Stories + Views: University admissions

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Henry Stewart: Gove’s Abacc is Crude, Misleading and a Misuse of Data – Careers Advisers

The Institute of Careers Guidance has this week joined the critique of the new Department for Education (DfE) measure of 3 'facilitating' subjects (known as the 'abacc'). This measure is supposedly a test how well a school prepares its students for the top, Russell Group, universities. We have already pointed out how ridiculous the measure is, as the Russell Group ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Janet Downs: "The flawed "facilitating A levels" measure was announced in July (thereby showing a level of premeditation) and crudely used in January to damn state schools that performed poorly on this unecessary and damaging measure. Far from encouraging pupils to choose what ......"

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Henry Stewart: The Data Shows Anthony Seldon is Wrong

This week Anthony Seldon, Head of Wellington College, caused a stir by claiming that "public school students are being discriminated against" and "Positive discrimination in favour of state school people has become the hatred that dare not speak its name." There is no doubt that Seldon was reflecting a belief that seems widespread among private school parents and private schools, but ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Janet Downs: "In October 2011, the AQA exam board issued a discussion paper suggesting a points scheme factoring in whether an A level pupil had attended a disadvantaged school. AQA suggested that all A level pupils from whatever type of ......"

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Janet Downs: Why is the proportion of pupils from independent and state selective schools attending top universities greater than the proportion of pupils from comprehensive schools?

The proportion of pupils from independent and state selective schools attending top universities is greater than the proportion of pupils from comprehensives. This fact has been used to criticise comprehensive schools. But what are the reasons for this discrepancy? Possible answers are: 1 Independents and grammars have a sixth form curriculum geared towards entry to top universities. 2 Pupils at independents and ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by andy: "If you will forgive me I'll largely borrow from my comment made yesterday on the Sutton Trust thread, which I acknowledge you have also responded and flag up the Trust's reference to their top 30 universities: "Although statistics are notorious for ......"

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Janet Downs: Government finds support for linking pay to performance in Teacher Voice survey – but does it mean what the Government implies? And why did Mr Gove overlook the survey’s other findings?

Secretary of State, Michael Gove, is a strong supporter of performance-related pay – he says so in his submission to the School Teachers’ Review Body – and a recent Sutton Trust Teacher Voice  Survey revealed that three-quarters of teachers agreed that pay should be linked to performance. 52% of teachers agreed that Main Pay Scale teachers should have annual increments “apart ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Rebecca Hanson: "So continue to cap pay rises and run inflation. And start running education coherently and efficiently instead of pushing money into ludicrous pet projects...."

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Meraud: The only important thing, in the end, is to pull down the ‘wall in the mind’ and then help a child run with whatever they see beyond it. Good private schools do it with money, but I don’t believe that’s the only way.

The child of left-wing Oxbridge-educated parents (one of whom went to Holland Park...), I went to a very ordinary, run-down, unhappy 'comprehensive' during the mid-80s, when teachers' strikes were pretty ubiquitous. It was an ex-secondary modern, with many of the same teachers still there, and the narrow worldview and poverty of aspiration was tangible. It was a long way from ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Rebecca Hanson: "I don't know if you've worked through situations where staff are a barrier to students applying Tabbers. The actual reasons there are barriers are not so simple as 'inverted snobbery'. Different staff tend to have different personal reasons ......"

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Allan Beavis: Jamie Oliver criticises Gove for allowing Academies to serve unhealthy food

Two weeks ago I had lunch in my local maintained school. The food was very good, excellent even, when you consider that the kitchen prepared hundreds of covers every day, including hot food, salads, sandwiches, wraps and vegetarian options. The queues were a bit long perhaps, the children a little unruly and desperate to quickly eat and get out to ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Allan Beavis: "And, according to the report, 9 out of 10 Academies are offering unhealthy food to their students. It seems that Gove's trust in Academies to offer nutritious food to their students is misplaced and so his reassurances that Academies can ......"

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Ben Harrow: A-level reforms- asking the wrong questions?

After a long time, this is my first discussion thrown up here, so bear with me! I wanted to start a discussion about the prevalence and effect of re-takes in A-level exams today, and what might change if A-level reforms are brought in as a result of the Cambridge Assessment research, which I blogged about on Help Me Investigate Education) There are ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Ben Harrow: "Because I have a strong journalism background (including data work) and an A in A-level mathematics ^^. An employer in the know would realise that what you would study in a Mathematics degree would be completely irrelevant to manipulating data ......"

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Janet Downs: Should universities give preference to applicants from poor backgrounds?

Harvard political philosopher Michael Sandel leads a discussion at the London School of Economics on access to universities. He notes that any suggestion that English universities should consider the background of a student as well as exam grades is met with a storm of protest. In his discussion he tackles the meaning of discrimination, meritocracy, and the purpose of universities ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Rebecca Hanson: "I've been involved in this issues for a long time and was at the Westminster Education Forum where it was discussed in most depth. I've been involved in setting up and running an Oxbridge Access scheme which spans several schools and ......"

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Melissa Benn: Public education from ABC to Phd

Kate Tunstall of the Defence of Public Higher Education writes for the LSN website: "A number of groups and individuals from across the higher education sector have launched a Defence of Public Higher Education. We are campaigning against the withdrawal of public funding from the direct support of higher education (through the block grant scheme) and its use, instead, to fund a ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Janet Downs: "Alan rightly draws attention to a problem which so often goes unrecognised - that of small secondary schools, particularly in selective areas. In an area like Lincolnshire, the grammar schools cream off the top 25% of pupils. The ......"

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Janet Downs: Academics condemn government policy in open letter

Norfolk academics have issued an open letter warning that the Government’s policies will harm educational opportunities for students and adult learners.   They regret the scrapping of the educational maintenance grant and the imposition of higher university fees which they believe will have harmful long-term consequences for both economic growth and social cohesion. The academics wrote, “While it is recognised that deficit needed ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Rebecca Hanson: "There are some excellent article from that ATL in their back magazines which you can find down the left hand side of this page. http://www.atl.org.uk/publications-and-resources/report/may-june-2011.asp Here is just one example: http://www.atl.org.uk/publications-and-resources/report/report-2011/andy-brown-speech.asp I know there are some with more detailed and systematic analysis of education ......"

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