New gateway for UK universities will build on international success

Today Foreign Secretary William Hague, joined by Universities and Science Minister David Willetts, will launch a new gateway for UK higher education institutions to build on their international success.

For the first time, the HE Global Integrated Advisory Service will bring together international education advice and services from both UK government departments and partners into one central resource.

The UK is one of the leaders in the provision of transnational education (TNE); the delivery of UK degree programmes, modules, training and other types of education at international locations, but it is a highly competitive market in an increasingly crowded global higher education market place.

HE Global will comprise a website, email and telephone helpline which will provide a single point of contact for UK universities looking to expand abroad through Transnational Education (TNE).

Foreign Secretary William Hague said:

“The higher education industry export market is hugely important to the UK economy. By creating HEGlobal we are ensuring that UK institutions which wish to build international relationships and provide their expertise abroad have easy access to the best intelligence and assistance to enable them to significantly increase the value of international education over the next decade.”

Universities and Science Minister David Willetts said:

“Higher education in the UK is world class; this is illustrated by the fact that we have three of the top ten and 32 of the top 200 ranked universities in the world, located right here in the UK.

“The HE Global service will ensure that our universities continue to be market-leaders providing high quality teaching and research world-wide.”

HE Global aims to maintain and advance the UK’s position at the forefront of global TNE activities by providing:

· A better knowledge of foreign market opportunities;

· A clearer and coordinated view of services offered by government and project partners;

· A better understanding of foreign quality assurance and accrediting systems;

· Access to finance and insurances to reduce risk; and

· Access to key information to help HEIs assess risks and carry out due diligence before undertaking TNE activities.

The service has been designed to be responsive to the sector, therefore a series of roadshows and workshops are being held with key international staff across the UK, and in offices overseas, to gain feedback and discuss how the service can be enhanced further to better help them in developing their international education activities.

Professor Colin Riordan, Chair, International UK Higher Education Unit commented:

“HE Global will enable higher education institutions to strengthen institutional relationships

NEWS BY:http://nds.coi.gov.uk/content/Detail.aspx?ReleaseID=422966&NewsAreaID=2

Teaching union ATL backs pension deal

Members of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers have voted to back the government's revised pensions deal.

Some 91.6% of ATL members voted in favour of the deal, thrashed out after a one-day strike in November with six other teaching unions.

ATL is one of the smaller, more moderate teaching unions and represents 160,000 teachers, heads, lecturers and support staff in the UK.

Its president Alice Robinson said her union's members were "realists".

November's strike was the first time in ATL's history that members took part in a walkout.

Under the latest deal, teachers' pension contributions will still increase, but ATL says their pension pots will grow faster than under the current Teachers' Pensions Scheme (TPS) because of an improved accrual rate.

Members of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers have voted to back the government's revised pensions deal.

Some 91.6% of ATL members voted in favour of the deal, thrashed out after a one-day strike in November with six other teaching unions.

ATL is one of the smaller, more moderate teaching unions and represents 160,000 teachers, heads, lecturers and support staff in the UK.

Its president Alice Robinson said her union's members were "realists".

November's strike was the first time in ATL's history that members took part in a walkout.

Under the latest deal, teachers' pension contributions will still increase, but ATL says their pension pots will grow faster than under the current Teachers' Pensions Scheme (TPS) because of an improved accrual rate. 

NEWS:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-16787958

Core subjects are key to education reform

The indicators are not good. This week's OECD performance measures, Education at a Glance, suggests the east is starting to overtake the west in skills. In the PISA league tables, the UK has dropped to 28th in maths while the Asian tigers hold the top spots. Today, five Conservative MPs set out what can be done in After the Coalition, a new book which suggests an agenda for the future of the Conservative party. We do not believe that falling down international league tables is inevitable. But to arrest decline, a radical change in our attitude to education is required.

The British education debate frequently focuses on how the ability or background of students has an effect on their attainment and outcomes. Some argue for a "mixed" catchment so that peers can have a positive influence, others argue for wholesale selection so that bright students from low-income backgrounds can benefit. Bright, low-income students do need a clearer path to success, but a system has to reward work as well as flair.

In the most successful countries, Canada and Germany for example, all students are required to work hard to "pass the year", and if they don't there is the sanction of being held back. Those who work hard and achieve can progress faster through the system, for example taking a harder maths class or additional courses in new subjects. Britain should adopt this "escalator" policy to motivate students to work.

Many students cut off career options at 14 when they drop critical subjects such as the single sciences and modern languages. The numbers studying these subjects has plummeted in the last decade. Those from low income backgrounds have been worst affected; only 24 per cent of students on free school meals took a language at GCSE.

In the modern world a core general education is a requirement of most employers and universities. Virtually all the countries that bypass Britain in league tables specify these subjects until 16, including Canada, France and Germany. We should and must expect more. A rigorous core including maths, English, single sciences, a language and history until 16 should be combined with an A-level Baccalaureate of high quality A-levels that gives students a clear signal about what universities want. A strong technical or arts Bacc with employer or institutional sponsorship should also be available for 16- to 18-year-olds. This will provide students with a clear path to success.

NEWS BY:http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/mortarboard/2011/sep/17/core-subjects-education-reform

UK university plans Bangkok campus

Plans to unveil the UK's first private university campus in Bangkok have been unveiled.

The University of Central Lancashire has signed an agreement with Thai-based entrepreneur Sitichai Charoenkajonkul to create a full-scale campus.

Preston-based UCLan will invest £7.5 million in the Thailand venture which aims to open the doors to its first influx of students in June 2014.

The site will offer full-time and part-time undergraduate, postgraduate and foundation degree courses in subject areas such as business, built and natural environment, engineering, creative and performing arts, and languages. Located in the Bangkok metropolitan area and within easy reach of the city centre, the new facility will initially be home to 800 students with a planned capacity of 5,000 in 10 years.

UCLan vice chancellor Malcolm McVicar said: "UCLan has made huge strides in the last 10 years and the qualities of innovation, entrepreneurship and enterprise remain at the heart of everything we do.

"We have students from over 120 countries and some 125 partnerships across the globe but we are now entering a new phase of exciting development which will see us build campuses outside the UK.

NEWS BY:http://www.braypeople.ie/breaking-news/world-news/uk-university-plans-bangkok-campus-2987540.html

Why black students aren't getting into Oxbridge

News this week that the total of 32 black students accepted by Oxford University in 2011 represents an increase from last year, is not much to write home about when 2010 figures show that fewer than one in 100 students beginning courses at Oxford or Cambridge were black.

At Cambridge, the number of admissions for black students fell to 16 out of an intake of 2,624, compared with 25 the previous year.

Earlier this year David Cameron called the universities' ethnic admissions figures 'disgraceful', though this was based on incorrect information that only one British black student had been accepted by Oxford in 2009.

The organisation Operation Black Vote has commented that black students are being 'squeezed out of Oxbridge' and consequently out of elite careers like politics that seem to depend largely on that particular education. It said:  'The grim educational reality is those costly private institutions with small classes and a dedicated focus on preparing for Oxbridge entrance fantastically gives an advantage to the privileged. Adding to the squeeze, middle class families are now saturating both Faith and Grammar schools - once a route for bright working class kids, Black and White, to enter Oxbridge...'

NEWS BY:http://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/news/black-students-miss-out-on-oxbridge-%281%29/

University Guide 2013: submit your details

As we prepare the next Guardian University Guide, we invite universities and colleges to check that we are on the right track when it comes to matching subjects with cost centres and Jacs codes – the subject categories used by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (Hesa).

A dedicated website is used to simplify the process.

The Guardian University Guide uses Hesa data to calculate indicators such as spending per student and staff/student ratios, and it is vital for us to match up subjects and cost centres to reflect the performance of institutions.

Default mappings are offered as a guide that provides some consistency across the sector in representing how different subjects are provided.

We are giving all institutions the chance to make sensible adjustments to these mappings to reflect their particular course or departmental structures.

We are also requesting that institutions take the opportunity to refine the tuition fee information that we will be publishing in February's Postgraduate University Guide.


NEWS BY:http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/nov/08/university-guide-mapping

City University London opens its doors to Silicon Roundabout start-ups

City University London is hosting the first in a series of events that aims to encourage interaction, knowledge share and collaboration between local technology start-ups and University staff and students.

event will enable businesses in the Old Street and Shoreditch area -
dubbed to find out more about City's School of Informatics, which offers education, research and consultancy in areas such as user experience design, computer games development and information security.

The programme for the evening will include informal networking, tours of the City Interaction Lab - one of London's leading usability testing facilities - and introductory talks by two City researchers. Professor Kevin Jones, who has more than 20 years' experience in Silicon Valley start-ups and corporations, will discuss what makes a place a great home for technology innovation, while Dr George Buchanan will explore how good user experience can create a competitive advantage.

Alex Elkins, Manager of City's Professional Liaison Unit, which is organising the event, says: "The University is just a stone's throw away from Old Street and we have so much to offer businesses in the area - whether they're looking to find bright new recruits or need technical support with product development."

Recent successes at City's School of Informatics include: 

NEWS BY:http://www.city.ac.uk/news/2011/oct/city-university-london-opens-its-doors-to-silicon-roundabout-start-ups

LSE investigates Nazi card game that ended in Jewish student's broken nose

An investigation has been launched at the London School of Economics as to why a Jewish student on a skiing trip organised by the university’s students’ union had his nose broken after objecting to fellow students playing a card game called 'Nazi Ring of Fire'.

Although the alleged attack, which took place between 9th and17th of December, was not reported to the French police, it is being treated by the university as anti-Semitic. As part of the game, players were reportedly required to 'salute the Führer' and cards were laid out in the shape of a swastika. .

Alex Peters-Day, the General Secretary of the LSE’s Students’ Union said that the university was planning “educational as well as punitive sanctions that would be settled upon” shortly, after she had met with the dean of undergraduate studies, Dr Janet Stockdale. She said that students involved in the attack could face possible expulsion from the athletics union and students' Union. She added that the victim of the attack is keen to remain anonymous.

The president of the Jewish Society at the university, Jay Stoll, to whom complaints of the behaviour had been made last Monday by eight students, said that while he did not feel that anti-Semitism or racism was “endemic” at the university there were parts of the athletics union who had “no regard for political sensitivity” but rather adhered to an “unwritten code” which was frequently racist or sexist.

NEWS BY:http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/lse-investigates-nazi-card-game-that-ended-in-jewish-students-broken-nose-6290470.html

Student sends Oxford University rejection letter for 'taking itself too seriously'

A student has sent her own rejection letter to a prestigious university
criticising it for "intimidating" pupils from comprehensive school
backgrounds during the interview process.

Elly Nowell, from Winchester, Hampshire, wrote in her letter to Oxford University that using "grand formal settings" for the interviews allowed public school applicants to "flourish".

The 19-year-old, who studied at Brockenhurst College, had applied to Magdalen College to read law (jurisprudence).

Parodying a standard university rejection letter, she wrote: "I have now considered your establishment as a place to read Law (jurisprudence).

"I very much regret to inform you that I will be withdrawing my application.

"I realise you may be disappointed by this decision, but you were in competition with many fantastic universities and following your interview I am afraid you do not quite meet the standard of the universities I will be considering."

The letter continued: "While you may believe your decision to hold interviews in grand formal settings is inspiring, it allows public school applicants to flourish and intimidates state school applicants, distorting the academic potential of both." 

NEWS BY:http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/higher/student-sends-oxford-university-rejection-letter-for-taking-itself-too-seriously-6291262.html

International students launch the academic year at CPIT

Students who are studying for the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) exams at the end of the month were already working hard to gain their qualifications in time to enrol in mainstream programmes at CPIT.

CPIT International Director Beth Knowles said all the students were full of energy after their summer holidays and keen to get started on their studies.

“It’s going to be an interesting year and there are very positive signs that it will be a great year,” she said. “We have five Japanese groups coming in February to study English for example. CPIT was recently selected as the new Cambridge English Examination Centre for Christchurch, which will attract new international students to Canterbury and also upskill workers who are here for the rebuild and recovery of our city.”

The English and New Zealand Study Course students, meanwhile, will study English each morning during their four weeks in Christchurch and explore Christchurch in the afternoons with trips planned to attractions such as Willowbank and the Antarctic Centre as well as a meeting with Deputy Mayor Ngaire Button.

Student YouJin Kim, 21, from the Korean Bible University, said she was looking forward to studying at CPIT. “I came here to enhance my English and to travel to another country,” she said. “It is very exciting!”

NEWS BY:http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/ED1201/S00005/international-students-launch-the-academic-year-at-cpit.htm

UK university to open campus in Thailand

A UK university is to open a campus in Bangkok - in what is claimed as the first such UK branch university to be established in Thailand.

The University of Central Lancashire has signed a deal with a Thai-based entrepreneur to open a university campus in Bangkok in 2014.

Degrees will be taught in English and validated by the UK university.

This will be the latest example of universities "globalising" with overseas branches.

It follows a path set by the University of Nottingham which set up a branch university in China.

The greatest concentration of such branch universities, from UK and US universities, has been in Asia and the Gulf states.

Newcastle University is establishing a medical school in Malaysia, where Nottingham also has a campus. University College London has a campus in Qatar.

The announcement of the University of Central Lancashire's plans will give this "new" university an international identity and an opportunity to expand.

The University of Central Lancashire's vice-chancellor, Malcolm McVicar, said its market research showed "strong demand" for undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Thailand.

NEWS BY:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-16509673

For Dr. King, Freedom and Education Were Intertwined

one of the panelists will be Rachel Moran, dean of the U.C.L.A. School of Law. For SchoolBook she addressed Dr. King’s legacy and how he viewed Brown v. Board of Education — and responds to the theme of the WNYC event, “In MLK’s Footsteps: Education as a Civil Right.” What do you think? Share your thoughts in the query below.

In 1954, when the United States Supreme Court unanimously declared in Brown v. Board of Education that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal,” civil rights activists around the nation hailed the pronouncement as a great victory.

In 1957, Martin Luther King, Jr. described Brown as “a legal and sociological death blow to an evil that had occupied the throne of American life for several decades.”

He predicted that: “With the coming of this great decision we could gradually see the old order of segregation and discrimination passing away, and the new order of freedom and justice coming into being.”

In praising Brown, Dr. King emphasized the ways in which a principle of non-discrimination would not only promote equality but also advance liberty by enabling African Americans to achieve economic independence and political voice. 

NEWS BY:http://www.nytimes.com/schoolbook/2012/01/13/for-dr-king-freedom-and-education-were-intertwined/

Is the number of first-class degrees cause for concern?

The latest figures out from the Higher Education Statistics Agency may well fuel fears that grade inflation is rife in UK universities.

The statistics show the proportion of undergraduates being awarded first-class degrees has risen rapidly in the last four years.he proportion of firsts for each university will be published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency on 23 February. It will be interesting to see whether particular groups of universities are awarding many more firsts than they used to be, or if all are.

So is this grade inflation or has the calibre of students attending UK universities dramatically improved?

Bahram Bekhradnia, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute thinktank, says it may be a combination.

    This is a huge increase. I suspect students have become more serious as the job market becomes tougher. They are pulling their fingers out.

Bekhradnia says teaching may well be better. Lecturers now face rigorous training before they teach undergraduates.

NEWS BY:http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/mortarboard/2012/jan/12/first-class-degrees-concern

Spies and accountants in Stonewall’s new employer index

One of the largest professional services firms in the world, Ernst & Young, has topped Stonewall’s list of the 100 best employers for gay and bi employees this year.

Among 25 new entries for 2012 is MI5, the UK’s counter-intelligence and security agency, at number 62.

Until 1989, the agency saw gays as too “vulnerable to corruption” to perform the high-level work at Thames House, but the Security Service now has a popular support group for LGBT employees.

Ernst & Young tops the Top 100 Employers 2012 list, up from third place last year.

The Home Office has been knocked off the top spot to second place, and Barclays has risen from tenth place to occupy third.

Stonewall says the 2012 Index has been revised with the most demanding criteria to date, introducing new weighting for global employers that recognises worldwide support for LGB equality.

The Employee Network Group of the Year goes to Accenture, and the Department of Energy and Climate Change is named Most Improved Employer.

Bill Payne, former Chief Executive of Metropolitan Housing Partnership, was named Individual Champion of the Year.

The full results will be announced at a ceremony tonight, hosted in London by Ernst & Young.

Lynne Featherstone, MP, Minister for Equalities, will present the accountancy firm with their award for Top Employer.


NEWS BY:http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2012/01/11/spies-and-accountants-in-stonewalls-new-employer-index/

Former finance minister forced to leave UK university lecture

Former Egyptian Finance Minister Youssef Boutros-Ghali was forced to leave a public lecture he was attending at the London School of Economics (LSE) after a group of attendees said they were appalled to see him in the audience.

Dina Makram-Ebeid, a PhD student in anthropology at LSE, was the first to report Boutros-Ghali’s presence at LSE.

She wrote on her Twitter account, “Youssef Boutros Ghali is here at LSE lecture abt Egyptian revolution! still playing in his damn blackberry! Can't believe he's free!”

Security escorted the former finance minister out of the hall after audience members called him out publicly.

Boutros-Ghali was attending a speaking event organized by the school titled "The Year of Egypt's Second Revolution: The Balance Sheet So Far," with Roger Owen, a professor of Middle East history at Harvard University, scheduled to speak.

Boutros-Ghali, widely viewed in Egypt as a public face of a government that enriched the wealthy at the expense of the poor, quit his post in late January then fled abroad, only days after the eruption of the mass uprising that later ousted former President Hosni Mubarak.

In June, an Egyptian court convicted Boutros-Ghali in absentia and sentenced him to 30 years in prison for profiteering and abusing state and private assets.

Makram-Ebeid later wrote on Twitter that she yelled to the audience that [Boutros-Ghali] “is a criminal sentenced to 30 years and is a fugitive, should be arrested now!!!“

NEWS BY:http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/593366

Students Will 'Look Overseas To Find Value For Money University Courses'

Growing numbers of teenagers will consider studying overseas in the future to find wide-ranging courses and good value for money, it has been suggested.

The United States and European nations such as the Netherlands are already becoming increasingly popular among students looking to be more "savvy" in their university choice, according to private school leaders.

With fees for English universities set to rise to £9,000, value for money is high on the agenda, as is the chance to study a broader course, such as liberal arts.

While the numbers are still small, private school leaders said they expect to see an increase in those opting for foreign universities.

Peter McDonald, housemaster and adviser on overseas higher education at Magdalen College, a private boys school which also caters to girls in the sixth form, told Press Association: "Things are beginning to change, in that this year we are seeing, in particular, one applicant who is dead set on the States.

"Out of a year group of 130, there's also growing interest in Irish universities, Trinity College Dublin and Irish medical schools."

Mr McDonald said: "Students are becoming far more savvy as regards all the options, and they're looking at value for money very differently.

NEWS BY:http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2011/12/29/students-look-overseas-value-for-money_n_1174051.html

No choice but to become an academy?

On a sunny winter's afternoon, Downhills primary school looks like an advert for the inclusive possibilities of inner-city, multi-ethnic education.

Children of different races are running around together in the playground; inside the walls are covered with colourful artwork. The head, Leslie Church, talks about one of the school's strengths: giving each child in this deprived area of north London – just a few hundred yards from the starting point of August's riots – access to free violin, cello or guitar lessons in year 4.

The school, which has been through difficulties in the last year despite the overwhelmingly happy exterior, might in other times be cheering itself with news in September from inspectors that it is improving.

Instead, this 463-pupil institution in Tottenham is now seemingly on the front line of a struggle for the future of England's primary schools.

Downhills is facing being forced by Michael Gove, the education secretary, to become a privately sponsored academy, despite fierce opposition from parents, the governing body and staff.

Last Thursday, David Lammy, the local MP, who was a pupil here, accused Gove of an "undemocratic and aggressive" act, which threatened to erase 100 years of local democratic control at the school, founded in the late 19th century, at a stroke.

Lammy is now collecting signatures for a petition to present to the House of Commons against the plans, while the school is exploring its legal options.

Yet Downhills, which is in this position because the government says its English and maths test results are not good enough, is not alone.

NEWS BY:http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/dec/19/schools-forced-to-become-academies?newsfeed=true

Fee decision for Channel Islands university students

University students from the Channel Islands will be charged the same as English students, the islands' States have announced.

Changes in the UK mean universities are free to charge tuition fees of up to £9,000 a year from September 2012.

However, it had not been clear what the impact of these changes would be on students from the islands.

The change in fees will not affect those already studying whose fees are due to rise by less than inflation.

Previously fees were set under a voluntary agreement between the Crown Dependencies - Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man - and Universities UK.

The "island fee" was based on a principle of "no more and no less" than a UK student, but often island students paid more as the level of government funding was higher from the UK than the islands.

The majority of these UK grants are due to end under the new system, although some expensive courses such as medicine will continue to be supported.

The islands have agreed to meet the additional costs of such courses at the same level as the UK Government.

All universities were asked if they would charge island students more and the majority said they were not planning to do so.


NEWS BY:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-guernsey-16271868