Welfare Reform on the Web (June 2004): Education - UK - Higher

BEST UNIVERSITIES SNUB STATE PUPILS

T. Halpin

The Times, May 17th 2004, p.1

Students from fee-paying schools are winning 3,000 places at top universities at the expense of youngsters from the state sector. Teenagers from the state sector are losing out even though their A-level results are on average two grades better than the pupils who are admitted from the independent sector. The analysis by the Higher Education Council for England will fuel controversy over access to elite universities as they seek approval to increase tuition fees to £3,000 a year.

NON-TRADITIONAL ENTRANTS TO HIGHER EDUCATION: 'THEY TALK ABOUT PEOPLE LIKE ME'

M. Bowl

Trentham Books, 2004

This book explores the reality of access to higher education for working class and ethnic minority adults. Thirty-two people here reflect on what had held them back from engaging with further and higher education for so long, what eventually motivated them to enter university and how they experienced life and study when they got there.

OPEN AND SHUT CASE

J. Crace

Education Guardian, May 25th 2004, p. 18-19

Barring 11th-hour concessions, universities that cater for part-time students will be left worse off by the introduction of top-up fees. The article asks if the future of part-time learning hangs in the balance ?

UNIVERSITY A DISTANT DREAM FOR POOREST

H. Carter

The Guardian, May 21st 2004, p.13

University is as distant as Pluto for many youngsters on Merseyside's poorest estates, according to Alan Johnson, the Minister for Further and Higher Education. Mr Johnson is determined to raise children's aspirationss but he said university might as well be on a different planet for the most needy children.

UNIVERSITY ENTRANCE PROPOSALS ATTACKED

T. Halpin

The Times, May 13th 2004, p.14

Reports the attack on plans to make university admissions 'fairer' by the head of the Oxford college that rejected Laura Spence, the Tyneside comprehensive pupil, for a place to study medicine. Anthony Smith, president of Magdelen College, criticised a report on admissions published by a government-backed task force led by Stephen Schwartz. He said it risked turning higher education into a "branch of social welfare". Mr Smith condemned as "coercive managerialism" a proposal that universities seeking permission to raise tuition fees to £3,000 a year from 2006 should volunteer to reform their admissions in line with the report.

WHAT IS A "UNIVERSITY"? (THE ENGLISH PATIENT)

T. Birtwistle

Education and the Law, Vol. 15, 2003, p.227-236

The article explores the meaning of the word "university" in England in the light of recent changes to the requirements necessary to claim the title announced by Margaret Hodge, the then Minister of Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education, in June 2003. A wide variety of definitions are considered, and compared with other countries' understanding of what constitutes a university. The article stresses that a clear definition is essential if English universities are to maintain international recognition.

WHERE HAVE ALL THE YOUNG MEN GONE?

W. Berliner

Education Guardian, May 18th 2004, p. 18-19

Driven by their success at school over the last decade more than 70% of the increase in full-time undergraduates in the UK has been female. Women are also taking up opportunities as mature students in greater numbers than men. As a serious gender gap appears in higher education the article asks what is happening to the men?