Crib sheet 28.09.10

Turning the league table on its head

We didn't have long to wait, did we? Yes, another university league table has arrived today – and this one comes spin-free from that most reliable of number crunchers, the Higher Education Statistics Agency.

It's a bit different from the others – it surveys the number of working class students at each of 150 UK universities. And so it looks pretty much like an upside-down list of university rankings.

Guess who's bottom? That's right, Oxford. Isn't this fun? Can you guess who's next? Right again!

The Russell Group can boast eight in the bottom ten. It's boss, Wendy Piatt, says: "We can't offer students places if they don't apply for them."

We've also learned, thanks to the Sutton Trust, that only the wealthy can afford to study arts subjects these days.

So that's the picture before Lord Browne drops whatever tuition fee bombshell he's planning.

Report card

Spending spree Jessica Shepherd has been finding out what the coalition's 32 new academies plan to do with the extra dosh they get along with their new status. Musical instruments and sports facilities are top of their shopping lists. Councils aren't happy because they say it's money that used to be spent on vulnerable children.

Who's the teacher? And Janet Murray has also been delving into the side-effects of the coalition's education policies. It's not at all clear, she says, whether free schools will have to employ qualified teachers. The DfE will only say "policies around free schools are still in development".

But who could forgot schools minister Nick Gibb saying he'd rather see an Oxbridge graduate with no PGCE teaching physics than a qualified teacher with a degree from "a rubbish university"?

Comment

Estelle Morris ponders who is likely to come away with the shadow education job – and explains why this role is suddenly a lot more important than it used to be.

On the margins

Could brain damage have any positive side-effects? Perhaps so – when it comes to gambling. It's all about what happens in the brain when you start to lose, according to the Improbable Researchers.

Plus: we have a preview of this year's Ig Nobel awards for research that makes people laugh… and then think.

Quote of the week

Emma Thompson gives today's young gels a proper telling off in the Radio Times:

"I went to give a talk at my old school and the girls were all doing 'likes' and 'innits?' and 'it aint's', which drives me insane. I told them, 'Don't do it because it makes you sound stupid and you're not stupid.' There is the necessity to have two languages – one you use with your mates and the other that you need in any official capacity. Or you're going to sound like a knob."

What you said

There was a flood of support for Sharon Wright, whose four years as a governor at a church school turned her into a fierce opponent of faith schools. Here's Aetrus:

"A huge thank you for this article.
Like you I discovered some time back that, while I am a Christian and believe in the redeeming power of God, organised religion as it currently stands is all about being an exclusive club that looks down on outsiders and lives by rules that are distinctly un-Christian.
The good news is you can believe in God without having to join one of the clubs. After all He doesn't care one way or the other."

It's well worth taking a look at the rest of the debate that this article provoked.