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Reino Unido: Can British universities make the most of May’s new industrial strategy?

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Europa/ Reino Unido/Enero 2017/Noticias/https://theconversation.com/

The UK government has given universities something to sink their teeth into. Prime Minister Theresa May’s plan for a national industrial strategy offers the higher education sector an excellent opportunity to bring precision to the project, and to emphasise its role in a 21st century knowledge economy.

This industrial strategy is positive. It recognises that the UK must become more innovative and build on its world-leading science base; that it must develop its skills-base; that it must create the right institutions to bring together sectors and places; and that it must cultivate its world-leading sectors.

It is worth remembering that all of these things are universities’ core business. And the consultation that will now help shape the policy should be a moment to make that point vigorously. Universities must argue that it makes little sense to create new institutions for innovation, and to bring entrepreneurs and innovators together, when in most cities, and all regions, universities already do some of this.

Certainly, there is room for our academic institutions to do more – for a start, leadership teams should listen to local and regional businesses about what else is needed. But the best place for innovation is where people with different skills come together. If universities build on their existing relationships with employers, skills organisations and further education colleges, then they could form a network of ideal hubs.

At the heart of things? Thomas Hawk/Flickr, CC BY-NC

Taking the lead

The government seems to draw a sharp distinction between academic and technical education. This distinction is not one we should allow to gain currency and it is becoming increasingly irrelevant anyway. Some of the most august institutions have always taught “technical” subjects like engineering and medicine and engaged in partnerships with business and industry.

Evidence suggests that one of the best routes to long-term increases in productivity is through more highly-skilled graduates. The problems the UK faces, then, are two-fold. First, it must develop more flexible routes to university so that more people can access the opportunities on offer at appropriate stages of their lives. Second, universities must offer the right courses to develop the skills employers need and deliver those courses in more accessible ways. Take the example of Degree Apprenticeships, designed to develop the skills of those who want to combine work and study. You will start to see more of these in the next academic year.

There are other ways that universities are already addressing other aspects of this. Portsmouth’s University Technical College is focused on engineering and is run in partnership with the Royal Navy, Portsmouth City Council, and the defence firms BAE Systems and QinetiQ. And there are plenty of other University Technical College’s around the country doing similar work.

Getting serious about teaching engineering. NASA HQ PHOTO/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND

Changes to higher education – in particular the removal of student number controls – are also causing universities to reform their offer to students. Creativity is vital to economic success in a knowledge economy and for this students must learn to become comfortable collaborating with others on subjects outside their academic specialism. One key element will be more diverse options, so English literature students can take courses in computer programming and engineers can study philosophy. Narrow over-specialisation is one of the curses of England’s education system and it risks re-inforcing this if it focuses only on STEM subjects and technical education as do the industrial strategy proposals.

The goal for universities must be to offer more routes to higher education to people who currently do not go to university and improve the all-round education of those who do, all the while improving partnerships with employers. Not only are universities capable of doing this but utilising their expertise will be more cost-effective. The sector would certainly be able to deliver improvements sooner than the government’s plan to spend £170m to create new and untried “Institutes of Technology”.

Seeking promotion

Universities also need to convince the government to join the dots between an industrial strategy and its higher education policies. The government wants the UK to be better at commercialising its world-class, basic research. But the next assessment of universities’ research will require them to include all academic staff, rather then being able to exclude some people as they have previously. That will have the effect of making universities re-balance their staff’s priorities so that there is more focus only on peer-reviewed research and less on outward-facing activities like business collaborations.

May has effectively issued a challenge to universities. EPA/WILL OLIVER

The plan for the Prime Minister’s industrial strategy talks about “cultivating” certain sectors: life sciences, low carbon vehicles and others. Universities are themselves a world-leading export sector which will play a huge role in delivering Theresa May’s strategy.

However, talk of “cultivating” the competitive advantage of UK universities is notably absent in the government’s rhetoric around the Higher Education and Research Bill. If universities are to compete globally, they need the right support to strengthen their brand. Implied threats on international student numbers, for instance, do nothing but help their competitors.

None of this should hide the challenges that Britain’s new industrial strategy presents to the university sector. It does need to do more to equip its students with the right skills, to open its doors wider to all who can benefit from a university education, and to close the gap between its rhetoric and the reality about its role in local and regional economies. It now has an opportunity to show that it can and will do this.

Fuente:

https://theconversation.com/can-british-universities-make-the-most-of-mays-new-industrial-strategy-71829

Fuente imagen:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/KKWTXNmHfm-ZszfaTX57K3caVVsYC5UElaZNaQXi1VOY2Fl4_DZPGlV6842-vKewDCv2=s85

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Racismo en la Universidad de Londres: Alumnos piden que no se estudie a los filósofos blancos

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Reino Unido/Enero de 2017/Actuall

El sindicato de estudiantes de la Escuela de Estudios Orientales y Africanos de la Universidad de Londres exige la retirada del currículo de los filósofos blancos y que se enseñe en su lugar a pensadores de África y Asia.

Uno de los lugares en los que la plaga de la corrección política ha cosechado mayor éxito ha sido en la universidad. El ámbito educativo ha sido utilizado por el poder como campo de pruebas de su arsenal ideológico, esto es, del pensamiento progresista en todas sus variantes.

Una de ellas es el multiculturalismo, aunque en realidad no se estudie en plano de igualdad, sino favoreciendo unas culturas en detrimento de otras. Es el caso del sindicato de estudiantes de la Escuela de Estudios Orientales y Africanos (SOAS) de la Universidad de Londres, que exige la retirada del currículo de los filósofos blancos y que se enseñe en su lugar a pensadores de África y Asia.

Es un caso flagrante de racismo pero también de relativismo porque la aplastante mayoría de los filósofos más importante de la historia (Aristóteles, Platón, Sócrates, Kant, Descartes, Nietzsche…) son blancos. Y es que lo que estos alumnos reclaman no es estudiar a los filósofos negros en plano de igualdad a los blancos -más allá del peso filosófico-, sino directamente eliminar a los blancos.

Y si hay que estudiar a los filósofos blancos, sostienen los estudiantes de este sindicato, hay que hacerlo con un enfoque crítico. No hay que olvidar que el SOAS es la facultad europea más prestigiosa en estudios sobre Asia, África y Oriente Medio.

Con permiso para abandonar el aula

Por ello no es casualidad que el líder estudiantil que ha presentado la reclamación se llama Ali Habid, de origen árabe. El sindicato de estudiantes ya ha reconocido que su objetivo para 2017 es “descolonizar el SOAS y abordar el legado cultural y epistemológico del colonialismo dentro de nuestra universidad”.

Esta plaga de lo políticamente correcto también ha echado raíces en la Universidad de Glasgow, que a partir de ahora avisará a los estudiantes de primer curso de Teología de que las imágenes de la crucifixión pueden resultar “incómodas o preocupantes”.

De esta forma los alumnos del curso “De la creación al Apocalipsis. Introducción a la Biblia. Nivel 1” podrán incluso abandonar el aula antes de contemplar imágenes de la crucifixión,  ya sean de cuadros históricos o de películas religiosas. “Los alumnos podéis dejar la clase en cualquier momento en que lo necesitéis, pero por favor, informarnos más tarde a lo largo de ese día sobre cómo estáis”, les pide la universidad.

Fuente: http://www.actuall.com/educacion/racismo-en-la-universidad-de-londres-alumnos-piden-que-no-se-estudie-a-los-filosofos-blancos/

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Reino Unido: Top London universities under threat from Government reforms

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Reino Unido/Enero de 2017/Fuente: Evening Standard

RESUMEN: Más de 180 destacados académicos de las principales instituciones de educación superior de Londres se unieron hoy para advertir que las reformas gubernamentales pueden socavar las grandes universidades de la capital. Los cambios en la forma en que se organizan y evalúan las universidades podrían dañar la estatura de Londres y disuadir a los estudiantes, especialmente a los extranjeros, de elegir estudiar aquí, afirman. El ataque se produce el día en que el proyecto de ley de educación superior e investigación, dirigido por el ministro Jo Johnson, entra en la etapa de comité en la Cámara de los Lores, donde se enfrenta a un duro paseo de sus compañeros. Unos 185 académicos de Londres de instituciones como Imperial College London, LSE, UCL y la Universidad de Kingston expusieron sus preocupaciones en una carta al Evening Standard, en la cual advirtieron: «El Bill corre el riesgo de socavar todo lo que hemos construido recientemente en Londres».

More than 180 top academics from London’s leading higher education institutions today united to warn that government reforms risk undermining the capital’s great universities.

Changes to the way universities are organised and assessed would damage London’s stature and deter students, particularly those from overseas, from choosing to study here, they claim.

The attack comes on the day the Higher Education and Research Bill, piloted by minister Jo Johnson, goes into committee stage in the House of Lords, where it faces a rough ride from peers.

Some 185 London academics from institutions including Imperial College London, the LSE, UCL and Kingston University set out their concerns in a letter to the Evening Standard, in which they warned: “The Bill risks undermining everything we have recently built up in London.”

London, they said, is a “global education powerhouse” with four of the world’s top 40 universities, earning £6 billion annually and supporting 150,000 jobs.

Among criticisms of the Bill are that it will threaten the ancient freedoms of existing universities and allow new institutions without long track records to award degrees.

Baroness Wolf, the Sir Roy Griffiths Professor of public sector management at King’s College London, said plans for a gold, silver and bronze award would be skewed against London because it would draw heavily on whether students were satisfied with their experience.

She said: “Any survey of the ‘student experience’ will find that large universities in big cities do less well than campus universities or small cosy colleges.

“Students have a mass of reasons to come to top London universities; but they won’t have the same student lifestyle, the tight year groups, the student societies on their doorsteps.

“London is expensive, students — and academics — are scattered. Other countries, like Holland, report the same thing — big city universities get lower ratings.”

Sean Wallis, an academic at UCL who helped to organise the letter, said: “If the UK higher education sector was in crisis, Jo Johnson’s Bill would have merit.

«On the contrary, it’s one of Britain’s few world-leading industries, mostly because governments of every stripe have recognised that universities flourish when they are free from political interference.

“The Government’s proposals would damage the entire sector and London in particular.”

A Department for Education spokesman said: “We want more young people to have the opportunity to access a high-quality university education, and the measures proposed in the Higher Education and Research Bill are critical to making this possible.

“The Bill will protect and enshrine the autonomy and academic freedom of Higher Education institutions in law. And it puts students at the heart of the system, with the Office for Students making universities rightly more accountable to their students so they get the best value for money.

“The new Teaching Excellence Framework will drive up the standards of teaching by assessing universities on key metrics including drop-out rates, progression to highly skilled employment and student feedback as well as an explicit criterion that rewards rigour and stretch in teaching. There is no quota on the number of universities that can be awarded the highest rating of Gold and almost all English universities, including those in the Russell Group, have confirmed that they intend to take part in the second year.

«Since the introduction of the Bill last May, we have been listening carefully to the views of students, universities, academics and parliamentarians and have tabled amendments to the Bill based on their feedback.‎»

Fuente: http://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/top-london-universities-under-threat-from-government-reforms-a3436076.html

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Reino Unido: Revealed the most expensive universities to study at in the UK

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Reino Unido/Enero de 2017/Autor: harry Yorke/Fuente: The Telegraph

RESUMEN: Con el plazo UCAS para las solicitudes de pregrado que se aproxima rápidamente, los estudiantes que estudian hasta dónde puede estudiar pueden no ser conscientes de que la universidad de su elección podría resultar mucho más costosa de lo esperado. Desde la implementación del nuevo sistema de préstamos estudiantiles en 2012, los estudiantes ahora están saliendo de la universidad con deudas con un promedio de £ 44,000. Pero de acuerdo con una nueva investigación compilada por el sitio web de comparación de precios Go.compare.com, el precio asociado a algunos grados puede variar enormemente dependiendo de la institución y la ubicación. Calculado en base a los costos de matrícula, alojamiento, viajes y otros gastos cruciales relacionados con el estudio requeridos durante el curso de un título universitario, la investigación, titulada Degree of Value, encontró que Regent’s University London era la institución más cara para estudiar en el Reino Unido, con el grado medio que pone a estudiantes a £ 38,854 anualmente.

With the UCAS deadline for undergraduate applications fast approaching, students weighing up where to study may not be aware that the university of their choice could prove far more costly than expected.

Since the implementation of the new student loan system in 2012, students are now leaving university with debts averaging £44,000.

But according to new research compiled by the price comparison website Go.compare.com, the price tag attached to some degrees can vary enormously depending on both the institution and location.

Calculated based on the costs of tuition, accommodation, travel and other crucial study-related expenses required during the course of an undergraduate degree, the research, entitled Degree of Value, found that Regent’s University London was the most expensive institution to study at in the UK, with the average degree setting students back £38,854 annually.

In total, eight of the ten most expensive universities were found to be in London, including Imperial College London and the Royal College of Music, with undergraduates facing costs of £26,682 and £26,518 respectively.

Located within Regent’s Park, Regent’s University London was also found to be the most expensive university for accommodation, with the average cost of first year halls amounting to £12,948 annually.

Academic texts and materials were priciest at the University of the Arts London, at £1,044 a year, while the University of Oxford was the considered the dearest for food, at £3,378 annually.

The UK’s oldest university was also found to be the more expensive of the two Oxbridge institutions, with the cost of accommodation making Oxford £4,494 more expensive than its age-old rival the University of Cambridge.

On the other end of the spectrum, Scottish universities Abertay and the University of Stirling were found to be the cheapest places to study, with the average degree costing £15,880 and £16,030 respectively.

The findings reveal a clear disparity in the price of higher education depending on where universities are located, with some London-based students paying up to £68,022 more than their Scottish counterparts over the duration of a typical three-year course.

While the survey did not take the quality of teaching or the reputation of universities into account, Loughborough University and the University of Warwick – ranked the 7th and 8th best universities in the UK – were listed among the 10 cheapest institutions, suggesting that the price of a degree does not necessarily equate to a better qualification.

Fuente: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2017/01/03/revealed-expensive-universities-study-uk/

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Reino Unido: Brexit and Robots Mean Trouble for UK’s Future

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Europa/Reino Unido/02 Enero 2017/Fuente y Autor: sputniknews

Resumen: La inminente secesión de la Unión Europea y el aumento de la robótica y la automatización hacen que el Reino Unido se enfrente a una década de bajo crecimiento, pérdida de empleos y la ampliación de la desigualdad de ingresos.

Impending secession from the European Union and the rise of robotics and automation mean the UK faces a decade of low growth, job losses and widening income inequality, a report has forecasted.

The Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) report offers an ominous prognosis of the UK’s near-term future, dubbing Brexit the «firing gun» on a decade of disruption. In years to come, an ever-accelerating wave of socioeconomic and technological change will reshape the country, in often «radical» ways, the think tank foresees. In the meantime, the report suggests that outside the EU, the average British household will be £1,700 (US$2,085) poorer annually.

Ominous prognoses riddle the report. As the UK population grows, the UK is set to age sharply, and become increasingly diverse; the 65+ age group will grow by 33% by 2030, to 15.4 million — while the working population will increase by just two percent.

Robert Bischof, an advisory board member of the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum, told Sputnik the projections weren’t surprising.

Brexit, he says, does nothing to solve the decade long decline in industrial performance, the productivity gap, the dependence of GDP growth on debt fueled consumer spending and government deficits, a growing current account deficit and high youth unemployment because of poor education and skills training. In fact, it exacerbates these issues.
It’s not just the UK that faces serious challenges in future.

Climate change, biological degradation and resource depletion mean countries everywhere will increasingly run up against the limits of the physical capacity of the Earth’s natural reserves.
​By 2030, robots or smart machines will have on average an IQ higher than 99 percent of humans. These innovations will displace many forms of work, with 60% of retail jobs (2 million) destroyed by 2030.

He added that stagnation was the «new normal», and the UK is likely to remain trapped in a low-growth, low-interest-rate state for years to come, with weak investment, weak labor power, high levels of debt, and the headwinds of a slowing global economy.

«Without reform our political and social system will struggle to build a more democratic, healthy society in the decades ahead, even as Brexit accelerates us towards a radically different institutional landscape.

Fuente de la noticia: https://sputniknews.com/europe/201612301049145424-brexit-robots-uk-future/

Fuente de la imagen: https://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/images/104914/58/1049145878.jpg

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Reino Unido: The year education went explicitly political

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Reino Unido/Diciembre de 2016/Fuente: Spiked on line

RESUMEN: 2016 fue el año en que algunas escuelas y universidades finalmente se sintieron capaces de aclarar su misión. Durante años, las quincenas de Fairtrade, los miércoles de paseo a la escuela, las semanas anti-intimidación y las clases de relaciones sexuales han estado junto a las pruebas de SAT, las mesas de liga y los resultados de aprendizaje. El instrumentalismo de enseñar a los estudiantes cómo pasar los exámenes, o demostrar unas habilidades genéricas de empleabilidad, ha sido templado por una aparentemente mejor promoción de los valores. Este año, a raíz de la victoria de Donald Trump en las elecciones presidenciales de Estados Unidos, y el voto Brexit, la discusión sobre la necesidad de educación para socializar a los niños en una cierta visión del mundo, inculcar una perspectiva política particular y rectificar los prejuicios Recogido en casa, se ha vuelto mucho más explícito.

2016 was the year some schools and universities finally felt able to come clean about their mission. For years, the Fairtrade fortnights, walk-to-school Wednesdays, anti-bullying weeks and sex-and-relationships classes have sat alongside SATs tests, league tables and learning outcomes. The instrumentalism of teaching students how to pass exams, or demonstrate a few generic employability skills, has been tempered by a seemingly nicer promotion of values. This year, in the wake of Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election, and the Brexit vote, discussion about the need for education to socialise children into a certain view of the world, to inculcate a particular political outlook, and to rectify the prejudices picked up at home, has become far more explicit.

In the US, graduates were less likely to have voted for Trump; in the UK, they were more likely to have backed Remain in the EU referendum. Commentators noted the role of schools and universities in promoting tolerance, and called for increased participation in higher education. The chair of the Political Studies Association told universities to ‘celebrate the role of education in promoting engaged citizenship and encouraging individuals to look beyond their own community.’ The chair of Whole Education urged schools to ‘fight against hatred’ and ‘teach young people that diversity is a strength, not a problem; that immigrants contribute an immense amount to this country; that they are valued and respected as much as any other citizen; and that the world is a safer place when countries work together’. Many involved in education were able, finally, to share openly their belief that what students know is less important than the political views they hold, and the values they espouse.

In 2016, the prioritising of values over knowledge has played out in campaigns to ‘decolonise’ the curriculum. Students are taught to judge the merit of works of literature or philosophy by the skin colour of the author. By this logic, anything written by a white man is only worth reading to expose the inherent racism and misogyny in the text. This year, promoting tolerance has meant eradicating the past through movements like Rhodes Must Fall at Oxford University and the removal of plaques to long-dead Belgian kings from Queen Mary University in London. Promoting tolerance has meant banning tabloid newspapers, preventing controversial speaker Milo Yiannopoulos from speaking at his old school, and banning pro-life societies. This is a tolerance that demands that everyone step in line, and think the same way.

Academia’s response to the Brexit vote, and the election of Trump, shows just how ugly this taught-tolerance can be. Prejudices against the majority of voters have been starkly displayed. One academic labelled Leave voters as being driven by ‘primitive emotions’; another described them as ‘uncertain, nostalgic, uncomfortable and bewildered’. To others, they are ‘dumb’, ‘misled’, ‘uninformed’. On US campuses, Trump voters were described as racist, sexist and xenophobic. This barely concealed contempt for the general public has led to people saying, out loud, that voting should come with an intelligence test.

Ironically, the sneering directed at so-called low-information voters has come from the same progressives who derided the teaching of information as only beneficial to people wanting to win pub quizzes. Voters stand accused of ignorance by those who have rejected teaching knowledge as an act of symbolic violence. The disdain at post-truth politics comes from academics who’ve made careers out of insisting that ‘truth’ (always with the obligatory scare quotes) is, at best, multiple and subjective. The academics who mocked former education secretary Michael Gove’s denigration of experts are the same people who build a tick-box curriculum driven by identity rather than intellectual merit.

Fuente: http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/the-year-education-went-explicitly-political/19130#.WGHQcrlGT_s

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Reino Unido: Grammars will not boost poorest pupils science grades

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Reino Unido/Diciembre de 2016/Fuente: BBC News

RESUMEN: Los mejores científicos temen que los planes para más escuelas de gramática en Inglaterra no aumenten las calificaciones de los alumnos desfavorecidos. En general, los alumnos más pobres hacen peores en ciencias y matemáticas en áreas con escuelas selectivas, sugiere la investigación de la Royal Society, la academia científica independiente del Reino Unido. Es probable que las nuevas gramáticas ayuden a «sólo una pequeña proporción» de los alumnos más pobres, dice. Los Ministros sostienen que sus propuestas mejorarán la movilidad social. Una consulta gubernamental sobre planes para una educación más selectiva cerró a principios de este mes. «La movilidad social es un tema complejo», dijo el profesor Tom McLeish, presidente del Comité de Educación de la Royal Society. «Apoyamos el compromiso del gobierno de asegurar que todos los estudiantes cumplan con su potencial, independientemente de sus antecedentes.

Top scientists fear plans for more grammar schools in England will not boost disadvantaged pupils’ grades.

Overall, the poorest pupils do worse in science and maths subjects in areas with selective schools, suggests research for the Royal Society, the UK’s independent scientific academy.

New grammars are likely to help «only a small proportion» of the poorest pupils, it says.

Ministers maintain that their proposals will improve social mobility.

A government consultation on plans for more selective education closed earlier this month.

«Social mobility is a complex issue,» said Prof Tom McLeish, chairman of the Royal Society’s Education Committee.

«We support the government’s commitment to ensuring all students fulfil their potential, regardless of their background.

«However, we are concerned that the approach to selective education outlined in the green paper may only support the small number of high ability disadvantaged pupils who do attend selective schools, at the cost of disadvantaged pupils who do not.»

Researchers from the Education Policy Institute, commissioned by the Royal Society, looked at the impact of selective education on the attainment of the most disadvantaged young people – those on free school meals – in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects.

The researchers found free school meals pupils performed less well in GCSE maths in areas where there were selective schools.

In non-selective areas in 2015, 48.1% of free school meals pupils got a C or more, compared with 72.3% of pupils not eligible for the meals.

But in selective areas the attainment gap was wider, with only 43.9% of free school meals pupils getting at least a C, compared with 74.8% of pupils not receiving the meals.

The researchers found that free school meals pupils in selective schools performed very well, with 98% getting at least a C, compared with 99.2% of non-free school meals pupils.

However, free school meals pupils make up only 3% of selective schools so their achievements are not enough to make any difference to «an overall negative impact on the attainment of all free school meals pupils in GCSE mathematics in selective areas», say the researchers.

Specialist teachers

They also found that fewer free school meals pupils in selective areas took double or triple sciences at GCSE.

«We have found no evidence to suggest that overall educational standards for free school meals pupils in STEM subjects in England would be improved by an increase in the number of places in selective schools,» the Royal Society concludes.

Dr McLeish added that the best way to help every pupil achieve their potential is to make sure that they are taught by «well-trained, motivated and supported, specialist science teachers».

Support is essential, he said, to help teachers «draw out the natural curiosity and creativity that grows from a framework of knowledge in science».

In particular, the Royal Society proposes partnerships between universities, schools and businesses which could involve university staff teaching part-time and even carrying out some of their research in schools.

The Department for Education said its proposals were «about creating more choice, with more good school places in more parts of the country».

It said grammar schools have a «track record of closing the attainment gap» and the department was also raising standards for maths and science for all pupils.

A spokesman added: «We have introduced rigorous new qualifications and in science we are investing £12.1 million over the next three years to improve the quality of teaching in schools.»

Fuente: http://www.bbc.com/news/education-38343307

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