Latest education news
20th of November 2008
Michael Franks: Come on, Oxford, tell us what you'll do with £1bn
In May this year, Oxford appealed to graduates and supporters for £1.25bn. The graduates are being targeted partly for their money, of course – although only a tiny number can afford to give large amounts – but also for their support. The aim is to raise the number of Oxford alumni who make donations to their alma mater towards levels in the USA, where graduates give billions of dollars to their universities.
The LSE's jaw-dropping £71m structure is a building to wow students
Until now, the London School of Economics has been noted for its eggheads rather than its buildings. But that is changing. Earlier this month, the Queen opened a jaw-dropping £71m structure, complete with four lecture theatres, 16 seminar rooms, a street café and a rooftop pavilion with dramatic views across the capital.
Leading Article: Degree of expertise
Professor Roger Brown, the former vice-chancellor of Southampton Solent University, is one of the few big thinkers about higher education. He says what he thinks and what he thinks does not chime with prevailing orthodoxy, certainly when it comes to university funding. But his latest thoughts on maintaining standards are worth examining, partly because Brown used to run the now-defunct Higher Education Quality Council and partly because he really knows what goes on in a higher education institution.
Diary of a Fresher: 'I've an eclectic bunch of friends – and all my lecturers are dotty'
After a tumultuous start, life here is beginning to settle down. The frantic jockeying for position in the first few weeks is over, and it's no longer acceptable to introduce yourself to random people or shamelessly ask for names. Socially, the beginning of the year was a slow burn for me – I ended up meeting one potentially good friend a day, until I was able to enter the dining hall on my own and always find someone I wanted to sit with. By then the time for meeting new people had suddenly and mysteriously drawn to a close. Everyone is now pretty much stuck with whatever friends they've made, and I'm left with several moderately good mates and countless acquaintances whose names I can't quite remember. Such is life. The first weeks of university would be a fascinating social experiment if I weren't in the middle of it.
13th of November 2008
David Willetts: 'Students should be given better information about degree courses before they apply'
David Willetts is looking unusually pink, well-scrubbed and excited – and for good reason. He has cycled into work and had a quick shower. And he has just learnt that Gordon Brown made a big boo-boo when he increased student grants last year. The government simply hadn't done its sums properly and is having now to cut grants to balance the books.
Degree of convenience: Why wait until the autumn to start at university?
Oxbridge interviews are renowned for off-the-wall questions challenging the obvious, so here's one from a student: "Why do all your undergraduate degree courses start in October?"
6th of November 2008
Cyber taste of success: The future of university applications lies online
The quality and quantity of information that university applicants receive is becoming a hot topic. The first report last month of the National Student Forum (NSF), a new body established by the Department for Innovation, University and Skills to represent UK students, expressed dissatisfaction at the data universities provide to potential applicants, calling it "inadequate" and "incoherent". According to the NSF, details on courses, funding and institutions is patchy.
Leading Article: Another funding furore
The news that MPs on the innovation, universities and skills select committee are going to take a long, hard look at higher education is welcome — particularly in the light of the cock-up over grants. Undergraduate support is being cut after poor estimates were made of how many students were eligible for funds. The review will feed into the Government's review of top-up fees, providing some much-needed evidence on the extent to which the fees are hindering access.
Education Diary: Who's for hot seat at Hefce?
Tongues are wagging about who will succeed Professor David Eastwood, the widely admired and liked chief executive of the Higher Education Funding Council for England. This is considered to be a highly influential job, advising ministers, disbursing money to universities, and urging them to do the Government's bidding. But it has become less popular now that ministers intervene so much in universities' affairs, and the money is less than you would earn as a vice chancellor of a university such as Birmingham, where Eastwood is bound. Two names appear to be in the frame: Professor Paul Welling, the Australian who heads Lancaster University, and Professor Steve Smith, Exeter's boss. Smith has said that he doesn't want it. That leaves Welling. But there could, of course, be a dark-horse candidate. An announcement is expected by Christmas.
30th of October 2008
Education Letters: Richmond and the Swedish model
In your article on the Swedish schools model ("DIY learning? Not here, thanks" EDUCATION & CAREERS, 9 October), your writer makes several incorrect statements. It is twice stated that Richmond Council has given the go-ahead for Kunskapsskolan to take over Hampton Community College and Whitton School. This is not the case. What we have approved are the Expression of Interest documents, which outline the proposal for those schools to become Kunskapsskolan-sponsored academies.
Education Diary: Glittering prizes and golf balls
*Glamour is not a word usually associated with education, but it certainly was at The Times Higher Education Awards last week. Ankles, glitter and cleavages – all were on display at the Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane, where universities congregated to receive their prizes. The comedian Tony Hawks had a great time at the expense of academe, ridiculing the dreariness of presentations in a way that Laurie Taylor, the previous MC, would not have dared.
Andrew Oswald: What we can learn from the Swiss
I did not expect to be living in Switzerland in the month the world's financial system splintered. This episode has reinforced in my mind the need for disinterested intellectual leaders who can offer reliable advice in a crisis. These rare people are all trained in universities, and many work in universities. Whatever one's view of the causes of the crash – and academic economists have to take a share of the blame – it has shown that society needs astute thinkers to help get us out of the mess.
The brain drain leaving Britain 'vulnerable'
Are the best and brightest students going into research? If not, what's to be done – and should we worry that Britain could cease to be a global player in future? The answers, according to a report sent to the Universities Secretary, John Denham, and published exclusively in The Independent today, is that some of the best graduates may be quitting academe, and that we are right to be concerned.
Diary of a Fresher: "The handout reads like a mistranslated computer manual"
Lectures are pretty new to me. Theoretically, they are optional, but "optional" turns out to be one of those university euphemisms which actually mean the opposite. Not that I considered slacking off for a moment, of course, but it would be nice to have the option of reading for an hour instead, should the lecture turn out to be an incomprehensible translation of a handout delivered at 9am.
22nd of October 2008
Leading Article: Graduate guide
Bob Burgess, the vice-chancellor of Leicester University, is to be congratulated for persevering with the idea of introducing a record of achievement for all students in the face of widespread opposition. Degree classifications on their own are a relatively poor guide for employers, especially now that so many students achieve a 2:1.
Diary of a Fresher: 'We eat together and discuss the evils of investment banking'
Freshers' week has a lot riding on it. It's a celebration of our hard-fought independence and, more important, our ability to drink legally. It has a major influence on what our lives will be for the next three years: who we'll know, who we'll like, who'll like us, how high we'll be in the university food chain. We'll spend our days making tonnes of new friends, all the while indulging in liver-frying quantities of lager and hardly sleeping. We'll have the time of our lives. At least, we're meant to.
Richard Evans: The don who's making history
Although Richard Evans was the favourite for the Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge, he maintains that the process of winning the job was tough. For a start, there was an application procedure. Not so long ago, you didn't do anything so vulgar as apply for this distinguished position. You sat about, hoping that you would be looked upon with favour. It is a royal appointment, after all, which means that it used to be in the gift of the prime minister of the day.
15th of October 2008
Winners on and off the pitch: How Loughborough acquired a reputation for academic excellence
It's Wednesday afternoon, the day when students traditionally take part in sport, and a group of smiling and fresh-faced students at Loughborough University are powering across the 50m pool where Britain's double Olympic gold medallist Rebecca Adlington trained this year before her triumphs in Beijing.
8th of October 2008
Education Letters: New developments at Durham University
I would like to correct some misconceptions in your article about Durham University and its Queen's Campus in Stockton ("An ancient seat of learning goes modern", EDUCATION & CAREERS, 25 September). You implied that we would build a new law school, a centre for student services and the university's headquarters at Stockton. This is actually a major development in Durham City.
Diary of a Fresher: 'I get one chance to be an undergrad, so I don't want to mess up'
After spending a year away from school, my uni's "welcome pack" comes as a shock. I always knew it would be coming; I just didn't expect there to be quite so much of it. I count 17 separate documents before dumping them on my bed for perusal sometime later. Much later.
Get a degree via cyberspace
What does the "e" stand for in e-learning? For many students it stands for "easy" – not in the academic sense but because you can work from home, or anywhere else with internet access. Actually the "e" stands for electronic – students use digital study materials, usually on the internet, and communicate with one another and tutors online, through discussion groups and email.
Independent/Bosch competition: How to engineer green solutions
We all know about today's global challenges. How can we save the environment? Fight disease? Improve people's lives? And if there are two fields of study that can meet these challenges, they are technology and engineering.
We are the champions: the new chancellors
What does a university chancellor do – hand out degrees, dress up in fancy garb, make speeches, chair meetings or schmooze? The answer is that he or she does all those things, and more – hopefully with a smidgen of charm, wit and style.
1st of October 2008
Conflict on campus: How plans for a business school are ripping Sussex University apart
As Sussex University freshers tumbled out of their parents' cars this week, clutching their shiny new cutlery and duvets, they can have had little idea of the tensions seething under the surface of their new home. For Sussex is in the news again. The new vice-chancellor, Professor Michael Farthing, is trying, as did his predecessor before him, to reform a university that once had a reputation for excellence as well as cool but has, since the 1960s, fallen out of the top 20.
24th of September 2008
Open days: Ditch the prospectus and see it in the cold light of day
The University of Warwick is a lively, cosmopolitan place, with shops, banks, bars and restaurants, according to its prospectus. Everything a student will need is close at hand on a campus that is easily accessible by road, rail and air, it says. No wonder David Kim, a sixth-former, put the university high on his wish list. Until he attended an open day and discovered that he didn't like it.