Posts Tagged ‘University’

Britain to have new private university

Britain is to have its first new private university for more than 30 years, it was announced today.

BPP, which offers business and law degrees at 14 sites across the country, will become a university college with immediate effect.

The title is awarded to smaller higher education institutions that deliver a limited range of degrees and qualifications.

The move – approved by the universities minister, David Willetts – signals the government’s desire to expand the number of profit-making private sector institutions in higher education.

Willetts said it was “healthy to have a vibrant private sector working alongside our more traditional universities”. This would create a “dynamic and flexible” degree system and could encourage online degrees, he said.

BPP which intends to offer healthcare and teaching degrees in future, will not receive public funding and will be allowed to set its own fees.

An increase in private universities could reduce the pressure on university places. Figures published this month by the university admissions service, Ucas, revealed that about 170,000 people will miss out on a place at university in England this autumn, as applications surged by 11.6% – a record high.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/jul/26/first-private-university-30-years

No progress in recruiting disadvantaged students to Britain’s elite universities

The indy reports

The finding that there has been no progress in recruiting more talented disadvantaged students to Britain’s elite universities is terribly disappointing. However, the report by the Office for Fair Access (Offa) – the university admissions watchdog set up by the last government – comes up with some interesting reasons for the failure.

Often in the past, as demonstrated by Gordon Brown’s outburst over Oxford University’s refusal to admit the former comprehensive school pupil Laura Spence, universities have shouldered the blame for the heavily middle-class composition of our top universities. But today’s report shows that the picture is more complex and that much of the problem lies in the schools themselves. Too often, pupils are pushed into subjects at GCSE and A-level that make it difficult for them to win place at the likes of Oxford and Cambridge. This can be a result of the pressure from exam league tables as schools strive to improve their relative position.
The suggestion from Sir Martin Harris, director of Offa, is that there could be another method of ranking schools, such as showing the destination of its former pupils. Michael Gove, the new Education Secretary, signalled his interest in such a move in education debates during the election campaign, so there should be no difficulty in introducing such a measure. Yet, in itself, this would not get to the bottom of exactly what subjects universities value (and do not value) when determining admissions. Universities need to liaise more with teachers at schools in the most disadvantaged areas so they can inform their pupils of the options they should aim for if they wish to seek places at the most competitive universities.

‘Pupils should take US-style tests for university entrance’

The Times reports.

Pupils should sit American-style university admissions tests to help tutors to discriminate between candidates, according to a review of examinations commissioned by the Tories.

The independent review, which says A levels are not fit for purpose, also recommends that universities be given a central role in designing the A-level syllabus to make it more rigorous and prepare pupils for a degree.

Sir Richard Sykes, former rector of Imperial College London, who chaired the 18-month review said the pre-university test would measure language, mathematics and reasoning skills.

“A university assessment test spans the entire population, irrespective of the subject that they are taking,” he said.