Quantcast
Channel: Education | The Guardian
Viewing all 37283 articles
Browse latest View live

Ucas orders inquiry into 'racial profiling' of UK students

0
0

University applications made by black students more likely to be investigated for fraud

The university admissions clearing house Ucas has ordered an investigation after discovering that its staff investigating fraud were far more likely to demand proof of claims from black applicants than white ones. Figures obtained by a freedom of information request found that last year, one in every 100 black British applicants were subject to additional queries by Ucas staff, compared with just one in more than 2,000 white British applicants.

The data, published by the Independent, showed that 419 black British applicants were asked to supply documents or further proof to support their applications, compared with 181 white British applicants – despite the total number of white applicants being 340,000 higher.

Continue reading...

Top 10 podcasts to help you learn a language

0
0

From videos in Japanese to news in German, language blogger Lindsay Dow recommends her favourite podcasts to keep you motivated and inspired while improving your skills

I became a language addict way back in the early noughties thanks to Shakira. Since then I’ve gone on to pursue a degree in French and Spanish with the Open University, and I’ve also studied Mandarin, Italian, German and various other languages along the way. With formal studying never quite being enough, I’m always looking for other methods to engage my language learning brain, podcasts being one of them. Here’s a few of my favourites:

Continue reading...

10 things teachers want to say to parents, but can't

0
0
The long school year is coming to an end and one primary teacher has a few things to share

• 10 things parents want to say to teachers

1 Your kids are not your mates

Something I'm starting to hear with worrying frequency within the primary school setting is "my daughter's my best friend". Often, this rings alarm bells. Your kids aren't your mates. You're their parent, and your responsibility is to provide them with guidance and boundaries, not to drag them into your own disputes. Your nine-year-old doesn't need to know about your bitter feud with his friend's mother, or which dad you've got the  hots for at the school gate. In the years to come he or she may realise that some of  their own problems (social alienation, in its various forms, being a prime example) might have something to do with exposure to that sort of talk at an early age. Continue at your own risk.

Continue reading...

Students: 10 ways to beat stress

0
0
If you're feeling stressed you're not alone. Here a student blogger shares her tips for reducing stress

Read more: my child is unhappy at university, what should I do?

Young people should have everything to be happy about, but as the generation with the least responsibility we actually experience the most stress. A 2013 survey by the Nightline Association found that 65% of students feel stressed.

Students juggle part time jobs with university, worry about assignments and stress about the future and how to make the next step. Trying to manage all these things at once can leave you feeling overwhelmed.

Continue reading...

Dear Sir, I'm sorry: letters of apology to former teachers

Teachers in UK report growing 'vocabulary deficiency'

0
0

Problem exists throughout primary and secondary school, leading to lower self-esteem and negative behaviour

Teachers are encountering increasing numbers of children with stunted vocabularies – haunting many pupils from primary to secondary school – and they fear “vocabulary deficiency” will hold them back educationally and socially.

In response some schools said they had adopted approaches such as highlighting pupils’ use of informal words such as “innit” and encouraging them to improve and widen their use of language.

Continue reading...

From a homeless hostel to vice-chancellor of Lincoln University

0
0
Mary Stuart has steered Lincoln to remarkable success – but her path to academic high office has not been the usual one

Lincoln has always sounded like a city that ought to have a university. It has Roman origins, a Norman castle and a cathedral. In the middle ages, the Lincoln diocese was the biggest in England. Its scholars had a national reputation and the city had the potential to develop into a centre of learning comparable to Oxford. It didn’t happen. And it didn’t happen again in the 1960s, when the government chose eight greenfield sites for new universities, but preferred York to Lincoln. That was how things continued almost until the end of the 20th century.

Now, though, Lincoln has a university of 14,500 students, occupying a campus among barges and swans on the city’s waterfront, overlooked by restaurants and entertainment venues. Nearly all the university league tables rank Lincoln in the top half. In the Guardian’s University Guide 2018, it comes sixth for students’ satisfaction with their courses. It got a gold in the first teaching excellence framework, a distinction that eluded Durham, Bristol and Manchester.

Continue reading...

Revealed: Secret rightwing strategy to discredit teacher strikes

0
0
  • Manual provides ‘dos and don’ts’ for how to smear the strikes
  • Top of the list: ‘teacher strikes hurt kids and low-income families’

A nationwide network of rightwing thinktanks is launching a PR counteroffensive against the teachers’ strikes that are sweeping the country, circulating a “messaging guide” for anti-union activists that portrays the walkouts as harmful to low-income parents and their children.

The new rightwing strategy to discredit the strikes that have erupted in protest against cuts in education funding and poor teacher pay is contained in a three-page document obtained by the Guardian. Titled “How to talk about teacher strikes”, it provides a “dos and don’ts” manual for how to smear the strikers.

Continue reading...

Digital innovation: award winner and runners up

0
0

An overhaul of video tutorials by the Open University has made lessons more accessible for disabled students

Category supported by Studiosity

Continue reading...

Employability and entrepreneurship: award winner and runners up

0
0

Falmouth University’s photography agency allows students to get industry experience and earn money

Winner: Falmouth University
Project: MAYN Creative, student photography agency

MAYN Creative is a photography agency based within Falmouth University.

Continue reading...

Internationalisation: award winner and runners up

0
0

In the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, University of Central Lancashire welcomed more than 700 medical students and staff from Sint Maarten

Winner: University of Central Lancashire
Project: From Devastation to Preston

In September 2017, Hurricane Irma had a devastating impact on Sint Maarten, the Dutch-French island where American University of the Caribbean (AUC) medical students were due to complete their first two years of pre-clinical medical school. With no power or running water and major damage to the physical infrastructure of the campus and the island, the university was left homeless.

Continue reading...

Advancing staff equality: award winner and runners up

0
0

Research by academics at the University of Strathclyde is helping advance trans equality in colleges and universities across the UK


Continue reading...

Business collaboration: award winner and runners up

0
0

Heriot-Watt University is using robotics research to tackle the challenges facing the offshore energy industry

Winner: Heriot-Watt University
Project: Offshore robotics for certification of assets hub

The offshore energy industry faces significant challenges: low oil prices, expensive decommissioning processes, and small margins on the price of offshore renewable energy. Its workforce is ageing, and the new generation of graduates do not want to work in hazardous, offshore spaces. Academics and business came together to solve this problem, drawing on research progress in the field of robots.

Continue reading...

Course and curriculum design: award winner and runners up

0
0

An intensive two-week programme helps new students settle in at the University of Huddersfield

Winner: University of Huddersfield
Project: The flying start initiative

Flying Start is an introduction to undergraduate study that helps raise aspirations and encourages new students to build connections with friends and tutors. The first programme ran in September 2017, when 900 students attended an intensive 9-5 fortnight-long timetable.

Continue reading...

Buildings that inspire: award winner and runners up

0
0

The University of Hull’s Allam medical allows doctors, nurses and midwives to train together in a simulated hospital ward

Winner: University of Hull
Project: Allam medical building

The University of Hull’s £25 million Allam medical building has transformed the way the university teaches the next generation of health professionals.

Continue reading...

Widening access and outreach: award winner and runners up

0
0

Birkbeck academics have welcomed mature asylum seekers to the university, providing access to education and advocacy support

Winner: Birkbeck, University of London
Project: The Compass Project

In mid-2016, the news agenda was dominated by stories of migrants and refugees making long and dangerous journeys to Europe. Stories of people reaching the UK but facing an uncertain future prompted debate across the higher education sector.

Continue reading...

Minister vows to focus 'laser-like' on vice-chancellor pay

0
0

MPs told steps being taken to remove university leaders from renumeration committees

The universities minister, Sam Gyimah, has pledged to focus “laser-like” on the issue of vice-chancellor pay during questioning from MPs.

He was giving evidence to the education select committee as part of its inquiry into value for money in higher education amid mounting concern about the inflated salaries of university leaders and the growing debts burden on graduates.

Continue reading...

Guardian University Awards 2018: the winners

0
0

Now in their sixth year, the Guardian University Awards recognise the universities that inspire students and transform communities

Teaching students in creative ways, expanding the limits of human knowledge with blue-skies research and turning big ideas into products and services that improve lives: there aren’t many institutions with a to-do list as long as most universities.

The Guardian University Awards 2018 are all about celebrating the multi-faceted institutions that UK universities are, and the innovative ways they’re updating themselves to meet the demands of an inclusive, diverse, digital world.

Perhaps fittingly, social and community impact was the category with the highest number of submissions this year. The winning submission, from Swansea University, helped plug gaps in local NHS services with an open clinic run by staff and students.

Following closely behind on submission numbers was the student experience category, which was awarded to the University of Surrey for its in-house student lettings agency, aimed at tackling high rents in the local area.

Continue reading...

The school that shows good food is not just for posh kids | Aditya Chakrabortty

0
0
In England’s poorest town, schools are teaching their children to embrace a healthy diet. Our new economics series looks at the lessons from Oldham

• Listen to Aditya Chakrabortty talking about game-changing economic models on The Alternatives podcast

Should you ever need cheering up, I can recommend 11am at Stanley Road primary in Oldham. That’s when lunch starts for the youngest children and it is pure excitement; the kind you used to have when horizons were short, days were long and nothing else needed bothering about. First comes the babble of voices, far bigger than the little bodies that follow, swaddled in plump anoraks despite the sun outside. They take crockery, these four- and five-year-olds who, back in September, didn’t know how to hold a knife and fork – and get down to the serious business of choosing.

Behind the counter stands Sheena Fineran: black hat, big specs, magenta polo and, after 30 years as a dinner lady, in complete mastery of her domain. “When I started, it was lumpy mash. It was liver. It was cheap, fried, nasty food.

Continue reading...

Could you pass maths GCSE?

0
0

Try your hand at a selection of the kind of questions teenagers faced in this year’s GCSE mathematics exam

They say that after leaving school people continue to have anxiety dreams about facing exams for the rest of their life. Now’s your chance to relive that horror, by tackling the type of questions set to test the mathematics knowledge of England and Wales’s 15- and 16-year-olds.

Sadly, in order to make the questions work online, we are not able to present the most complicated ones – and we have got to give you multiple choice options for the answers. And unlike real students, you do not have to show your working. Although you can always post it in to us if you feel so inclined.

Continue reading...
Viewing all 37283 articles
Browse latest View live




Latest Images