Cribsheet 10.02.11

Willetts comes up with an Offa universities can't refuse

David Willetts has taken to the airwaves this morning ahead of government guidelines on widening access to university. He admits that the Office for Fair Access (Offa), set up to ensure universities give disadvantaged teenagers a fair chance of winning a place, has not been up to much - but he's about to give it teeth.

Speaking on the BBC's Today programme, he says he is now giving Offa real powers to ensure universities that want to charge more than £6,000 each year in tuition fees are giving places to under-represented groups - students from low-income homes, ethnic minorities and those with diabilities.

@public_uni tweets:

"The Office for Fair Access has a director, 3 full-time & 1 part-time staff. How will they possibly regulate all universities?"

It also draws our attention to this blog by William Cullerne Bown, aka @WilliamCB:

"If, come the next election, voters believe poor students are turning away from uni then tuition fees will continue to hang round Nick Clegg's neck like a burning tyre. Hence the government is moving now to defuse the electoral timebomb. This is what lies behind Clegg's media work on fees this week and the letter going today from ministers to the Office for Fair Access."

Universities UK, the umbrella group that represents vice-chancellors, says institutions must be allowed flexibility in how they seek to widen participation. And the director general of the Russell Group, Wendy Piatt, blames schools for creating a problem for universities:

"I think it is reasonable to expect universities to make every effort to go out and try to identify the students from lower-income backgrounds who are really bright enough to win a place.
"But I would be very wary of targets, quotas and fines, precisely because we can help with the problem, but it is beyond our power to solve this problem, which is about under-achievement in schools.
"It would be quite unfair to punish universities for a problem which lies elsewhere in the educational system."

@SchoolDuggery wonders:

"Is there a real risk that the top unis will go private if forced to comply with the access plan to their detriment?"

More education news from the Guardian

• A Leeds medical student tells us how an access scheme gave her the chance of getting to university despite her disadvantaged background.

• Almost one in six providers of childcare were judged to be "inadequate" and closed down after an inspection, says Ofsted.

• And watch out for a blog later today from the incomparable Fielding, ex-teacher and grumpy old duffer. He's on about "turning schools round" - here's a flavour:

"You'll need things like blazers and ties, Zero Tolerance, flash refurbishment, some fecund plant life, a water feature, a bit of Latin, a perky prospectus and some aspirational gibberish on the walls."

Education news from around the web

• The Telegraph reports that a Commons motion signed by 25 Tory MPs criticises Nick Clegg's attempts to make institutions adapt admissions criteria in favour of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds.

@newsthump tweets:

"NEWS! Nick Clegg slams universities for charging as much as he said they could."

• The Telegraph also has the news that Republicans in New Hampshire propose to encourage parents to use private schools by deducting $3,500 (£2,175) from their annual tax bills for every child they withdraw from a state school. Before Michael Gove gets too excited, critics point out there's nothing to stop parents taking their kids out of state schools and not bothering to educate them at all.

• The Local Schools Network reveals that academies exclude 82% more pupils.

"It is unclear why exclusion rates are so high but it is likely to be because, outside of local authority regulation, it is simply easier to get rid of troublesome students."

• @mikebakerhack flags up "interesting advice" from the head of Ucas to independent schools, telling them to broaden the range of universities their students apply for now that competition for places has become so fierce. In effect, she told them they must be more realistic in the choice of universities their students aim for - 50% of independent school applications apparently go to just 15 universities.

• The THE reports that universities in Australia, Canada and New Zealand are hoping to launch an "OER university". OER apparently means "open educational resources" which are available free on the web. The universities aim to draw together existing free learning materials from around the world and develop new ones to create whole degree programmes that can be studied via the internet for free.

• The son of Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour is set to appear in court today charged with violent disorder during a student fees protest, the London Evening Standard reports. Charlie Gilmour, a student at Cambridge University, is also accused of stealing a mannequin leg.

Extraordinary video of the day

This is fresher's week at UCL, back in 1960. How they've changed, we gasp. Not just the students, but omg the journalist!

The students, when they're not mouthing bright-eyed platitudes, have a moan about the beer and being told "not to join time-wasting societies like Filmsoc".

Insight into journalism seminars for teachers

A unique opportunity for teachers to spend a day at the Guardian, find out how a national news media organisation works and get ideas and resources that can be used in the classroom.

News 11 March Learn about the 24 news cycle; meet news reporters, feature writers, picture and sub editors; understand the role newspaper advertising; go on a tour of the editorial floors and take part in a workshop creating you own news front page which will be evaluated by an editor.

Multimedia 31 March Writing for a news website, web editing, blogging, the use of social media, video production; podcasting.

Places are limited and likely to fill up quickly, so book soon.

Competition

Children aged between seven and 14 can now enter the Young Human Rights reporter of the year competition, run by learnnewsdesk, the Guardian's online news service for schools, and Amnesty International. A winner and two runners-up in the primary and secondary school categories will win a trip to Amnesty International and the Guardian headquarters in London as well as an MP3 recorder. The closing date for entries is 14 February.