Tim Worstall

Research conducted by the Resolution Foundation, and endorsed by Willetts, shows that the importance of having a degree has increased over time, in defiance of the assumption that the more highly educated people there are, the less valuable their qualifications. In the noughties, the fewer qualifications you had, the harder it was to maintain good [...]

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They’re getting this the wrong way around again. Admittedly, these potential saviours are not unruly British adolescents but the 283 million girls aged between 10 and 20 who live in poverty in the countryside of the developing world. Study after study has shown that when they are given a better chance – above all, a [...]

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Every graduate in England and Wales will pay 9% of their income above £21,000, for up to 30 years, just as they would a graduate tax; below that, they will pay nothing. Irrationally from the government’s point of view these income-contingent loans are much less efficient than a proper graduate tax; at best, 70% of [...]

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So she’s raging about how because “free schools” and academies and the like aren’t all the same, are not some grey, uniform, controlled by the bureaucrats monstrosity, this is a bad idea. And then she lets this slip out: Free schools and academies enjoy a range of greater freedoms that will help them to pull ahead [...]

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Apparently there were some crusty student types camping out in part of Glasgow University. Ho hum, hadn’t heard a peep. Anyway, they’re claiming they’ve won and that this is wonderful for all. One of the things they claim to have proven is: From day one, our occupation sought to be more than just a protest. [...]

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It’s The Guardian, of all places, who actually managed to get this story correct in its opening lines. The value of holding a degree has been eroded as the share of the population with a university education has more than doubled over two decades, a study shows. Glory be, that straight old supply and demand [...]

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The number of degree students ending up in low to lower-skilled jobs has grown from 9pc to 17pc over the past 18 years, a fresh analysis by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has revealed. The increase is largely due to the number of people with a degree rising at a faster rate than the [...]

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My word, here really is a surprise. Man with cushy academic job complains about being made accountable to his customers.

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Reading these stories of being at Summerhill I realise just how truly libertarian the place is. Do as you please, as long as you’re not buggering it up for anyone else. Even so, I got a book flung at me for talking in class by our inspirational English teacher, an ex-army man. “You don’t have [...]

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As is now traditional, the newspapers illustrate the arrival of A Level results with pictures of toothsome young ladies leaping in the air in delight at hearing that they really have got into the University of Lower Neasden to study Needlework. It’s even said that certain schools tout themselves as having particularly toothsome young ladies [...]

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Research by The Daily Telegraph shows a sharp rise in the number of students aged 17 and 18 directly applying to leading companies after leaving school and college. Employers such as Network Rail, Marks & Spencer, Laing O’Rourke, the engineering firm, and the accountancy firms PricewaterhouseCoopers and Grant Thornton are reporting huge rises in applications [...]

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Math is hard, as Barbie said,  but could we try and get the arts people up to speed with simple arithmetic, just as a start? So, we’ve this awailin’ and a cryin’: Such debate as has been had about young people and their opportunities has focused exclusively on increased student fees and university numbers. This [...]

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It opens up the potential for schools, hospitals, social care systems and nurseries to fold without the government stepping in to prop them up. Labour called it an “appalling revelation”. Appalling revelation? But that’s the damn point! “This problem is mitigated if the system allows for provider exit as well as entry – and indeed [...]

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Michael Gove needs to get his research right on teacher training Only university-based courses offer the right blend of theory and practice By: John Wadsworth is a senior lecturer in education at Goldsmiths, University of London

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“In a recent survey, 20 per cent of eight-year-olds said that they had seen nudity online,” Lady Benjamin told peers during a House of Lords debate.

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Mary Bousted, the head of the normally moderate Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), told the Guardian: “I think the threat to get parents to cover teachers is just ludicrous, the idea that children can usefully spend time in school being baby-sat ups the ante even more. This is inflammatory and it is inept. Michael [...]

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Graduates with first-class degrees will be eligible for the most generous bursaries to teach shortage subjects such as science and maths, The Daily Telegraph has learnt. In an overhaul of the system of teacher training in England, ministers will announce the introduction of new personality tests – combined with tougher English and maths exams – [...]

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Research has consistently shown that black children, and especially black Caribbean pupils, are disadvantaged when teachers decide who should be entered for the top exams. Black children are most likely to be placed in lower teaching groups and denied the most sought after subjects regardless of their achievements, their social class and their gender. These findings have [...]

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Britain’s challenges require a wholly different mindset. The country has to rebuild itself economically and socially. It has to develop a good, long-termist capitalism with innovation, investment and engaging the people at its heart. But that in turn requires preconditions. Indeed it does. it needs a web of supporting institutions, regulations and processes, ranging from [...]

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Speaking before the event, protester Mark Bergfeld said: “This college will be nothing more than a bastion of the rich. It represents the full marketisation of higher education.” Err, yes? Another protester, who gave her name as Rosa, said: “It’s a symptom of the new system the Tories want to introduce where education is just [...]

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