Access the BnG network in CILIP Communities for all documentation for Branch and Group web editors, including:
Note that this is a closed group for Branch and Group Web Editors. Please contact web@cilip.org.uk to subscribe.
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The Tech Set, created and edited by Ellyssa Kroski and co-published by Facet Publishing and Neal-Schuman Publishers, has been awarded the 2011 Greenwood Publishing Group Award for Best Book in Library Literature by the American Library Association.
The Award committee praised the “creative, innovate approach” of this ten-volume set that shows librarians how to employ new technologies to create, deliver, and market new user services.
The committee further lauded the series for “covering a wide variety of timely topics, providing a way to keep the topics updated and interactive, and for being written in an easy-to-understand manner for readers both at the beginning of their quest for information and those more advanced who want an overview and updated information online.”
The Tech Set includes ten printed books that cover topics such as social networking, mobile technologies, blogging, webcasts, gaming, and other current technologies that aid and improve libraries. Each book is supported with an author wiki containing new advice and recommended resources and a podcast where authors discuss their books, current research, and the latest developments in their fields.
Each of the ten Tech Set authors is a recognized expert in their field and their expertise in has met widespread acclaim. Archana Venkatraman from Information World Review wrote “Arm yourself with the ten volumes of The Tech Set that offer insights on current thinking and best practice for a wide range of library-related tech trends and you will soon find that you are in possession of not just ten text books discussing technology in the library but also the Tech Set’s digital components, making it your contemporary friend and reliable guide for life.”
Contributing authors include Marshall Breeding (Next-Gen Library Catalogs), Jason Griffey (Mobile Technology and Libraries), Robin M. Hastings (Microblogging and Lifestreaming in Libraries), Thomas Sean Casserley Robinson (Library Videos and Webcasts), Lauren Pressley (Wikis for Libraries), Sarah Houghton-Jan (Technology Training in Libraries), Cliff Landis (A Social Networking Primer for Librarians), Steve Lawson (Library Camps and Unconferences), Kelly Nicole Czarnecki (Gaming in Libraries) and Connie Crosby (Effective Blogging for Libraries).
-ends-
Press contact:
James Williams, Marketing Manager, Facet Publishing
Tel: +44 (0)20 7255 0597
Email: james.williams@facetpublishing.co.uk
Notes to editors:
1. The Tech Set – Complete Set (2010; 1250pp; 10 volume set; paperback; 978-1-85604-777-7; £244.65) is published by Facet Publishing. It is available from Bookpoint Ltd, Mail Order Dept, 39 Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4TD | Tel: +44 (0)1235 827702 | Fax: +44 (0)1235 827703 | Email: facet@bookpoint.co.uk | Web: www.facetpublishing.co.uk. The book is available in the US and Canada from Neal-Schuman Publishers www.neal-schuman.com. All titles in The Tech Set is also available individually, priced at £34.95 each.
2. Facet Publishing is the commercial publishing and bookselling arm of CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, is the leading publisher of books for library and information professionals worldwide. At the forefront of library and information development, Facet Publishing has a comprehensive list covering all the major areas of professional activity.
3. Ellyssa Kroski is the series editor of The Tech Set and is Emerging Technologies and Web Services Librarian at Barnard College as well as a writer, educator, international conference speaker, and blogger. She is an adjunct faculty member teaching emerging technologies at Long Island University, Pratt Institute, and San Jose University.
4. The ten titles in The Tech Set and their authors are:
5. All titles are available at 20% discount to Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals members. Remember to quote your Membership Number if claiming the discount.
6. The author wikis that support each book in the Tech Set are located here and the author podcasts can be found here.
7. CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals is the leading professional body for librarians, information specialists and knowledge managers. CILIP’s vision is a fair and economically prosperous society underpinned by literacy, access to information and the transfer of knowledge. CILIP is a registered charity, no. 313014. Visit www.cilip.org.uk for more information.
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Full details of successful events organised by CILIP Events for library and information professionals can be found by clicking on the links below or the relevant archive year in the left-hand menu. Many have retained supporting information, including programmes and speaker biographies.
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Find out here how you can get involved with CILIP's publication: CILIP Update with Gazette. You can see what requirements, training, support and time commitment are involved
CILIP Update with Gazette
CILIP Update is editorially independent of CILIP and is designed with the needs of individual members in mind. It brings members industry news, comment and debate on the big issues of the day where they impact on the library and information world.
Since the merger of Library + Information Gazette with Library and Information Update the membership magazine now also includes job vacancies within the library and information sector and provides job and careers advice and news on products, services, software and systems.
Ideas and comments
CILIP Update with Gazette welcomes contributions. Read more about in Contributing to Update - guidelines.
Update blog You can read the latest blog posts from the Update editorial team and make a comment in reply, or comment on the latest issue.
CILIP UPDATE with Gazette EDITORIAL PANEL
The editorial panel exists to communicate the views of members to the editor to ensure that members of CILIP receive relevant and high quality magazine content, which is in touch with issues of concern and relevance to the profession. The panel meets and also communicates electronically. If there are vacancies on the Panel, these are advertised in CILIP Update with Gazette and on the CILIP website.
REQUIREMENTS: CILIP member, plus requirements set out in advert but age and level of experience form no barrier. Interested members are usually required to submit a 300 word critique of a recent issue of Gazette or Update.
TRAINING: As required
SUPPORT: CILIP Update staff, Communities closed forum
TIME COMMITMENT: Regular contribution to online discussions plus
one meeting per year in London for a maximum three year term.
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Find out here how you can get involved with CILIP's Qualifications and Professional Development area. Use your library and information professional knowledge as a mentor, regional assessor or member of a board or committee. You can see what requirements, training, support and time commitment are involved for each type of opportunity
Mentors
CILIP mentors are volunteer professionals with demanding day jobs but willing to give up time to help those working towards CILIP qualifications. The CILIP Mentor Register has over 600 mentors already working with mentees. New mentors are volunteering all the time. They undertake mentor training and are in contact with other mentors to share ideas and issues.
The mentor is an essential role in CILIP’s framework of qualifications. They help mentees realise their own potential through encouragement and direction. Being a mentor involves commitment and responsibility but contributes to your professional development and broadens your network.
REQUIREMENTS: CILIP Chartered Member plus those listed in the job description
TRAINING: Attending mentor training, following mentor process, commitment to mentees
SUPPORT: Mentor discussion list, Mentors on communities of practice
TIME COMMITMENT: Varies, but usually meetings every two months for about a year for each mentee
Regional Assessors
Members of the Chartership Board and the CILIP Assessment Panel assess approximately four hundred applications a year for Certification, Chartership, Fellowship and Revalidation.
Regional Assessors support the work of the Chartership Board and the CILIP Assessment Panel by conducting interviews of Chartership, Certification and Revalidation candidates within their region.
Board and Panel members have the option to ask a candidate to attend an interview if the application does not meet the criteria but is close to doing so. Regional Assessors act as appointees of the Board or Panel to put the questions identified by them to the candidate. They report on the meeting, following agreed guidelines and may make a recommendation regarding the result to the Board or Panel.
REQUIREMENTS: CILIP Certified, Chartered member or Fellow (ACLIP, MCLIP or FCLIP) plus those listed in regional assessor job description
TRAINING: Occasional training or information sessions
SUPPORT: From CILIP Qualifications department staff
TIME COMMITMENT: Varies, could be as little as one interview per year
To apply to be a Regional Assessor, send your CV to Michael.Martin@cilip.org.uk or call 020 7255 0625.
Chartership Board
The Chartership Board is made up of volunteers who are senior information professionals. Membership of the Board is one of the most challenging and demanding activities that members can undertake. They meet six times a year to discuss Chartership, Fellowship and Fellowship Revalidation applications. If there are vacancies on the Board, these are advertised in Gazette and on the CILIP website.
REQUIREMENTS: CILIP Chartered member or Fellow (MCLIP or FCLIP) plus those listed in the Chartership Board member role description
TRAINING: Induction training plus occasional training and development activities
SUPPORT: From Qualifications department staff
TIME COMMITMENT: Six full day meetings in London a year, plus some additional time outside meetings
Accreditation Board
CILIP accredits undergraduate and postgraduate library and information courses in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The Accreditation Board assesses courses submitted for approval and makes decisions on their acceptability. It also assesses training providers and events submitted for recognition, and awards the CILIP Seal of Recognition. If there are vacancies on the Board, these are advertised in Gazette and on the CILIP website.
REQUIREMENTS: Chartered Member of Fellow (MCLIP or FCLIP)
TRAINING: Induction training plus occasional training and development activities
SUPPORT: From Qualifications department staff
TIME COMMITMENT: Four half-day meetings in London a year, plus some additional time outside meetings
Assessment Panel
The CILIP Assessment Panel is made up of volunteers who are senior information professionals. They meet four times a year to discuss Certification and Revalidation applications. If there are vacancies on the panel, these are advertised in Gazette and on the CILIP website.
REQUIREMENTS: Certificated Member, Chartered Member or Fellow (ACLIP, MCLIP or FCLIP) plus those listed in the Assessment Panel Member role description
TRAINING: Induction training plus occasional training and development activities
SUPPORT: From Qualifications department staff
TIME COMMITMENT: Four full day meetings in London a year, plus some additional time outside meetings
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Unfortunately the Office cannot inform candidate which stage their application is at because all outcomes remain possible. Here are the stages an application may follow
Agree with mentor that portfolio is ready to be submitted
The process
The office sends copies of your portfolio to a pair
of assessors (applications will not be sent out within one month of a Board meeting to allow assessors time to complete assessments)
The pair assesses portfolio individually and then discuss it
The decision
The pair may:
Accept
or
Reject
or
Ask for more information through an
addendum or interview
Accept
The portfolio application is officially accepted at the next Board Meeting
(we cannot guarantee which Board will make a decision on an application because of the variables described here)
The candidate is informed of the result and becomes a Chartered Member of CILIP
Reject
Application is seen by second pair
Second pair rejects
Decision to reject is approved at the next meeting of the Board
or
Second pair rejects or recommends another outcome – this is a split decision and the Portfolio is seen by all the members of the Board
All Board
Portfolio is seen by whole Board and discussed at the next Board Meeting
the Board may reject, accept, ask for more information
the candidate will be informed of the decision ask majority of the Board
Further information or interview
Candidate is asked to write an addendum or attend an interview. Once this is completed the process follows the appropriate timeline
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Policy is a core activity for CILIP. We promote a strong CILIP presence on matters of professional policy. We also comment authoritatively on relevant issues of the day. On these pages you will find policy statements, responses to consultations and information on ethics and research. There is also information on diversity and equality issues.
We cover a very broad range of policy areas and currently have three priority areas:
In March 2012 CILIP published the results of a survey of public library authorities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland 2011-2012.
February 2012
This briefing paper outlines the priorities of the Government’s Prevent Strategy, including its recent revisions. It explores those areas with especial relevance to libraries and existing CILIP policy statements that are relevant to the issues it raises. It also asks CILIP members to contact us if they have concerns about interventions under the Prevent strategy.
In January 2012 CILIP submitted evidence to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee Inquiry into Library Closures. 
CILIP's evidence
CILIP branches in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland exercise autonomy in policy matters relevant to their own countries.
The Policy Department at CILIP is responsible for supporting and delivering CILIP’s policy objectives.
For enquiries about CILIP’s policy work you can email us at: policy@cilip.org.uk or telephone 020 7255 0500.
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In 2005 CILIP's Council approved a statement on intellectual freedom, access to information and censorship. The Council of Europe Guidelines on Public Access to and Freedom of Expression in Networked Information also received endorsement by CILIP Council.
Statement on intellectual freedom, access to information and censorship
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Here we explain how we are engaging with the Government's knowledge and information management strategy, 'Information Matters'
Information Matters is an initiative seeking to embed good knowledge and information management practice across all government departments.
CILIP's work
A small group has been formed to support CILIP's work on Information Matters. It is chaired by Peter Griffiths and includes CILIP trustees, members of the Government Libraries and Information Group and other CILIP members with an interest in information management in government.
As the Government hopes that this strategy will influence practice elsewhere in the public sector and beyond, the group intends to be active in more general developments to do with effective information management in the public sector.
CILIP has met with Cat Massey and more recently with Liane Kordan from the National Archives. We are working on this within a collective of other professional bodies, including the British Computer Society, Records Management Association and the Society of Archivists.
For CILIP it provides the opportunity to:
More about 'Information Matters'
'Information Matters: building capability in knowledge and information management' is the Government's Knowledge and Information Management Strategy document. The report makes clear the importance of high quality information and knowledge management in government.
Learn more about Information Matters on the Government Knowledge and Information Management Network website. You can also download a PDF of the strategy on their website.
The cross-government Knowledge Council drives the strategy forward to help develop the framework, tools and capabilities for knowledge and information management.
Blogs
Together with archives
16 June 2009: Guy Daines, CILIP Director of Policy and Advocacy, on the close connections of archivists and librarians
Information matters...
7 June 2009: Bob McKee blogs about it
Toasting our professional future
27 March 2009: Bob McKee sees the possibilities Information Matters can offer
Responses
Measuring Government website quality
Read CILIP's response to the Central Office of Information's consultation paper on government websites.
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CILIP's work in relation to preservation and conservation, including a general statement, resources and a report on Ephemera.
Following on from the very successful 'Decoding the Digital' conference, the British Library Preservation Advisory Centre and the Digital Preservation Coalition are undertook a short programme of digital preservation roadshows across the UK in 2011 in London, Glasgow, Cardiff and York.
These events were designed to:
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The development of policy regarding public health has been undertaken by the Public Health Task & Finish Group. The Group is promoting the role of libraries in public health through:
The Group put together a statement on libraries and public health which was adopted as policy by CILIP Council in September 2008. Read the libraries and public health statement
About the Public Health Task & Finish Group
The Group reports to the Interim Policy Forum. (It was originally set up by the Policy Development Committee in 2006.) Contributions have also been received from the Health Libraries Group Policy Panel. Professional support is provided by Guy Daines, CILIP's Director of Policy & Advocacy.
Members
Its members are: Paul Clarke, Veronica Fraser, Alan Fricker, and Peter Griffiths (ex officio).
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CILIP's response to the consultation paperCILIP's responseCILIP's response to the consultation paperCILIP's response to the White PaperCILIP submission to the Government consultationCILIP's submission to the CommissionCILIP's submission to the Inquiry CILIP's response to the proposals CILIP's response, prepared by members of the Standing Committee on Official Publications (SCOOP), a committee of CILIP's Information Services GrouCILIP's response
CILIP's consultation response CILIP's submission of evidence to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Libraries, Literacy and Information Management's Inquiry
April 2009
CILIP's response to the Central Office of Information's Consultation document
March 2009
March 2009
CILIP's response
March 2009 (PDF, 48.19 KB)
CILIP's response
March 2009
January 2009
Link to: the MLA's guidance published in February 2009, their draft guidance & CILIP's response to the draft guidance.
MLA's Blueprint for excellence: Public libraries 2008 - 2011
CILIP's Public Libraries Group response
MLA papers 'Securing Excellence' and 'A New Libraries Performance Management Framework'
CILIP's response
Further details of these consultations may be obtained from CILIP's Policy and Advocacy Unit
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Today, eight international research funders are jointly announcing their participation in round two of the Digging into Data Challenge, a grant competition designed to spur cutting edge research in the humanities and social sciences.
Alastair Dunning, programme manager at JISC, said: “We are delighted to continue our involvement in the Digging into Data challenge. Digging into Data offers the arts and humanities and the social sciences the opportunity to explore new frontiers in research, forging not only international partnerships but new relationships between traditional scholarship and cutting edge computer science.”
The challenge asks researchers these provocative questions: How can we use advanced computation to change the nature of our research methods? That is, now that the objects of study for researchers in the humanities and social sciences, including books, survey data, economic data, newspapers, music, and other scholarly and scientific resources are being digitized at a huge scale, how does this change the very nature of our research?
How might advanced computation and data analysis techniques help researchers use these materials to ask new questions about and gain new insights into our world?
The first round of the Digging into Data Challenge sparked enormous interest from the international research community and led to eight cutting-edge projects being funded. There has also been increased media attention to the question of so-called 'big data' techniques being used for humanities and social sciences research, including a recent cover article in the journal Science.
Due to the overwhelming popularity of round one, the Digging into Data Challenge is pleased to announce that four additional funders have joined for round two, enabling this competition to have worldwide reach into many different scholarly and scientific domains.
The eight sponsoring funding bodies include JISC, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Economic and Social Research Council in the UK; the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Science Foundation in the US; the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research; and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council in Canada.
Applications are due by 16 June 2011.
Find out more about the competition and the application process.
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CILIP speaks with one voice on behalf of the profession to government, key agencies in all sectors of the economy, the public, and the European Union and other international bodies.
In this section you will find:
CILIP's policy work has resulted in the publication of guidelines on child safety in public libraries and Best Value, advice on lifelong learning, and comment on library and information issues in the Government's programme.
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Love Your Libraries Campaign
Members of the Women's Institute voted overwhelmingly in favour of campaigning in support of public libraries at their AGM in June 2011. They pledged their commitment to fight to prevent library closures and to advocate the value library services bring to communities. The campaign lasts for two years.
"I'm thrilled that we have a new and powerful friend fighting our corner"
Annie Mauger, Chief Executive of CILIP
Press release, 8 June 2011
The National Federation of Women's Institutes (NFWI) started an e-petition in support of public libraries. It was signed by 17,557 at the point of closure on 5 February 2012.
Find out more about the campaign, how NFWI members are getting involved and campaign events on the Love your Libraries Campaign web pages.
CILIP has produced a short briefing about public libraries for use by speakers and local WI members.
The National Federation of Women’s Institutes (NWFI) campaigns on a range of national and local issues of concern to their members. Current campaigns include calls for clear country of original labelling on products and an end to the inappropriate detention of people with mental health problems. Every year members put forward resolutions for discussion at the AGM in June, if passed these form the basis of campaigning and awareness raising activities in the years ahead. The WI’s 210,000 members are an extremely influential lobbying force.
The information on this web page relates to England. As public libraries are a devolved matter for CILIP, contact CILIP in Scotland, CILIP Cymru/Wales, CILIP in Ireland for information relating to those nations.
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Professor Eric Thomas, vice chancellor of Bristol University, today highlighted the importance of colleges’ and universities’ use of technology in encouraging student applications.
He said: “An integrated, sophisticated use of [new technology] is going to mean that the university is seen as cutting edge and more attractive. I see JISC’s role as assisting us in making the university look as attractive as possible.”
JISC’s deputy chair Professor David Baker agreed: “Over the next 5-10 years JISC will have an ever more vital role to play not just in the education sector but across the UK. I don’t believe that JISC or higher or further education can afford to slow down.”
Against the backdrop of an increasingly demanding student body, Professor Thomas predicted that within ten years there would be more students studying in their home towns to save costs, and that they would also have the choice of non-degree entry to traditional careers like accounting.
Professor Thomas also highlighted recent scrutiny of universities’ connections with Libya as an example of how the public see education as operating within a different value system.
He said: “It’s essential that we see ourselves as educational institutions and that we retain our values. People expect higher education to have different value set. It’s really important that we maintain that.”
Professor Thomas’ talk opened the JISC11 conference in Liverpool today, which is attended by nearly 700 delegates from across further and higher education in the UK, China, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, South Korea, Spain and Sweden.
It introduced a day of advice, guidance and future-gazing on the theme of ‘financial challenges, digital opportunities’ to help colleges and opportunities reduce costs and improve their efficiency.
Follow the conference online using the hashtag #JISC11
Watch the live streamed sessions
online
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If universities all charge much higher fees, the government will have to find another way to reduce demand for places, suggests Bahram Bekhradnia, and potential students will lose out
Last week, the Office for Fair Access (Offa) produced guidance about what it would require in the access agreements that universities must negotiate. In doing so, it was responding to the government's repeated demands that Offa should use these access agreements to control the fees that universities charge. The reality will be that universities will do whatever they need to do to satisfy Offa, and this is unlikely to provide an effective way of controlling fees.
The government is in a bind, and universities are potentially in trouble as well. The maximum fee has been set at £9,000. But in calculating the cost of the subsidies it would have to provide for student loans, the government assumed that the average fee would be just £7,500. The Browne committee, on which the government' s proposals have been based, anticipated the creation of a market in fees as the mechanism for controlling price – something that was always extremely dubious, but looks less likely by the day.
Unless student demand can be constrained in some way that is not yet apparent, demand will outstrip supply substantially, and unless it can find other mechanisms for controlling fees, they are likely to be well above the government's expectation. At present, the access agreements that universities are required to enter into with Offa are the only mechanism available. The reality is that Offa's powers are extremely limited, and the guidance it published last week largely sets out expectations about the amount universities should spend on widening participation, requiring greater investment from those that have been least successful in the past.
There is something ironic and somewhat disturbing about Offa's approach. Because universities will no longer receive grants directly from the government for teaching-related activity, all of this expenditure will in effect be borne by students through fees. How will students react when they understand that not only are the fees they pay to be trebled, but that up to one third of those fees will not be used on their education, but on widening participation activity?
It is ironic that when in opposition David Willetts, who is generally a wise and humane man, said repeatedly that he would only countenance an increase in fee levels if universities could show that additional fees would be used to benefit those who paid them. Here we have a requirement that a substantial part of the increased fee should explicitly not be used for their benefit.
Offa's approach attempts to provide a disincentive to universities to charge higher fees by increasing the cost if they do so. But the irony of this is that the more universities are told they will have to spend on widening participation, the higher the fee they are likely to feel they need to charge in order to provide the income they need for teaching and learning. This approach is unlikely to have the effect of dampening fees.
But let us be in no doubt, the government has a budget, and it will do whatever it feels is needed in order to stay within that budget, however unpalatable or damaging in the long-term.
What else can it do? Well, it can either reduce its expenditure in other parts of the HE budget – and that means either the residual amount left for investment in teaching, or research funding; or it can raise the cost to students even more – and there is a separate issue here, because its calculations about the cost of loan subsidies are almost certainly an underestimate, so rises in the interest rate or in the length of time payments have been made are very likely anyway.
But even worse, the most likely outcome is that it will renew its attempts to create a rigged market by reducing demand – or if not reducing demand, then choking it off in one way or another – deeming to be ineligible students who might previously have gone to university, or controlling the extent to which universities might enrol such students.
Such an outcome would directly damage participation. These are not happy times either for universities or the government, but the real losers will be future generations of young people.
• Bahram Bekhradnia is director of the Higher Education Policy Institute. He will be among the speakers on Wednesday at the third Guardian higher education summit: guardian.co.uk/higher-education-network For live tweeting from the event follow #HE2011
Parents in Lincolnshire fear that their local schools are being railroaded into applying for academy status by a service provider
It makes an unlikely setting for a passionate outburst of frustration at the "big society", the alleged privatisation of state education and claims of a deficit in democratic accountability. But the front room of a terraced house in Louth, Lincolnshire, seems central to that argument now, as members of a "Save our Schools" group discuss proposals – some of them not yet public – that raise the possibility of the bulk of the county's schools leaving the local authority to become academies.
The four members of the group discussing the plans, who are all parents with children aged between three and 14, are incensed about the possibility of this happening at both primary and secondary level. It is the primary element that seems the more intensely contentious.
The controversy raises questions about public and private interests in state education, and the extent to which communities have the right to influence decisions being made about the future of state schools, as institutions across England are encouraged to consider academy status.
The group has discussed a letter, which has been seen by Education Guardian, sent last month to all primary heads and chairs of governors in Lincolnshire, setting out proposals for their schools to leave the authority and become academies. This is proposed to happen under an organisation with an aim, its annual accounts for 2010 say, to become "a significant provider of state-funded schooling" by 2012.
The letter was sent by Andy Breckon, a director of not-for-profit body CfBT, which has been running outsourced school improvement services for Lincolnshire since 2002. Breckon is therefore also head of school improvement for Lincolnshire.
Under the headings "Lincolnshire School Improvement Services" and "CfBT Education Trust", the letter invited recipients to a meeting on 3 March to discuss an "emerging proposal for Lincolnshire schools to join the CfBT Schools' Trust".
The letter says the plan would enable schools to become academies as part of the trust, thus achieving higher levels of funding "within a supportive collegiate structure".
Schools, it says, would pay a membership fee to CfBT, which would not be "anywhere near the funding levels currently top-sliced by local authorities, and therefore all schools will be in a stronger financial position than at present". The letter adds: "This proposal has the support of senior councillors at Lincolnshire County Council."
The parents' group was astounded, as the county council had not said anything officially about whether schools should move to academy status since last June, when a letter to schools from Peter Duxbury, director of children's services, set out a string of risks.
Sarah Dodds, the founder of Louth Save our Schools, says the letter suggests a private organisation using its close links to the county council to push its own agenda, without any general public discussion.
Dodds, a mother of four and part-time primary school supply teacher, says: "Mr Breckon claims that the proposal has the support of 'senior councillors' within the council. However, my source at the council is 100% sure it has not been sanctioned in a council meeting.
"The fact that a firm can offer school improvement services to a local authority while simultaneously touting them to become academies must be a moral conflict of interest at best.
"And how could CfBT seriously provide future impartial school improvement services to schools who resist the temptation and stay within the local authority?"
To academy critics, such as the Anti Academies Alliance, the case illustrates the problems that could develop across the country as England's tradition of local authority organisation of schools could give way to a future in which private bodies, each with their own objectives, can have greater influence.
The Save our Schools group, which has accrued 150 members since Dodds set it up six weeks ago, believes the move amounts to a potential backdoor privatisation of primary schools in the county.
Although it is up to individual school governing bodies to decide whether to go with the plan, the group says that institutions, worried about tight budgets, are being influenced towards it by CfBT.
Charlotte Hopkinson, another Louth parent, says: "What is being proposed for primary schools is just terrifying. Not many people know that this meeting [for the heads and chairs of governors, attended by around 100 people, according to the council] even happened."
The lack of public discussion of the plans angers the parents most. Under last year's Academies Act, governors have to consult on their plans, following a concession by ministers to opponents. However, governing bodies are still allowed to leave community consultation until after an application for academy status – and decision by ministers – has been made. Academies are only required to have one parent on their governing bodies.
Hopkinson says: "Everything is hidden. You get the impression the attitude is: 'we are not going to tell you till we have made our decision'."
Zoe Bunting, who has a daughter in year 5 at a Louth primary, says: "How can anyone talk about the big society when schools are being taken out of community hands in order to privatise them?"
The primary schools themselves seem reluctant to discuss the letter or any academy plans. Education Guardian approached 10 Lincolnshire primary heads at random last week. Two offered a message of "no comment" without coming to the telephone. The other eight did not return messages.
John Hough, a Labour county councillor within this Conservative-led authority and vice-chairman of the council's children and young people's scrutiny committee, says: "What is the county council's position? It is not clear.
"CfBT are effectively suggesting that if schools do not sign up, they are almost not going to be able to continue. That's the way heads are interpreting it. This should be subject to proper process and go through proper public scrutiny."
Although the group has only 150 members, there is a tradition of standing up to large organisations in this market town in the Lincolnshire Wolds, with a "Keep Louth Special" campaign having resisted large superstores in the town centre.
CfBT, formerly the Centre for British Teachers, is based in Reading, and had an income in the year to April 2010 of £151m, employing 2,400 people worldwide, according to its Charity Commission accounts. It lists its principal objective as to "advance education for the public benefit".
It used to run the national literacy and primary strategies for the Labour government. It runs seven private schools, and academies in Merton, south London, and Oxford. Among its other work is school improvement in Lambeth, south London, Ofsted inspections, school support in Abu Dhabi, Singapore and Brunei and running a for-profit firm running English language and teacher training in India.
CfBT's annual accounts for the year to March 2010 say that the UK environment in which it operates is "currently very difficult", in the light of government cuts.
It adds: "Our aims are to be a significant provider of state-funded schools, and consolidate our position in fee-funded independent schooling," among others, while also "responding to opportunities to participate in the management of US charter schools and UK free schools".
The plans for secondaries in the Louth area, which prompted the group's formation, are unusual. In January, four schools and a further education college announced proposals to consider options including merging to become one academy.
There is no suggestion, as yet, of private sponsorship and no link with CfBT. Among the reasons for the discussions are falling rolls and worries among secondaries, in this county of grammar schools, that the government could force them to become academies anyway because of poor results.
Figures from Hough suggest that 25 secondaries in Lincolnshire are either already academies or considering conversion, while 43 have yet to declare any plan to move towards academy status.
So far, nationally, 467 academies were open at the start of March. Numbers will grow dramatically. A poll published on Saturday said nearly half of England's secondaries were now either planning to become academies, or already had the status.
Sally Lockren, the National Union of Teachers representative at one of the secondary schools considering the academy move, says: "I always thought the [traditional] state system would keep going in the county because primary schools are not going to leave the authority.
"Now it looks like we are looking at the end of state education in Lincolnshire."
Lincolnshire County Council responds to a request for comment with a document on notepaper headed "Lincolnshire School Improvement Services/CfBT Education Trust". It will not say whether the CfBT proposal has been formally discussed in council.
It adds that it is for school governors, rather than the council, to decide on academy status. Two senior councillors – the leader, Martin Hill, and the portfolio-holder for children's services, Patricia Bradwell – support the CfBT proposals, it says, but the council's position has not changed since Duxbury's letter last year.
It adds: "Over the last few years, a number of proposals have been made that CfBT should sponsor an academy, and CfBT and the county council considered that this was a conflict of interest.
"However, after the Academies Act 2010 came into existence, where schools themselves were able to choose to become an academy, a number of schools approached CfBT and asked if they could join the CfBT Trust. CfBT does not believe there is a conflict of interest as it is school governors making the decisions, and CfBT is just one of a range of options."
The council added that no primary school had yet decided to join the trust. CfBT itself is not allowed to comment, under the terms of its school improvement contract, it says.
Students in further education have not been known for their activism. Until now
Shane Chowen could be about to make history. After two years as vice-president (FE) of the NUS, he is standing for the top job, with strong backing from senior officers. If he wins, he will be the first NUS president who hasn't been a student in higher education, giving a voice to learners at further education colleges, who until recently, were often on the sideline of student politics.
Despite having twice as many students as universities, FE colleges have not traditionally been known for their political activism. Around 50 of the 419 colleges in the UK have full-time sabbatical officers in their student unions (compared to all of the 115 UK universities). Some don't even have student unions at all. Chowen's role, as NUS vice-president with a specific responsibility for FE, was introduced just a few years ago.
But FE students have never been apathetic, he says. "FE offers such a wide range of courses and training routes, it can be difficult to engage learners in student politics – particularly those involved in work-based learning. They simply may not be around very much."
Now things are changing, he says. More than 100,000 NUS members have taken part in protests, at both national and regional level, against the abolition of Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) in recent months. At some colleges, learners have turned out in hard hats, overalls and chefs' whites to make their point.
The campaign has given FE students something they hadn't had before – a common vision. As well as organising and taking part in protests, the NUS encouraged students to email their MPs and education ministers with their concerns about proposals to scrap the EMA.
Toni Pearce, student union president at Cornwall College, says FE students have always had strong opinions but didn't always know how to articulate them. "There were all these assumptions, like if you want to protest, you have to go to London, or that MPs' surgeries are just for the middle aged. Now students know it is their right to organise a protest or raise concerns with their MP."
Shane Mann has also noticed the change. Having spent two years as student union president at City College Norwich, he recently helped to lead a successful campaign against Norfolk county council's plans to withdraw its £2.5m annual travel subsidy for FE students. "For some, this was the difference between being able to afford to go to college or not. Young people have always cared, but now they are increasingly fighting their corner and stand up for local services."
Chowen believes that one of the biggest successes of the EMA campaign has been getting the support of the trade union representatives from many of the big unions like UCU, GMB and Unite who have helped student unions to organise protests.
James Mills, head of the Save EMA campaign, says he has been swamped with emails from young people asking how they can get into politics. "These are not just some young politicos who want to impress their mums, but young energised campaigners with a cause."
The growth of social networking is also a big factor, with students organising and publicising protests and petitions through Facebook pages, Twitter feeds and other social media. "Not only has this allowed students to speak to a wider audience, it has also made politics more accessible in general," says Chowen, who is himself an avid tweeter and "Facebooker". "I was meeting a Tory MP recently and students were tweeting me with questions to ask him beforehand. I'm not sure students have ever been able to engage politicians – or senior NUS officers – that directly before. It opens up lots of possibilities."
The NUS says it is expecting record numbers of FE delegates at its national conference at Gateshead's Sage centre next month. And in the last six months alone, four more colleges – Amersham and Wycombe, Walsall, Hull and Tresham – have announced they are to appoint a full-time paid sabbatical officer in their student union.
The principal of Middlesborough College, Mike Hopkins, says he won't be far behind. Despite recently having to make cuts to senior jobs at the college, he is hoping to have a full-time, paid sabbatical officer in place by July, on a salary of around £11,500. "At a time when we are all expected to make savings, people might ask why we're investing in this. But I truly believe in democracy and that students should be at the heart of any decision-making that goes on at the college. To show that you're taking it seriously, you have to be prepared to pay for it."
Lynne Sedgemore, executive director of the 157 group of colleges, agrees: "I welcome college learners stepping up to form a more powerful student voice in FE. At such a pivotal time in the skills agenda we need vocal and experienced students to fight for what is right and important."
But there is still work to do to make sure the voices of FE students are heard, says Pearce (also a prolific tweeter) who has thrown her hat into the ring to follow Chowen as a NUS vice-president (FE). She was disappointed by some of the media coverage of the EMA protests, and felt it gave out the wrong impression of FE. "A lot of the coverage focused on A-level students in schools, which is just not an accurate representation of the sector."
Harlow College student Simone Webb thinks there is also a tendency to focus on students in higher education and that this completely ignores the wide range of courses on offer at FE colleges, including the fact that many offer HE courses. " There is tendency to assume that when we're talking about students we just mean those studying at university. So, as an FE student, it's is easy to feel you are disconnected from the student movement."
Says Chowen: "Having a president who hasn't been through higher education would be a real step change for the student movement. If I do become president, I'd be keen to redefine commonly held perceptions of what a student is."
Independent schools are lining up to express an interest in training teachers
Private school headteacher Anthony Seldon has scrapped "last century" GCSEs and introduced lessons in happiness and large oval desks. A-level results have shot up, and now he is turning his attention to the state sector.
His school, Wellington College, one of the most expensive in the country, wants to become one of the government's new teaching schools and train teachers for the state sector. The £29,000 college in Crowthorne, Berkshire, is one of 18 independent schools that have registered an interest in attaining a similar status to teaching hospitals, responsible for both initial and postgraduate teacher training.
Independent schools do not require their staff to have qualified teacher status, a fact that makes their enthusiasm to become trainers surprising. They have also had to overcome opposition from some local authorities and teachers to closer relations through Labour's independent/state-school partnership scheme. So, will trainee teachers heading for jobs in the state sector risk signing up with an independent teaching school?
Barriers between state and private education have broken down over the last five years, says Seldon. "I think the class war warriors that have dominated for 30 years or more with their apartheid, 'no surrender or compromise' mentality are now voices of the past," he says.
Consultation on the proposal in the white paper, The Importance of Teaching, published last November, was promised for the new year, but has been delayed amid the furious opposition from universities to the loss of funding, which will switch from their education departments to schools. The government is expected to produce its consultation paper within the next few weeks.
Universities will continue to have a role to validate the degrees and support the students, but the white paper says only "the best HE providers of initial teacher training" will be invited by the government to open new University Training Schools.
Million+, which represents new universities, says the proposal flies in the face of inspection evidence that university-based training is much more likely to be deemed excellent than existing school-based routes into the profession.
The National Union of Teachers has also condemned the plan, saying the loss of in-depth, theoretical training will undermine the status of the profession and jeopardise the education of young people.
But around 900 schools have registered an interest in training status and will attend a conference later this month organised by the National College – formerly the National College for Leadership of Schools. Around 500 schools will be designated by 2015.
To be successful, independent schools will need to have been deemed "excellent" by the Independent Schools Inspectorate, have strong leadership and extensive and successful links with state schools.
Seldon says he wants to be at the cutting edge of teaching and learning. "We are enormously keen on links between state and independents, and we have here a large number of innovations which we think could be tried out in state schools, such as the middle years programme of the international baccalaureate and the eight aptitudes approach to learning," he says.
"I think the independent sector has more to learn from the state sector, particularly about professionalism in teaching and learning." Equally, as state schools are given more control over their affairs, they can learn things from schools in the independent sector that have been going it alone for much longer, he says.
Babington House, a very different school in Chislehurst, Kent, has also registered an interest. The small, mixed-ability private day school for pupils aged 3-16 has extensive links with local state schools and sees training status as a natural progression.
Deborah Odysseas-Bailey, its headteacher, says people may be surprised at an independent school wanting to be involved so directly with a government initiative. "But if you are interested in continual professional development and continually striving to improve teaching and learning for your pupils, why wouldn't you want to be a teaching school?" she says.
Her staff discuss lesson plans and educational visits with teachers in local state schools. "We are professionals who can learn from each other. I have taught in state schools, as have many of our teachers, and pupils swap between the sectors as well."
One of the barriers to effective state and independent school partnerships in the past has been local education authorities and politicians, she says. "Now local education authorities are having to devolve more responsibility to schools, headteachers are in a better position to initiate partnerships."
One objection to involving independent schools is the fear that students will get a one-dimensional view of teaching. But, she says, "through their partners in both the independent and state sector, teaching schools will be able to provide a range of teaching experiences for their trainees".
"There is no reason why independent schools should not be able to provide initial teacher training in collaboration with state schools," says Tony Ashmore, the policy adviser to the National Education Trust, who has recently evaluated the partnership schemes between Eton College and state schools in Slough, Berkshire.
"At the start, there was perhaps a feeling that the partnerships were altruistic and one-sided, but talking to staff at Eton, they found educational practices in the state sector, such as the importance of assessment for learning, could be more fully addressed in the independent sector," he says. "The focus in independent schools has tended to be on the wellbeing of youngsters and subject expertise. Tearchers have not had to address the classroom challenges faced by some of their colleagues in the state sector and there is a feeling they have some catching up to do," he says.
Judith Fenn, head of schools services for the Independent Schools Council, points out that the council has been running teacher induction programmes since 1999 and over the last six years more than 5,000 newly qualified teachers have done their induction year at an independent school.
Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT, says her union is: "extremely concerned that this proposal and the use of independent schools could result in the privatisation of teacher training, resulting in an emphasis on ensuring that profits are made rather than that quality is ensured."
education.letters@guardian.co.uk
Vocational education could be a better route for up to half of students and the goverment should recognise that, says Mike Baker
Yet another review of vocational education has brought on that sinking feeling again. The promise of a government response to the Wolf review should alert us to another plunging swoop down the big-dipper of vocational education policy.
The problem of what to do about non-academic pupils has beset policy-makers in England for at least 50 years. There has been a bewildering alphabet-soup of new initiatives, courses and qualifications. But nothing has emerged as a gold standard.
And the losers are, of course, the young people themselves, many of whom have been left with qualifications that, within a few years, no one recognises any more.
Concern about our system's failure of non-academic pupils goes back at least to the Newsom report of 1963, which coined the phrase "half our future". As Newsom put it: they represent "half the pupils of our secondary schools; they will eventually become half the citizens of this country, half the workers, half the mothers and fathers, and half the consumers".
In one sense, we have moved on from the 1960s. The great majority now stay on in education not just to 16 (as Newsom had urged) but to 18. There are practical courses, vocational courses and even those that have tried to bridge academic and vocational education.
But still the most highly valued qualifications are A-levels, which are aimed at only about a third of the cohort and were originally designed purely as a university-entrance filter.
The Wolf review makes some sound, no-nonsense points, noting that a large proportion of 16- to 19-year-olds are on courses that fail to promote progression into either employment or further education. This is a scandal, particularly as funding and accountability systems have, as Wolf says, created "perverse incentives" to steer some 16-year-olds into "inferior" qualifications.
Professor Alison Wolf notes that vocational education has been "bedevilled by well-meaning attempts to pretend that everything is worth the same as everything else". However, while the diagnosis is powerful, I am not convinced by all of the proposed remedies.
In particular, Wolf seems to pin too much faith on academic qualifications. She wants all students under 19 to continue trying to get GCSEs in maths and English, however often they have failed. She also recommends that students aged 14 to 16 should spend no more than 20% of their time on a vocational specialism.
This would appear to rule out Lord Baker's new university technical colleges, where students will spend 40% of the timetable on practical skills. It also seems to drive another nail into the coffin of the diplomas at key stage 4.
Sadly, diplomas now seem like yesterday's discarded toys; the policy-makers have got bored with them. Yet tens of thousands of students have chosen to study them. While they have their problems (not least their complexity), they have been praised by Ofsted and by the schools as motivating for students.
And motivation is the key. Just telling 16- to 19-year-olds that they must keep flogging what must seem to them a dead horse will not encourage them to study. The better-designed diplomas – with their mix of work-related principal learning plus functional skills – should equip young people with both practical skills and essential numeracy and literacy.
And remember that functional skills, while they may not be perfect, were developed because GCSEs in maths and English were not considered to be any guarantee of the sort of functional literacy and numeracy employers wanted.
And finally, while on the issue of perverse incentives, isn't that precisely what the government's new English bac will prove? With a nervous eye on league tables, some schools may push pupils down an inappropriate academic route.
The strongest message from the Wolf review is that successive governments have repeatedly failed to develop a workable system of vocational education. The best thing future governments can do is to just stop interfering and let schools, colleges, employers and awarding bodies work out what is best for students not aiming for university.
The education secretary, Michael Gove, has accepted that the inclusion of vocational qualifications in league tables has a perverse effect and will remove them. He should now take the next logical step and remove the Ebac performance indicator, too, rather than trying to rig the qualifications market in a different direction.
• www.mikebakereducation.co.uk
Robin Alexander headed the biggest review of primary education for decades. Now he pleads for schools to teach a richly rounded curriculum
How capacious yet capricious is the dustbin of history. Just over a year ago, the 600-page final report of the Cambridge Primary Review (CPR), product of the most comprehensive inquiry into English primary education for half a century, was dismissed by Labour, misrepresented and unread. For many, this underscored the report's significance. Meanwhile, the "independent" Rose curriculum framework was imposed on England's primary schools. According to Mick Waters, then head of curriculum at the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency (QCDA), this, too, was a pre-emptive strike against the inconvenient truths emerging from Cambridge.
It was reckless, too: Labour knew that Rose's implementation depended on legislation for which parliament had almost run out of time, and the Conservatives in opposition had made it clear that they would drop Rose if elected. Which they did.
Now we have a new national curriculum review for England's schools. It promises "rigour, fairness and freedom", an end to exhaustive prescription and bloated documentation, and a return to the national curriculum's initial purpose: a statement of children's minimum entitlement to core knowledge in a few essential subjects, which leaves teachers free to decide how these should be taught and what else should be included. With QCDA consigned to Cameron's quango tumbril, the review is being undertaken at the Department for Education by an advisory committee supported by an "expert panel" of senior academics who are charged with ensuring that what emerges "is based on evidence and informed by international best practice". Two of the panel's four members, as it happens, were on the implementation team of the Cambridge Primary Review.
In direct response to a key recommendation in the CPR final report, the government has also agreed to undertake a review of primary schools' capacity to teach a broad, balanced and coherent curriculum to the highest possible standard. For, as the CPR insists, "entitlement" must be about the quality of teaching, not merely the number of subjects taught; and Ofsted evidence shows that our best primary schools achieve high standards in literacy and numeracy by celebrating, not neglecting, everything else. Politically counter-intuitive perhaps, but true.
Yet Ofsted has also reported that many children encounter a two-tier curriculum in which the undeniably crucial "basics" are protected while the rest takes its chances in terms of the quality of teaching as well as allocated time; and research shows how this qualitative hierarchy has been reinforced by the relative neglect of the non-core subjects in primary teachers' training and by an ill-conceived "standards" regime that has eroded the wider curriculum while using test scores in literacy and numeracy as proxies for children's attainment across the board – as if, beyond the "basics", standards don't matter. It is encouraging, then, that the government acknowledges the need for liaison between its reviews of curriculum, assessment and primary schools' curriculum capacity.
Yet those who want to make a grounding in basic skills part of a rounded education should remain vigilant. The national curriculum review's consultation asks what should be included in just four subjects whose pre-eminence is presumed but barely argued. In less than even-handed contrast, we are invited to say whether the remaining eight subjects in the current national curriculum should be compulsory or left to chance, though not whether anything not on the current list should be there or whether this is the best way to frame a curriculum. Like most official curriculum reviews, this one also bypasses that discussion of the purposes and priorities of public education without which decisions about a curriculum's scope, balance and content are meaningless. True, educational aims and assumptions are implicit in the choices that the consultation invites and forecloses, but these are not up for debate.
So, at the start of the latest national curriculum review, two versions of "minimal entitlement" appear to be on offer. Minimalism 1 reduces entitlement to a handful of subjects deemed uniquely essential on the grounds of utility and international competitiveness. The first criterion is too narrowly defined and the second falls foul of the hazards of international comparison.
Minimalism 2, which the review's remit makes possible but doesn't overtly encourage, foregrounds the educational imperative of breadth by making a wider range of subjects statutory. Minimalism 2 strives to balance the different ways of knowing, understanding, investigating and making sense that are central to the needs of young children and to our culture – and hence, surely, to an entitlement curriculum – and achieves the required parsimony by stripping back the specified content of each subject to its essential core. This is a very different core curriculum to the winner-takes-all version with which we are more familiar. Rather than a small number of core subjects, we have core learnings across a broad curriculum, every subject or domain of which, by reference to a well argued set of aims, is deemed essential to a basic education.
And what price the new freedoms? During the 1970s and 1980s, inspection evidence showed that many primary schools exercised their pre-national curriculum autonomy by pursuing, de facto, minimalism 1. Literacy and numeracy were always taught, but the fate of the rest of the curriculum depended on the inclinations and subject expertise of a school's largely generalist teaching staff. In our best primary schools, this autonomy yielded a curriculum of vision, vitality and rigour. At worst, it meant that during their seven critical years of primary education many children encountered little or no science, history, music or drama, and when they did, those encounters were fleeting and undemanding. In these primary schools, teachers' freedom to choose what subjects to teach, and with what degree of conviction, in effect denied their pupils the later freedom of choice for which a balanced and well taught foundational curriculum, grounded in much more than functional literacy, is the minimum prerequisite. Especially hard hit, as always, were those children whose families lacked the resources to make good the deficit out of school.
This is the warning from recent educational history that the government's national curriculum review must not ignore. Freedom for teachers – a necessary corrective to 13 years of obsessive and patronising government micro-management – cannot be pursued at the expense of young children's need for a proper foundation for later learning and choice. But breadth alone is not enough, and that's why the government's other review, prompted by the CPR, of primary schools' capacity to advance high standards across the entire curriculum, is such a vital part of the reform effort.
And what of the free schools and academies? In gaining the freedom not to teach the national curriculum, are they exempted from these imperatives? The principle of entitlement, surely, is indivisible.
• Professor Robin Alexander is director of the Cambridge Primary Review, now in its dissemination and networking phase: www.primaryreview.org.uk
Heroic teachers, embarrassing funding sources and profit-making universities
Last week, teachers gave their responses to Jamie's Dream School, on Channel 4,in which Rolf Harris taught art, Mary Beard taught Latin and David Starkey told a student he was fat
When I was 11 and making heavy weather of algebra, my maths teacher called me a "decomposed lump of muck". It wasn't encouraging, but no one found her methods unnacceptable or took her to task.
Victoria Owens
Bristol
• I'd like to know if Jamie Oliver would even consider letting celebrities work in his restaurants, or would prefer people who know what they are doing.
LarrydelaCrois via EducationGuardian.co.uk
• Rolf Harris was better at teaching than the others. There is a reason for this. He and I graduated from the same teachers' college in Perth, Australia. He is an experienced classroom teacher.
einsteinsdaughter via EducationGuardian.co.uk
• I think this programme will show that real teachers are real heroes. My first lesson was well prepared, well planned, had aims and objectives, but I wasn't used to teaching of this kind; I got better pretty quick, I think. Hope you'll stay tuned long enough to see the improvement!
MaryBeard via EducationGuardian.co.uk
Matthew Partridge asked whether it is possible for universities to make sure they do not accept funds from sources that could later turn out to be embarrassing, such as the Libyan regime
The London School of Economics has lost a great director as a result of a witchhunt by newspapers. LSE's ties with the regime have been in the public domain for years and nobody cared until Libya became a trending topic.
Ruledfeint via EducationGuardian.co.uk
• Matthew Partridge goes straight to the crux of the matter. Because we cannot predict the future, the entrepreneurial model of funding we are increasingly moving towards inevitably gives rise to the public discomfort being experienced by the LSE and other universities.
However, insufficient emphasis is being given in the current debate to the impact on students. Now, they also have to worry about who might be bank-rolling their education. This in addition to which subject to choose, whether they'll get a place (if they opt for university education at all) and how to repay the state through taxation. Can it really only be as recently as 1997 that students' main worries were stretching themselves academically and stretching their grant to last the full term?
Gareth Dent,
Open College of the Arts, Barnsley
Roger Brown asked whether opening the door to for-profit providers would be good for UK higher education
The US seems to manage: no one in their right mind thinks the standing or educational rigour of Stanford or Penn are jeopardised by the existence of profit-making institutions elsewhere.
MrBendy via EducationGuardian.co.uk
• I've worked in both the not-for-profit and for-profit sectors, on both sides of the Atlantic. For-profit providers are more focused on student support, and on providing a good learning experience (no students, no salaries). Nor should one think that not-for-profits are not concerned with making a "profit". They are, but it's simply called a surplus.
GeoffreyAlderman via EducationGuardian.co.uk
Forensics students fear uncertain jobs market as government service prepares to close
More than 30 white-coated criminologists, biologists, lawyers and psychologists are bustling around a crime scene. A rape has taken place in a park, and the suspect has fled to a nearby squat. Criminologists are busy safeguarding the remnants of a sexual assault from contamination, and recording the footprint impressions, soil and clothing samples. Biologists are carefully removing it for analysis, as psychologists and lawyers prepare to interview the distraught victim.
Luckily, however, this isn't a real crime scene: it's a mock rape case set up by the University of Portsmouth, investigated by its criminology and forensics students, and acted out by drama undergraduates. The two-day event allowed students to use forensic skills to secure a "conviction" to a tough test case, and follow it through from the discovery of the crime and evidence analysis to the presentation of findings in a replica of a Crown Court, complete with dock, witness box, public gallery, jury rooms and interview rooms.
The popularity of forensic studies has rocketed over the last decade. TV shows such as CSI, Bones and Silent Witness helped demand for Portsmouth's criminology and forensic studies course rise 13% this year alone. Nationwide, interest has soared, with 8,685 undergraduates and postgraduates studying on more than 100 forensic and archaeological science courses last year, according to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (Hesa). That was up 12% from 2005, when 7,710 students were studying the subject.
But now many of these students are facing career turmoil. The government-owned Forensic Science Service – where many had hoped to eventually work – is to be axed, the cost-slashing coalition government announced in December. And undergraduates have been left anxious about the impact on their careers.
"When I heard the FSS was being axed, I was worried," says Jade Morgan, 22, a student on Portsmouth's criminology and forensic studies degree. "It's due to shut down in 2012 – the year I graduate." The news has not put Morgan off the degree – "there will still be many crime scenes to process, with or without the FSS," she says.
"I aspire to become a scenes-of-crime officer – I've been told that no two days at work are the same, which is exactly what I'm looking for in a career." But she adds: "I'm sure it will be a challenge to find work. It's tough in general to find a job in the current economic climate, but one of my concerns is that when I'm applying for jobs, I'll be facing competition from people who have worked at the FSS."
Even before the FSS was earmarked for closure, there was already a mismatch in supply and demand. The FSS employed 1,600 people – not all of them scientists – while LGC Forensics, Britain's largest private provider, employs 500 people. But with more than 8,500 forensics students in the UK, it's little surprise that the FSS website warns applicants that its advertised jobs see responses from 1,000 applicants.
Some of the FSS's jobs will transfer from the public to the private sector but, experts say, not as many.
"It's too early in the current discussions within the industry and academia to know exactly what the long-term outcomes will be," admits John Cassella, professor at Staffordshire University's forensics department. He says academics – who have mainly previously worked within the forensic, policing, or scientific industries – "have all seen major changes and worked within the parameters available to ensure that standards are maintained, jobs are secured and the industry develops and prospers." This current situation, he adds, "is no different".
But students on the popular course feel differently. Matthew Perryman, 21, is a third-year forensics science student at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge. "I've always wanted to work in forensics, my first choice is to work in ballistics recovering evidence from shootings or explosions and working with police and counter-terrorism squads," says Perryman. "If the FSS hadn't closed down and the recession hadn't happened, I'd feel quite confident about my job prospects. Over 90% of graduates on my course at AR have a job in forensics or science a year after graduation – that's one of the reasons I chose it.
"But as things stand, I'm more worried. I'll probably have to study further, do a master's and get more lab-based experience before I get a job. The FSS was obviously most people's first choice for a job after graduating in forensics. I'm hopeful that some of the private companies will fill the recruitment gap, but I'm also considering going abroad, to Europe, America or even Australia. I'll go where the work is."
For now, current forensics science undergraduates should focus on learning general science skills, in case there aren't enough industry jobs on graduation, says Paul Smith, a senior lecturer at Portsmouth's Institute of Criminal Justice Studies. "It's important to teach transferable skills that give students more employment opportunities across a range of careers." He explains: "The focus may be on scientific methodology, enhancing problem-solving skills, research skills, instilling an investigative mindset and a range of other skills to augment the students' employability potential."
However, academics are hoping that there may be a silver lining to the FSS closure: the austerity measures engulfing the policing sector could leave universities the best equipped to step in. "The provision of forensic science services is as prevalent now as it ever has been," says Smith. "I'm sure there will be some business opportunities for some universities, and more importantly I think there will be a greater requirement to collaborate in research and consolidate services with the local authority and police."
Portsmouth has begun working with local police forces to set up the Science and Technology Information Network (Satin), sharing new research, technologies and techniques between academics and practitioners. Students have also been involved in the work, and have secured work experience through it. "The crime scene sector, researchers and undergraduates are all going to have to work more collaboratively in future," says Smith.
For many CSI-loving students, even the tough job prospects haven't taken the shine off a degree in forensics. Amy Foroozandeh, 24, is in her second year of a degree in criminology and forensic studies at Portsmouth. It was, she says, the "thought of being able to link an offender to a crime scene" that inspired her degree selection. "My career goal is to become a scenes-of-crime officer and process all different types of crime scenes," she adds. "The FSS being axed has not disheartened me in my attempt to get the job I'd love to do.
Crucial legal requirements that require local authorities to provide a comprehensive and efficient public library service have been put under review
The Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has launched a review of the statutory duties placed on local government. The DCLG are “inviting you to comment on the duties and challenge government on those which you feel are burdensome or no longer needed.”
The DCLG have identified 1,294 statutory duties that central government places on local authorities, three of these duties apply to public library services in England. All three of these duties are held by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport under the Public Libraries & Museums Act (1964).
“We are calling on everyone who cares about public libraries to explain to the Department of Communities and Local Government, loud and clear, why these statutory duties are so vital,” said Brian Hall, CILIP President, “These duties mean that local authorities have a legal obligation to provide comprehensive and efficient library services, and they allow the Secretary of state to monitor and inspect library services. Without them, it will be incredibly difficult to hold local authorities to account and local people will be much less likely to receive a quality public library service that is consistent across the country. I urge you to submit your views by the 25 April 2011.”
The Public Libraries and Museums Act requires local authorities to provide a public library service which is comprehensive and efficient, and available to all who wish to use it. The Act also gives the Secretary of State the right to gather information and inspect library services.
At an MPs debate on the 28th February, Libraries Minister Ed Vaizey stated that there are no plans to repeal the statutory provision of libraries under the Act, saying, “The statutory duty remains a very important safety net for the provision of libraries.” CILIP Chief Executive Annie Mauger has sent an open letter to Mr Vaizey; urging him to make it clear to the DCLG that there is a continuing need for these duties, and reminding him how much public concern there is about the future of public libraries.
Find out more about the DCLG’s review and submit your views via a web form on the Department of Communities and Local Government website.
Read briefing information about the Act and DCLG review on the CILIP website.
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Press contacts:
Mark Taylor, Head of Corporate Marketing and Media Relations, CILIP
Tel: 020 7255 0654
Mobile: 07792 635 305
Email: mark.taylor@cilip.org.uk
Guy Daines, Director of Policy and Advocacy, CILIP
Tel: 020 7255 0632
Email: guy.daines@cilip.org.uk
Notes for editors:
Department of Communities and Local Government review of statutory duties placed on local government
About the review: www.communities.gov.uk/localgovernment/decentralisation/tacklingburdens/reviewstatutoryduties/
The three duties under review that apply to public library services (under the 1964 Public Libraries & Museums Act) are:
1. Legislation: Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 Section 1(2)
Title: To provide information and facilities for the inspection of library premises, stocks, records, as the Secretary of State requires.
Function: Necessary for Secretary of State to fulfil duty to superintend library service.
Unique reference number: DCMS_026
2. Legislation: Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 Section 7
Title: To provide a comprehensive and efficient library service.
Function: Secure provision of local library services.
Unique reference number: DCMS_027
3. Legislation: Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 Section 11
Title: Supplemental provisions as to transfers of officers, assets and liabilities
Function: Provisions provide, for example, continuity of employment for transferring employees. This secures consistency across library transfers etc and in line with other local authority employment legislation.
Unique reference number: DCMS_028
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