Companies in membership of Suppliers Network

Listed below are the companies who are members:

2CQR Ltd

3M UK Plc 

ADLIB Information Systems

Axiell (formerly DS Ltd)

Bailey Solutions Ltd

Bibliographic Data Services Ltd 

BioMed Central

Bowker (UK) Ltd 

Civica Plc

Conservation by Design Ltd   

d_Skin UK 

Demco Interiors

EOS International Ltd 

FG Library Products Ltd

Harwell Document Restoration Services

Infor  

Innovative Interfaces

Insight Media Internet Limited

Intrepid Security Solutions Ltd 

IS Oxford    

Nielsen Book Data Limited

OCLC

Point Eight Limited   

SirsiDynix

thedesignconcept

Softlink Europe 

Soutron Ltd

For further information, please contact:

Angela Krzyzanowska
Suppliers Network
CILIP
7 Ridgmount Street
London
WC1E 7AE

Tel:    020 7255 0553
Email: angela.krzyzanowska@cilip.org.uk

This year's librarian loved books for children and young people

Shortlists announced for UK’s most prestigious children’s book awards – the CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals

The CILIP Carnegie Medal is awarded for outstanding writing and the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal for outstanding illustration.

The prestige of the awards is rooted in the unique judging process which pools the professional expertise of children’s librarians from across the UK, who nominate books for the two Medals.

Twelve librarians from CILIP’s Youth Libraries Group then meet to discuss the long lists and agree on outstanding titles for each shortlist. Members of the panel combine an in-depth knowledge of children’s books with daily experience of working and reading with young people.

Honorary Fellowship - Criteria and Application

Please download Criteria and Nomination Form.  Completed nominations to be returned to Desirée Chapman, PA to the Chief Executive (desiree.chapman@cilip.org.uk) by Friday 6 May 2011.  Nominations may also be returned by post to: Desirée Chapman, PA to the Chief Executive, CILIP, 7 Ridgmount Street, London WC1E 7AE.

Advice for universities on student plagiarism

The Academic Integrity Service (AIS) managed by the Higher Education Academy (HEA) with JISC, has today published a report to enable higher education institutions to review and develop their policies relating to student plagiarism. 

"Policy works: recommendations for reviewing policy to manage unacceptable academic practice in higher education", includes an overview of previous guidance and research work on this topic. 

The report then focuses on 12 recommendations that can be used by staff to aid the review and continued development of institutional policy. 

These recommendations include:

• establishing a cross-institutional group;
• making explicit the responsibilities of the institution, staff and students;
• considering terminology and definitions;
• providing detailed procedures for reporting and managing cases;
• establishing a set of penalties and associated guidance.

Dr Erica Morris, senior adviser at the HEA and lead author of the report, said: “There are many challenges facing higher education and students may well have higher expectations about their experience at university in the future.  
More than ever before it's vital that HEIs have up-to-date policies in place for managing issues including student plagiarism, collusion and data fabrication.

“The recommendations in this report can be used or adapted by universities and colleges to suit their own particular academic integrity needs.  Each of the recommendations is illustrated with examples and case studies so lecturers and policy makers across the sector can benefit from the experiences of others.

“All institutions take academic integrity seriously, and this report will provide practical information on how they can continue to review and develop their policies for managing unacceptable academic practice.”

Policy works is the second report published by AIS this academic year.  Published in November 2010, "Supporting academic integrity: approaches and resources for higher education", brought together educational resources on academic integrity to provide the sector with a range of perspectives on plagiarism and associated issues.

Read the report.

CILIP Assessment Panel (CAP)

The Assessment Panel and the Chartership Board have now joined to form the Qualifications Board

CILIP Assessment Panel Agendas and Minutes

Qualifications Board

Reports to: Council

Terms of Reference:-

• To manage all matters relating to applications for admission to Chartered Membership and Fellowship of CILIP (excluding Honorary Fellowships), Certification and Revalidation
• To assess applications for Chartered Membership and make decisions on their acceptability
• To assess applications for Fellowship and make decisions on their acceptability
• To assess applications for Certification and make decisions on their acceptability
• To assess application to Revalidate Chartership and Fellowship and make decisions on their acceptability
• To advise Council on any matters relating to admission to the Register of Chartered and Certified Members including the regulations governing the award of Chartered Membership, Fellowship, Certification and Revalidation

Date Constituted: 3 April 2002.

Secretary: Michael Martin BA DipILS MCLIP(michael.martin@cilip.org.uk) 

Chair: Kath Owen BA FCLIP

Members:-

Jonathan Brown BA DipILM MCLIP
Jeanette Castle MA(Hons) DipILS MCLIP
Christine Coley MLib FCLIP
David Copsey MA DipLib FCLIP
Andrea Drewett FCLIP
Janet Fileman BA FCLIP
Graeme Forbes BA MA MBA MCLIP
Fiona Forsythe BA(Hons), MSc(Econ) MCLIP
Anna Herron MA DipLib MCLIP
Rachel Hewings BSc DipLib FCLIP DMS FHEA
Penny King BA FCLIP
Lesley Kumiega BA DipLib MCLIP
Pam Martindale BA DipLib MCLIP
Sally Parker BA FCLIP
Kate Parlain BA (Hons) MA MCLIP
Carolynn Rankin MA BSocSc DipLib ILTM MCLIP (External Examiner)
Vivien Robertson BA MCLIP
Kate Robinson JP BA DipLib MA MCLIP (Joint Vice Chair)
Caroline Rock BA MA MCLIP
Michael Smith BA(Hons) MSc MCLIP~
Martin Stone DipLib MCLIP (Joint Vice Chair)
Alison Turriff BA MEd PhD FCLIP
Jo Webb MA MLib MBA FCLIP FHEA FRSA (External Examiner)

Meeting schedule for 2012

Wednesday January 18th
Wednesday March 14th
Wednesday May 16th
Wednesday July 11th
Thursday September 13th
Wednesday November 14th

• Agendas and Minutes of the Chartership Board and Qualifications Board
• Agendas and Minutes of the CILIP Assessment Panel

New Teaching Schools should have professionally staffed school libraries

CILIP CEO Annie Mauger writes to the National College

Annie Mauger has asked that designated Teaching Schools have professionally staffed school libraries.

In a letter to Chief Executive of the National College, Steve Munby, Annie Mauger says that the important role played by a school library should be one of the criteria used to assess a school’s suitability for Teaching School status.

Within the best schools, the school librarian should be a key driver in supporting pupils and students become confident independent learners. The librarian should also be seen as having an important role in supporting the continuing professional development needs of teaching staff.

Statements

Policy statements issued by CILIP

2011

In February 2011 CILIP issued a statement on the role and value of school libraries. It sets out the core entitlements that every child, school's teaching team and wider school community should expect to receive and provides an overarching case for a properly resourced, professionally staffed school library.

Statement on the position of the public library service in England 

The statement was prepared by CILIP on Save Our Libraries Day, 5 February 2011. The statement includes:

• The current situation and concern about the level and extent of proposals which could add up to the closure of up to 20% of library service points and a probable 4-6,000 reduction in the number of staff
• Information on community managed libraries and other proposals
• Actions required by Government and what CILIP will continue to do

2010 

Community development and social justice

In November, CILIP Council endorsed a statement on community development and social justice put together by CILIP's Community Services Group.

Libraries play an important role in the way communities shape themselves and the statement sets out how we define community development and how libraries contribute to community engagement. It proposes actions library authorities need to ensure are embedded in their operations to confirm their contribution.

•  Read the community development statement

Data sharing

In November 2010 CILIP Council agreed a statement on data sharing between public bodies

• Read the data sharing statement 
  
  

Use of volunteers

In October 2010 CILIP Council agreed a short statement on the use of volunteers in public libraries

• Read the volunteer statement

Library and Information Manifesto

In March 2010 CILIP published its Library and Information Manifesto

The CILIP Manifesto set out six priorities for the Westminster government, elected after the May 2010 General Election, to ensure that quality library and information provision, delivered by skilled and committed practitioners, continued and improved.

Our view is that quality library and information services are fundamental to the success of our society and we said the government must:

1. Make school libraries statutory
2. Promote and protect the rights of users within copyright law
3. Build a successful knowledge economy
4. Preserve the UK's digital cultural heritage
5. Fund and enable the effective co-ordination of health information
6. Develop a set of library entitlements for public library users

User Privacy in Libraries

In March 2010 we published User Privacy in Libraries - Guidelines for the Reflective Rractitioner and in May 2011 we revised the Guidelines.

• More about the Privacy guidelines

Previous policy statements

•  Policy statements from 2005-2008 (including
  the Conway report on professionalism and public libraries)
  
  
• Historical reports

CILIP and trade unions

What is the difference between CILIP and a trade union?

CILIP is a personal membership organisation. We support our Members in terms of qualifications, careers, professional practice, information, advice and continuing professional development. 

The main service a union provides for its members is negotiation and representation. The purpose of a trade union is to protect and improve pay and conditions of employment, and to offer legal representation if their members have a problem at work.

It is advisable to be a member of a trade union as well as a member of CILIP. However, some employers do not encourage trade union membership.

Academic
UCU - the University and College Union, formed by the amalgamation of the AUT - the Association of University Teachers and NATFHE - the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education

Charities and Special libraries
Unite - The largest union they have an Administration, Professional, Managerial and Supervisory sector. Formed by the merger of Amicus and the GMB.

Government
FDA - the union for senior civil servants
Prospect - the union for engineering, scientific, management and professional staff

Public
Unison -   UNISON represent the majority of the 27,000 of library staff employed as librarians, library assistants and managers in all library authorities in England, Scotland and Wales.  To find out about joining UNISON call UNISONdirect on 0845 355 0845.  Alternatively, log inot their website

Schools
Unison - the public service union

Librarians who are also teachers join some of the teaching unions such as:

NASUWT - the National Association of Schoolmasters / Union of Women Teachers
ATL - the Association of Teachers and Lecturers

The trade union you should join is the one that is recognised by your employer.

Invest to save, says Dr Malcolm Read

JISC executive secretary Dr Malcolm Read has called for more investment in cloud computing in front of an international audience today.

Speaking to policy makers, funders, vendors and researchers at a workshop in Belgium run by e-Infranet, which develops policies to promote world-class ICT infrastructures, Dr Read said: “In an uncertain funding climate it’s essential that we prioritise.  Cloud computing can give universities access to economies of scale which offers real financial benefits – as well as the potential to improve your carbon footprint and deal more flexibly with the changing needs of students and staff in the fast-moving university environment.”

He added: “Our studies show that many universities and colleges in the UK are interested in harnessing cloud computing power – but fewer are actually using it.”

JISC’s studies last year revealed that few universities have formal polices on the adoption or use of cloud computing -  even though it is widely accepted that a centrally managed approach to contracting cloud computing services is required for real efficiency benefits.

Dr Read said: “Researchers and higher education staff need to be able to trust the reliability and integrity of the cloud they use so we need to invest in better services and ensure that they meet the very specific needs of our academic communities.”

JISC is currently funding 11 pilot cloud projects together with the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council to look into the usefulness of the cloud for research in more detail and find out what the benefits and issues are.

JISC is also funding projects that are transitioning service solutions into the cloud in research management, core and corporate information management and student services.  These projects will be reporting in July 2011.

JISC is also managing HEFCE’s university modernisation fund to establish a central brokerage service for a central UK higher education cloud.

Mentor Training

Training will be held in all regions.

The purpose of this course is to provide participants with a background to mentoring, a basic framework for conducting mentoring both long and short term. The focus of the event is to enable participants to develop effectively as mentors in the context of the CILIP professional development scheme, their workplace and career development.

Members who have previously attended a course on mentoring skills may attend the afternoon only to join in the elements relating to the CILIP scheme.

Please see the PTEG mentor training pages for forthcoming events

'History has never been so unpopular'

According to Ofsted, history is successful in schools. Not so, says controversial historian Niall Ferguson: the inspectors are missing the ruination of the subject

Is there a crisis in the teaching of history in British schools? Not if you believe the conclusions of History for All, the report published earlier this month by Ofsted. Based on evidence from inspections conducted between 2007 and 2010 in 83 primary schools and the same number of secondary schools, the report begins on a reassuringly positive note. "There was much that was good and outstanding" in the history lessons the inspectors observed. "Most pupils enjoyed well-planned lessons that extended their knowledge, challenged their thinking and enhanced their understanding."

In secondary schools, we are assured, "effective teaching by well-qualified and highly competent teachers enabled the majority of students to develop knowledge and understanding in depth". In short, history is "generally a popular and successful subject, which many pupils enjoy". Attainment at the secondary level is "high and continu[ing] to rise".

Well, that's all right then. Clearly, all last year's talk by Michael Gove, Simon Schama, myself and others about the urgent need for reform was mere alarmism, doubtless actuated by some sinister political motive. Or was it? A closer look at the main body of the report suggests that there are indeed grounds for concern.

First, it can hardly be a cause of celebration that students in independent schools are almost twice as likely to study GCSE history as those in maintained schools. In 2010, more than a hundred state secondary schools entered no students for GCSE history.

Second, as the inspectors' report acknowledges, England is the only country in Europe where history is not compulsory for students beyond the age of 14. Worse, many state schools now offer a two-year key stage 3 course, which allows some pupils to stop studying history at the age of 13.

And here are four more facts that are not in the Ofsted report:

• 25% of all schools no longer teach history as a discrete subject in year 7

• 30% of comprehensives spend less than one hour a week on history in the years up to age 13

• More GCSE candidates took design and technology than history last year

• More A-level candidates took psychology.

It is a paradox indeed. History has never been more popular outside schools than it is in Britain today. Yet history has never been so unpopular in British schools.

Even more disturbing is the evidence of widespread historical ignorance among school-leavers. A recent survey of first-year undergraduates reading history at a reputable UK university found that: 66% did not know who was monarch at time of the Armada; 69% did not know the location of the Boer war; 84% did not know who commanded British forces at Waterloo (a third thought it was Nelson); and 89% could not name a single 19th-century British prime minister.

Such evidence should make us very sceptical indeed about Ofsted's claim that history is "a successful subject in schools".

How did we get here? The problem is surely not poor teaching. Rather, it is the stuff that teachers are expected to do, which is the product of an unholy alliance between well-meaning politicians and educationalists, not forgetting over-mighty examination boards. The politicians ranged from Kenneth Baker, who vainly hoped that a new national curriculum would force schools to teach a rather traditional kind of history, to Gordon Brown, who decided (Scotsman as he was) that schools should be pressed to teach British rather than English history, in order to promote a sense of "Britishness".

Such initiatives from above provided the proponents of a so-called new history with a golden opportunity to reshape historical education. Historical "skills" such as source analysis, they argued, should be elevated above mere factual knowledge. And "discovery" by children should count for more than dusty old pedagogy.

The result was a national curriculum designed to instil in schoolchildren all kinds of "key concepts" like "chronological understanding", "cultural, ethnic and religious diversity", "change and continuity", "cause and consequence", "significance" and "interpretation".

And these were to be taught with reference to an impressively wide range of subject matter.

Who could possibly object to such an enlightened scheme?

The trouble is not so much with the theory as with the practice that has evolved in too many schools. As Ofsted admits in a damning passage on primary pupils, "some … found it difficult to place the historical episodes they had studied within any coherent, long-term narrative. They knew about particular events, characters and periods, but did not have an overview. Their chronological understanding was often underdeveloped and so they found it difficult to link developments together." The only thing wrong with this observation is that Ofsted seems to think it applies only to primary school pupils, whereas it could equally well be applied to those in secondary school – and students at a good few universities, too.

In fact, as the inspectors concede elsewhere, in 28 of the 58 secondary schools they visited, "students' chronological understanding was not sufficiently well developed: they had … a poor sense of the historical narrative". This is hardly a minor deficiency. It's a bit like saying that maths is a successful subject in British schools, apart from the fact that pupils in half of schools can't count.

I have complained before that it is possible to leave school in England knowing only about Henry VIII, Hitler and Martin Luther King Jr. This is a caricature, admittedly, but it is not a wholly unfair one. Commenting on a not untypical primary curriculum, the authors of History for All say that "its principal weaknesses are the disconnected topics and the potential for the pupils to be left with a fragmented overview". You can say that again. Consider this list of topics spread in this order over four years:

• Romans and Celts – why have people invaded and settled?

• Ancient Egypt – what can we find out from what has survived?

• What can we learn about history by studying a famous person?

• Why did Henry VIII marry six times?

• Tudor times – rich and poor; exploration

• What was it like to live here in the past?

• Victorian children

• Victorians – how your area has changed since the Victorian era

• The second world war

• Ancient Greeks

• Britain since 1948

The word smorgasbord doesn't really do justice to this random assortment. Lost, as Simon Schama has justly lamented, is the "long arc of time", to be replaced by odds and sods. And some of those odds really are odd, especially if you go on to GCSE and A-level, where the "methods" become ever more idiosyncratic. If you really want to understand what's going wrong in English schools, take a look at some of the lessons Ofsted singles out for praise...

"Students in year 8 analysed the changing attitudes towards Oliver Cromwell from the 17th to the 20th centuries and, in year 9, they looked at changing attitudes to the British empire. The work on Cromwell used the writings of Victorian and 20th-century historians as well as contemporary historians. In the work on the British empire, the students designed an empire plate, having looked at contemporary and modern sources of information, including the work of historians such as Niall Ferguson ..."

I am of course flattered to be cited, but an empire plate? Or how about this:

"Year 11 students were studying the treatment of the Sioux Indians as part of the Schools History Project depth study on the American west. An effective activity at the beginning of the lesson reminded students of what they knew so far about the homes and lifestyle of the Sioux Indians, especially in relation to buffalo hunting. Using this knowledge, students, working in groups, devised criteria to judge any modern interpretation of what happened to the Sioux. In this case, they considered a Hollywood film."

Well, I suppose it beats a plate.

History is emphatically not being made available "to all" in English schools. Too few pupils, especially in the state sector, spend too little time doing it. And what they study lacks all cohesion.

The challenge for the education secretary, Michael Gove, is to make sure that he is not the latest in a succession of politicians to see his plans for reform subverted by an educational establishment – here exemplified by Ofsted – that is still in deep denial about the damage its beloved "new history" has done.

Download the lesson plan from the Guardian Teacher Network at http://teachers.guardian.co.uk/resources.aspx?q=niall%20ferguson

Niall Ferguson is professor of history at Harvard University

Wikipedia wants more contributions from academics

Wikipedia is surveying academics to find out why many seem reluctant to donate their expertise

Mike Peel began editing Wikipedia – the free online encyclopaedia that anyone can edit – after a physics entry made him mad. It was 2005 and the then undergraduate was reading around a course when he became "irritated by a grammatical mistake". He hasn't looked back since. For Peel, now a 26-year-old post-doctoral researcher at the University of Manchester, Jodrell Bank centre for astrophysics, is not only the secretary of Wikimedia UK – the local volunteer chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation, which oversees the Wikipedia project – but also one of the more prolific contributors among UK academics.

Though it is impossible to say who holds the top spot – academic wikipedians are not ranked per se – Peel estimates he has made more than 16,000 edits, contributed to approximately 1,500 pages and started over 50, mostly within his area of expertise. If you Google "Big Bang", the Wikipedia page that is the first result to pop up owes its thoroughness, at least in part, to the work of Peel. His main reason for contributing is one of public good. "Everyone goes to Wikipedia, and, because most people are using it and learning from it, we need to make sure they get the right information," he says.

Yet Peel is also a rare breed among academics, who seem less inclined to make contributions to pages than gaze on them. Scholars have mostly now joined students in accepting that Wikipedia – the fifth most visited website in the world – can be a valuable starting point for inquiry, but it appears that when it comes to actually contributing to the articles within their area of expertise, there is a hole. "Academics are trapped in this paradox of using Wikipedia but not contributing," says Dario Taraborelli, a research analyst for the Wikimedia Foundation. "While there might be pockets of academics running very advanced projects and lots of academics contributing outside their fields of expertise, not enough are contributing to scholarly articles within their fields."

The issue is certainly concerning the Wikimedia Foundation. Taraborelli is currently one of three members of its research committee running a survey of experts to try to understand both why they do – and don't – contribute to Wikipedia and what could be done to help. Academics, scientists, research students and working professionals are all invited to participate. Part of the purpose is simply to try to turn the many anecdotes about expert participation into data, says Daniel Mietchen, who is also running the survey and is the managing editor of Citizendium, a Wikipedia-like project with a special role for experts. "It is the first real attempt to investigate the motivations for experts contributing or not, and we are honestly interested in answers to both."

The foundation wants to raise the level of expert participation – be it fully fledged editing or helping editors identify inaccuracies – to improve the quality of pages, cover more scholarly and encyclopaedic knowledge, and increase the diversity of participants, says Taraborelli. But, issues of lack of time and unfamiliar technology aside, the biggest barrier to more participation may be the academic ego.

Academics get ahead primarily by writing papers and winning grant proposals. "Unfortunately, there is no reward system set up in academia for us to contribute our knowledge in Wikipedia," says Mark Graham, a research fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute currently studying geographical aspects of Wikipedia.

Likewise, on Wikipedia, no one knows they are experts, causing fears that contributions will be edited out. Suzie Sheehy is a researcher at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire, who does plenty of public outreach but has never contributed to Wikipedia. "I worry about genuine, well-researched contributions being changed or overwritten by others," she says.

The Wikimedia Foundation is looking at how it might capture expert conversation about Wikipedia content happening on other websites and feed it back to the community as a way of providing pointers for improvement, says Taraborelli. And it takes on the Wikipedia model that better-value academic contributions do exist. Citizendium – launched in 2006 by Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger after an acrimonious split with fellow co-founder Jimmy Wales – requires contributors to use their real names and contains expert-approved articles, though it doesn't have the breadth or ubiquity of Wikipedia.

So what is in it for academics who do get over these barriers and engage? One of the most rewarding aspects can be in helping shape the public image of their field, say contributors. For many subjects – including scholarly topics – it is very often Wikipedia pages that are the top hits on Google, and for scholars who want their field represented accurately or interestingly, contributing to Wikipedia can help. The Association for Psychological Science in the US is currently running an initiative to match up psychology pages that need fixing with the academic experts who have the necessary knowhow. Clearly there is a role for learned societies.

Paul Goldberg, a professor of computer science at the University of Liverpool, dabbles in editing Wikipedia pages. He has added entries on specialist mathematical concepts and admits to creating the entry on the research excellence framework. "It does give a sense of importance to these rather abstruse topics you happen to be working on," he says.

When history researchers on Project Volterra at University College London discovered fragments of a lost Roman law code, they were so keen to ensure journalists got the story right that they penned pages on the code before they released details of the discovery to the press. "We suspected that any journalist would be likely to look at the Wikipedia pages as an initial resource," says research fellow Simon Corcoran. The idea that the group would spend a lot of time just generally editing pages is "not realistic", he says, but with a specific need it made sense.

Yet editing Wikipedia isn't the only way academics can contribute. From Wikipedia evangelists such as Peel, to the Wikimedia Foundation, to the first UK Wikipedia student society – the newly formed Wikipedians at Imperial College – the dream is to see Wikipedia embraced as a learning and teaching resource in the classroom, with lecturers setting new types of assignment where students edit pages as coursework.

However, according to the Wikipedia page that lists them, there is currently only one such project in the UK. Toni Sant, director of research at the University of Hull's Scarborough school of arts and new media, gets his third-year applied and interactive theatre students to write or update pages about practitioners and broad concepts in the field, grading them partly on how their pages are received by other Wikipedians. It teaches students concepts such as collaboration and how to distinguish between the reliability of sources, says Sant. "Some of my colleagues think it is mad. The general feeling from teachers at all levels of education is Wikipedia is the devil. But it is so popular with students, they are going to use it one way or another so we may as well find ways to embrace it and integrate it into the curriculum."

• The survey, Expert Barriers to Wikipedia, is open until 15 April. Dr Panagiota Alevizou, a post-doctoral researcher at the Open University's Institute of Educational Technology, is also running it.

• This article was amended on 29 March. The original omitted the inclusion of Dr Panagiota Alevizou's contribution.

Loans for part-time students – what could possibly go wrong?

It should have been good news, but mistakes made by the government have resulted in an unfair student loan system for part-time undergraduates, says Claire Callender

Part-time undergraduates, who make up a third of all undergraduates in England, are for the first time to be eligible for student loans to cover the costs of their tuition fees, just like their full-time peers. Come 2012‑13, an estimated one-third of part‑time students will qualify for non-means-tested loans. This gives part-time study the potential to expand, and to fulfil the government's objectives of reskilling and upskilling the workforce, while meeting the needs of students, especially those who work and have family commitments. This good news, however, has turned bad because the government has failed to get the terms and conditions right.

The idea of extending loans to part-time undergraduates is to level the playing field. Currently, the funding system favours full-time students and provision, and there are clear incentives for universities to grow their full-time provision and run down their part-time programmes. This has contributed to a decline in part-time undergraduate enrolments. The aim of the reforms is to help eradicate many of the disincentives for universities to provide part-time courses. But, if the student loans are not attractive, students may not take advantage.

The government has made two mistakes. First, only students studying above 25% and up to 75% of a full-time course can get loans to cover all their fees. Why the upper limit of 75%? What happens to the student who one year decides to accelerate their learning and studies, say, 90% of a full-time course? Surely they should be rewarded for this additional effort and their desire to speed up to completion? But, such a student would be penalised. In essence, the government is putting a ceiling on the amount of loan a part-time student can get. There is no similar limit for full-time students.

The second problem concerns when students start to repay their loans. Full-time students do not have to pay until they have graduated and are earning at least £21,000. For most full-time bachelor's students, this means that repayment does not kick in until at least 3.5 years after starting their course, and for those on longer courses (about 30%), such as medicine, until 5.5 years after. A different set of rules is being applied to part-time students. They are being asked to start repaying their loans 3.5 years after starting their course, or sooner if their course lasts less than three years.

This may look like a fair deal – however, the reality makes it anything but. Students who take short one-year undergraduate courses, often aimed at encouraging them to progress to a degree, would start repaying their loans once they completed that course, assuming their income was above £21,000. If they then decided to take a bachelor's degree, they would be repaying their loan for their previous course while still studying. In fact, all part-time students taking a bachelor's degree will have to start repaying their loans while studying because it will take them more than 3.5 years to complete their degree.

Ministers justify their approach because of the high interest rates that accrue on student loans while they study. From 2012-13, the day a student takes out a loan, they start clocking up interest rates of inflation plus 3%. Only once full-time students graduate – or, in the case of part-timers, 3.5 years after starting their course – are interest rates linked to income, and even then such a high level of interest is only paid by those earning more than £41,000. (Graduates earning between £21,000 and £41,000 will be charged interest on a sliding scale up to a maximum of inflation plus 3%.)

The government argues that its proposals for part-time students will reduce the amount of interest accrued on their loans. But this needs to be weighed against part-timers having to start repaying their loans while still studying.

A fairer solution would have been for part-timers to start repaying their loans 4.5 years after starting their course. This would have meant most part-timers taking a first degree would have repaid their loans once they had completed their degree.

These provisions make a mockery of the ideas informing the reforms of student funding – that higher education is free at the point of consumption and that tuition fees are covered in full by loans. Moreover, the planned changes add to the complexity, making it difficult to promote a clear and simple message about the advantages of student loans for part-time students. It would not have taken much to ensure that financial support for part-time students remained a good story instead of a bad one.

• Claire Callender is professor of higher education at Birkbeck and the Institute of Education, University of London.

The government is putting training out of reach of those who need it most

The decision to stop full funding for people on 'inactive benefits' will make education and training inaccessible to many trapped in poverty, says Nick Linford

People across education have been making their voices heard. The proposed rise in tuition fees and cuts to the education maintenance allowance, lecturers' pensions and benefits, and funding for Esol (English for speakers of other languages) have fuelled anger and prompted people to take their protests to the streets.

But lurking in the shadows are more casualties of the cuts. Their voices aren't being heard. There's no Facebook page for this group, no Twitter campaign, but college principals know who they are.

From August, the skills funding agency is to stop fully funding people on "inactive benefits" – that is those on low incomes who rely on government help in the form of income support and working tax, pension and housing credits. It is a move that will actually make education and training inaccessible to those who need it most. In addition, although it has yet to be announced, it is likely that asylum seekers will also lose out.

Take working tax credit, which was designed to help support those on low incomes and their families, as an example. If a single person works 30 hours a week on minimum wage, their income is just £9,050 a year. How many would be able to pay further education and training fees on this kind of salary?

But these are exactly the people who would benefit. It could help them to boost their earnings, progress their careers, and provide better lives for themselves and their families. The benefits would be felt across society.

From August, colleges and training providers, in the main, will receive only half the cost of courses for these kinds of learners. Colleges, already trying to absorb rate and budget cuts, will be expected to stump up the rest (approximately £1,400 for a full-time student), or extract it from the learner. These learners are unlikely to be able to pay, so how exactly are colleges and training providers expected to make up the shortfall?

The government's reasoning doesn't stack up. It believes that employers should and will contribute to the cost of educating the least well-off in society. But government policy has never supported this ambition, and it has never been easy to get employers to foot the bill for education and training. What makes the government think things will be different this time round?

Colleges have been told they have the freedom to waive fees for vulnerable learners, but with many already being asked to deliver more for less, will they have the resources to do that? Freedom is a great thing, but it will not protect them from financial failure and job losses further down the line.

Only now, as colleges plan their courses for the next academic year, are they realising the full impact of this policy on their resources and learners.

I recently sent all further education colleges some software to help them calculate the size of the problem; the data was published last week as part of an Lsect adult funding conference. The results were painful. The data, for example, shows that three medium-sized colleges, chosen from the north and the south-east, currently receive specific funding worth around £14m attached to learners on "inactive benefits".

I'm estimating that around 25% of adult provision, or 300,000 adults, will be affected. Having said that, it is impossible for the government to know what the real impact of this policy will be because of the way colleges' data is collected. There are serious accuracy limitations. When learners enrol they only tick one box to indicate income, and yet learners' income is often more complex.

From my discussions with principals I know they have been expecting a government U-turn, but that's now looking unlikely. It is yet another example of the coalition government's lazy "act now, think later" approach to policy-making.

Further education is about improving life chances, raising skills levels and helping people to move on in their lives. If any sector could fully embrace Cameron's "big society", FE could.

Education has always been a way out of the poverty trap. It still is … if you can afford it.

Nick Linford is managing director at Lsect, a company specialising in post-16 funding, performance and data, and author of The Hands-on Guide to Post 16 Funding

Mid-year admissions: When there's no place at a school near home

Fran Abrams visits a school that has been sent 154 new pupils since September, thanks to mid-year admissions policy

John O'Donnell, headteacher of the Radcliffe school in Milton Keynes, is pointing to a colour-coded wallchart on which the progress of this year's GCSE students is mapped. There's a photograph of each, next to his or her name – or at least there should be. The chart is pitted, rather eerily, with blanks – almost half the 45 pupils in the "grey" group, those causing concern, weren't at the school when the photographer last visited, three years ago.

It's a neat demonstration of an issue that has caused a furore in the town – and in many others – in the last six months. In the past, when families moved house during the school year, they simply applied to a school for a place. Since September, the job of co-ordinating these admissions has been handed to local authorities.

The measure has led to such a slew of complaints that the schools minister, Nick Gibb, has been forced to rethink it. Schools have complained of bureaucratic delays that have left hundreds of pupils sitting at home, and of children being "dumped" in schools with surplus places, miles from home. The move has also led to a wider debate about how these transient pupils, who are often from deprived or disrupted families, are treated in the education system.

Attempts to give local authorities more control over schools admissions were meant to ensure even the most popular schools still had to take their share – but according to many headteachers, this particular measure hasn't worked.

As one of only a few secondaries with vacant places in Milton Keynes, a town whose population is shifting and growing, the Radcliffe has always had to deal with large numbers of new arrivals. But this year, the situation is much worse, O'Donnell says. The council has sent 154 pupils to the school since September – compared with just 70 who arrived mid-year last year.

"I have youngsters joining me from six or seven miles away," O'Donnell says. "Only 29 were from pupils living in our area. I never turn anyone away, but it's very unfair on them and their families – if they're making a seven-mile journey, they have to be disadvantaged by that." He tries to see all these pupils before they start school, to ensure they understand the school's ethos. This year, the process has often taken up a day a week. Council delays have also led to pupils being out of school for long periods.

The Eferakorho family moved from Bradford to Milton Keynes last September. Their daughter, now just 12, was turned down for three local schools and instead was offered the Radcliffe – seven miles from home. Jite Eferakorho, an educational consultant, said his daughter had been out of school almost six months and was terribly distressed. "I went on the public bus, to get a sense of what my daughter would be in for – it took me more than 70 minutes. She would have had to leave home at 6.50 to be at school before 8.40. "

The family are now taking their case to the local government ombudsman. "I think it's grossly unfair for an 11-year-old to be asked to travel seven miles to school in 21st-century England," Eferakorho says.

The MP for Milton Keynes North, Mark Lancaster, has received so many complaints that he has raised the issue in a parliamentary debate. MPs from around the country related similar tales of woe.

The new rules seem to have exacerbated an already complex and fraught process, Lancaster says: "The Radcliffe is becoming almost a default community school for the whole of Milton Keynes." He also picked up on another issue, which is concerning schools in other areas: the increasing success of academies. The new Milton Keynes academy admits 240 pupils each year, while its predecessor school admitted 300 – and that means it's full, so it doesn't have to take these transient pupils.

Brian Lightman, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, believes the scramble for places is bound to get worse as more academies and independent free schools open. "This will be even more of an issue as the system becomes more fragmented. New schools are likely to set lower admissions numbers – therefore they won't have surplus places. There's a real need for school places to be planned strategically in a local area. Otherwise we will end up with a massive challenge, and with many of these mobile pupils being lost to the system," he says.

Across the country, even in towns where the new academies have not set lower admissions numbers than their predecessors, similar situations have arisen. Martin Horwood, the Liberal Democrat MP for Cheltenham, was one of those who spoke in the parliamentary debate. There, too, children, including new arrivals, are being bussed from the south of the town, where the two secondary schools are full, to a school in the north, he says. "People are arriving in the area and finding they can't get a school place. Families are being allocated to the most undersubscribed school in a different part of town."

MPs from areas as diverse as Stockton, in the north-east, and Colne Valley, in West Yorkshire, have described similar problems. The schools minister, Nick Gibb, told MPs he had received a steady flow of complaints about the new system since its introduction. "Admissions processes are an imprecise science but, having received representations from admissions authorities and members of the public, I am convinced that we have to look again at this issue," he said. "A reform is now being considered as part of an ongoing review of the school admissions code."

That code will be published in the next few days, and is understood to contain a reform of the measure controlling in-year admissions, designed to hand back more say on the issue to schools. It will not prove universally popular, though. The Association of Directors of Children's Services has been pressing the government to let local authorities continue to co-ordinate new arrivals. Marion Davis, the association's president, says it is important for local authorities to be able to keep track of these often vulnerable children.

"There may be more work to do, but we believe the systems support a vital function in keeping children safe," she says. "Children removed from school or looking for school places in the middle of the academic year may be vulnerable for a number of reasons – they may have begun to be looked after by the local authority, may have health problems or have had problems in their previous school."

Meanwhile at the Radcliffe school, O'Donnell's diary is still filling up with appointments to meet prospective pupils. He'd like to see local authorities required to fund "ghost places" in schools like his that are regularly asked to take a lot of pupils after a school year has started. That way, he says, he could ensure he had enough staff to cope, and that pupils arriving after GCSE courses had started did not have restricted options.

His governors have proposed solving the problem by cutting back the number of places at the school – O'Donnell says this is necessary because a growing demand for practical subjects means the school requires more space per pupil. In the longer term, he says, the solution lies elsewhere.

"There needs to be a long-term strategy to deal with this. We can't continue to have schools in the position we've been in this year," he says. "We want to work with the local authority to deal with this, because this is an issue for local people – though we recognise that can be a difficult conversation."

Let's look at all the evidence from top educators abroad

Michael Gove is keen to see what we have to learn from education systems internationally, but the lessons may not be as straightforward as he thinks, says Valerie Hannon

Last week I saw a report that a US congresswoman wanted to change the official value of pi to precisely 3 as a way to help US 15-year-olds, after they came 25th in maths in the latest Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's world study. The story was a hilarious spoof, but it well illustrates the strength of feeling about these global rankings.

Recently Michael Gove has stressed the importance of comparing education systems internationally, as seen in the OECD's Pisa studies, and of learning from the most successful nations. But what should our response be?

The education secretary enthuses about Andreas Schleicher, of the OECD, calling him the "most important man in English education" for the insights his work confers. Schleicher's analysis, according to Gove, shows, first, that "we [England] are falling further and further behind other nations"; and second, that the key to success is "to recruit the best possible people into teaching and provide them with high-quality training and professional development". This is true – as far as it goes. But it is a partial analysis.

What else have successful systems to tell us about the issues we face today? Schleicher's work demonstrates compellingly that demand for the competencies 20th-century school systems were good at imparting (routine cognitive and manual skills) is falling sharply among employers across the world. He shows that 21st-century systems need to prepare young people with the skills to undertake non-routine analytic and, especially, non-routine interactive tasks. Schleicher's conclusion is: "The skills that are easiest to teach and test are also easiest to digitise, automate and outsource."

The implication of these findings is that systems need to prepare students "to deal with more rapid change than ever before … for jobs that have not yet been created … using technologies that have not yet been invented". This is about learning how to learn, and new ways of thinking that involve creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving and decision-making. It is in sharp contrast to an emphasis on the capacity to reproduce facts. Reducing the debate into a "skills v knowledge" dichotomy is manifestly false. The issue is the right balance between content acquisition, and the skills and dispositions needed to succeed in fundamentally changed conditions. This is the key message of Schleicher and the OECD's work. It is to be hoped that the current curriculum review is permitted to take this wider view.

For this is the perspective being adopted by the world's leading systems. Rather than relying on past achievements, they are reconceiving how they approach the future. Take Finland – always at or near the top of the Pisa rankings. The director of the Finnish board of education has described how their system has identified the key competencies for lifelong learning, and is setting about transforming their system to ensure they're acquired. Critically, this entails enabling learners to "undertake meaningful problem-based inquiry, which might be multi-disciplinary, supported by blended teaching methods and hybrid resources". The Finns aren't giving up on acquiring knowledge. They just know it's not enough.

Then there's South Korea, another "top performing" system. Perceived as exam-driven, cramming its students, Korea is set to change. Exploring the work of its very best schools has revealed that they focus on providing concentrated time for some subjects (rather than shallow drip-feed); on personalising learning; on evaluating creativity; and on experience-based learning. South Korea is basing its innovation agenda on the "three C's": creativity, collaboration and character.

And finally, take one of the most improved cities in the world in terms of education performance – New York City. Gove recently hosted the former chancellor of the NYC school system, praising the rapid progress made by the city. What he omitted, however, was that NYC has acknowledged its current set of school improvement initiatives is inadequate to deal with the challenges young people face. So it has a launched an Innovation Zone, comprising a distributed network of schools, specifically to test and refine new approaches to learning and teaching that are more personalised and emphasise higher-level skills.

So yes, let's join the global education community seeking out the best ways to make learning engaging and relevant to young people in the digital age. But let's do it with open minds, and attention to all the evidence.

Valerie Hannon is a board director of the Innovation Unit

Staffordshire University teaches degree course in prison

Dovegate prison in Staffordshire runs first workplace foundation degree in offender management

In a lecture theatre in Staffordshire, 15 students are at an induction session for a new foundation degree. They talk about their upcoming modules, which include law, crime and criminal psychology, while nearby all the usual campus facilities – library, medical centre, gym, football pitches – are filled with people. But this is a far cry from the UK's other seats of higher education: the residents at this site include murderers, rapists and thieves. This is Dovegate prison in Staffordshire, and the undergraduates are prison officers embarking on Britain's first workplace foundation degree in offender management, run by Staffordshire University and Stafford College.

The group includes prison custody officers and an assistant director. Some are bosses, others junior members of staff, but all are having to switch from barking orders all day to listening to instructions in the classroom.

"It's going to be a bit of a challenge," admits Gillian Curtis, 29, a custodial officer at Dovegate. "Switching from organising prisoners, being in charge and running their lives, to going back to school will be difficult. I'm going to be the one who has to listen and produce the work demanded of me, plus ask for support and advice, rather than giving it out to prisoners all day, as I'm used to."

Yet Curtis is filled with excitement at the prospect of starting the degree. "I left school at 16 and worked as an administrator at a car finance firm, but always regretted missing out on university," she says. "I've done NVQs in custodial management while working at the prison, but it's something completely different to get a degree. I'm a bit scared but mostly can't wait to start studying."

The officers attend lectures at the prison's learning suite during working hours. And with all their course fees and textbooks paid for by Serco, the private company that runs Dovegate on the government's behalf, the students hope they can use the degree to ultimately boost their own earnings. Damian Holdcroft, 34, a unit manager at the prison, explains: "I hope [the degree] will give me a better understanding of how we and external agencies like the probation service might work together. The government is very keen on performance-related pay – and if we can work together to better rehabilitate offenders, then everyone benefits."

The new tuition-fee regime for undergraduates to be introduced next year means universities are increasingly focused on developing workplace degrees in conjunction with businesses, according to Michelle Hammond, a law lecturer at Staffordshire University, who wrote a module on the offender's journey through the criminal justice system for the Dovegate degree. "This is definitely a developing area for our sector," she says. "Working with employers and organisations to develop courses also widens access to education for people who would not automatically consider going into higher education, and helps students who haven't been involved in education for a long time."

Alex Benton, 35, one of the Dovegate undergraduates, joined the prison in September after being made redundant from his job in sales. "I come from a normal working-class family, and going on to college when I was 16 just wasn't an option," he says. "I needed to bring in money for the house. I started working in sales aged 16, and worked my way up for the next 18 years. But my world crashed around my feet during the recession when I was made redundant. I've got two children and a mortgage. I was desperate."

Benton got a job as a security officer at Dovegate and worked his way up to prison custody officer. He now looks after up to 96 prisoners, unlocking their cells in the morning, organising their meals, work and exercise, and locking them up at night. But he hopes for more career progression with the help of his degree.

"As soon as I arrived at Dovegate I was presented with training opportunities and NVQs," says Benton. "It was great – I never dreamed of a job where people would actually be willing to work with you and help you improve yourself. This degree is a huge deal for me. I always wanted to go on to higher education but never had the opportunity before. Now, I'm going to work so hard on this degree. As much as the lecturers are willing to give me, I'm willing to give back. I'm putting all my hopes in it to better my prospects."

Apprentices … you are needed at your workstation

Employers are worried about new rules on the number of hours that apprentices must spend being taught

While schools and universities have been stung by recent budget cuts, vocational learning has fared somewhat better. Since the coalition government came to power last May, there has been sustained investment in apprenticeships, starting with £250m to fund 75,000 new adult apprenticeships, announced in the 2010 spending review.

In last week's budget, the chancellor, George Osborne, announced a £180m package for a further 50,000 apprenticeships, aimed at helping young people into work or training. While the investment is welcomed by colleges and training providers, they now face the challenge of finding employers to take on all these new apprentices. But convincing employers, particularly those in small- and medium-sized businesses, to invest their time and money in training has never been easy.

New government regulations, due to come into force next month, could make it even tougher. The Specification of Apprenticeship Standards for England (Sase) will require every apprentice to receive up to 280 hours of guided learning (time in education and training, away from their usual duties) each year.

Some employers are worried. Jonathan Morcom, operations director at the Duke of Cornwall hotel in Plymouth, is one. The hotel sends its apprentices to City College Plymouth for one day a week. Squeezing in more training time wouldn't be practical, he says. "It's important apprentices have time offsite with a learning provider, but 280 hours is excessive. Smaller employers, especially, will not be able to justify having their apprentices out of the workplace for that amount of time."

Grahame Howe, head of employer engagement at West Nottinghamshire College thinks this "one size fits all" approach will not work for apprenticeships. "While some sectors, like engineering, might require a lot of hours doing theoretical work in the classroom, others, such as some parts of the service industries, will need much less. We work with a big leisure company that is very good at training its staff away from the work environment. But even they are telling us they will find it difficult to arrange 100 hours of off-the-job training."

City of Sunderland College principal Angela O'Donoghue thinks setting a minimum number of guided learning hours is important for 16- to 19-year-olds, but feels placing the same expectations on adult apprentices is a mistake. "Young people need that support, that time to develop and grow, but for adults who may already have been in the workplace, is it really necessary? It's difficult enough for us to persuade employers to take on adult apprentices. Those who do it want a full-time employee not a four-day-a-week person. I'm worried this will make our job even harder."

But Chris Kirk, head of apprenticeships at City & Guilds, thinks fears about guided learning hours could be down to semantics. Some of the government documentation for Sase uses the phrase "off the job" to describe guided learning, which may have been misleading. A more accurate phrase might have been "away from your workstation", he argues. "The problem is that these government documents are often written by educationists with theoretical knowledge, but no hands-on experience of working in the sector. When you drill down into the guidance, only 30% of the 280 hours have to be spent away from everyday duties."

But he can understand why small- and medium-sized employers are worried. "We work with lots of big supermarkets that have their own training departments, so guided learning can be done inhouse with minimal impact. But in a smaller outfit, you can easily see how a couple of hours with travel time could easily turn into a day, which could impact on the business."

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has now clarified what it means by guided learning as "traditional classroom learning; e-learning; distance learning; coaching; mentoring; feedback; collaborative/networked learning with peers; guided study; planning and review". This must offer access "as and when required" for the learner either to a tutor, mentor, supervisor or manager.

A BIS spokesperson says: "The new specification of apprenticeship standards will enshrine and enhance the quality of the apprenticeships programme, guaranteeing a minimum allocation of 280 hours of guided learning to equip every apprentice with the specific skills employers need."

But Paul Warner, director of delivery at the Association of Learning Providers, feels there is still potential for confusion. "If an electrician goes out on a job with his boss which throws up the opportunity to try out a new technique or concept, can this be called guided learning?" While supportive of the government's attempt to introduce a quality benchmark, he believes a minimum number of guided learning hours could simply be introducing an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.

Traditionally, sector skills councils (employer-led organisations responsible for developing skills and standards in different sectors) have set the minimum number of hours necessary to complete a particular apprenticeship (many of which exceed 280 hours anyway), which are used by awarding bodies when they design qualifications.

If colleges and training providers also have to provide evidence they have met the standards, it could mean doubling up on paperwork, says Warner. "Providers may well end up spending extra money on administration – money that could be better directed at the learner." He highlights another potential sticking point. Under the new rules, guided learning hours have to be completed within contracted working hours, which could be particularly problematic for apprentices in customer-facing sectors. The trainee chef who gets to work early to practise a new technique, or the hairdressing apprentice who wants to take part in a training session when the salon is closed to the public, may find their efforts cannot be counted as guided learning.

The new standards have been introduced in response to the Apprenticeships, Skills, Learning and Children Act, which was set in motion by the previous Labour government but came into force last September. Despite the 18-month build-up, getting through red tape means many sector skills councils and awarding bodies do not yet have everything in place for April, when the new standards are introduced.

Terry Watts, chief executive of Proskills, the sector skills council for process manufacturing, says many employers feel as if the changes have been rushed through at the last minute without any real consideration of "how things might work on the shop-floor".

Charlie Mullins, director of Pimlico Plumbers, agrees: "On paper it's a positive move back to the way things used to be; the way they should be if we're going to tackle the UK's skills shortage. The problem we face, of course, is that it's great to fund all these 'new apprenticeships', but each and every one of them requires a job so the apprentice can put in their hours while they're training and that's where things come unstuck."

Education letters

How will local authorities ensure every child has a school place under the new admissions rules, and the review of the national curriculum

Choosing the parents

Last week Warwick Mansell reported on concerns that new admissions rules will make it easier for schools to be selective.

The easiest way for a school to improve its position in the performance tables is to "adjust" its admissions. And the pressures are huge, so schools do fall prey to temptation. The interesting thing is that the duty to ensure that every child has a school place remains with the local authority and it is increasingly difficult to see how local authorities can implement this if all the admissions arrangements in an area are independent.

When I was a director of children's services I never had any difficulty finding places for middle-class children, but for children with challenges it was a real issue. If (as the government hopes) all secondary schools become academies, how will local authorities make sure that every child has a school place – even if they have special needs, are from a disorganised home, are young carers, or just generally low achievers?

JohnCFreeman via EducationGuardian.co.uk

• You suggest the education bill abolishes the rights of parents and pupils to complain to the local government ombudsman if they are unhappy with a school's admissions process. This is not the case. We will continue to provide independent investigation of complaints free of charge. We will also continue to have jurisdiction to consider complaints about special educational needs and exclusions. The proposal in the bill is to remove an extension to our jurisdiction which allows us to investigate internal school matters. This was introduced last year on a trial basis in 14 authorities and provides a route for parents and pupils to complain to us if they are not happy with how a school has handled an internal matter such as bullying.

Dr Jane Martin

Acting chair of the Commission for Local Administration, London SW1

Forward-looking review

Estelle Morris is right to question which subjects are relevant to today's young people (Opinion, 22 March). This is precisely what the national curriculum review is about and why it is so important to hear the views of all interested parties by 14 April. It is a forward-looking review, which will be informed by what parents, teachers, employers and others tell us children need to learn to succeed at university and in employment. 

We will also consider how the best international education systems work. Previously, England has not engaged in the intensive "system benchmarking" – a process of international comparison which feeds into significant improvement of their education systems.  This is a distinctive and progressive feature of the curriculum review. 

Tim Oates

Chair of the expert panel leading the review of the national curriculum

Improbable research: Now don't get upset; it's only money

How the brain responds to the destruction of vast amounts of money

If you have never watched someone rip up large amounts of cash, you may be unsure as to how the different parts of your brain would respond in the event that you did see someone tearing valuable banknotes into tiny, worthless shreds. A new study may help you how to predict what would happen.

The study is called How the Brain Responds to the Destruction of Money. It tells how the brains of 20 Danish persons, all of them adults with no history of psychiatric or neurological disease, responded as they watched videos of somebody destroying lots of Danish money.

If you are not Danish, you might now expect that your brain would respond in rather the same way, were this to involve your own native currency (pounds, euros, dollars, or whatever). The study makes no specific claims for non-Danish brains or money, however.

This neuroscience research was performed by Uta Frith and Chris Frith of University College London, together with Joshua Skewes, Torben Lund and Andreas Roepstorff of Aarhus University, Denmark, and Cristina Becchio of the University of Turin, Italy.

Here, in the scientists' words, is what the volunteers saw: "A series of videos in which different actions were performed on actual banknotes with a value of either of 100 kroner (approximately 13 euro/$18) or 500 kroner (approximately 67 euro/$91), or on valueless pieces of paper of the same size ... We contrasted actions that were appropriate to money (folding or looking at valuable notes or valueless paper) and actions that were inappropriate (tearing or cutting notes or paper)."

The Danes had their heads inside a functional magnetic resonance imaging scanner (fMRI), which recorded their brain activity. The researchers also asked each volunteer some questions, including, "How did it make you feel?" All of this, says the document, "confirmed that participants felt less comfortable during observation of destroying actions performed on money".

An additional finding: the volunteers felt more "aroused" when watching anything happen to money than when watching the same things happen to worthless paper.

The scientists find the brain scans to be especially interesting. The activity patterns, they say, are similar to something they have seen before. The "use of concrete tools, such as hammers or screwdrivers, has been associated with activation of a left hemisphere network including the posterior temporal cortex, supramarginal gyrus, inferior parietal lobule, and lateral precuneus. Here we demonstrate that observing bank notes being cut up or torn, a critical violation of their function, elicits activation within the same temporo-parietal network. Moreover, this activation is the greater the higher the value of the banknote."

They caution that the story must be more complex, that your brain probably regards money in several – differing – ways. They note the existence of published studies that "suggest that money can also act as a drug".

(Thanks to Martin Gardiner for bringing this to my attention.)

• Marc Abrahams is editor of the bimonthly Annals of Improbable Research and organiser of the Ig Nobel prize

Why aren't there more black football managers?

Is institutional racism in the boardroom the reason so few black players make it into management?

Glance at the average football pitch and you might conclude racism in Britain's favourite sport is dead. Team-sheets from the Premier League down have players of all ethnicities, and organising bodies host myriad anti-racism events. The discrimination bound-up with the game in decades past appears to be over. Until you look at the people shouting to the players.

In 2007, about a quarter of all players were black, but only two out of 92 league clubs had black managers. Today, there are still only two black managers in all four leagues: Paul Ince, manager of Notts County, and Chris Powell, of Charlton Athletic. Football management is still overwhelmingly white. Now academics at Staffordshire University, who have undertaken major research into the subject, report a strong call among black and minority ethnic (BME) football fans for the introduction of positive discrimination.

The research, by Ellis Cashmore, professor of culture, media and sport at Staffordshire, and his colleague Dr Jamie Cleland, senior lecturer in sociology, involved 1,000 football fans, professional players, referees, coaches and managers revealing their views on the dearth of black managers. More than 56% of those polled said there is racism at the top of football's hierarchy; among BME respondents, that figure was 73%. Most radically of all, over half of BME fans called for a policy similar to the Rooney rule in the US, which stipulates that all shortlists for management and coaching jobs in the National Football League must include at least one minority candidate. The Staffordshire academics report that a third of the polled football fans encouraged this type of reform.

"We didn't expect support for reform," admits Cashmore. "We thought that, as British culture tends to oppose any type of compulsion, the fans would resist a policy. But, in the event, they showed a clear recognition that the paucity of black managers has become an embarrassing anomaly that needs radical attention." The comments made by the surveyed football fans included: "Until you force something like the Rooney rule, the situation will not change"; "The US is now seeing the success of diversifying upper management"; "There are numerous white managers who have failed, but their name always crops up on a short list and they get given jobs. When you are black you get one chance and if you mess up, that's it."

The academics believe that while black former players like Ruud Gullit and Patrick Vieira helped combat racism in football by showing off their skills, football management escaped that development. "From the early 1980s, black players earned their place on teams on merit, and resentment subsided. But management is different. Skill isn't so self-evident – a manager needs an opportunity and a period of time to prove his worth," says Cashmore. "In the 1980s, football's upper echelons were tut-tutting about the unruly fans who still harboured racist views. Now the tide has reversed: over half of the fans are complaining that football's rulers are racist."

The academics report that fans believe "institutional racism" – where people do not consciously discriminate against minorities, but fail to challenge old assumptions and stereotypes, meaning a pattern of operations continues – is relevant in football management. One survey respondent said: "People appoint people like themselves. White chairmen appoint white, male managers. The cycle is not easily broken." Dismissing the idea that black managers will come through as the higher numbers of black players mature, another said: "Football boards have very few ethnic minorities on them – that's more likely to be the issue than the players or backroom staff. It's an old boys' club that is unlikely to bring in people from outside their peer group."

Cashmore agrees. "Succession in football management seems haunted by images of celebrated managers of the past and present – and they're all white," he says. Britain's first black football manager is believed to be Tony Collins, who managed Rochdale for seven years from 1960 – although most people assume it was Gullit, who managed Chelsea in 1996. Gullit, Cashmore adds, "retains the distinction of being the first football manager to have dreadlocks".

One insider response to the Staffordshire University research came from a black former league manager who no longer works in the UK. He said: "I had to keep reminding myself how much of a niche industry football management is – there are only 92 jobs. When a manger loses his job, within hours someone already on the management merry-go-round is installed as favourite without considering the merits of an outsider. That's the appeal of the Rooney rule – it opens up the field."

Evidence of continued racism came from the survey respondents' additional comments. One fan said: "The lack of black managers in football reflects the football view that while black men can play, they are not competent to manage."

"The research indicates that fans sense that there's an issue in British football," says Cashmore. "The majority is in no doubt that there is racism in the boardroom – that in itself demands attention." But he is gloomy about the prospect of change. "We sent the results of the our Topfan gay footballers project (on homophobia in football ) to the Football Association, Premier League, Football League and Professional Footballers' Association, but none expressed interest in acting on our results," he says. "So we don't hold out much hope that they will respond positively to the latest findings."

• Ellis Cashmore will discuss his research on BBC Radio5 Live's Total Blackout on Wednesday, 30 March at 8pm

Promoting library and information careers

Can you help promote careers in library and information work?

If you are attending a careers fair or talking to people who might be interested in a library and information career, we now have materials to help. You can order a pack of postcards and download a poster.

Postcards are available in packs of 30. Email marketing@cilip.org.uk to request your pack and don't forget to tell us where to mail them to!

Download a black and white A4 poster

Download the postcard

The postcards are targeted at people who don't know anything about working in the library and information sector. They are designed to provide a quick introduction and point people towards the careers gateway for more information.

What does the 2011 Budget mean for library and information services?

A reaction from CILIP

Read CILIP's reaction to the Government's 2011 Budget. (PDF)

The reaction provides an overview of CILIP's primary concerns about issues facing:

• Public libraries
• Schools Library Services
• School libraries
• University libraries 
• Health and Government libraries
• National libraries

Contact CILIP Update

To contact the CILIP Update team, please use the email links below

Head of Publications: Gary Allman

Managing Editor: Rachel Middleton

Senior Reporter: Rob Green

Production/Design Editor: Richard Gibbons

Advertising Manager: Angela Krzyzanowska

Contributing Editor: Elspeth Hyams

Products and Services News Editor: Debby Raven

Hon Book Reviews Editor: Diana Dixon

Not sure who to contact? Use Update's central email address

CILIP Update
7 Ridgmount Street,
London
WC1E 7AE

Tel: 020 7255 0585
Fax: 020 7255 0581
Email: update@cilip.org.uk

Editorial Board

Briony Birdi, Cara Clarke, Kate Colvin, Christine Ellis, Anoja Fernando, Anne Littlewood, Wendy Lynwood, Danielle Worster (Chair).

Opinions expressed in CILIP Update are not necessarily those of CILIP.

CILIP Update is printed in Great Britain by Headley Bros Ltd., The Invicta Press, Ashford, Kent, and London.