory'.

Sir Peter believes it is very 'unlikely' that a new government will lift the cap on student numbers after the election and he believes more serious cuts are on the way (incidentally, he believes some have over-blown the current level cuts and says universities will survive them).

However, he argues that admissions tutors will 'play safe' this year and next because of the financial penalties if universities over recruit. The fines that universities will face for over recruitment would mean they would lose money on extra students, even after allowing for the extra student fee income. 

He believes the current fees review under Lord Browne will not provide the 'quick fix' to the current problems, as there will be many political barriers to change. 

He is also fearful about the impact on widening participation if universities retrench and 'play safe' n admissions. He thinks they may start to show a bias against non-traditional qualifications (i.e. non A levels and Highers).

Mon 08 Feb 2010

 The deadline is fast approaching for the 2010 Teaching Awards. You only have until March 1st to nominate your head teacher, teacher, governor, or entire school staff.

This year there is a new category: the Outstanding School Team. The idea is to reward school staff teams who work exceptionally well together.  This will meet some of the criticism that says (unfairly in my view) that the awards fail to recognise that teaching is a team effort.

This year I am looking forward to being a national judge again and will be judging the Enterprise Award. More on this later.

Find out more - and make your nominations - at: www.teachingawards.com 

 The award categories are: 

• SSAT Award for Outstanding New Teacher
• TDA Award for Teaching Assistant of the Year
• NCSL Award for Head Teacher of the Year
• Teaching Award for Outstanding School Team
• RAF Award for Teacher of the Year
• 'Film My School' - a competition
• Henry Winkler Award for Special Needs
• DCSF Award for Governor of the Year
• DCSF Award for Enterprise
• DCSF Award for Sustainable Schools
• Becta Award fdor Next Generation Learning
• Ted Wragg Award for LIfetime Achievement

Mon 08 Feb 2010

 The announcement that university applications are up by almost 23% on last year indicates a tough year ahead for admissions.

We already know that funding cuts will mean a reduction in funded student places, perhaps by around 6,000. So more applicants going for fewer places adds up to a difficult admissions round this summer, with more disappointed candidates.

I'm at the UCAS conference for teachers and advisers, where the news was announced. Mary Curnock Cook, head of UCAS, explained how this is going to build on the trend from last year fr more competitive entry.

The success rate for applicants to university had been at or around 78% for the past few years. But last year it fell to 75.3%.

In a measure of the tougher offers being made, the average offer this year has gone up by 7 UCAS tariff points to 280 points. This makes the average offer  the equivalent of B,B,C at A Level. 

The conference also heard that universities are increasingly requiring students to have extensive work experience - a trend that worries teachers who fear students may be distracted by long placements from their studies.

Mon 08 Feb 2010

 This summer sees the first awards of the new A* at A Level.

But, as I learned at the UCAS conference today, there is still confusion about how students achieve this new top grade. Indeed some are puzzled that it is possible for a candidate with an A* to have a lower overall uniform mark score than someone with only an A grade.

That's because there are two criteria that must be met to get the A*.

1. The student must get an A grade overall at both AS and A2 level. AND

2. The student must get 90% or more of the maximum uniform marks on the aggregate of the A2 units.

So a student who does exceptionally well at AS but not quite so well at A2 could miss out on the A*, whereas a student who just scrapes an A at AS but does exceptionally well at A2 would get the overall A* despite having lower overall marks.

I hope that's clear!

Also interesting to hear that UCAS says that some 6,000 university applicants this year had offers which included an A*. This is despite the fact that universities were advised not to use the A* for offers in the first year.

Mon 08 Feb 2010

 The first signs of the effect on next year's budget cuts in universities are beginning to emerge.

KIngs College London has proposed cuts worth in total £2.4 million by 2012 in its School of Arts and Humanities.

There is a proposal to cut 22 posts with more to come.

The department has a projected budget deficit of  £2.9 million  for 2011/11.

See the details as proposed by management here: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/humanities/staff/consultation

Sun 07 Feb 2010

The government  has tightened the restrictions on overseas students coming to study in Britain from outside the EU.

This follows the review announced last November by the Prime Minister and conducted by the UK Border Agency. 

Adult students applying to come here to study will in future have to show they already have fluency in the English language at a level close to GCSE.

There are also new restrictions on which students will be able to bring dependents with them.

Clearly, the government is motivated by security implications and a desire to be seen to be taking tough action on illegal immigration. With the other parties demanding tough action too, electoral considerations may well have played a part in the timing of this announcement.

However, there is another side to this - overseas students are a very important contributor to the UK economy and tighter visa restrictions, and the barrier of a language test, will make the UK less competitive.

Some believe it is crazy to require students who want to come here to learn English to prove that they can already speak the language before they are allowed in. Some universities will be worried about the impact on postgraduate students coming here on non-language courses.

There is now a new issue to address: which test - or tests - will be officially recognised as proof of English language ability for visa applicants?

For more on these issues, see this article I wrote about the review: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8462623.stm

Thu 21 Jan 2010

While David Cameron's insistence that the most important factor in education is the quality of teachers has gone down well with the education community, his party's specific proposals on limiting recruitment to the profession have not been so welcome.

Calling for a 'brazenly elitist' approach, Mr Cameron said a Conservative government would not fund applicants to teacher training if they have anything less than a Lower Second class degree. 

 Today, while chairing a conference on 'Leadership in Schools', I conducted a straw poll to see what support there would be for blocking those with Third Class degrees from teaching.

 When I asked the audience of about 60 senior teachers, heads and education managers if they supported the Tory proposal, not a single hand went up.

All the speakers at the event - including a successful head teacher and senior representatives of Teach First, Future Leaders, and Veredus - insisted that other qualities were just as important as academic ability. These qualities included: honesty, the ability to inspire others, humility, leadership, resilience, passion, 'loving kids', and partnership.  

I shall be writing more about David Cameron's speech in my BBC column this weekend. 

Mon 18 Jan 2010

The new laws on safeguarding will affect all schools and all professionals who work with children and vulnerable adults. 

The rules were changed again just before Christmas, following concerns that they were too restrictive. 

However there is a lot for teachers, heads and governors to take on board, not least because Ofsted is now specifically monitoring for safeguarding issues and can deliver a 'limiting judgement', which means a poor verdict on this issue will affect the overall grade for the school.

 To find out more about how it all works, I've just made a programme for Teachers TV in the Need To Know series. It features cases studies of schools already implementing the new rules. The first showing is today on Freeview at 16.45, with repeats over the coming days and weeks. 

To find out more - or to view online -  see: http://www.teachers.tv/video/39412    

Mon 18 Jan 2010

The Conservatives' election manifesto will aim to make teaching 'an unashamedly elitist profession', according to Shadow Schools Secretary, Michael Gove.

 Speaking on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4, Mr Gove said a Conservative government would make it 'difficult to become a teacher', with no one with a degree class below a Lower Second (2:2) able to get state funding to  join the profession. 

 In a speech today the Tory leader, David Cameron, will announce that only students from an elite group of top universities will be eligible for a scheme to write-off their student debts if they train to teach. This will apply to tecahers with a 2:1 or better in science or maths from 'a good university'.

The idea of drawing up a list of 'good universities' was ridiculed by Professor Les Ebdon, Chair of the Million+ group of newer univeritsies. He said it showed 'amazing ignorance' of what happens in post-1992 univerities and of the quality assurance scheme that monitors standards in higher education.

Mr Gove said the aim was to emulate countries like Finland and South Korea where entry to the teaching profession is restricted to only the best graduates. 

The announcement raises a number of questions: 

1. Are graduates with the best academic degrees necessarily the best teachers - or are there other skills that are equally important?

2. If teachers continue to earn far less than doctors, dentists, and lawyers, will these changes alone really raise the prestige of the profession?

3. Although in an economic recession recruitment to teaching is relatively easy, will these higher barriers work when recruitment is harder?

4. Isn't the key to a prestige profession a degree of autonomy? Will the Tories stop telling teachers how to teach history, science or reading? 

Tue 12 Jan 2010

 The BBC has redesignated its education section on its news website as an 'Education & Family' page.

 While I can see that there are arguments for this change - and 'family' covers important issues -  it does mean less space and priority for education stories on this very important site (it's greatly to the BBC's credit that at least this part of the Corporation has upheld specialist journalism).

It's probably wrong for me to say too much about the change as I write regularly for the section. But you might want to have a look at it and respond to the Editor who has invited comments on the change.

The new page is at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/default.stm

The editor's explanation for the new page is at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2010/01/news_website_education_and_fam.html