Free schools and prisoners' right to vote
Last week, Warwick Mansell reported on the borough of Waltham Forest where the NUT says up to 10 new free schools may be planned, including seven faith schools
I find it incomprehensible that public money is planned to be used to provide premises and support for the establishment of so-called free schools (Ten new schools in one borough? 22 February).
Surely if a group of people wish to set up a school and run it their way (with orientation towards particular faiths, specialist capabilities or whatever) they should find all the funding to start it and run it. Where is the logic for public money being used by people not accountable to the public? Gove should scrap his so -called flagship policy and support and enhance the schools we have.
John Chubb
Cheltenham, Gloucester
• I view free schools very much as I do academies – likely to have a negative effect overall on the education provision within a borough. I'm sure I don't need to rehearse the reasons – lack of accountability, effect on admissions procedures, impact on other schools etc. But in my own area I find myself reluctantly drawn to support an initiative to set up a free school. Why? Because there is no state provision. Wokingham Borough Council closed the local comprehensive, Ryeish Green, in 2010, as rolls were falling. Now the children in a group of widely spread villages are expected to travel miles to schools in other parts of the borough.
The group behind the initiative want to set up their free school on the site of the closed comprehensive. They are simply parents who want a local, community-based school. I have every sympathy with them.
Marjory Bisset
Shinfield, Reading, Berkshire
• It seems it is not just children of different faiths being educated separately, but different strands of different faiths. Oh dear. What an awful mess. And where will children of no faith be educated? Will I have to set up an atheist school?
youcannotbeserious via Education Guardian.co.uk
• I would welcome the chance to be able to teach in school without the complication of religion. At the moment all schools, whether faith or not, are required to deliver a daily collective act of worship wholly or mainly Christian in character. Schools can apply to not have to do this, but it is a lengthy process, so few do. As a headteacher, this task falls to me on a daily basis; as a lifelong atheist, I find ways round it so that I don't offend the mixed-faith and no-faith community I serve.
londonwhippet via EducationGuardian.co.uk
Alan Smith, who teaches philosophy in a prison, shared some of his students' thoughts on whether prisoners should have the right to vote
Those in prison are there because they ignored the rights of others in some way. If someone does not respect the rights of another person, then he has no right to expect others to respect his.
spike99 via EducationGuardian.co.uk
• The idea that prisoners forfeit rights because they are convicted is a misunderstanding of rights; rights are assumed simply by virtue of someone being human and not by a set of criteria.
RayNoble via EducationGuardian.co.uk
The 'extras' that make a real difference to students' futures will be hit in the latest round of further education cuts
College principals were still reeling from the news that the EMA was being scrapped when the Young People's Learning Agency (YPLA) announced that so-called entitlement funding, which covers the cost of pastoral care, tutorials and extracurricular activities for 16- to 19-year-olds, was also to be cut. The news, which slipped out quietly just a few days before Christmas, came as a big blow for college leaders. Many were left wondering how they would fund the extras, such as work experience and volunteering programmes, that make all the difference in getting young people into work and higher education.
Chopping back the annual provision from 114 to 30 funded hours will hit students hard at all levels, say principals. The most academically able students competing for Russell Group university places could struggle to access the kind of extracurricular activities that impress admissions tutors. Meanwhile, those getting a taste of real work at college – for example, those on enterprise programmes reliant on entitlement funding – may see such opportunities shrink. Asha Khemka, principal of West Nottinghamshire College, has described the move as "more serious than losing the EMA".
College leaders are still working out what may have to give. Nationally, £650m is being cut, although the government claims £150m will be redirected to benefit the poorest learners.
Some principals are reluctant to talk about the impact: they are, after all, in the competitive business of trying to woo students. But from those who did speak to Education Guardian, snapshots emerge of rich provision at risk and difficult choices to be made.
Alton is determined its academic sixth-formers should still compete for top university places helped by extra coaching, but the principal, Jane Machell, fears "this could be at the expense of other things". These include subjects such as digital photography and minority languages such as Russian for beginners. The college may also have to consider ending funding for gifted English literature students keen to attend creative writing and poetry workshops.
Alton will also consider whether it can afford to continue running the Duke of Edinburgh's award scheme and the full scope of its music provision. "We had a student last year who went to Trinity College of Music and played in five different ensembles here," says Machell. "He wouldn't have got in without that. We wouldn't axe all of them, but we have to look at the breadth and range of what we run."
This college serves one of the country's most deprived areas. The principal, Cathy Walsh, says entitlement funding cuts of about £1.7m will have "a devastating impact on our ability to deliver educational priorities". For instance, Barking and Dagenham is one of only a few colleges investing heavily in "motivational dialogue" – coaching sessions where staff work to raise learners' aspirations by getting them to reflect on the need to change and then helping them to take the necessary steps to do so.
Success stories include one student with behavioural problems who changed his outlook on life and went on to lead a fundraising project for Children in Need. The college regards this as essential rather than optional work in a borough that has the country's third-lowest literacy rate.
"Many fall into the 'at risk' category and we find this improves their chances of success by up to 60%," says Walsh. The college also has a strong focus on personal coaching, setting individual targets to improve academic performance. But all this draws on staff time and money, and the college faces hard choices about how far it can all keep running.
Another distinctive programme is the Enterprise Academy, which secures "real work" from within the college and externally. "This helps to shape vocational and professional skills, all of which makes our learners much more attractive to employers," says Walsh.
The scheme currently has 70 projects on its books, from providing artwork and installations for a Metropolitan Police building, to catering and car-park marshalling. It has also won contracts to provide hospitality, and for landscaping and graphic design at Barking business centre.
All this offers a taste of genuine work in an area that has the country's second-highest level of neets (young people not in education, employment or training) and where youth unemployment stands at 18%. But such projects could suffer, says Walsh.
Greenhead has a strong academic tradition – last year 32 students received Oxbridge offers. The principal, Martin Rostron, says the college will do all it can to maintain the tutorials, coaching and work-shadowing opportunities it offers to help A-level candidates compete with pupils from independent schools. But, he adds, "the little things that make a difference [to education] will have to go, left, right and centre".
The college also has a strong tradition of sporting excellence.Recently, two students were picked for the British Colleges hockey squad, and its football team was crowned West Yorkshire college champions. "Every year we get requests from sports associations asking us to support our students who have made it into the national squads," says Rostron. "But where I might budget £1,500 for that this year, it won't be there in future."
Competing at the highest level means Greenhead sports teams have to travel for fixtures. But, with reduced funding, such opportunities will be fewer. Meanwhile, quirky but highly regarded projects such as circus skills, which the college has helped to subsidise, will also be cut back.
The Duke of Edinburgh's (DofE) award scheme, long at the heart of the college's extracurricular activities, may be axed, a situation described by the principal, Adele Wills, as "very grim".
King George currently has more than 60 students taking part and could probably double that number, says Wills. Three members of staff are involved, along with an alumni association that regularly donates equipment.
"Students go on great expeditions that teach leadership skills and endurance," says Wills. "It's part of the college's ethos. It looks now as if the only viable option is to charge them. It's a dilemma – if you can afford to buy it, you'll always get it – but if you can't, then you won't."
The college faces a double squeeze because Sefton council is also withdrawing funding for DofE activities and Wills is concerned the scheme may disappear from the college altogether.
This college, which has many students from deprived areas, has a well-developed programme of personal tutorials to discuss sexual health, drug and alcohol misuse, and personal finance that are "all essential to helping young people remain in education", says the principal, Marion Plant, who faces losing £1.3m in entitlement funding over the next year.
She is anxious to protect pastoral care but is now considering running more group rather than one-to-one tutorials, and, on occasion, using volunteers rather than paid staff. Students, many of whom cannot afford it, could face contributing more towards trips.
Meanwhile, the college will double its efforts to create extra income through commercial activities such as running a market stall.
Managing work experience for students to support their university applications may have to stop, says the principal, Cath Hurst. "We've placed students wanting to do medicine in hospitals, and those hoping for a career in law in the crown court. One who wanted to do a degree in forensic science went to a local undertaker to see if he could cope with dead bodies," she says.
Entitlement funding has given staff the time to arrange all this. They visit placements, check health and safety and hours of work, and, where necessary, carry out CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) checks, essential for working with children and vulnerable adults – all of it time-consuming.
"The removal of funding means students will have to arrange these visits independently, and, for some, it will be hard," says Hurst. "Sports, trips, music, drama, things that help people become a rounded individual, are also at risk."
As York comes to terms with entitlement funding cuts of £1.8m this year, it has become increasingly difficult to offer students involvement in volunteering projects, according to the deputy principal, Graeme Murdoch. "As a result, they're having to use their own time," he says. "However, due to the rising costs of education, many are devoting their spare time to part-time jobs."
In the past, the college has been able to react to "things that look good on the CV" – for instance, helping to create a local playground, or giving time to a hospice. "We had the capacity within the timetable, but we know we won't now be able to," says Murdoch.
Careers education and guidance has also been hit, along with work placements and trips to universities that offer a taste of what higher education is all about and the choices available. Cuts will also prevent some students from taking part in sport and music.
• This article was amended on 1 March. The original omitted to say that sixth-formers at Alton would continue to get extra coaching to help them compete for university places.
Wine-making is not something the UK is known for, but pioneering research at a Sussex college is changing that
At his vineyard near St Emilion, Martin Krajewski makes some of France's best-known rosé wine. But, in an increasingly competitive market, he's anxious to improve it. Yet while the University of Bordeaux, 20 miles or so down the road, is a leading centre for wine studies, it's to Plumpton College, in the South Downs of Sussex, that Krajewski has turned for help.
Moreover, he's given the college £75,000 to help fund research programmes. And Krajewski, a lifelong wine enthusiast who made his first batch of elderberry aged 12, isn't the only donor. Aspiring wine-maker Mark Driver, intent on becoming England's leading producer of champagne-style fizz, has invested £100,000. The college now hopes to double its money through gift aid and the government's matched funding scheme, which aims to increase voluntary contributions to higher education providers by matching donations, pound for pound.
Both men prospered in the City of London before dedicating themselves to wine production. Krajewski had increased his investment at Château de Sours over several years before taking over entirely. Last October, Driver, a former hedge-fund manager, sank £3.5m into buying Rathfinny Farm, near Lewes, which he plans to cultivate with 400 acres of vines.
Plumpton College was an unknown quantity to Krajewski until his daughter Charlotte, who inherited his passion for wine-making, chose to study there. At first he had doubts. "I said 'Are you sure'? But I read up about it and thought it sounded interesting. I'm amazed by what it's achieved in quite difficult circumstances. It compares well with any other college or university around the world."
What impressed Krajewski was that graduates of Plumpton's wine-making degree course – unique in the country – hold senior positions in vineyards across the globe. "Plumpton is small; it's really hands-on. If you go to university in Bordeaux, you stay there. You're assigned to one particular chateau where all your practical experience is done."
About half of the Château de Sours production is rosé, described by the late Auberon Waugh as probably the best of its kind in the world. "We've invested in processes and equipment," says Krajewski. "But although we do our own research, we're a small business and don't have a lot of time.
"We believe Plumpton can improve our wine. They'll be doing research on the terroir [land in which vines are planted] and taking samples for analysis. They'll have different approaches. Hopefully, the benefits will be mutual. But the donation I've made isn't just to research rosé. I believe what the college is doing is exciting for the next generation of student wine-makers."
Krajewski says the English wine industry is "very important, but not recognised". Driver, who is enrolled as a student at Plumpton, agrees. He was impressed by seeing college alumni working around the world and at English sparkling producers Nyetimber and Ridgeview. "I think it [investing] is one of the best things we can do for the future of English wines," he says.
"Research is really important, but none has been done in the UK apart from bits and pieces. No one's pulled it all together and written definitively – for instance, about successful clones that will produce the right results in the right environment. There are no journals to compare with those in America and Australia.
"What we need in England to take wine on to the next level is a top-quality research institution that will provide information for wine-makers and vineyard owners. It will raise skill levels."
Driver finds himself in the odd position of being a first-year student making business decisions normally taken by an experienced graduate. He is employing consultants to help. Rathfinny's first harvest is due in 2014, and his first sparkling wines, after maturing and secondary fermentation, should be ready by 2017.
The donations have allowed Plumpton to retain Dr Belinda Kemp as wine lecturer and department research co-ordinator. Kemp graduated from Plumpton with a first-class degree in viticulture and oenology, then completed a PhD at Lincoln University, New Zealand, researching the effects of vine-leaf removal on fruit ripening.
Climate change cuts across several of Plumpton's research projects. But although warmer temperatures are welcomed by England's vineyard owners, they come as a mixed blessing.
"It isn't as easy as just saying we can now grow grapes for champagne," says Kemp. "Everything is complicated." For instance, last year some English vineyards suffered their first infestations of light-brown apple moth, whose grubs damage leaves and fruit. "We're looking at ways of combating it without using pesticides. It's the sort of project we'll see more of. We're such a new industry – we have everything to learn. There's a range of projects under the climate-change umbrella."
Plumpton is also studying the chemistry of wine and innovations that could be used in the UK. England is on the northern rim of wine production and one problem is excess acidity in the grapes. Meanwhile, the college will continue its existing research into three different ways of making rosé and work on refining the methods used by Krajewski at Château de Sours.
There will be further studies into champagne-style wines, which look to offer the best chances of commercial success for the English industry. Plumpton can now afford a collaboration with Professor Richard Marchal from the University of Reims to investigate, among other things, how juice changes in quality immediately after grapes have been pressed.
"Richard Marchal is an expert on production of champagne and sparkling wine, and his coming to Plumpton is recognition of the possibilities in the UK," said Krajewski.
Soon Plumpton will be home to Britain's first purpose-built wine research centre, currently under construction, and costing about £500,000. Kemp will establish new research links with the University of Brighton, of which Plumpton is a part. Industry collaborations are planned with UK and international companies, and the college hopes further private funding will allow sponsorship of MSc and PhD research students.
Wine studies at Plumpton have come a long way since Chris Foss, who heads the department, set up the first part-time course in 1988. There are now 500 students, including 140 undergraduates. The donations make a tremendous difference," he says. "They allow us to go beyond teaching into proper research, which is fundamental for a university.
"More important, the wine industry now has a dedicated problem-solving tool, which it can use to support its developments. It will be a case of 'We have this problem … Plumpton can sort it out'."
Those stomach growls that you think are a sign of digestion or hunger may be trying to tell you something much more profound
Some psychoanalysts can find meaning in the most ordinary-seeming bits of your life. Some discern it even in your intestinal rumblings. There's a technical name for those digestive sounds: borborygmi. Several published studies tell how to interpret people's gut feelings – how to translate those borborygmi into common everyday words.
In 1984, Prof Dr med Christian Müller of Hôpital de Cery in Prilly, Switzerland, published a report called New Observations on Body Organ Language, in the journal Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics. Müller paraphrases a 1918 essay, by someone named Willener, which "concludes that the phenomenon generally known as borborygmi must be regarded as cryptogrammatically encoded body signals that could be interpreted with the help of [special] apparatus". Müller laments that Willener's "attempts to follow up on his theory were thwarted by the defects of recording techniques at that time".
Happily, Müller himself had access to later, better equipment. "We have been trying at our clinic since 1980," he writes, "to combine electromesenterography with Spindel's alamograph, and in addition to use digital transformation for a quantitative analysis of the curves via computer."
Müller reveals his greatest interpretive triumph: "The presence of a negative transference situation was not difficult to deduce from the following sequence: 'Ro ... Pi ... le ... me ... lo ...'. The following translation is certainly an appropriate rendering: 'Rotten pig. Leave me alone.'"
This lovely piece of deadpan, intentional nonsense, I am told, was swallowed whole by some readers, and perhaps also some journal editors.
A few years later, Guy Da Silva, a Montreal psychoanalyst, published several apparently quite serious papers about the psychoanalytical significance of borborygmi.
The most accessible (in my view, anyway) is his Borborygmi as Markers of Psychic Work During the Analytic Session. A Contribution to Freud's Experience of Satisfaction and to Bion's Idea About the Digestive Model for the Thinking Apparatus. This professionally dense monograph appeared in a 1990 issue of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis. Freud is Sigmund Freud, the psychoanalysis pioneer who lived in Vienna, Austria. Bion is Wilfred Ruprecht Bion, director of the London Clinic of Psychoanalysis (in the 1950s, and later president of the British Psychoanalytical Society.
Guy Da Silva digested a little Freud together with a little Bion. He writes: "Borborygmi may signal the process and acquisition of new thoughts (symbolization) and the free associations derived from borborygmi often provide the key to the understanding of the session by linking the verbal flow of ideas to the underlying sensory and affective experience, thereby providing a 'moment of truth'. Within the primitive maternal transference, borborygmi are often accompaniments to the fantasy or the hallucination of being fed by the analyst."
The name Guy DaSilva will be familiar to some readers as the star of hundreds of psychologically gut-wrenching films, among them Beyond Reality 3, The Lube Guy, Attack of the Killer Dildos and Porn-O-Matic 2000. But Guy DaSilva the actor and Guy Da Silva the psychoanalyst are not the same person, no matter how similarly stimulating their work may be.
• Marc Abrahams is editor of the bimonthly Annals of Improbable Research and organiser of the Ig Nobel prize
CILIP takes a strategic approach to its international work, coordinating its activities throughout the organisation. All international projects and links are evaluated in terms of their benefit, either directly or indirectly, to members.
Libex acts as a clearinghouse for library and information staff who are interested in arranging job exchanges with LIS professionals in other countries.
In January 2009 CILIP Council approved an international policy statement.
CILIP awards grants each year, to support members attending IFLA WLIC.
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The Wellcome Library is one of the world's major resources for the study of medical history and provides access to a growing collection of contemporary biomedical information resources relating to consumer health, popular science, biomedical ethics and the public understanding of science.
Stuart Dempster, project director of the JISC-led Strategic Content Alliance says: “The expertise and knowledge from the Wellcome Library will strengthen our work in bringing publicly funded content online. The IPR issues around the sensitive nature of scientific and medical images which the Wellcome Library manages will boost our ability to provide best practice advice and guidance for UK colleges and universities.”
Among its current digital projects, the Wellcome Library is curating an online audio-archive of 2,400 interviews with the ‘plinthers’ involved in Anthony Gormley’s ‘One and Other’ art project, and undertaking a joint JISC-funded project with the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt to provide access to the Wellcome’s unique collection of Arabic manuscripts. In August 2010 the Wellcome Library launched a £3.9m project to digitize collections relating to the history of modern genetics, including Francis Crick’s original sketches of the DNA double helix.
Simon Chaplin, head of the Wellcome Library says: “Being part of the Alliance will allow us to share expertise and resources with other key public-sector content providers. We are looking forward to working with JISC and fellow members of the Alliance to develop innovative partnerships and reduce the barriers that currently inhibit access, use and re-use of digital content.”
The Alliance comprises of organisations across the public sector, including the British Library, the BBC, the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) and The Wellcome Library.
Find out more about the JISC-led Strategic Content Alliance
About the Wellcome Trust
The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation dedicated to achieving extraordinary improvements in human and animal health. It supports the brightest minds in biomedical research and the medical humanities. The Trust’s breadth of support includes public engagement, education and the application of research to improve health. It is independent of both political and commercial interests.
About the Wellcome Library
The Wellcome Library is based on the collections created by the Trust’s founder, Henry Solomon Wellcome (1853-1936). The Wellcome Library holds over a million books, manuscripts, archives, films and pictures on the history of medicine from the earliest times to the present day. The Library is responsible for Wellcome Images, one of the world’s largest publicly-accessible medical image collections, and Wellcome Film, a partnership with JISC Collections to make over 450 medical films freely available online.
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The range of social network routes available to CILIP members is growing fast. This page lists Twitter accounts, Facebook groups and pages, LinkedIn groups and blogs for CILIP and for CILIP Branches and Special Interest Groups.
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An open Facebook group for members of CILIP. Created by a member and not the organisation. All welcome :)
Owners/facilitators: David Byrne, Phil Bradley and Richard Hawkins. This is now an 'open' group. Anyone on the web can read future discussions. To contribute to group discussion you need to be a member.
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Cybercrime is costing the UK around £1000 a second according to the Government’s new report and now JISC is highlighting six key resources to help universities and colleges ensure they do not fall victim.
Institutions have a right - and sometimes a duty - to ensure that their computer systems are not being used for inappropriate purposes, like storage of pornographic images on university computers. They also have a responsibility to ensure the health and safety of students and staff.
Jason Miles-Campbell, manager of JISC Legal, said: “Universities and colleges undertake a balancing act between open access to world-class technology, and ensuring the security of their systems. Institutions must make sure their systems aren’t used as instruments of illegality by criminals, in an age when cybercrime is often conducted through innocent users’ hijacked computers.”
Computer crime can be classified as:
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Jason added: “For trust, resilience and reliability, managers need to have the knowledge, policies and procedures in place to ensure illegal activity isn’t happening on the university or college’s servers. Getting it right means learners, researchers and staff can be confident in avoiding the time and trouble that often comes with illegal activity.”
If you're looking at how to make sure your students, staff and systems are protected, take a look at these:
Read the government's cybercrime report
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These courses cover portfolio building and the process of submitting an application.
Training events for Chartership, Revalidation and Certification candidates are run by the Candidate Support Officers who are part of the Career Development Group.
Courses may also be run by employers and other professional development groups. Keep an eye on the Gazette's What's On pages for further details.
You can also view a presentation given in November 2011 here: http://bambuser.com/channel/CILIP.
2012 Dates
London and South East Divisions
Career Development Group (London and South East Divisions)
Certification, Chartership, Revalidation and beyond event
Thursday 31st May 2012
1.30pm - 5pm at CILIP
7 Ridgmount Street, London
WC1E 7AE
Contact Alex Seymour to book your place Alex.Seymour@nas.org.uk
This event considers the importance of continuous professional development, both in preparing for Certification, Chartership, Revalidation, and throughout your career. It is aimed at those who have embarked on the Certification, Chartership or Revalidation process, or who are thinking about it. There will be an introductory presentation by Franko Kowalczuk, part of the Career Development Group's candidate support team. Michael Martin from CILIP's Qualifications and Professional Development Department will then talk about the Certification, Chartership and Revalidation process. Example portfolios will be available for perusal and borrowing.
Cost: Free. Booking in advance is essential as places are limited.
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Communicating with confidence is very important. If you want to communicate clearly you need to pay attention to your voice, gestures, facial expressions and posture, as well as being aware of other people’s personal space. Albert Mehrabian, in his book Silent Messages, identified the following statistics for the way we communicate: 7% by words, 38% tonality of voice, 55% body language.
People make assumptions on your personality based on the tone of your voice.
Good posture conveys self-confidence and competence.
Personal space
Touch conveys friendship, comfort, empathy or excitement. Only pat someone on the back or hug them if you know them well. If you have the slightest indication a person will misconstrue it, don’t do it.Proximity depends on how well you know the person with whom you are communicating.
This is the distance we stand with strangers, clients or work colleagues.
If you are giving a presentation, speaking from the correct distance makes a difference in your control, authority and rapport. People who want to maintain authority step up to a podium. Speakers wanting to establish trust or an informal atmosphere tend to move away from desks or podiums and walk around.
Mannerisms
Don’t talk with a pen or chewing gum in you mouth. Doodling with a pen shows you are bored and distracted. Keep hands relaxed and visible. Avoid fiddling with mobile phones, jiggling keys, or drumming your fingers as this distracts from what you are saying.
Eye contact
Looking someone in the eye conveys interest in what they are saying. Looking down gives the impression of being unassertive. Avoid staring which is seen as confrontational.
Firm handshake
A tight grip suggests aggressiveness, a limp handshake indicates shyness or aloofness. A quick handshake tells others you don’t want to get involved. A longer handshake shows interest, but not too long and you signal more than business interest.
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From August 1st 2011 the UK Access Management Federation will be operated on behalf of JISC by a partnership of JISC Collections and EDINA, assuming the role of federation operator from JANET(UK).
Until July 31st 2011 JANET(UK) will continue in the role of managing operator, with the support from EDINA in its role as technical operator.
As the new operator from August 1st 2011, JISC Collections will be responsible for the enrolment of new members, both those who wish to join as service providers and those who wish to join as 'identity providers', typically institutions in education with staff and students.
The role of EDINA, who manage the metadata and provide technical support for the UK federation, remains unchanged and federation members will see no alteration to their service.
For further information contact service@ukfederation.org.uk
via Jisc news
In reaction to the devastating Christchurch earthquake the CILIP President, Brian Hall, offered these words:
“We send our best wishes to colleagues in Christchurch and across New Zealand, and hope that first and foremost they are all safe and well. We will keep UK colleagues informed and also broker offers of help as we hear more about what they need. One of the needs that people will have is information. We know that libraries can be crucial to this in a time of crisis and we know that librarians will be helping.”
Alli Smith, Executive Director of LIANZA (Library & Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa) made this announcement on her blog:
“Today, news of our Canterbury colleagues remains very sketchy. We have heard that staff in the National Library, Central City Library, Law Library and University of Canterbury Library have got out safely. Libraries around the city are obviously all closed. From the little information we have, we understand many people are dealing with damage to their own homes. Carolyn Roberston (Libraries and Information Manager, Christchurch City Libraries, and President of LIANZA) is working with Civil Defence today.
We are all stunned and of course anxious to know what is happening for our Canterbury colleagues and friends. At this stage I think we need to accept that with limited phone and power facilities, those on the ground in Christchurch are focusing on their immediate needs and those of their family and neighbours. The practicality of this is that people will be conserving battery power on their phones and computer for emergency use and I don’t think we can expect to get any detailed reports for some time."
For further updates, see Alli Smith's blog at www.lianza.org.nz
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Until the end of March 2011, CILIP sells two A3 size laminated copyright posters which advise on what may be copied safely under the ‘fair dealing’ rules in the UK.
Copyright directive
The European Information Society Directive, (2001/29/EC), also known as the Copyright Directive, was implemented into UK law on 31st October 2003 by the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI 2003 No. 2498).
In particular, this legislation makes changes to the exceptions to copyright which allow for self-copying or downloading using the defence of ‘fair dealing’.
Copying for private study
A major change to what the law allows under 'fair dealing' is that as far as copying for research or private study is concerned, the exception has been narrowed. People can now only use the defence of copying for research for a non-commercial purpose or for private study. Private study is now defined as not including any study which is directly or indirectly for a commercial purpose.
This means that from October 31st 2003 any previously issued Library Association or CILIP posters outlining the industry wide accepted ‘fair dealing’ rules, that you may have by your photocopiers, scanners, printers and computer workstations are out of date.
Where fair dealing, rather than licensed copying, takes place in organisations and library and information services, there may be some possibility that self-copiers infringe copyright. Should this happen, in order to improve protection for library and information services and their employing organisations, it is advisable that they display up to date posters about fair dealing copying at all these places in the library or information centre environment and also throughout their employing organisations.
CILIP's two A3 size copyright posters are updated to reflect this change and, until the end of February 2011, can be purchased by organisations based in the UK.
UK use only
These posters are only suitable for use within the United Kingdom and should not be displayed in other countries and CILIP will not sell them to overseas customers.
Permission to use text
CILIP gives libraries permission to copy the text of the CILIP posters so long as the integrity of the text is maintained and there is an acknowledgement to CILIP in an appropriate place along the lines of:
"Text © CILIP, 2003. The text is reproduced with kind permission of CILIP: The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals."
Click on the thumbnail images of the posters to view a larger picture.
The GOLD poster (left) is intended for display beside photocopying and optical scanning machines.
and 
The BLUE poster (right) covers downloading from portable databases and copying from the Internet and is for display by computer workstations and printers, etc.
These posters are also available in Welsh. Click here to view samples and order copies.
Price:
1 - 9 copies £6.00 each
10 copies or more £5.00 each
(Prices include VAT.)
Payment may be made by sending a cheque with order, or you may request a Proforma invoice to be sent to you on receipt of an order. Cheques should be made payable to 'CILIP'.
We accept all major credit cards. If paying by credit card please show on the copyright order form:
If you have any enquiries about purchasing posters please phone 020 7255 0527.
Download order form
Please send your order (and include a self-addressed label for despatch) to:
Copyright posters
CILIP
7 Ridgmount Street
London
WC1E 7AE
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We can take our onsite training to wherever you are - in the UK or overseas. Just simply get in touch or get a quote.
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Update on the School Libraries Summit 
Read the Summit update report for an update on the key action lines including:
School Libraries Summit
CILIP organised the School Libraries Summit on 26 March 2008. Activists from across the school library community met in London to identify issues, exchange ideas and agree an Action Plan. The Summit follows concerns about the impact of the Single Status Review on school librarians and the need to actively promote professionalism as part of CILIP's advocacy strategy.
Also agreed was the need to:
The Summit focused on the situation in England. The context and agenda are different in Scotland and Northern Ireland but there are similarities in Wales.
See also School Libraries Summit - resource list (updated Feb 2011)
For further advocacy information go to the school librarian and advocacy page.
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The CILIP Benevolent Fund helps colleagues and their families who have fallen on hard times or have been faced with unexpected financial difficulties.
Donate to the Fund
Download a donation form.
You can make a Benevolent Fund donation using a special section of the Direct Debit Form.
It can help with any unusual or unexpected expenses that may be causing anxiety and hardship. For example, urgent house repairs; the replacement of necessary household equipment; unexpectedly large heating bills which a retired member might find it impossible to cope with; bank overdrafts or other debts that have accumulated unavoidably on account of illness. These are only limited examples from the very wide range of difficulties which the Fund has been able to help resolve.
The Fund's help is given in the form either of grants of money or interest-free loans. Repayment arrangements for loans are agreed individually with recipients to minimise difficulties for them.
The Fund, as a result of its considerable experience, has built up contacts with a wide range of charities and other bodies, and has been able to supplement the help it gives members by additional help from these other bodies.
Help the Fund is not able to give
The Fund cannot provide a regular pension or regularly supplement a member's income, neither can it make very substantial grants as to do so would soon drain its limited financial resources and dispose of its entire capital.
Neither can it help librarianship or information studies students with tuition fees, accommodation or maintenance. However, CILIP has the Mitchell Memorial Fund that may be appropriate for such needs and it can also offer advice on other sources of assistance to students.
The Fund is a registered charity and as such has a Trust Deed, approved by the Charity Commission, which gives the Trustees authority to assist members and former members of the CILIP and their dependants. This includes former members of The Library Association and the Institute of Information Scientists who may not have chosen to become members of CILIP.
The Fund is a charity in its own right and as such is separate from CILIP, although its Trustees are appointed by CILIP Council. Its income comes principally from donations made by CILIP members, many of whom add a sum for this purpose to their annual membership subscription. The Trustees for their part also from time to time write to members seeking donations. If these donations are gift aided by members, the Fund is able to recover income tax on the sum donated from the Inland Revenue.
Members also make bequests to the Fund in their wills, and this has in recent years become an increasingly important element of its income. A separate leaflet - A Will to Help - giving advice on how this may be done is available from the Secretary.
A large part of the Fund is invested and this brings in further income from dividends and interest.
The Trustees meet on only three of four occasions during the year, but have made arrangements so that they can act immediately and urgently between meetings.
The usual procedure is for applicants to write to or telephone the Secretary, outlining their difficulties. An address and telephone number is given below. It is important to emphasise that the business of the Fund is conducted with strict confidentiality. With the agreement of the applicant, a visit is arranged to discuss the difficulty with him or her, and the way in which the Fund can best help resolve it. On the basis of this visit and the information derived from it, the Chairman , after consulting fellow Trustees, will take a decision, usually within a few days.
Requests for help should be sent to:
Eric Winter
Secretary
CILIP Benevolent Fund
7 Ridgmount Street,
London WC1E 7AE
Tel: 020 7255 0648
Email: eric.winter@cilip.org.uk
The Trustees ask all members to help them in the work they do, first of course by contributing to the Fund. Without this help from members the Fund would be unable to operate. You may do this by adding a sum to your annual CILIP membership subscription, or by completing the attached form and sending it with your donation to the Fund Secretary.
But we also ask members to look out for colleagues who may need our help, and to encourage them to approach us. Not only older, retired members but many younger colleagues in financial difficulty could benefit a great deal from the Fund, yet may not think of applying to it.
If such members are encouraged to make their needs known, perhaps life can be made a little easier for them.
Even a small sum given as a grant can be disproportionately beneficial.
Download a donation form.
Alternatively, you can make a Benevolent Fund donation using a special section of the Direct Debit Form.
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If it really takes off, the free schools policy threatens to overwhelm existing provision and segregate communities by teaching different faiths separately, says Warwick Mansell
It was a debate that may find echoes around England if the government's "free schools" policy takes off. Union members, gathered for a meeting of their local association, were asked to consider the implications of a document which, if the ideas it seemed to outline were to be realised, would dramatically change the face of state education in their area.
Under discussion at the meeting last week was a list of plans by a variety of organisations to set up free schools – semi-independent organisations said by ministers to be founded in response to parental demand – within the traditional boundaries of the local authority.
What sets this paper apart is the number of free school proposals it documents as potentially on the cards for this one area of London alone: 10.
Not only that, but a high proportion of the proposed schools – seven – are said to come from either Christian or Muslim religious groups. This raised the prospect, said speakers at the meeting, of a fragmentation of education within the borough according to the faiths of the children.
The borough is Waltham Forest, and the document suggests a large number of new schools being set up in one area in a short space of time, raising serious questions about the impact on existing provision.
Information on free schools applications is notoriously sketchy, as discussed in Education Guardian last week, and the union says its detailed information on the 10 plans for free schools in Waltham Forest was based on a leak from a well-informed local authority source.
It has only been possible to confirm that five groups on the list have proposals for free or new schools in the borough. However, this still represents a potentially large impact on provision.
The NUT's information includes data on three organisations that clearly have plans for new schools in Waltham Forest, according to their websites.
The Emmanuel Christian Centre, a church whose website features the strap–line "Loving God passionately", says on its home page "I think it would be a good idea to have a Christian school in Walthamstow". The website asks people to register for further information. Its school, says the site, "will have smaller class sizes and its focus will be on high academic achievement and good discipline".
The union says the proposal is for the school to open for nursery to 16-year-old pupils and that its business case has been approved by the Department for Education (DfE), although it is not on the government's published approved list.
The Noor Ul Islam Trust is a charity, linked to a mosque, which runs a well-regarded private school in the borough and other services. It has set up a petition under the heading "A new Islamic free school in Waltham Forest" which as of last week had 498 signatures. The trust says another 1,000 people have also signed the petition on paper.
The petition says: "The aim of the school is to offer an inclusive Islamic environment where children are encouraged to have high aspirations for academic achievement." The free school, which would eventually cater for up to 650 primary pupils, will open this September if the DfE gives approval.
East London Free School already has a website and plans to establish a 200-capacity primary school by September next year. A group of 15 teachers and parents, led by the education consultant and former maths teacher Hakan Gokce, is behind it.
Forest Light Education Plus, a company run on Christian principles that runs Saturday supplementary classes for four- to-18-year-olds in the borough, told Education Guardian that it recently submitted plans to the Department for Education for a small (one-form entry) all-age school with a Christian ethos. Its director, Jennifer Edwards-Ali, a teacher of English as an additional language, says the plans are being redrafted following suggestions from the DfE and would be resubmitted, with the intention of a school opening in September 2012.
She says: "Our goal is to give our all for children: to get them out of gangs and to pull them away from taking drugs."
Tariq Hussain, a committee member of the Waltham Forest Islamic Association, said the association was applying for planning permission to set up a new school, initially for five- to 11-year-olds.
The NUT document has information on five other possible free schools in the borough: two further schools for Muslim children, comprised of one secondary and one for girls aged five to 19; a school linked to a Roman Catholic charity called Marrian Mission; a school proposed by a group of science teachers; and one put forward by a group of local parents.
Marian Mission told Education Guardian that, although it had once had plans to set up a free school and had discussed these with Waltham Forest council officials, it now proposed to establish a more conventional voluntary aided special school for children with behavioural difficulties.
The NUT document says an Islamic-ethos school could be set up by a school called Lantern of Knowledge, a small independent institution in Leyton. But a spokesman says: "We have currently no intention or plan to set up a free school."
The Guardian has been unable to reach the other three groups linked with the other proposed schools on the list.
The free schools document was discussed last Tuesday at the NUT's Waltham Forest association. The meeting unanimously passed a motion opposing them. Rinaldo Frezzato, the association's secretary, said that 10 new schools in the borough would have a potentially "devastating" impact on existing provision.
Although there was a shortage of places in parts of Waltham Forest, such a large number would more than cater for this shortfall. So some of the new schools could in time replace traditional local authority institutions, which might face a struggle to retain pupils and therefore come under pressure to close.
Several of the schools listed in the NUT document could pose a threat to established provision by offering a more explicitly religious ethos, meaning that pupils of different religions could move towards separate schooling, said Frezzato.
"If these plans go through, there's going to be disruption to the cultural and social cohesion in this borough, with a consequent undermining of comprehensive education and the principles that our union has stood for for many years."
Pippa Dowswell, a teacher who spoke at the meeting, said the union respected the positions of religious groups. However, the notion of children of different faiths being educated separately was worrying.
"I think multiculturalism works very well here, in the sense of pupils being educated together," she said. "We need to emphasise to the Muslim community and others that it is good to have children of different faiths in the same school, and not to go down the route of sections of the community being taught away from others."
There is no guarantee that any of the groups will get permission to open schools in Waltham Forest, as the decision rests with the education secretary, Michael Gove. It is difficult even to identify which of them have submitted formal applications, since the names of any free school applications are not revealed until Gove has approved their business cases.
No institution in Waltham Forest is listed among plans for 40 free schools published by the DfE, although they could be among 218 free school applications received but not named.
The proportion of proposals listed by the NUT as having a faith-based element in Waltham Forest is higher than that among the national list of approved applications, among which 10 of the 40 seem to have a religious ethos. Critics have suggested that the faith-based element to some free schools bids sits uncomfortably with David Cameron's suggestion this month that multiculturalism had encouraged the development of "segregated communities". Official support for faith-based schools also grew under Labour, however, with more than 100 applications for religious organisations to run community schools approved after 1997.
Alan Smithers, director of Buckingham University's centre for education and employment studies, says the free schools policy suffers from the fact that no one, other than Gove, was being given a meaningful say on whether a particular proposal was good for an area as a whole.
"Enabling people to set up their own schools is a way of releasing a lot of energy into education," he says. "But the question the government has not answered is how are schools to form an education system that serves all children? If we want a national society which is strengthened by education, you do have to worry about the fragmentation that is taking place."
Aslam Hansa, office manager at the Noor Ul Islam Trust, which has been operating in the borough since 1990, says its school would be open to all and that it has spent many years supporting and promoting community cohesion in Waltham Forest. It runs after-school classes, youth clubs and a club for the over-50s, all of which are open to the whole community.
"Our projects have shown the locality that we can enhance and increase community cohesion," he says.
A DfE spokesman said formal applications for three free schools in Waltham Forest had been received. He would not, however, say what the projects were. He added that groups whose proposals were unsuccessful after initial application would never be named. "These groups will not receive public money and so there is no reason to publish them. This could cause unnecessary embarrassment."
He added: "The secretary of state will take into account all matters relevant, including the impact on other schools.
Local authorities would be consulted, he said. "It is important that any new state-funded academy provision meets not only faith need, but also the needs of children in the broader community, so only 50% of a free school's admissions can be made with reference to faith when a school is oversubscribed.
"We have also been absolutely clear that all free school proposals must be for inclusive schools and extremist views of any kind won't be permitted."
The only way for academics to cope with the pace of change in universities is to ignore everything
I've just come across a phrase that sums up my approach to university administration: "masterful inactivity". No matter that the phrase was coined to describe the British approach to venereal disease in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Now I'm no longer head of my department I can reveal the secret that kept me sane. Ignore everything. If it actually needs to be done you'll be reminded, and then do it immediately. But mostly, someone wants you to fill in a form because they have a form to fill in themselves, and by the time they have processed all the responses the person who ordered the whole thing has moved on, passed on, or forgotten. And so by keeping your in-tray so high you can't see over it you are saving everyone time and trouble.
But, I hear you cry, how irresponsible! In the ever-changing academic environment we can't be passive; we can't even be reactive. We must be proactive. Or maybe pre-proactive. Well, let's take this slowly.
First of all, I have to admit, change is the thing. Or at least, like Grease and Johannesburg, it is the word. Change is so important that a few years ago my university brought in a change management strategy. The main message was that before you change you must consult. Very good. And so, I asked, why wasn't I consulted on this policy? That held it up for a day or two. Not sure, though, that anyone has remembered to use it since.
In his writings on scientific laws, the Scottish philosopher David Hume asked what reason we have to believe that the future would resemble the past. Hume never worked in a university – he couldn't get a job – but if he was with us in the English education system now he wouldn't even bother to ask the question. We have achieved – in one way at least – something like Trotsky's vision of world communism: permanent revolution.
Why do we have to keep changing? Obviously because we are not teaching properly. Or researching the right things. Or bringing in enough cash from business or alumni. Or embedding ourselves deeply enough into the community. Or exchanging knowledge with the right partners. Or having sufficient impact. Or widening participation. Or ensuring that every student has the right visa. By way of penance we need to run round and round with bits of paper in our hands, and then fire off lots of emails.
I cannot deny that the environment is changing. How, then, can inactivity, however masterful, be defended? Here's a cautionary tale. Last year, Middlesex University, in the face of an international outcry, decided to close its philosophy department. Why? One of the arguments was that philosophy was funded in band D – getting the lowest government subsidy – and so it made more sense for the university to switch to taking more social science students who were funded at a higher rate in band C.
As a bit of proactive management, it seems to make financial sense. Except, as I noted at the time, this reasoning depends on the future resembling the past. Rather a rash assumption. It appears the coalition government has decided to withdraw all funding from most band C and D courses. Now, if the reason why band C received higher funding was that the courses are more expensive to teach, Middlesex made a spectacular miscalculation. In fact, depending on other factors, it now looks as if there is financial reason to boost recruitment in B and D at the expense of band C.
If the background environment keeps changing, you cannot predict the consequences of your actions. What looks like a smart move one year may leave you smarting the next. What do you do? Masterful inactivity, of course. It has two advantages. First, it doesn't waste your time. Second, if you cannot sensibly plan on other grounds, you should at least make sure that what you do is sound in intellectual, scholarly and pedagogical terms. And here, as Iris Murdoch once said about philosophy, if you are not making progress at a snail's pace, you are not making progress at all.
• Jonathan Wolff is professor of philosophy at University College London. His column appears monthly
Young people from ethnic minorities struggle to be taken on as apprentices. What is being done?
Ashley Thaw left school with five good GCSEs and designs on being a plumber. But his attempts to find an apprenticeship proved fruitless. "I must have phoned around 100 firms," he says. "I got an interview with a big firm, but the minute I walked into the place, I could tell they didn't think I'd fit in. I didn't get the job."
Michael Nyamekye left school with two A-levels, but his attempts to find an apprenticeship scheme were also unsuccessful. Over an 18-month period, he applied, and was turned down for, over 150 jobs and apprenticeships. "I was mainly applying for accountancy and administrative roles but, in every interview I walked into, I was the only black guy there. I was very conscious of the fact I was different from all the other candidates."
It is a familiar story, says Jeremy Crook, director of the British Training and Enterprise Group (Bteg), a national charity that works to improve education, skills and employment outcomes for black, Asian and ethnic minority communities.
There is disagreement about how many people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds are taking up and completing apprenticeships. Unionlearn, the lifelong learning arm of the TUC, puts the figure at around 6%. Recently released government data suggests 7%. Meanwhile, the National Apprenticeship Service (NAS), the government-led agency that works with employers to increase and promote apprenticeship opportunities, estimates 8%. But there is agreement that this is an area that needs attention.
According to Crook, employers' attitudes are part of the problem. Although there have been improvements in some areas (such as childcare and business administration), young people of BME origin are still poorly represented in areas like construction, engineering and hospitality, a trend that can be put down to "an element of racism", says Crook.
Linda Clarke, professor of European industrial relations at Westminster Business School, has carried out extensive research into obstacles for ethnic minorities in accessing vocational training in the construction industry. She says: "The reality is that many employers still want to work with people like themselves. So if they are white and male, the chances are they'll look to recruit similar types."
Educating employers is vital, says Tom Wilson, director of Unionlearn. "Unions are attempting to negotiate equality and diversity training for managers and to promote recruitment strategies that directly target BME candidates, for example in the black press. Employers should go out of their way to offer work experience and open days to BME pupils."
Young people's perceptions are also important, says Crook. "Some black or ethnic minority young people fear they won't 'fit in' in a workplace where their colleagues are predominantly white."
Thaw also believes not enough candidates are applying because they don't see role models doing the same. "Many of the friends I grew up with in Nottingham were brought up by single mothers and had no working male role models around."
But he thinks employers' behaviour is down to stereotyping. "There are so many negative images of young black men. I think some employers are worried about how it might be seen if they send a black guy round to a customer's house."
Crook points out that not only are young people from black and ethnic minorities under-represented in apprenticeships, those who do make it tend to be concentrated in programme-led apprenticeships (sometimes known as pre-apprenticeships). These are generally counted as apprenticeships in official figures, but they do not always lead to a job.
In employer-led apprenticeships, young people are paid by their employer and stand a good chance of getting a job at the end of the training. In programme-led apprenticeships, they start out with a college or learning provider, but many never manage to secure a paid apprenticeship.
Geography also plays a part. Crook explains: "In areas like Yorkshire, which has a strong history of manufacturing industries, there may be more apprenticeship opportunities, while urban areas, which have a bigger population of ethnic minority young people, tend to have far fewer."
Frustrated by his lack of progress, Thaw enrolled on a level 1 plumbing course at his local college, which without a suitable work placement was "less than useless", he says. A year later, when he still hadn't managed to secure an apprenticeship, he relocated to Surrey to live with his father, a self-employed plumber, who agreed to take his son on as his own apprentice.
Thaw, 18, now works with his dad four days a week and attends North East Surrey College of Technology (Nescot) in Epsom one day a week, where he is working towards a level 2 apprenticeship and is "once again, the only black guy in the class". Afterwards, he hopes to progress on to a level 3 qualification.
Nyamekye, who is now 23, was claiming jobseekers allowance for over 18 months before he heard about an opening at the outsourcing and asset management company Mitie, on their employability scheme, which provides paid training and work experience to young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. This led to a full-time job in sales and marketing.
"We can't emphasise enough the importance of mentoring for boosting aspiration and providing career guidance for people from a black, Asian and minority ethnic background," says Sandra Kerr, national campaign director of Race for Opportunity, an organisation (of which Mitie is a member) that is committed to improving employment opportunities for ethnic minorities across the UK.
The government has pledged to create 75,000 new apprenticeships over the next four years. But with plans to phase out programme-led apprentices, BME participation in apprenticeships could sink lower. Proportionally, BME students have already have been hit hard by the scrapping of the education maintenance allowance (EMA). Government figures from 2008 show that while 43% of all 17- to 18-year-old full-time students received EMA, 67% of Black African and 88% of Bangladeshi students were in receipt of this allowance.
Crook believes the NAS needs to do more."The NAS needs to show some leadership. Instead of setting ineffective targets it should be in dialogue with apprentices, employers and learning providers asking 'how can you help improve this situation?'"
But an NAS spokesperson says: "The National Apprenticeship Service strongly believe that apprenticeships should be open and accessible to all, regardless of gender, ethnicity, disability or learning difficulty. However, we do not have the remit to compel employers to recruit one potential apprentice over another. We are committed to a wide range of activities to promote equality in apprenticeships."
Peter Scott recently left his job as a vice-chancellor – a job that means different things to different incumbents
I was an accidental, exceptional (in the sense of different, not better), awkward – and, above all, lucky – vice-chancellor. From the beginning of 1998 until the end of December, I was vice-chancellor of Kingston University – 13 years at the head of a special university of which I am, and always will be, proud.
Accidental because, even after I moved out of journalism to go to the University of Leeds, I never imagined I would be a vice-chancellor. They were members of a strange tribe, idealistic and pretentious in equal measure, which I had observed from the outside when I was editor of what was then The Times Higher Education Supplement. At Leeds I had even carried out research on university leaders, again never imagining I would ever be one.
I was exceptional in the sense that most vice-chancellors are born and bred in the academic system. I was – and am – the product of a very different world, the chaotic and cynical but idealistic and sociable world of journalism (and, more specifically, of print journalism pre-Murdoch – another time and place, indeed). My rite of passage, as a professor and then as a pro-vice-chancellor, was very brief – five years in total.
And I was an awkward vice-chancellor, because I have always seen myself as a rebel, the boy who refused to join the Scouts and wanted to produce "alternative" magazines instead. I was always uncomfortable with being a leader – not in an intellectual sense (I have always loved argument – too much, perhaps) but in terms of the management "cult". Organograms, line management, performance reviews – they leave me cold.
But, above all, I was a lucky vice-chancellor. My time at Kingston coincided almost exactly with the years of New Labour. Although I hated New Labour's naive espousal of the "market" and its obsession with "modernisation", ie meddling, it turned on the public expenditure tap and kept it running almost to the end, and its core instincts – student growth and wider access – remained sound. In retrospect, the last decade-and-more will be remembered as good times for universities. In the public sector, like everywhere, the rule is simple: "you get what you pay for".
The New Labour years may also be remembered as a good time for vice-chancellors. In the last 15 years they have faced few serious external challenges. Even the introduction of "real" tuition fees created little initial disturbance. Why should it? The cartel was preserved, and the money was additional.
And in their own institutions they faced even feebler challenges. Senates (and academic boards) had been largely put back in their boxes; "big debates" had shrivelled into little squabbles. Even the famous "donnish dominion" of senior professors had been eroded. Governing bodies had yet to assert themselves, although ominously their grumbling got louder. And, in the middle, was the vice-chancellor, his (or her) power bolstered by senior management teams, executive deans and professional managers. There was no doubt who was in charge.
But times are changing. A scattering of vice-chancellors have been sacked, all special cases, of course, but nevertheless straws in the wind. The Browne-Willetts "reforms" are being used by many lay members of governing bodies as a "wedge" issue with which to prise their way more deeply into university governance. Price setting, market positioning – at last something they can understand after years of being kept out of the secret garden by the academics.
Even if these "reforms", like all the others, are absorbed by inertia, resistance or (more probably) the shock of their encounter with the real world, the damage will have been done. In the future, governing bodies will be on the front foot, not the back. The clever vice-chancellors have already got the point, and are no longer emphasising their own managerial rights, but instead sharing sovereignty with their governing bodies.
However, there is a second challenge – from student and staff activism, their resistance to the same "reforms". Vice-chancellors are not simply agents of their councils and boards; nor only leaders of executive teams. They also exercise – or should – symbolic leadership. They must lead the whole church – not simply today's students, but graduates and also future generations with their ideals still intact; not just today's staff, but tomorrow's and yesterday's. Universities have identities and personalities – and here I am thinking of values, even souls, not "brands" or key performance indicators.
I am not clear how well vice-chancellors are responding to this second challenge. At the end of last year, when the frenzy about the House of Commons vote on fees was at its height, there was a "war of the letters" – well, more of a skirmish. Vice-chancellors had to choose which letter to sign – the one urging MPs to vote for fees on the "cruel necessity" principle; a second letter totally opposing higher fees on the "here I stand; I can do no other" principle; and even a third that could have been drafted by Pontius Pilate.
A small band signed the second letter, although rather more vice-chancellors privately agreed (and told me so in quiet corners). Many more signed the pro-government letter, exercising what they no doubt saw as macho leadership. But many signed nothing – sometimes with the excuse they would need to consult their governing bodies and there was no time. Whatever view you take of the planned privatisation of higher education, it was not a stirring call to arms.
In itself, the business over the letters was unimportant. But maybe it suggested a larger dilemma: not just what kind of leaders vice-chancellors have become, but also what kind of institutions universities should be in the 21st century. All the pressures are to treat vice-chancellors as chief executives of large corporate organisations.
The first bit I have to accept. Universities have budgets running into hundreds of millions of pounds, recruit students in their tens of thousands and have thousands of employees. They have complex missions. Of course they need to be managed professionally and prudently.
But the second bit, universities as corporate market organisations, I utterly reject. Not because they should not be entrepreneurial, although their enterprise should be socially as well as commercially directed; not because they should not be responsive to the needs of their students and other "stakeholders" (ugh!). How else have we been able to build a mass system enrolling almost 2.5 million students, with a global reputation for research and innovation?
My objection is simply that I believe universities are an intellectual project that is composed of thousands of encounters in lectures, seminars, conferences and laboratories which, quite literally, shape and make our future (as individuals, as a community, as a society, as a nation, as a world). Some of these encounters are labelled teaching and others research. But they form an intellectual, and scientific, unity – worthy to be pursued by a university perhaps?
The primary purpose, now being dutifully described in those statements of public good that all universities must write under the new charities legislation, determine the role of the vice-chancellor. That role is an intellectual one, with strong social and cultural responsibilities. Its core leadership "competences" are empathy and imagination. Of course, vice-chancellors cannot hope to match the disciplinary expertise of their academic colleagues in anything but the narrowest range. Of course, contemporary universities have become impossibly diverse. But these simply intensify the challenge.
However feebly I met that challenge at Kingston, I was always aware of it. Making sense of these intellectual dynamics in a concrete social and institutional context is immeasurably more difficult than "re-engineering" or "re-branding". But why else would you want to be a vice-chancellor?
• Peter Scott is now professor of higher education studies at the Institute of Education
Britain's longest-serving headteachers explain why they believe it's right to stay put, bringing experience and continuity to their schools
How long is too long to be a school's headteacher? That's the question raised by the new edition of the Good Schools Guide, which finds that many of the schools it profiles have had heads in post for around a quarter of a century – and some, in the independent sector, have had heads whose tenure stretches back more than 35 years.
And why not, Helen Hyde – head of Watford Grammar school for girls – asks feistily. Her first day as head was almost 24 years ago, and since then many thousands of girls have gone through its portals. In an age when the education system sometimes seems obsessed with recruiting dazzlingly bright young things from top universities to parachute into headships, she says there's no doubt about it – experience really does count. "Having the same head in place brings a security to the school – pupils, parents and staff all feel safe," she says. "They know me well, they know I'm here, they know they can come to me. They know my standards and my values.
"Being here for a long time means I've been able to appoint staff who believe in what I'm doing here, which strengthens the ethos of the school. And I'm able to both share and learn from the experience, through taking part in conferences with other heads from across the country."
The danger is that a long-standing head outstays his or her welcome – but, says Hyde, she's confident she's neither in that position, nor is likely to be. "I'm not stupid – I'll know when I should be going," she says. But for the moment, aged 64, she has no plans to leave. "I'm staying ... and I'm not going to say for how long, because the pupils and parents would get upset and jumpy if they thought I was about to make a move."
Stability is clearly one of the big plus factors gained from having a head who's around for a long time. "It provides great continuity, and heads who've been in post for decades tend literally to be legends in their own lifetime," says Janette Wallis, senior editor at the Good Schools Guide. The phenomenon of what she calls the "headzilla" certainly isn't a new one, she explains. "It goes back a long time, to the days when some private schools were private businesses, run by proprietors who were the head for many years," she says.
Probably as a result of this tradition, the phenomenon of the long-serving head is stronger in the independent than the state sector. "You get some heads in independent schools who have been there for ages – for example, Norman Hale was head of Milbourne Lodge school in Esher, Surrey, for 50 years – and Lt Col Stuart Townend founded Hill House school in London, attended by Prince Charles, in 1951, and remained in charge of it until his death in 2002 at the age of 93."
One problem for schools that have the same head for decades, says Wallis, is that they can face problems when they do have to recruit a replacement. "The head almost is the school – so it can be difficult to find a replacement, and it's not uncommon for a school to have to almost reinvent itself after the departure of someone who's been there for a really long spell."
Unsurprisingly, given that it's more common in the independent sector, the Good Schools Guide names Clifford Vote, head of the independent Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts – a performing arts school in London – as the country's longest-serving. He says he's not surprised to hear it – during recent centenary celebrations, many staff, parents and pupils were shocked to see him on photographs dug out from the archives from decades ago. "They said I looked a bit younger in those days," he jokes.
But, like Hyde, he feels his longevity as head has been to Italia Conti's advantage. "I think when you've been at a school for a long time you're more able to see the wood for the trees – you have a very strong sense of what you're about and you know what's likely to work, and you have confidence about the decisions you take.
"Having said that, the crucial thing is that you have to be outward-looking – you've got to make sure you're not rowing your canoe up its own private creek, you've got to stay in the mainstream."
Dr Ian Walker, long-standing head of another independent school – King's school in Rochester, where he took the helm in 1986 – agrees. No one should think, he says, that heads who stay in post for many years don't have other offers ... it's just that they choose to stay put, because they love their schools so much. "I've been offered lots of jobs, but I'm very happy to turn them down," he says. "The pupils here are invariably lovely, and I can't imagine a place where they would be quite so great."
Wallis says that though she was aware of a number of long-standing heads in the private sector, what surprised her when researching the new guide was how many state schools shared the phenomenon. "I didn't expect to find state school heads who'd been around for so long – in the modern world, it's not something you think you'll find."
Roy Pike, head of Torquay Boys' Grammar since 1987, shares with Helen Hyde the accolade of being perhaps Britain's longest-serving state-school head. One point he makes is that, through a period of perhaps unprecedented change in the country's education system, he has been able to provide continuity. "I took the school into grant-maintained status in 1993, and then in 1996 we became a specialist school, then a beacon school and – in 1997 – a foundation school," he says. "We went on to become a high-performing specialist school, and then a leading edge school ... and now we're an academy. Every few years there has been a new phase, and through it all I've been here at the centre."
Pike, 62, says he'd never have expected, when he was appointed, that he'd still have the same job so many years later – especially as Torquay Boys' Grammar is the only school in which he's ever taught full time. "But it seems to have worked," he says. "When I took over, this was a moderate, coasting sort of school, and we've become very successful – we'd certainly consider ourselves to be in the top 20 boys' schools in the country." Another common trait among long-serving heads is that their schools tend to be successful.
Although understandably unwilling to be pinned down on a possible departure, Pike admits he feels his tenure is "drawing to a close"; and perhaps surprisingly, he doesn't think he'll miss his job too much when he does eventually move on. "The thing is that I'll be able to think I've done all I could – I'll have a sense of satisfaction which will be complete."
At Italia Conti, meanwhile, Clifford Vote says he has no plans to leave – but he hopes that, if he is hanging on beyond his sell-by date, someone will let him know. "I'd like to think someone will tap me on the shoulder and say, you're getting a bit doddery," he says. But he's hoping that won't be for a while.
Everyone wants schools to be held to account, but let's leave room for teachers to use their initiative, says Estelle Morris
An unresolved conflict seems to thwart all government attempts to forge a different relationship with the teaching profession.
For more than a decade, political parties have been shifting their policies and their rhetoric from command and control by ministers, to devolution to schools, yet this has hardly been met by cries of delight from teachers. Many seem not to have noticed the difference.
In truth, politicians from all parties can point to a long list of freedoms and flexibilities that they have given to schools and speeches they have made inviting heads to innovate and lead change.
Many teachers have seized the chance and lead what now would be thought of as some of our most successful schools. Yet across our school system, too many teachers still feel trapped by the demands of government and hemmed in by the requirements of regulators. The trust and freedom that ministers want to be at the heart of the next phase of education reform are proving difficult to deliver.
This unresolved conflict arises from the conditions successive ministers have attached to their policy of "devolving to the front line". They want to give power to professionals ... but politicians have others to answer to as well – parents, the electorate and employers, to name but a few. Their solution is to retain control of the accountability mechanisms – testing, performance tables and inspection – but free up the rest. The problem is that it's the accountability system itself that teachers say stifles creativity and innovation.
Both viewpoints are right. The greater the freedom ministers allow, the more they will depend on performance data to warn of failure or to identify success. Yet the tighter the government draws the measurement criteria, the more it drives decisions taken by schools. Education is full of examples of unintended consequences.
Take the last government's decision to place so much emphasis on GCSE level C and above. It achieved its objective perfectly. More young people moved up from grade D to C. But the same progress wasn't made by those with Es and Fs. Overall performance went up, but the attainment gap didn't close.
The same mistake is being repeated by the present government. Heads may welcome the new curriculum and staffing freedoms, but many will be overly influenced by the government's decision to make the English baccalaureate the "gold standard" performance indicator. You can already hear headteachers talking about what they need to do to go up in this particular league table next year.
The accountability system is an immensely powerful agent of change that will influence the actions of all but the most confident of heads.
We never seem to talk about this contradiction at the heart of the school improvement system. Politicians too often assume that anyone who raises the problem wants to get rid of testing and performance measurements completely, but things have moved on from the battle lines of 20 years ago. Most teachers want to debate how we hold schools to account, not whether it should be done at all.
Surely we should be able to use the power of the accountability system to drive our shared ambitions. It is the responsibility of government to set, drive and monitor the vision and the aspirations for the nation's education system, but ministers don't have the sole wisdom about how to measure our progress towards achieving it. We all want to close the attainment gap, stretch the brightest or show that we value creativity. Surely it's worth debating how we can measure progress in a way that doesn't stifle teachers' initiative.
The prize could be an accountability system for a modern public service; one that gives government and the public the information they want, but that also gives teachers the confidence and freedom they need to do the job we ask of them.
Lapdancing students, state school secrets, slippers at school
Last week, Rowenna Davis talked to students who were funding their studies by lap-dancing
I'd rather owe £50,000 than fund my education this way. As a result of my education, mainly funded by tedious, menial and no doubt less well-paid jobs, I conclude that lap-dancing perpetuates the objectification of women by men.
Tarantella via EducationGuardian.co.uk
• It's simply a better job than most. It has flexible hours, good pay, keeps you fit, is sociable. There are always boring shifts and sometimes horrible customers. However, you just call security and they are gone – if only it were so simple in the office world. It also creates opportunity. As an ex-dancer, I've seen it happen many times to girls from poorer backgrounds: suddenly you are getting money you never imagined you could have. A whole world of possibilities opens up. Now you can get an education, you can save, you can get out of debt, you can start to think about property and family.
MissEmilyVixen via EducationGuardian.co.uk
I was interested to read Janet Murray's article (State school secrets 15 February). Last July I also submitted a freedom of information request to the Department for Education to find out more about the procurement process the department had followed in awarding £500,000 to the New Schools Network. During the last eight months, the department has not provided the information, but neither has it refused to provide it. Instead, it has stonewalled both my appeals for a response and an instruction from the Information Commissioner's Office two months ago to respond to my request within 10 days.
The government has claimed it is committed to openness and transparency, but it would appear that in Michael Gove's Department for Education, secrecy is official policy.
Martin Quinn
Tavistock, Devon
• Your article reveals more than the lack of transparency surrounding free schools, it also gives an insight into the thinking of one of their chief supporters, Toby Young. I doubt very many of the thousands who oppose free schools are members of the Socialist Workers' Party. Young's attacks on elected shop stewards such as Nick Grant are disgraceful.
Gordon Vassell, Hull
• To dismiss those opposed to free schools in this manner is the sign of a man who knows he's lost the argument.
Shack via EducationGuardian.co.uk
• The Tories took the idea of free schools from Sweden. Free schools in Sweden are still under local education authorities. Discussions are more open here.
LiberalSweden via EducationGuardian.co.uk
Stephanie Northen (Why bog standard is a state of mind, 15 February) describes Holyhead high, opened in 1949, as " the UK's first comprehensive". However, the Nicolson Institute in Stornoway has eschewed a selective intake since opening its doors on 27 February, 1873. It continues to welcome all the young people of Lewis.
Paul Alldred
Leverburgh, Isle of Harris
Sofia Lockwood, six, wrote to The School I'd Like project, saying she would like to wear her slippers all day at school, and to eat her cake before her sandwiches at lunch
In Japan the kids and teachers wear slippers called uwabaki. Every school has an area of pigeon-hole cupboards where kids put their street shoes. This is a favourite place for leaving love letters. But why can she not eat cake first? Is this some rule in the school, and who enforces it?
HoshinoSakura via EducationGuardian.co.uk
Prisoners already have the right to vote – they just can't get out to the ballot box
The people who sit with me in my classroom in the prison are just like you. They are individual specks in a hugely varied society, just like you. Prisons are not full of rapists and murderers, and the hysterical rhetoric shrilling its way out of the House of Commons last week was both intellectually bankrupt and socially destructive. It is just silly to argue from worst case to general policy. Even sillier to sloganise: "those who break the law should not make the law". The electorate do not make the law, that is what MPs do, and of course none of them have ever broken the law.
"Most of us," said Ian, "are not in prison because we have done something vile, we are in prison because we've been convicted."
"And crime," said Casey, "is socially constructed."
"Oh come on," Steve was a bit down about the whole business, "why get stressed out about it?"
"Because it's worth it. They're saying, 'You're not like us, you're less than us, all of you'."
"When is a human being not a human being?" said Casey.
"If I get released on election day, do I suddenly become fully human again, magically, so that I'm worthy to vote?"
"Listen," Steve again, "fair enough, I don't count. And I don't."
"But that's not a good way to be."
"And I don't count when I'm on the out either. Most people don't count."
"No," said Ian, "you can't think like that. Did you see Question Time? The audience applauded when the panel talked about rehabilitation. Ordinary people, they don't want to grind us into the earth."
"Eighty odd thousand in jail," I can't remember who this was, "that must mean that a lot more have been in jail and been released. The way we're going, there won't be a working-class family in the land that hasn't had a family member banged up."
"Did you notice who it was who spoke about rehabilitation?"
"Who?"
"John Prescott. And what is he? He's a working-class person. All the millionaires were just heaping more and more opprobrium on us. Just attacking us. That narrow political elite that takes the piss out of him and won't invite him for dinner."
"Can't see them inviting us, either."
"Anyway," said Casey, "we do in fact have the right to vote. The problem is that the government won't give us the means to do it."
'"What?"
"Absolutely. If you happened to be out on a day's leave on election day you could go and vote. If you were in Cat D you could go and vote."
"If you were registered."
"That's right."
"Take a bit of arranging."
"But this is how silly it all is. If you gave prisoners the vote, how many do you think would do it? And then you've got the MPs voting that the government should break European laws. That's what this amounts to."
"'Those who break the laws should not make the laws'."
"You're damn right."
"We could invite him."
"Who?"
"John Prescott."
"We couldn't," Ade is looking round at our bare room, "receive him."
Then there was a certain amount of speculation about whether or not he would wear his ermine robe. I know who is going to have to write the letter. I know who will get the blame if he says no.
• Alan Smith teaches philosophy in a prison
Sussex University academic's tours of Brighton's murky past have been given a boost by new film version of Graham Greene's classic novel
Geoffrey Mead of Sussex University's Centre for Community Engagement is wearing his trademark trilby. It's black, matching his long overcoat, and endowing him with a suitably noirish appearance in his role as guide for a tour of Brighton's "Greeneland" – the area of town whose 1930s razor-toting gangsters inspired one novel and two films. The latest cinematic interpretation of Graham Greene's Brighton Rock has been increasing the demand for Mead's specially adapted tours of his home city.
Mead is well qualified to truffle out the hidden alleyways, the murky, unconsidered corners and the legacy of long-gone slums. He combines the knowledge of a native of 61 summers with the academic rigour of an MA in local history. He lectures on landscape studies and has just completed his doctoral research into the changes that occurred in and around Brighton during the inter-war years. His tour helps to explain how Greene, a Catholic convert, came to present prewar Brighton as a purgatory of cheap thrills and transitory pleasures with something literally and metaphorically deeper lapping relentlessly against its shifting shoreline. Also how a city that has a reputation for being open to trends and pleasures of all kinds hasn't changed quite as much as its outward appearance might suggest. "That mixture of glamour and sleaze, innocence and criminality is still there," he says.
Mysterious fires
The great old West Pier is no longer there, only its charred skeleton. Also gone is the luxurious Bedford Hotel, thought to be the model for the Cosmopolitan where Greene sets up the meeting between the suave London mobster Colleoni and Pinkie Brown, small-time local gang leader and aggressively precocious product of the crammed and stinking streets that once tumbled up the hillsides just off the London Road. "The Bedford, too, was a victim of one of Brighton's mysterious little fires," Mead reveals, having just retrieved his trilby from the effects of a powerful sea breeze as we approach the Palace Pier.
The Palace has changed beyond recognition since the 1940s when the Boulting Brothers first filmed Brighton Rock. So has the stretch between the two piers. Beach bars, clubs, restaurants and even galleries now line the front where mods and rockers once fought their pitched battles. In search of more period detail, Rowan Joffe, director of the latest film of Brighton Rock, chose to film in Eastbourne as well as shifting the action from the 1930s to the 60s. Mead can talk about that era with some personal experience. "I used to ride my Lambretta along the front in my fur-lined parka," he grins. "But my mum insisted that I wear a crash helmet and she made sure I was out of the way when the gangs came down from London on a bank holiday."
A formidable woman, his mother was a cleaner and his father was a lorry driver. Young Geoffrey passed the 11-plus but hated grammar school. Despite scraping five O-levels together, he left at 16 and took menial jobs in supermarkets. "But I loved walking on the Downs to get away from strip-lights and deep freezers," he recalls. "In 1977, I went to a night-school course on the making of the Sussex landscape and I was transfixed." Three years later, he made it to Sussex as a mature, unqualified student at what was then the Centre for Continuing Education. "I just fell into university life," he goes on. "I was being paid to read books and I loved it."
So much so that he went on to join the staff. Financial restrictions, including cuts in government funding for second degrees, have caused some universities to discontinue their commitment to continuing education. Sussex has chosen instead to change its emphasis. Along with degree courses, it also offers shorter introductions to higher education. As the new name suggests, the Centre for Community Engagement is a way of bridging the gap between the campus, the city and the county beyond. Mead was able to consult with colleagues such as Professor Fred Gray, an expert on the social history of seaside resorts, and his walks are a good example of how academics can shed new light on familiar settings for residents and visitors.
I find my knowledge of Brighton and appreciation of the novel enhanced from the moment we step out of the city's handsomely restored and soot-free station. Packed trains from London were disgorging passengers here on the fateful Whit Monday of the novel's gripping first page.
Greene was researching Brighton Rock as the slum clearance programmes of the mid-1930s were under way. Mead suggests that he could well have witnessed the demolition of streets that spawned Pinkie and Rose, the drab, doomed waitress who marries him. Now covered with social housing, these hillsides behind London Road would have been crammed with properties thrown up by speculative builders in the 1820s to accommodate the families pouring into Brighton from the surroundings areas. "There was a big Catholic-Irish population as well," my guide points out. Rose and Pinkie's Catholicism is the one thing they share with the author.
As we stroll back through the Old Steine, with its 1930s bus shelters, Mead reminds me that the ambitious Pinkie had moved away to the west side of town. "Then and now that borderland with Hove has always been a zone in transition; a place for drifters where nobody asks any questions; a place of bedsits and dark alleyways off handsome squares."
East side
We're still on the east side but, as if on cue, we come to a narrow alley behind the Royal Albion Hotel. A kitchen worker taking a cigarette break behind one of the restaurants on East Street eyes us suspiciously. This has evidently been a spot for nefarious activities since long before Greene breezed into Brighton. There's a telling contrast between its seediness, the crested frontage of the hotel and the welcoming interior of the restaurants.
I find myself contemplating one of Mead's observations about the British resort "with its veneer of sophistication" being a "vehicle for a shifting underclass". That's one thing that hasn't changed since the 30s, he would argue. "The geographical settings are backdrops to the story and not essentially part of the plot." But being shown around what remains by an academic steeped in community engagement can illuminate a 1930s novel as well as a film that reimagines 1960s Brighton in 21st-century Eastbourne.
Historical tours by academics are not on every university's list of essential projects, but Mead believes they make good adjuncts to existing courses and are also a way to engage a community in the work of a university.
"They are not for everyone to do as you need to be able to work in the open with no notes in all weathers, and importantly be a bit of a showman," he says.
Sadly, though, "community education in higher education seems to be a fading flower these days".
• Geoffrey Mead can be contacted at g.mead@sussex.ac.uk. His tours last around an hour and a half and cost £30 for groups of up to six.
