For-profit university on the march

 BPP University College - which is owned by the US based for-profit Apollo Group  - has parked its tanks firmly on the lawns of its public sector competition by setting undergraduate fees at £5,000 for next year.

The fees - which will be lower than those set by most English universities  - will apply to BPP's undergraduate programmes in law, business, accountancy and finance, across all 6 of its city centre locations: Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, London, Swindon and Manchester. 

BPP became the first for-profit provider to be granted university college status last year and recent changes mean that its undergraduates will, from 2012, be eligible for government loans of up to £6,000 a year.  

As a private sector body, BPP is not limited by government constraints on student numbers and is free to expand its share of the HE market. It is also free to set fees above the £9,000 ceiling imposed on pubic universities. However, this competitive decision over fees shows it is looking to compete aggressively with mainstream universities.  BPP says it doubled its undergraduate intake this year.

A 3 year degree at BPP will cost £15,000 compared to closer to £27,000 at most Russell Group…

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06 Sep 2011 3 comments - read and reply.

Mixed messages as new school year begins

 So - after a summer of riots and the usual hand-wringing over exam results - the new school year in England has begun with politicians once again focusing on a minority issue: the 24 new free schools that are opening this term.

Keen to show the difference between the coalition partners, the Liberal Democrat leader and Deputy PM, Nick Clegg, is saying that he will not tolerate free schools being run for profit. It is his line in the sand on education policy. For his sake, he'd better hope it proves a more permanent line than the one he drew on university tuition fees.

In fact, there is already a rather fine distinction between a for-profit company running a free school directly and a for-profit company being engaged to manage a free school by its promoters. The former is currently not allowed, the latter is.

Discussing the riots

 Meanwhile, in schools the dilemma for heads and teachers is whether or not to tackle the issue of the summer riots head-on. Should it be the topic for assemblies and  citizenship/PHSE lessons? Is it as relevant in areas unaffected by the riots as in those close to the places hit by looting? I…

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05 Sep 2011 3 comments - read and reply.

Education & the riots

I liked this post on 'what happens after the riots?' from the education expert and Senior Associate at the Innovation Unit, David Price OBE. Lots of good points, which I thought worth sharing as a thought-provoking, non knee-jerk response to the way ahead once the immediate policing issues are resolved. His answer: involving young people in decisions about their education and communities.

In particular, he writes:

'David Cameron's vision of a 'Big Society' went up in smoke this week, alongside scores of buildings and homes, so we'll need another big 'post riot' idea. I would like to nominate one: a national education debate on what we want our young people to learn in school. Because the disengagement for many of these young people begins in school, when their interest in learning is sacrificed in pursuit of high-stakes testing and the attendant 'drilling-and-killing', worksheets instead of work experience, doing learning to them, not with them; when the very notion of a 'values-driven curriculum' is seen as dangerous left-wing nonsense, and the dominance of academic knowledge has driven out any respect for schools whose kids wanted to learn real-life, practical skills.'

Here's the link to the full post: davidpriceblog.posterous.com/what-happens-after-the-riots

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09 Aug 2011 10 comments - read and reply.

Carol Vorderman's Maths Report

 There's some good stuff in Carol Vorderman's report and I particularly like the idea of copying the English Language/English Literature idea in order to separate arithmetic and numeracy from more advanced mathematical concepts.

 It will be interesting to see whether the criticism of Key Stage 2 SATS will sound the death knell for these increasingly beleaguered and unloved tests. 

However we have been here before. Sir Mike Tomlinson warned years ago that GCSE maths and English failed to provide functional numeracy and literacy. The subsequent reforms for Diplomas, and the associated requirement that all pupils  needed to pass at Functional Skills to gain the Diploma, would have sorted out this problem. But the current government has allowed the Diplomas to wither on the vine.

Additionally the last Labour government abandoned its earlier pledge to require all students to achieve functional skills in maths and English to achieve a grade C at GCSE.  This was a missed opportunity.

The full Vorderman report is available here: www.conservatives.com/News/News_stories/2011/08/~/media/Files/Downloadable%20Files/Vorderman%20maths%20report.ashx

In his foreword, Education Secretary, Michale Gove, welcomes the report but does not comment specifically on the recommendation that maths SATs should be abolished.

Key recommendations

These include:

• It…

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08 Aug 2011 4 comments - read and reply.

Open University sets full-time fees at £5,000

The Open University will charge new full-time students from England £5,000 from September 2012.  This will make it very competitive with most other universities which are charging considerably more, but will also mark an increase in costs for many OU students.

Average fees at other English universities are going to be around £8,400 from 2012.

Full time students are those taking the equivalent of 120 units. Others will pay according to the units they are taking. So, a typical student studying 60 credits in a year, will pay £2,500 per year.

Current fees for a full-time equivalent final year degree at the OU vary but would be about £1,900 a year according to some estimates (e.g. taking DD303 and DD307 for a BSc in psychology, according to the OU website) . 

The OU, which traditionally served mature, part-time students, has seen growing interest from full-time, school-leavers, and their competitive fees, and the chance to study from home, are likely to prove increasingly attractive after the new fee arrangements come into place elsewhere from 2012.   

 The Vice-Chancellor of The Open University, Martin Bean,…

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20 Jul 2011 5 comments - read and reply.

Existing BSF projects not to be funded

The Education Secretary, Michael Gove, chose the day of Rupert Murdoch's appearance in the Commons to announce that the government is 'minded not to fund the BSF projects which were subject to judicial review earlier this year'.

This will be a great disappointment to those schools that had been expecting to be rebuilt until the Building Schools for the Future scheme  was scrapped by the incoming coalition government (see this article for the views of parents in Newark on the scrapping of BSF: www.mikebakereducation.co.uk/articles/87/scrapping-bsf-left-children-in-decrepit-schools.)

Six local authorities are likely to be eligible for indemnification of their outstanding contractual liabilities. The authorities, which in February won their judicial review against Mr Gove's decision to withdraw funding from their BSF projects, were:

• Luton Borough Council
• Nottingham City Council
• The London Borough of Waltham Forest
• The London Borough of Newham
• Kent County Council
• Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council.

A High Court judge ruled that the Education Secretary, “unlawfully and without justification”, failed to consult with the authorities as to the effect on their individual projects of his possible decision options.

New private finance scheme unveiled

Meanwhile, Mr Gove also announced yesterday that there will be a new privately-financed school building…

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20 Jul 2011 1 comments - read and reply.

Burnham unveils Labour's Schools Policy Review

I chaired an event for the think-tank DEMOS this afternoon at which the Shadow Education Secretary, Andy Burnham MP, unveiled the first details of the Labour Party's schools policy review. It was very much an interim report - the broad principles will now go for approval at the Labour Party's annual conference - so hard policy detail is still lacking.

Nevertheless, it was the first indication of where the next General Election's education policy battles might lie and they reveal the thinking behind the new direction of policy.

Perhaps the most significant aspect of the speech was what Mr Burnham did not say. There were no promises to overturn the coalition government's new Free Schools or Academies. This will disappoint some on the left and is significant since, by 2015,  the majority of schools in England could have already converted to academy status.

It seems Mr Burnham is keen to follow the pattern of Tony Blair's first term education mantra: 'standards not structures' (although that was always more of a slogan than a reality, since Blair did bring in City Academies to replace failing schools). 

So what are Labour's themes? I picked out 10, which struck me as the…

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12 Jul 2011 9 comments - read and reply.

HE White Paper - key points and reaction

 The Higher Education White paper is now published. The following is a very quick summary of the main points. Further analysis to follow.

The document signals its intention through its title: 'Students at the heart of the system'. But Les Ebdon, chairman of Million+, and vice-chancellor of the University of Bedfordshire disagrees, saying the plans are 'in the interests of the Treasury not in the interests of students'. He adds that they will jeopardise social mobility.

Key Points

Amongst the key points in the White Paper are plans to: 

• Free up student number controls by making around 85,000 places contestable among universities in 2012/13. This will be achieved through unrestrained recruitment of the 65,000 high-achieving students who typically get AAB grades, and by creating a flexible margin of 20,000 places to reward quality providers charging an average of £7,500 or less for tuition.
• Ensure that the Office for Fair Access is properly resourced so that it can go further and faster to drive fair access for students from lower income families and widen participation
• Enable a wider range of providers to join the sector to offer more choice for students
• Promise less regulation and bureaucracy for universities.
• Ensure better…

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28 Jun 2011 8 comments - read and reply.

Higher Education White Paper published

The coalition government publishes its long-awaited strategic plans for universities today in a White Paper.

 Pre-publication briefings confirm many of the long-expected, and widely trailed, measures. These are aimed at bringing down fee levels, encouraging a consumer-market, and allowing popular universities (and new providers, including the private sector) to expand at the expense of other universities.

 The measures include:

• Better consumer-style information for prospective students via the so-called Key Information Sets (KIS). From 2012, all universities will have to publish statistics showing information such as their graduates’ subsequent earnings and employability, and university contact hours, satisfaction levels and tuition fees.
• A new ‘core and margin’ approach to funding, whereby an extra allocation of student places (perhaps 10%) can be bid for by universities on the basis of strength of demand and value for money.
• Universities or FE colleges that charge lower fees (probably below the Treasury’s calculation of average fee levels at £7,500) to be able to bid for extra places.
• Removal of limits on the number of top-scoring A level students (2 As and a B) any university can admit.
• Allowing easier and fuller access…

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27 Jun 2011 2 comments - read and reply.

Gove's invitation to parents infuriates teachers

 The Schools Secretary, Michael Gove, has succeeded in throwing petrol on the flames of the teachers' industrial dispute, which is planned for next week over changes to their pensions.

Mr Gove told BBC Television that he would like parents to go into schools to help out on the planned strike day on Thursday. Pressed by interviewer Andrew Marr, Mr Gove said: 'parents could help, certainly'.

His comments have infuriated teachers who have pointed out that there are issues of child protection (will the parents need to have Criminal Records Bureau checks, as teachers and other adults working in schools are required to have?) and insurance cover. They also regard his suggestion as undermining their professionalism.

 The incident has echoes of the storm caused by one of his Tory predecessors, John Patten, who once called for a 'Mum's Army' of volunteers to help in schools.

It also comes after a number of other embarrassments for Mr Gove, not least the problems he ran into over the scrapping of the Building Schools for the Future programme and School-Sports Partnerships.

Nor do his comments on parents covering for teachers sit well with his White Paper last year which suggested the professional standards of…

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26 Jun 2011 15 comments - read and reply.

How to find my Teachers TV programmes

 Following the demise of Teachers TV, I'm happy to report it is still possible to view all of my videos for the channel at the new website: www.teachersmedia.co.uk/ 

These include the Need To Know series looking at:

Free Schools: www.teachersmedia.co.uk/videos/free-schools

Academies: www.teachersmedia.co.uk/videos/academies-in-detai

Discipline & behaviour: www.teachersmedia.co.uk/videos/powers-to-control-behaviour

Coalition government policy: www.teachersmedia.co.uk/videos/education-policy-at-the-party-conferences

Also available is the series What If?, a set of hypotheticals which put a panel of teachers and other professionals on the spot with real-life dilemmas involving parents, pupils and staff.  These include:

Meet the parents: www.teachersmedia.co.uk/videos/meet-the-parents-1

The private lives of teachers: www.teachersmedia.co.uk/videos/private-life-v-public-role

Gangs and schools: www.teachersmedia.co.uk/videos/gangs

Looked-after children: www.teachersmedia.co.uk/videos/looked-after-children-1

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12 Jun 2011 2 comments - read and reply.

Time to scrap Ofsted's 'satisfactory' rating?

I've just published a hard-hitting and controversial guest essay by former HMI Roy Blatchford in the 'articles' section of this website www.mikebakereducation.co.uk/articles/86/why-ofsteds-satisfactory-is-just-not-good-enough

He argues that the current review of Ofsted's framework should include scrapping the 'satisfactory' category, which he says too often amounts to 'grindingly satisfactory' and is found disproportionately in schools in lower socio-economic areas of the country. Instead lessons should be judged on a three-point scale: excellent, good and improvement required.

Roy Blatchford is also Director of the National Education Trust and has helped establish inspection and school review systems in New York, Dubai and Mumbai. In March this year he was invited to join the government's Teachers' Standards Review Group.

A number of responses have already appeared and your views are very welcome on what looks like being a lively topic.

Guest articles are becoming an increasingly popular feature of the Mike Baker Education website and I am happy to receive suggestions.

The views, as ever, are those of the authors not necessarily of myself as publisher but I am delighted for them to provoke a forum on key education issues.  

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07 Jun 2011 4 comments - read and reply.

Oxford vote of no confidence in Willetts

This afternoon, Oxford Academics supported a motion of no confidence in the Universities Minister, David Willetts. The result was 283 for, 5 against.

The vote is part of an attempted nationwide protest campaign started by academics and students at Oxford who are campaigning against higher education policy in general and in particular against the cutting of the HEFCE teaching grant as part of the introduction of the higher fees ceiling. More at: www.noconfidence.org.uk/

A similar move to stage a debate has been initiated by 130 academics at Cambridge and on-line petitions have been started at Warwick and Goldsmiths.

Labour's spokesman on universities, Gareth Thomas,has described the vote as 'devastating and unprecedented'.

However, as has been noted, the numbers voting at Oxford represent only a tiny minority of the 4,500 membership of the Oxford Congregation. However, it is rare for the majority to vote.

Personally, while I quite understand the strength of feeling, I do wonder whether any replacement for Mr. Willetts  from within this government would be any improvement - he has a good understanding of higher education, a genuine commitment to liberal ideas of learning and university independence, and is likely to be a buffer against the wilder…

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07 Jun 2011

Does USA really top the universities league table?

Interesting - if polemical - piece in the London Review of Books attacking the notion that the USA is the world's leading higher education system. 

In his essay 'Don't look to the Ivy League', Howard Hotson argues that once you take account of relative population size, the USA's leading position in world university rankings is rather less impressive than the UK's. He says that - on a per head of population basis - the UK has more top 20 universities than the USA.

He goes on to argue that this should throw doubt on the UK government's policy of copying the US by encouraging the growth of private sector providers, such as BPP. 

The full article is available free here: www.lrb.co.uk/v33/n10/howard-hotson/dont-look-to-the-ivy-league

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30 May 2011 1 comments - read and reply.

Education and Cancer Charity

 One of the great organisations I am involved with is the National Education Trust - a charity dedicated to narrowing the attainment gap -  where I am a trustee. It does fantastic work with schools. www.nationaleducationtrust.net/index.php

 One of my great friends there is Marc Rowland, its Business and Development Manager. On hearing about my cancer diagnosis, Marc came up with the wonderful, but some might say daft, idea of going to Thailand for the weekend to run a half-marathon to raise money for the cancer charity of my choice.

So please excuse me if I use this education blog to help publicise this wonderful, and generous, gesture.

 I have chosen to request donations for the Star Throwers cancer charity in Norfolk, partly because my sister is a volunteer there but also because I really like it's philosophy, which offers something different for people like me who are told there is no 'cure' for their cancer. Unusually, it combines conventional and complementary cancer treatment and advice.

This is how Star Throwers describe themselves:

The Star Throwers was set up by Dr. Henry Mannings to provide help to cancer sufferers who felt they have nowhere else to go or required advice on…

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26 May 2011 3 comments - read and reply.

A scheme that simplifies literacy teaching

I don't usually write about specific education resources but I'm going to break this unwritten rule because I recently came across a father and son team who provide a literacy scheme that seemed to me both unusual and worthy of wider mention. 

Norman Hore, and his son David, run something called 'Rapid English'. As its name suggests, its a method  of teaching that focuses on teaching the most useful 20% of the English language. This 20% - which is identified by software programmes - makes up 80% of normal communication.

 So the idea is that by focusing on the bits of grammar and spelling that really count, you can achieve rapid results. They have had particular success working with young offenders but have also worked with primary and secondary schools. They are already working with around 20 Youth Offending Teams and some 15 or more schools.

Norman Hore's background is in teaching English as a foreign language, where he found that he could achieve much better results by ignoring the conventional curriculum and 'focusing - not on teaching to the exam - but on teaching to communicate'.

When he came back to the UK he worked on literacy with the…

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26 May 2011 1 comments - read and reply.

Academies conference July 14th

 I'm chairing a conference examining the future direction of academies - 'Academy status - exploring the vision' - in London on July 14th.

The day will look at issues pertinent to schools weighing up whether or not to convert and also for those already embarked on the process. There will be case studies from a primary and a secondary school, examining their journey to academy conversion, as well as presentations on the role of the YPLA and on the role of federations and 'brands'.

There are also workshops looking at practical issues such as the legal framework, HR issues and charitable accounting. 

Full details of the programme are at: www.national-training.com/events/conferences/academies/index.php  

'Early bird' prices are available until 3p.m. on 27th May. 

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26 May 2011 5 comments - read and reply.

What about school autonomy on phonics?

As we know this government is strongly committed to the use of systematic phonics in the teaching of reading. We also know that ministers' rhetoric is all about school and teacher autonomy. How compatible are these two aims?

It's come to my attention that the government has now put a list of publishers and their phonics products which meet their core criteria.  This contains a short list of 7 full phonics programmes. It can be found at: dfe.gov.uk/b0010235/publishers-and-their-products/a-to-z-of-phonics-publishers-and-their-products

The government does point out that this is not an exclusive list and is neither  'approved' or 'endorsed'. Nevertheless it will be a powerful push for these products.

But that is not all. The government has also awarded a contract to a company - Eastern Shires Purchasing Organisation (ESPO) -  to set up a purchasing framework and invitations to tender.
Primary schools can access a match funded grant of £3,000 to spend on such resources. That is big money when multiplied by 16,000 primary schools in England.  

As some people are now asking, if the government has already listed a set of resources on its own website, the tender process…

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15 May 2011 20 comments - read and reply.

Visa changes will mean fewer overseas students

 The number of overseas students coming to the UK 'must come down' as a result of the recent changes to the immigration rules, according to Jeremy Oppenheim, Director for Temporary Migration at the UK Border Agency.

He was speaking at the HE Futures conference in London, which I was chairing today. According to Mr Oppenheim it will be 'a problem' if the numbers do not come down as there is a political imperative to reduce immigration numbers. 

When I asked him if this meant that the new visa regulations were not just about improving security but were about reducing numbers, he said 'yes'. 

New visa rules introduced last moth will make it tougher for some students to come to this country to study. Mr Oppenheim said this was necessary as there had been 'spikes in applications from students in some parts of the world'.

However, he did add that if the new system could 'eradicate abuse' in the system then numbers  'will come down' and this should not affect legitimate students at genuine institutions.

He added that genuine students applying to trusted institutions should not be put off  from applying to the UK and there was a need to 'bust…

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11 May 2011

Teachers TV rises from the ashes

 The team that ran Teachers TV is about to return in a new guise as 'Teachers Media'.

The new service will provide free access to the entire archive of the former Teachers TV, which shut after the government unexpectedly removed its funding.

Although the archive will remain free, the new service proposes to charge a fee for some additional services as a way of covering its operational costs. 

The team includes Andrew Bethell, the former Chief Executive of Teachers TV, and David Libbert, the channel's former  Creative Director. Andrew is currently leading the team developing the Teachers' Channel in the USA, based on the model of Teachers TV.

Full access to the 3,500 videos in the archive will be available shortly. The new channel hopes eventually to make new content. For more details see: www.teachersmedia.co.uk/

Another company, Ten Alps plc, is also launching a service providing access to the Teachers TV archive. Its service will be called 'Schoolsworld'.

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11 May 2011 2 comments - read and reply.