Laurie Taylor Column
The new white paper on higher education announces that an "access regulator" with power to hand out fines will be appointed - THES , January 24. From: The office of the access regulator To: The vice-...
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Leader: If stars are OK for research why not for A levels too?
Much of the agenda for higher education is clearer since last week's white paper. Academics might not like the direction in which they are being pointed, with top-up fees, much greater specialisation...
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Leader: By 2006, few will want to be in cut-price club
Vice-chancellors are understandably reluctant to commit themselves on the pricing of courses four years hence, despite the prompting of newspapers, including The THES . Why should they? Any...
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The man with sights on gangland targets
As UK gun crime escalates, Adam James talks to policy adviser Nick Tilley The murder of two teenage girls in a hail of bullets during a new year's eve party in Birmingham provoked a clamour of...
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Quiet man hopes for revolution of the mind
Tony Holland, Cambridge's new chair of learning disability, came into the subject by chance. He talks to Terry Philpot In October 2000, health minister John Hutton hailed the white paper on learning...
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'Bullying destroyed my self worth'
University support staff are complaining of a huge rise in cases of bullying. Is a hierarchical environment to blame? Harriet Swain reports Jane (not her real name) can no longer face going into the...
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Get out your module maps, it's time for a light-touch look at those underlying concepts and learning outcomes
The audit culture in universities diverts academics from their calling - researching and teaching - and makes them into paper-shuffling, jargon-spouting bureaucrats, says Todd Landman In March 2001,...
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Your task: identify the root of the falling interest
The inquiry into how to raise the popularity of maths, lift students' skills and end the dearth of teachers is not a theoretical exercise. Its chair tells Martin Ince that he expects to see his...
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Size does not matter for the arts 1
The government wrongly equates research excellence with institutional concentration in its Future of Higher Education white paper ( THES , January 24). In doing so, it risks imposing a model drawn...
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Size does not matter for the arts 2
The white paper argues against the link between teaching and research while acknowledging that "scholarly activity" is necessary to sustain quality. Its "heavy" science model favours large centres...
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Underperform on pay 1
It is galling that lecturers' union Natfhe's efforts to work in partnership with employers to deliver modernised pay structures, and on the access agenda so lauded by this government, has led to a...
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Underperform on pay 2
The white paper provides much entertainment in spotting the "old chestnuts". For example, the 1968 Prices and Incomes Board report proposed to reward the best teachers, to earmark a percentage of the...
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Underperform on pay 3
The belief that the £330 million of funding council money for recruiting and retaining staff ("Pay boost will come at a price", THES, January 24) has been "earmarked for staff pay" is wide of the...
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Flaws in fees policy 1
The argument for top-up fees ("Fees can be up to £3,000 - with Whitehall strings," THES , January 24) is based on flawed logic and a failure to learn from ߣߣÊÓƵ, which introduced a similar higher...
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Flaws in fees policy 2
A £20,000 debt is surely a disincentive to students from deprived backgrounds to study purely academic subjects, such as philosophy, and an incentive to follow vocational degrees, such as law. If we...