We are asking schools to tell us about their A-level and GCSE results online
This summer, the Guardian is asking schools to tell us all about their A-level and GCSE exam successes. We are asking schools to respond to a few quick questions as soon as possible – on August 18 for A-levels and August 25 for GCSEs.
Simply go to our website (the addresses are below) to fill in results on those days.
Continue reading...Sats marking, chaos in the school system and the ethics of widening participation
Continue reading...
Sats marking, chaos in the school system and the ethics of widening participation
Continue reading...
Sats marking, chaos in the school system and the ethics of widening participation
Last week, Janet Murray reported that 93% of headteachers in a poll were unhappy with the marking of this year's Sats writing paper and we printed a paper that was being sent back for re-marking.
When our Sats results came back we found that they were worse than our teacher assessments. No one can remember the last time this happened.
RogerOThornhill
• That's better handwriting than I've seen on many an undergraduate exam script. In fact, it's better handwriting than mine.
hardatwork
• By my count (based on what I can see) there are 150 words in the piece and I count easily 20 errors of spelling or punctuation. What good is done by ignoring these?
limondd
• It is indeed scandalous that such a piece of writing was marked so low. For a 10-year-old, it shows great facility. It is coherent; it is logically organised and demonstrates awareness of cohesion (great use of adverb sequencers such as "surprisingly" and "however"). There is a good range of lexis and grammar; there is a good attempt at punctuation (tries to use a semi-colon!), though obviously this is not always proficient. It demonstrates good awareness of spelling, overall the handwriting is entirely legible. I'm not a state school teacher (I teach EFL), but I completely concur with the headteacher that it shows "real flair and imagination for a 10-year-old".
LiveButNotKicking
• Is anyone counting the emotional cost to these children who cried when they received their results? Children do need to learn hard lessons in life, but those lessons should be fair. If you have not prepared for a test then you accept the result you get back. If you have written a piece of work that has been incorrectly marked, that is nothing but wrong.
NoraTheExplorer
• What do you expect when a bunch of arses are given stacks of papers and told that the faster they can grade them, the more money they make?
Novelist
Fiona Millar argued that sooner or later local education authorities would have to be re-invented to bring order to admissions, SEN provision and place planning since academies and free schools will create "chaos".
All credit to Fiona Millar for staying with this. Secondary education will become chaotic and corrupt in no time at all under the laissez-faire attitude of the current government. Education authorities have been so panned that it may well take the demise of strategic provision and accountability before this is recognised. How much public money has already gone in to free schools and academies? I'd like my contribution back.
rolandb
• The stuck-in-the-mud educational establishment of which Fiona Millar is a part are squealing like stuck pigs as they realise that their failed education ideas will be exposed as useless. More power to Gove's elbow.
chesney9
Harriet Swain reported on debate among academics about the ethics of widening participation and whether the whole idea is a middle-class distraction.
The question is more fundamental. Widening participation" may (or may not) be a good thing. But should it be the business of a university?
GeoffreyAlderman
• Yes it should be the business of a university that takes state dollar. The state has its own interests, which include supplying the wider higher skills needs of the labour market and reducing the waste of human capital potential, and of course there are social justice arguments that all who are qualified and can benefit should have the opportunity.
Capaddona
Sue Learner reported on the closure of school "nurture" groups. The same day, a new Ofsted report praised their work.
I hope we don't lose ours. For many kids these groups keep them out of the special education system. That costs far more.
ajchm
• Cost issues aside, this is a no-brainer! Nurture groups change lives in profound ways.
Doctorow1
The Wolf report says 350,000 young people are on 'dead-end' vocational courses, but this charge is never made of university courses, says Andrew Thomson
People are quick to condemn vocational qualifications as "dead-end" if they fail to lead directly to jobs, but have rarely subjected A-levels and degrees to the same test. This could change as degrees become more expensive and people question whether the qualification is worth the cost.
As colleges gear up for the autumn intake from schools, and send tens of thousands of students on to higher education, it is surprising so little has been said about this. After all, while the Wolf report praised some vocational qualifications, it claimed there were 350,000 young people on "dead-end" courses. Meanwhile we saw a hike in university fees to £9,000 maximum.
Continue reading...The Wolf report says 350,000 young people are on 'dead-end' vocational courses, but this charge is never made of university courses, says Andrew Thomson
People are quick to condemn vocational qualifications as "dead-end" if they fail to lead directly to jobs, but have rarely subjected A-levels and degrees to the same test. This could change as degrees become more expensive and people question whether the qualification is worth the cost.
As colleges gear up for the autumn intake from schools, and send tens of thousands of students on to higher education, it is surprising so little has been said about this. After all, while the Wolf report praised some vocational qualifications, it claimed there were 350,000 young people on "dead-end" courses. Meanwhile we saw a hike in university fees to £9,000 maximum.
So how do you judge the value of a qualification? It is always assumed academic studies are valuable in themselves; people would never say an engineering degree is a dead end if you ultimately become a banker. So why should an IT qualification be a cul-de-sac, if you become a care worker?
The Wolf report struck chords, not least because people recognised the perverse incentives that drive schools to use so-called dead-end courses: school league tables and the contested idea of GCSE equivalence. But the assertion begs two questions. Are "dead-end" courses only available in vocational education? And can cul-de-sacs be changed into part of a highway to success in life?
In 2003, the government calculated that graduates earned an average £400,000 more during their working lives than non-graduates. There was an acceptance that it didn't really matter what the subject was because the degree itself said something about your value.
However, expanding the number of graduates is certain to reduce the dividend of a degree. And though some young people may be persuaded that the loan repayments are acceptable, others won't, and the number of applicants for HE will fall.
While the way degrees relate to jobs is not yet a subject for public anxiety, it's a different story for other qualifications at lower levels of the qualification tree. What value will A-levels have in a world where they are less needed – where progress to HE is seen as an expensive investment and not necessarily cost-beneficial? And what about A-levels that do not lead to HE? Another "dead end"?
There is a different way of doing things and it means being less obsessed with certificates and more concerned with education. The world ahead for young people is one of increasing need for high-value skills and the capacity to be entrepreneurs. We will never be able to match future job-specific needs to the supply of young people via training, in a democracy. So we need to develop a thrust in our curriculum, teaching and learning that promotes the wider skills essential to success in work.
We need courses and teaching that provide skills, nurture attributes and encourage ingenuity. The "dead end" is avoided if a person can transfer these things to their next stage in learning. The answer is not just to dump tranches of vocational courses or restrict A-levels – so long as they deliver these greater goods.
In 2007, Professor Michael Shayer of King's College London published research showing that as test scores for 11-year-olds had risen, cognitive abilities had declined: they passed tests better but they could not think as well. Our future prosperity depends on young people who can think. We do not need perverse incentives to drive schools to put certificates ahead of capabilities, school targets ahead of individual opportunities; the need to fill places ahead of the needs of young people.
We need the potential of our young people to be liberated, and while there is a focus on liberating institutions we risk losing this much greater good in yet more dead ends.
• Andrew Thomson is former CEO of the Quality Improvement Agency and currently interim CEO of the Association of Colleges in the Eastern Region
The Wolf report says 350,000 young people are on 'dead-end' vocational courses, but this charge is never made of university courses, says Andrew Thomson
People are quick to condemn vocational qualifications as "dead-end" if they fail to lead directly to jobs, but have rarely subjected A-levels and degrees to the same test. This could change as degrees become more expensive and people question whether the qualification is worth the cost.
As colleges gear up for the autumn intake from schools, and send tens of thousands of students on to higher education, it is surprising so little has been said about this. After all, while the Wolf report praised some vocational qualifications, it claimed there were 350,000 young people on "dead-end" courses. Meanwhile we saw a hike in university fees to £9,000 maximum.
Continue reading...This week on the Guardian Teacher Network you can find lots of fun resources in celebration of archaeology
Offer a class the chance to make fake poo, and they might think the teacher had lost the plot.
But making fake poo and learning how to excavate it is just one of the resources lined up for teachers on the Guardian Teacher Network this week – in celebration of the start of the 21st British Festival of Archaeology.
Continue reading...This week on the Guardian Teacher Network you can find lots of fun resources in celebration of archaeology
Offer a class the chance to make fake poo, and they might think the teacher had lost the plot.
But making fake poo and learning how to excavate it is just one of the resources lined up for teachers on the Guardian Teacher Network this week – in celebration of the start of the 21st British Festival of Archaeology.
And if constructing fake poo for an Aztec or a Viking doesn't appeal, then pupils can have a go at mummifying an orange, making a Viking braid, or even making a tussy mussy or medieval nosegay to ward off illness and disease.
These resources, which have been provided by the Young Archaeologists' Club (YAC), offer more than just a fun activity to fill a bit of space in the timetable. They are also not just about "history", but offer routes into drama, maths, science and geography.
There are also teacher packs on how to identify monuments, record findings and investigate historic buildings on the site – simply search Guardian Teacher Network under archaeology.
Wendi Terry, head of the YAC at the Council for British Archaeology, firmly believes the subject has many cross-curricular links and loads of opportunities for hands-on learning.
She says: "By its very nature, archaeology involves primary sources, problem-solving and co-operation, investigating and interpreting, observing and describing, measuring and recording, preserving and protecting and communicating findings – all of which can be applied to a range of different topics and subjects.
"Archaeology offers a great range of practical, real-life starting points."
Some background resources are available on our network in the form of the Pocket Histories series from the Museum of London – themes include Queen Boudicca in London, the River Thames in prehistory and What Life was like in Roman London.
Archaeological images for use on the interactive whiteboard are another resource now available to use and download, thanks to the Higher Education Academy, Subject Centre for History, Classics and Archaeology.
And to really get involved in archaeology, you could take part in one of the 800 archaeological events being showcased around the country for the festival. Highlights for families include getting involved with a community dig at a typical Victorian terraced house in Sheffield, drill practice for junior soldiers at the Housesteads Roman Fort at Hadrian's Wall, and Stone Age survival at Cheddar Gorge, Somerset.
For anyone living in or visiting London over the next couple of weeks, the Museum of London has a wide selection of Roman-themed events planned, ranging from Gladiator Games and an interactive Roman archaeology walk to how to make your own Roman mosaics or lamp.
The Tower of London is also opening its beach, for the one and only time this year, for a treasure hunt.
• The Guardian Teacher Network offers more than 70,000 pages of lesson plans and interactive materials. This is being added to every day: 35,000 teachers have already registered. Go to teachers.guardian.co.uk. There are more than 1,000 jobs and schools can advertise free: schoolsjobs.guardian.co.uk
This week on the Guardian Teacher Network you can find lots of fun resources in celebration of archaeology
Offer a class the chance to make fake poo, and they might think the teacher had lost the plot.
But making fake poo and learning how to excavate it is just one of the resources lined up for teachers on the Guardian Teacher Network this week – in celebration of the start of the 21st British Festival of Archaeology.
Continue reading...How can one school get many more pupils into 'top' universities than another with the same exam marks? There may be a few secrets worth noting
Last week, a Cambridge tutor was visiting St Edward's college in Liverpool to talk to students about her subject – Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic – when the subject turned to university admissions. Neither Grace Taylor nor Natalie Allmark fancies delving into the murkier end of the Middle Ages themselves – they're hoping to study nutrition and engineering respectively – or indeed going to Cambridge, but they still found the meeting enlightening as they prepare to apply to university in an ever more competitive environment.
"She told us you've got to show commitment to your course, and go out and do extra reading," Taylor says. "You've got to show you're actually interested in it," Allmark adds. "I think that was really important."
It's this kind of provision that helped St Edward's, a Catholic academy with 1,200 pupils, to become one of just four non-selective state schools lauded in a recent Sutton Trust report as punching well above their weight in terms of the number of pupils they get both into university overall, relative to their exam results, and also into the 30 institutions defined as the most selective (the "Sutton Trust 30").
Much coverage of Degrees of Success, the trust's study into the higher education destinations of pupils at every school and college in England, focused on the astounding fact that just five – Westminster, Eton, St Paul's, St Paul's Girls' and Hills Road sixth form college in Cambridge – sent more students to Oxbridge over three years than 2,000 others combined.
The statistics also revealed predictable chasms between the success of state and independent institutions. But of equal concern to the Sutton Trust were the wide differences it exposed in the proportions getting into higher education between schools with similar exam results – especially for the highly selective universities.
Such contrasts appeared at all levels of results, the report says, and are a genuine cause for concern. It highlights two grammar schools with almost identical exam scores, one of which got 61% into Sutton Trust 30 institutions, while the figure at the other was only 27%. At two comprehensives in the north of England with similar results, the proportions were 23% and 55%.
Such disparities may be due in part to the backgrounds of pupils' parents and geographical factors, if schools are not close to any of the top universities. But the subjects offered and the information and guidance given to students are also likely to be to blame in many cases, according to the Sutton Trust. In February, the Russell Group published Informed Choices, its guidance for applicants, which acknowledged officially for the first time that the top universities favour traditional subjects at A-level, and warned them off taking too many "soft" subjects.
"Beyond the results they produce, schools appear to differ considerably in the levels of aspiration they engender in their pupils and in the quality of preparation for selection for higher education," the report says. "There are many good examples of effective IAG [information and guidance] throughout the state sector, but there is widespread concern that poor advice may be contributing to the low progression rates in many comprehensive schools and FE colleges."
Admissions staff in several of the top 30 institutions complain that it is commonplace for able candidates to apply for places on courses they're not qualified for.
Lee Elliot Major, the Sutton Trust's research director, says schools may be offering too many soft subjects. "It could be that students are doing the wrong subject mix. That can maximise league table performance, but it's not particularly good for kids' prospects after school."
So who's getting it right and how?
Pupils at St Edward's achieve an average score of 793 points in their A-levels – a little over the 2010 national average of 744.8. An A is worth 270 points, a B 240 points and a C 210 points in the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency (QCDA) scheme. But over three years (2007-2009) the school saw 91% of its year 13s go to university, and 46% get into Sutton Trust 30 institutions. Other schools with similar Ucas scores see between 60% and 80% of students go to university and 15% to 30% reach the most selective institutions.
The key to the school's success in these terms turns out to be fairly simple: the headteacher, John Waszek, has a firm philosophy of "quality over quantity" when it comes to exams, with most students studying four subjects at AS-level and dropping down to three for their A2 exams. Similarly, most do no more than nine GCSEs. So while their average overall scores are not sky-high, what the tables don't show is that pupils are doing pretty well at the exams they are sitting, and those are the results that are getting them into the best universities.
The school has also put particular effort into working out the most reliable way of accurately predicting A-level grades, to give all pupils the best chance of choosing their strongest subjects.
"It's about looking at where they are and trying to give them a range that's right for them," Waszek says. "I know very few universities that focus on overall scores. Offers are about what goes on in your best three subjects." Limiting the number of subjects means students are likely to do better in those they're focusing on, and means they also have time for activities such as music, sport and "just being teenagers".
St Edward's, a former grammar school, is a highly successful, hugely oversubscribed school – it has been graded as outstanding three times in a row by Ofsted, and last year saw 670 applications for 150 places. It selects 10% of its intake on musical aptitude, as it is entitled to do as a specialist school. The proportion of pupils on free school meals is well below the national average. In other words, its students are by no means disadvantaged.
But Waszek reckons it's probably still the case that the majority of pupils' parents did not go to university themselves. He points out that four out of five of the students given Oxbridge offers this year are from families in which the parents did not go to university. Pupils are encouraged to aspire to higher education from the time they enter the school, and in the sixth form there are frequent talks from staff and experts about applications. For a communications skills day in year 12 they must all produce CVs and covering letters, and have mock interviews with local business people and professionals.
Allmark says she feels well supported over what is an increasingly fraught decision. "They don't just push you to apply for Oxford and Cambridge just because they're supposed to be the best. They're good at helping you make the decision that's right for you. Everyone feels the pressure to choose the right university. You don't want to go and then hate it."
Fellow student Mark Dickinson chips in: "Especially with the fees now."
It's a theme picked up by Andy Gardner, a careers adviser and a representative of the Institute of Career Guidance (ICG) who helped to write Informed Choices. Too many schools still don't give pupils enough decent advice, he says.
"If you're buying a house, you've got two people to help you, a solicitor and a surveyor. If you're buying a car, you get the AA to check it out for you. But when young people are choosing a university, they're making this huge decision with a really patchy system of advice.
"Many schools don't have a system whereby young people in the sixth form can book in with somebody who's trained in advice and guidance and talk through their individual situation.
"They're often making choices that are not informed. It's as simple as that."
The problem can be particularly acute for students destined for sixth-form college who are choosing A-level subjects at schools that don't have a sixth form and are not investing time in guidance.
And incredibly, admissions tutors at all types of universities report coming across students who have picked first-choice and insurance offers that have the same grade requirements, apparently failing to understand that the insurance offer should be a back-up if they don't make the grades. "That has to be an example of schools not having good systems of IAG," Gardner says.
One of the Sutton Trust's aims with the Degrees of Success report was to give parents and pupils a league table that would be more meaningful than one that gave exam results but did not indicate what success they had translated to in the outside world. Yet it admits that there are bound to be subtleties that the figures cannot convey, especially when it comes to reasons for an apparent lack of success in translating results into degree places.
Burgate school and sixth form centre in Fordingbridge, Hampshire, has an average QCDA points score of 886, higher than that of St Edward's, but according to the report gets only 65% of students into higher education and 19% into top 30 universities.
The assistant head, Katja Gibson, says the trust's overall figure is lower than the reality because it doesn't take into account all students who went on a gap year. The figure for the number of 2010 leavers going to university is 83%.
As for the number getting to the "top" universities, it may have more to do with geography and economics than anything else. Careers guidance is full and thorough, with a strong focus on how to get to Russell Group institutions, Gibson says, but students may choose different institutions. "We've got some other good universities around here. A lot of it is students aren't going so far away from home, for financial reasons." Both Portsmouth and Winchester are popular.
It's a similar story elsewhere. Dover Grammar school for girls is the school highlighted by the Sutton Trust as getting a much lower proportion of pupils into top 30 universities than another grammar with similar results, Torquay Boys – both are rated outstanding. Dover's QCDA points score is 1,091 and Torquay's 1,061.
But the headteacher, Matthew Bartlett, says the disparity is partly because around 20% of his students go to the University of Kent, which the school rates highly, but which is not in the Sutton Trust 30. "This choice is in many instances a pragmatic one, based on the need to live at home due to economic and social factors," he says. "Students choose Kent as the best university closest to them."
Dover students take more subjects on average than those in the Torquay school – five as opposed to four, based on a belief that breadth and depth will make them "well-educated young adults who are ready for their futures". That means the grades they are getting to achieve similar overall scores are lower and they're making fewer applications to the top universities.
"Why are the grades lower? Simply because we are committed to access for all of our students, and set a lower entry criteria, welcoming not just the highest achievers at GCSE," Bartlett says. "The lower grades at A-level will represent a very significant achievement for these students." Overall, 92% of students go to university, higher than Torquay's 87%.
Waszek, too, points out that a large number of his pupils, for financial reasons, go to Liverpool University. It is one of the Sutton Trust's top 30, and if it weren't, he admits the school probably would not be doing so well in the table.
Gardner's fear is that for pupils lacking good advice – very often those from disadvantaged backgrounds – the situation is only going to get worse, given the huge cuts to the Connexions careers service. Earlier this year, a survey by the public sector union Unison found that 8,000 advisers across England were losing their jobs, with some services closing completely. The ICG is worried many will have no one to give them crucial advice during clearing.
"Connexions was really getting into talking to young people about the Informed Choices decisions," Gardner says.
"Middle-class parents are picking up on it and telling their kids, but if it's a working-class kid in a provincial school, there's every chance they might not pick up on that. It looks pretty bleak."
How can one school get many more pupils into 'top' universities than another with the same exam marks? There may be a few secrets worth noting
Last week, a Cambridge tutor was visiting St Edward's college in Liverpool to talk to students about her subject – Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic – when the subject turned to university admissions. Neither Grace Taylor nor Natalie Allmark fancies delving into the murkier end of the Middle Ages themselves – they're hoping to study nutrition and engineering respectively – or indeed going to Cambridge, but they still found the meeting enlightening as they prepare to apply to university in an ever more competitive environment.
"She told us you've got to show commitment to your course, and go out and do extra reading," Taylor says. "You've got to show you're actually interested in it," Allmark adds. "I think that was really important."
Continue reading...How can one school get many more pupils into 'top' universities than another with the same exam marks? There may be a few secrets worth noting
Last week, a Cambridge tutor was visiting St Edward's college in Liverpool to talk to students about her subject – Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic – when the subject turned to university admissions. Neither Grace Taylor nor Natalie Allmark fancies delving into the murkier end of the Middle Ages themselves – they're hoping to study nutrition and engineering respectively – or indeed going to Cambridge, but they still found the meeting enlightening as they prepare to apply to university in an ever more competitive environment.
"She told us you've got to show commitment to your course, and go out and do extra reading," Taylor says. "You've got to show you're actually interested in it," Allmark adds. "I think that was really important."
Continue reading...Why are young people who take apprenticeships rather than A-levels unable to get on to degree courses?
Andy Huckle had always been interested in politics, so when he heard that his local MP was looking for an apprentice, he saw it as the ideal opportunity to gain experience and qualifications. After a tough interview process, he was taken on to be apprentice to the Tory MP for Harlow, Rob Halfon, assisting him in parliament and his constituency while working towards a level-3 qualification (equivalent to A-level standard) in business administration at Harlow College.
Before starting his apprenticeship, Huckle had passed four AS-levels with B grades and had hoped this, along with his apprenticeship qualification and parliamentary experience, would help him to secure a place at university.
Over the past year, he has drafted speeches and early day motions, and done extensive research on the Middle East uprising and other international issues.
But Huckle has found his apprenticeship – a qualification that is not currently recognised by the universities admissions service Ucas – is of little worth to him. The universities of East Anglia, Essex, Exeter and Leeds have all rejected his application to study international relations, and he now faces the prospect of going back to college at 20 to complete his A-levels.
Although he was aware that apprenticeships did not appear on the Ucas tariff (the system used for allocating points to qualifications for entry to university), Huckle says he felt sure admissions officers would look at the "whole package" of qualifications and experience he had and make a judgment on that. "It's so frustrating, because I feel ready for university. I'd have been happy to go to an interview, take an exam, show them examples of the work I've done this year – whatever it took to prove my worth – but they all just rejected my application."
Lucy Atkinson is another former apprentice finding it difficult to progress to higher education. She completed an apprenticeship in IT in 2008 and enjoys her work as a helpdesk technician in a hospital, but would love to become a teacher. Like Huckle, she has been rejected by a number of universities, which she believes is down to the fact that she has an apprenticeship rather than A-levels. "It's madness: employers are complaining that graduates are coming out of university with no work experience, while people with on-the-job experience are being turned away from university courses."
Both Huckle and Atkinson would probably be accepted on a foundation degree course (two-year degrees with a more vocational focus that can be "topped up" to a full degree at a later date), which typically have more flexible entry requirements. But Atkinson says this is unfair. "I don't see why I should have less choice, just because I opted for the vocational route. I got good GCSE grades and did well in my apprenticeship – why should I be penalised?"
Dave Thompson from the Consortium for Learning (CfL), a charity based in Humberside that aims to raise the profile of work-based learning, says his organisation has been campaigning on the issue for some years – with little success. While there has been regular dialogue with government departments, the National Apprenticeship Service (the government body responsible for apprenticeships in England) and Ucas, "it just doesn't seem to be a priority", he says.
"There is this common perception that people who do apprenticeships are less academically able, but that is just not the case. For some routes, particularly advanced apprenticeships, the requirement is five A*-C grades at GCSE at least."
Thompson points out that many apprentices may want to follow academic routes, for example, accountancy apprentices who may need a degree to become a chartered accountant.
Childcare is another example. The government is keen for nurseries and other early-years settings to be led by graduates, but Penny Buckmaster, who looks after the training of early-years workers at Chichester College in West Sussex, says the lack of recognition for apprenticeships is stopping bright, capable early-years workers from getting on. "We had a young lady who completed her advanced apprenticeship in children's care, learning and development and was refused entry to a teacher training course as the university didn't recognise her qualifications."
The university did eventually accept the student after seeing proof of her grades in different components of her apprenticeship, but under new regulations, introduced earlier this year (known as the Specification of Apprenticeship Standards for England, or Sase) more apprenticeships are "competency based", which means learners simply pass or fail. So even if universities take the trouble to "vet" applicants with apprenticeships, they may not have enough evidence to make a decision.
CfL puts on activities for apprentices to encourage them to think about going to university, ranging from seminars on essay-writing and taking notes in lectures to tours of universities. The organisation has strong links with Hull University, an institution that is willing to consider applicants with apprenticeships, but Thompson says change is needed on a much wider scale. "This is a situation that can only be resolved by the government, Ucas and universities getting together," he says.
Kate Shoesmith, senior policy and practice manager for the City & Guilds Centre for Skills Development, agrees. "It's worth noting that a number of universities do accept those who have completed apprenticeships by reviewing their portfolios and through interviews. What we need now is a more holistic policy that sets out roles and responsibilities for everyone involved in the system. That way we can have greater clarity about what the entrance requirements are for university, which will give learners a better chance of knowing how to take the routes they want."
That apprenticeships are still not recognised by many higher education providers is an anomaly that seems particularly baffling at a time when the government says it is investing so heavily in vocational learning, with funding allocated to deliver over 360,000 apprenticeships this year alone.
Ucas says it is currently carrying out a review of its tariff that could lead to the inclusion of a wider range of qualifications. A spokesman said: "We recognise the importance of developing a qualification information and evaluation system that incorporates as wide a range of qualifications as possible. We are committed to supporting progression to HE from a broad range of qualifications, including vocational ones."
The universities minister, David Willetts, says: "The government is committed to more diverse pathways into higher education, including via the expanded and improved apprenticeships programme. We are working closely with Ucas as it reviews its tariff system, to ensure that vocational awards and apprenticeships are properly considered."
But Buckmaster thinks this could be too little, too late. "By not recognising apprenticeships as valid qualifications, universities are denying the workforce skilled employees, and cheating many motivated and competent young people out of higher education."
• This article was amended on 19 July 2011 because the original incorrectly named a former apprentice as Lucy Atkins.
Why are young people who take apprenticeships rather than A-levels unable to get on to degree courses?
Andy Huckle had always been interested in politics, so when he heard that his local MP was looking for an apprentice, he saw it as the ideal opportunity to gain experience and qualifications. After a tough interview process, he was taken on to be apprentice to the Tory MP for Harlow, Rob Halfon, assisting him in parliament and his constituency while working towards a level-3 qualification (equivalent to A-level standard) in business administration at Harlow College.
Before starting his apprenticeship, Huckle had passed four AS-levels with B grades and had hoped this, along with his apprenticeship qualification and parliamentary experience, would help him to secure a place at university.
Continue reading...Why are young people who take apprenticeships rather than A-levels unable to get on to degree courses?
Andy Huckle had always been interested in politics, so when he heard that his local MP was looking for an apprentice, he saw it as the ideal opportunity to gain experience and qualifications. After a tough interview process, he was taken on to be apprentice to the Tory MP for Harlow, Rob Halfon, assisting him in parliament and his constituency while working towards a level-3 qualification (equivalent to A-level standard) in business administration at Harlow College.
Before starting his apprenticeship, Huckle had passed four AS-levels with B grades and had hoped this, along with his apprenticeship qualification and parliamentary experience, would help him to secure a place at university.
Continue reading...The government's record on social mobility is poor, says Mike Baker, but it could do better if it took the controversial step of reserving places for students from less privileged backgrounds
"It is a unique source of shame that England has the worst record for social mobility." That was the message from the education secretary, Michael Gove, at last week's launch of the Education Endowment Fund, which aims to tackle educational disadvantage.
Perhaps only he could so elegantly weave a quotation from the 18th-century author Oliver Goldsmith ("Ill fares the land, to hast'ning ill a prey, Where wealth accumulates, and men decay"), into a speech about education and social mobility. He argued that what was true in Goldsmith's time is true again today, with a growing number of young people condemned to educational disadvantage by accident of birth.
But has this government's high rhetoric on social mobility been matched by action? Let's examine their credit and debit account.
On the positive side, they are putting £125m into the new fund, which will go to develop projects aimed at raising the attainment of the poorest children in the lowest-performing schools.
Its real value will be as seed-money, encouraging innovative projects (I declare an interest as a member of its advisory board). But the amount is tiny compared to the overall education budget.
A bigger financial commitment comes with the pupil premium, worth £2.5bn a year from 2014-15. But, for all the fanfare, only a quarter of that sum will be spent in 2011-12, with the premium worth only £430 per pupil. For many schools, this will barely compensate for reductions elsewhere in their budget.
The third positive might be the English baccalaureate (Ebacc). While this risks becoming a straitjacket for many schools – limiting the curriculum for those who would benefit from vocational options – it should benefit some academically able students at less successful schools who might otherwise limit their university options by taking inappropriate subjects at 16.
So, credit where it's due, there are some positives. But they are outweighed by negatives. Top of the list is abolition of the education maintenance allowance (EMA), which helped 650,000 students from poorer homes to stay in post-16 study. Although the government eventually announced its partial replacement by a new bursary scheme (only worth around one-third of the EMA budget), the damage had been done with young people.
Equally damaging is the scrapping of Aimhigher, the scheme that encouraged wider participation at university by providing advice, summer schools, mentors and campus visits for pupils from 14 upwards. As the university system becomes an even more expensive and complex market, this kind of help will be even more necessary for pupils from families with little history of higher education.
And that brings us to the big one: tuition fees. With most universities charging close to £9,000, the new cost of university is likely, despite the availability of bursaries, to have a disproportionately negative effect on students from poorer homes.
There is plenty more on the negative side: the failure to act on post-qualification admissions, the damaging changes to the schools careers advice service, and the predicted advantage to middle-class students of the plans to allow universities to expand places for those with A,A,B grades at A-level.
So with such a poor report card, what could the government do to live up to its own rhetoric? Well, it could limit top universities to admitting a fixed number of students from any single school. That would deal with the extraordinary statistic, revealed by the Sutton Trust, that just five schools (four of them expensive independents) sent more pupils to Oxbridge than 2,000 other schools combined.
Another bold suggestion would be for the top 10% of students in any individual school to be guaranteed a place at leading universities. Similar schemes exist in the US and recognise the achievement of these pupils in rising to the top of their school, whatever the disadvantages of living in their neighbourhood or attending a less effective school.
The Sutton Trust estimates that, if 45% of places were reserved for such a scheme, it could result in an extra 10,000 state school pupils getting into the top 30 universities, boosting their state-educated intake from 75% to 80%, getting closer to the balance of the school population as a whole.
These policies would undoubtedly be controversial. But if Michael Gove wants to translate his passion for social mobility into action, it's the sort of bold step he should consider.
The government's record on social mobility is poor, says Mike Baker, but it could do better if it took the controversial step of reserving places for students from less privileged backgrounds
"It is a unique source of shame that England has the worst record for social mobility." That was the message from the education secretary, Michael Gove, at last week's launch of the Education Endowment Fund, which aims to tackle educational disadvantage.
Perhaps only he could so elegantly weave a quotation from the 18th-century author Oliver Goldsmith ("Ill fares the land, to hast'ning ill a prey, Where wealth accumulates, and men decay"), into a speech about education and social mobility. He argued that what was true in Goldsmith's time is true again today, with a growing number of young people condemned to educational disadvantage by accident of birth.
Continue reading...The government's record on social mobility is poor, says Mike Baker, but it could do better if it took the controversial step of reserving places for students from less privileged backgrounds
"It is a unique source of shame that England has the worst record for social mobility." That was the message from the education secretary, Michael Gove, at last week's launch of the Education Endowment Fund, which aims to tackle educational disadvantage.
Perhaps only he could so elegantly weave a quotation from the 18th-century author Oliver Goldsmith ("Ill fares the land, to hast'ning ill a prey, Where wealth accumulates, and men decay"), into a speech about education and social mobility. He argued that what was true in Goldsmith's time is true again today, with a growing number of young people condemned to educational disadvantage by accident of birth.
Continue reading...As private providers eye up opportunities in the UK, economist Morton Schapiro says other universities can learn from them
On the face of it, US universities are booming. The most competitive can afford to be more selective than ever before. And in the country that invented mass higher education, there is now a place at university for virtually anyone who graduates from high school.
Of course, some say this is the boom that presages a bust. Peter Thiel, the venture capitalist who backed Facebook, has described education as "a bubble in a classic sense".
Morton Schapiro, an economist who specialises in higher education, gives this short shrift. "A 30-year bubble – the increased focus on 50 of us [elite US universities] that started in the late 1970s and has continued since, that's one hell of a bubble. That's not tulips," he says, a reference to the speculative bubble in tulip bulb prices in 17th-century Holland.
Schapiro, speaking to me on a visit to London, is president of Northwestern, a private research-intensive university in Illinois. It is one of those elite institutions – 29th in the world ranking produced by Shanghai Jiao Tong university, a few places behind Imperial. This year, it had 31,000 applications for an intake of 2,000.
His view is that private and for-profit universities are destined to continue thriving. But the outlook is bleaker for the public sector.
It's a scenario that could become familiar here. A recent survey of vice-chancellors suggested that more than a third are looking outside the public sector for growth. The survey, for PA Consulting, identified two institutions actively considering going private, and nearly a quarter that expected government-funded activities to become less relevant to their business planning.
Meanwhile, around half foresaw institutional failures and the takeover of struggling universities. BPP, the for-profit university, has launched an expansion strategy to run at least 10 public universities.
Schapiro says: "The real problem in American higher education is we have great public [universities] as well as private ones but the publics are struggling. They are supported by and large by the states, and the states are having a really tough time, critically, in the aftermath of the great recession, they have reallocated funding away from higher education."
The loss of funding for public universities creates an opportunity for the private sector. At a university struggling for resources, it takes students longer to complete the components of their course. Schapiro suggests that a typical four-year course could balloon into five or more. This makes the difference in price between the sectors easier to justify, he argues. "If you can go to one school like Northwestern and can get a degree in four years ... as opposed to taking five and a half, that difference of 12 to 18 months eliminates a fair share of the differential tuition.
"People say to me, it's so much cheaper to go to a public. Not if you think about the opportunity cost of your time. And the opportunity cost of your time is high if the counter-factual is: 'you're going to go to a private and you already have a degree'."
From a social pespective, this loss of funding for public universities is regrettable, as Schapiro is quick to point out. But it does hand universities like his – and the for-profit sector – an advantage.
"You ask about, say, the next 10 years, and I don't see the publics rebounding. Unfortunately, from a social point of view, they are really struggling. Look at the University of California, which is the flagship public programme. They have been decimated by budget cuts. It's terrible for California, it's terrible for the US, it's terrible for the world."
The English and US systems are hard to compare. Our universities are more independent of the state than US public institutions. Lavish endowment funds are central to the financial stability of their private institutions, while even the wealthiest of ours remain dependent on public funding.
The English analogy to America's savaged public sector might be the squeezed middle rank of universities, which have seen their teaching grant cut and are now at risk of losing student places at both ends of the spectrum – to more prestigious universities on quality, and to cheaper ones on cost. Meanwhile, for-profit education providers are snapping at their heels.
Schapiro praises the for-profit sector in the US. The biggest of these, the University of Phoenix, educates more than 400,000 undergraduates. "At their best, some of the for-profits could teach us things, they leverage student aid more effectively than some of the rest of us do. They get every dollar of student aid," Schapiro says. "Sometimes they work pretty closely with business, with specific firms.
"At their best, they're not exactly the enemy and the end of all goodness that some people think. There's a system of community colleges, two-year colleges in the US, and they may compete with them, or less selective comprehensive publics.
"I like competitive markets ... If schools can't really prove their value, they lose some students to the for-profit sector."
The increased competition the government proposes for England's universities may lead to greater specialisation. Critics warn that the recent white paper could lead to a more stratified sector, with the most prestigious brand names scooping up the highest-achieving candidates, an expansion of cheaper providers and middle-ranking institutions getting squeezed.
Schapiro describes the variety of the US system with approval. This ranges from the simple diversity of location to ones of scale; Schapiro's previous job was as president of a liberal arts college with just 2,000 students.
"I like that idea [of specialisation] – we're really well known for journalism ... we have engineering, we have a music school, but we don't have other things. We don't do undergraduate business, [or] urban planning. We don't have a school of architecture, [or] a public policy school."
Schapiro doesn't believe degrees are merely signals of underlying ability. This charge, that the university system is failing to educate young people, is levelled in the controversial new book Academically Adrift, by sociologists Richard Arum of New York University and Josipa Roksa of the University of Virginia.
The authors say that, according to their analysis of more than 2,300 undergraduates at 24 institutions, 45% demonstrate "no significant improvement in a range of skills – including critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing – during their first two years of college".
Schapiro responds to this by saying: "Most universities in the US are open enrolment – they'll take anybody who applies. If you're talking about selective privates or selective publics, it's a whole different clientele, a whole different purpose." There's no question that the "most highly selective, heavily endowed" universities add a lot of value, he says.
In any case, he adds, if the purpose of university were simply to screen out the most talented individuals rather than develop students' potential, "you would probably develop a screen that's less expensive than taking four years of your life and possibly $200,000 [£124,000]".
As private providers eye up opportunities in the UK, economist Morton Schapiro says other universities can learn from them
On the face of it, US universities are booming. The most competitive can afford to be more selective than ever before. And in the country that invented mass higher education, there is now a place at university for virtually anyone who graduates from high school.
Of course, some say this is the boom that presages a bust. Peter Thiel, the venture capitalist who backed Facebook, has described education as "a bubble in a classic sense".
Continue reading...As private providers eye up opportunities in the UK, economist Morton Schapiro says other universities can learn from them
On the face of it, US universities are booming. The most competitive can afford to be more selective than ever before. And in the country that invented mass higher education, there is now a place at university for virtually anyone who graduates from high school.
Of course, some say this is the boom that presages a bust. Peter Thiel, the venture capitalist who backed Facebook, has described education as "a bubble in a classic sense".
Continue reading...Top marks for being gay-friendly go to Imperial College, UCL, Wolverhampton and Portsmouth
In his first year at Bath University, Felix Slade had a housemate who regularly used the words "poof", "bender" and "batty boy", and described anything negative as "gay". "I would address this with him in a non-aggressive way, but it appeared to make very little difference," he says.
Yet Slade's experience at Bath has been "incredible". "The strong presence of a prominent and proactive student group has meant that I have been able to embrace all aspects of being gay in a really healthy and well-rounded way," he says. "I have absolutely loved being a gay student."
Bath met eight out of the 10 criteria measured in this year's online university guide Gay by Degrees, produced by Stonewall, which campaigns for equality and justice for lesbians, gay men and bisexuals.
Last year, the launch year of the guide, no institution met every criterion, but this year four did: Imperial College, University College London, Wolverhampton and Portsmouth.
Chris Dye, Stonewall's education officer, who helped to put together the guide, suggests its very existence has prompted institutions to improve. "All universities were notified last year that they were being profiled," he says. "The checklist has allowed them to compare themselves with other institutions and that may be why they have got better."
How far higher education institutions have progressed in promoting gender equality is also shown by the fact that this year, five universities were included in Stonewall's index of top 100 gay-friendly employers – Liverpool John Moores, Salford, Cardiff, Imperial and Cambridge, when only two were included last year.
Dye suggests that the Equality Act 2010, which simplifies and strengthens existing legislation, may have made a difference, as has the prospect of higher tuition fees. "People will be looking a lot more to get value for money generally and LGBT students will want to know exactly what their university is providing for them," he says.
Mike Lawson, an automotive engineering student and chair of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Society at Wolverhampton University, says that things have improved noticeably in the two years he has been there, with better structures for students to voice any concerns. The university has strong staff and student LGBT networks and the LGBT Society recently campaigned successfully for transgender toilets in the student union.
"If we have a problem, there are people we know we can go to and say 'we don't think this is fair'," he says. "Things like that do get fixed."
He says he has always felt accepted, even by the "butch lads" on his engineering course, but that the LGBT Society has been invaluable. "It has been great for my personal development, confidence, friendships and for connecting me with loads of other people," he says.
Jak Hammond, a second-year digital forensics student and social secretary of the LGBT Society at Portsmouth University, says the LGBT group of staff and students at Portsmouth is open and approachable and "care about each other" without being cliquey in any way.
LGBT issues were fundamental to his choice of university, he says. "I wanted to make sure I could get to a university where I could enjoy it, but also be myself."
Dye says LGBT pupils often have a hard time at school, with 65% experiencing homophobic bullying and most of them finding their schoolwork affected, so they want university to be different.
The guide assesses 160 universities according to whether they have a policy that protects LGBT students from bullying, whether they have compulsory staff training on LGBT issues and a student LGBT society, whether they offer information on LGBT issues, specialised events, explicit welfare provision, consultation and career advice for LGBT students, whether they have an LGBT staff network, and whether they are members of Stonewall's diversity champion's programme, a network of organisations that work together, and with Stonewall, to ensure a working environment where everyone can be themselves.
This year, the assessment was based entirely on information available in the public domain because Stonewall felt it was important to measure not only what provisions institutions had in place, but also how accessible information on these provisions was to prospective students. As the guide is online, it can be updated throughout the year.
While more institutions than last year have met at least eight of the criteria, there is huge diversity in the sector, with some, including Middlesex (new fees: £8,602), Glasgow Caledonian and Ulster meeting just one, and others, including Buckingham and the University of the Highlands and Islands, meeting none at all.
But Stonewall has been careful not to rank institutions, arguing that different LGBT students may want different kinds of support, and says a low score does not necessarily indicate that an institution is not LGBT-friendly. Smaller institutions, for example, may not be able to offer as many societies and events.
Instead, it aims to help students make an informed decision about where they want to study, and so far, it seems to be fulfilling a need. The website has had more than 23,000 unique users in the last year.
Davina Moss, who starts a degree in English literature this year at Cambridge, says last year's guide completely altered the way she thought about going to university and that she changed many of her Ucas choices as a result.
While the course and academic credentials were her first priorities, she realised she needed to think about the institution's diversity policy, too. "I didn't want to get worried about being bullied about my sexuality," she says. "I wanted somewhere where I knew that if something happened I would be supported."
But it was not just about her sexuality. "It was more to see what kind of place I would be going to," she says. "A university that has thought about its diversity and anti-bullying policy in this area would likely have thought about these policies across the board. I didn't want to go to a university where a person – any kind of person – might feel institutionally marginalised."
Top marks for being gay-friendly go to Imperial College, UCL, Wolverhampton and Portsmouth
In his first year at Bath University, Felix Slade had a housemate who regularly used the words "poof", "bender" and "batty boy", and described anything negative as "gay". "I would address this with him in a non-aggressive way, but it appeared to make very little difference," he says.
Yet Slade's experience at Bath has been "incredible". "The strong presence of a prominent and proactive student group has meant that I have been able to embrace all aspects of being gay in a really healthy and well-rounded way," he says. "I have absolutely loved being a gay student."
Continue reading...Top marks for being gay-friendly go to Imperial College, UCL, Wolverhampton and Portsmouth
In his first year at Bath University, Felix Slade had a housemate who regularly used the words "poof", "bender" and "batty boy", and described anything negative as "gay". "I would address this with him in a non-aggressive way, but it appeared to make very little difference," he says.
Yet Slade's experience at Bath has been "incredible". "The strong presence of a prominent and proactive student group has meant that I have been able to embrace all aspects of being gay in a really healthy and well-rounded way," he says. "I have absolutely loved being a gay student."
Continue reading...