Students going to university with EEE grades at A-levels is 'lunacy', education minister says
Students going to university with EEE grades at A-levels is “lunacy”, an education minister has said as he warns it is “madness” but the Government has to “suck it up”.
Lord Agnew, the minister for school systems, said that the voices “screaming for lowering standards” in higher education are “relentless”.
Speaking at an education conference at Brighton College, he said: “Why are we letting kids go to university with three E’s at A-levels? I mean, why? It’s lunacy.
“But unfortunately there’s a body of people out there because they then never have to pick up the tab for the results of that kind of madness that’s the problem.
“And so, as a government you just have to suck it up basically and just keep plodding forward and that’s what we do.”
His comments come amid growing concern that universities are admitting too many students who are not suited to the academic rigours of higher education.
There is now fierce competition among universities to attract students, with top institutions prepared to drastically lower their entry grades to entice school-leavers.
The lifting of student number controls in England in 2015 gave universities free rein to recruit as many undergraduates as they see fit.
But the move has led to accusations that they now act like businesses, seeking to maximise their revenue by recruiting as many students as possible.
The Office for Students (OfS) claimed so-called contextual offers give bright students from deprived areas a route into university, without risking a fall in academic standards.
Lord Agnew’s remarks were in response to a question from a conference delegate about medical schools lowering their admissions criteria to boost the number of doctors.
“I don’t agree with the way….that we’ve solved the doctor crisis by bringing people in, I mean God help us, you know. I’m with you,” the minister responded.
Earlier this year it emerged that ministers are preparing to refuse student loans to pupils who are unable to attain even the lowest A-level grades.
Under plans discussed in Whitehall, students who fail to obtain three D grades at A-level would be denied traditional loans and instead directed towards vocational courses.
The proposal forms part of a major review of higher education chaired by Philip Augar, a former investment banker, which is due to report later this year.
Lord Agnew also said that private schools should “weaponsie” themselves against the Bank of England to fight back against the teacher pensions row.
The Department for Education (DfE) has announced that employer's contribution for teachers' pensions will rise by 43 per cent, following a valuation of public service pension schemes by the Treasury.
Private school fees are expected to rise following the Treasury’s ruling on teacher pensions, which will cost the sector an extra £110 million from 2019-20 and nearly £200 million the following year.
Lord Agnew said the pension re-valuation is a “catastrophe”, adding: “It is appalling but [private schools] need as a group, in my opinion, to weaponise yourself and take it to the Bank of England and the Treasury because those are the people that are causing this to happen.”
Publicație : The Telegraph
Cambridge university college sacks academic over links to far-right extremists
Move comes after hundreds of students opposed his work, calling it ‘racist’
A University of Cambridge college has sacked a research fellow after some of his activities and connections linked him to far-right extremists.
St Edmund’s College has terminated Noah Carl’s post held after hundreds of academics and students called for his appointment to the Toby Jackman Newton Trust research fellowship to be investigated.
More than 1,000 people signed an open letter accusing Dr Carl of producing “racist pseudoscience”.
r Carl became a controversial figure after he spoke at a conference, the London Conference on Intelligence, where eugenics was allegedly debated and published a paper arguing stereotypes about the criminality of certain immigrant groups in the UK are “reasonably accurate”.
Matthew Bullock, the master of St Edmund’s, said: “There was a serious risk that Dr Carl’s appointment could lead, directly or indirectly, to the college being used as a platform to promote views that could incite racial or religious hatred, and bring the college into disrepute.”
Mr Bullock apologised “unreservedly” to students for the offence caused by the appointment, adding that Dr Carl’s work was “problematic”.
“We appointed Dr Carl based on his academic achievements at the University of Oxford, and on the commendations which supported his application.
“It is regrettable that such an appointment has been compromised by Dr Carl’s other activities, of which we were completely unaware when electing him to the fellowship,” he added.
But some academics have rushed to Dr Carl’s defence and accused the college of failing to defend freedom of speech. Matthew Goodwin, a politics professor at the University of Kent, tweeted: “Academic freedom is fine so long as you do not work on anything ‘problematic’.”
The move comes after controversial academic Jordan Peterson had his offer of a visiting fellowship rescinded by the University of Cambridge after he was pictured with a man wearing a T-shirt with the slogan, “I’m a Proud Islamaphobe” [sic].
The London Conference on Intelligence has been staged on at least three occasions at University College London (UCL) between 2014 and 2017, with the university later denouncing the gathering and claiming it had taken place on campus without its approval or knowledge.
Speakers at the fringe event discussed controversial topics surrounding human intelligence and the conference was subject to claims it gave a platform for the espousal of eugenics.
Among those known to have attended was Richard Lynn, a psychologist whose belief in racial differences in intelligence has seen him accused of promoting “scientific racism” and Gerhard Meisenberg, editor of the journal Mankind Quarterly, which has been described by some as a “white supremacist” publication.
Dr Carl spoke at the event on at least one occasion, although the exact content of his presentation is unknown.
The researcher has previously dismissed claims he is a “pseudoscientist”, insisting the London Conference on Intelligence had been “widely mischaracterised”.
Publicație : The Independent
Universities urged to close 'degree gap' between black and white students
Report says race issues must be dealt with strategically and should not be an ‘add on’
Narrowing the “degree gap” between black, Asian and minority ethnic students and their white peers requires a cultural change among British universities and their leaders, according to a report.
The National Union of Students and the Universities UK group calls, in a joint report, for vice-chancellors and principals to show “strong leadership” to close the gap and ensure that their campuses encourage racially diverse workforces and student bodies.
The report concluded: “A change in culture is needed alongside a clear institutional message that issues of race will be dealt with as part of wider, strategic, organisational practice, not as an ‘add on’.”
As a black student, I know why our grades are worse: universities don’t listen to us
Universities UK is to ask its nearly 140 members to sign up to an online pledge to work with students and use the report’s recommendations within their institutions, with progress to be evaluated in 2020.
Despite the rapid increase in the number of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) students in the past decade, 71% of Asian students and just 57% of black students gained an upper second or first in their undergraduate degree, compared with 81% of white students. Black students were estimated to be one and a half times more likely to drop out than white or Asian students.
Valerie Amos, the director of Soas, University of London and one of the report’s authors, said universities would be “failing a generation of students if we don’t act now to reduce the BAME attainment gap”.
She added: “It is important that universities act and are transparent in their approach so black, Asian and minority ethnic students are given the best chance of success. Inaction is not an option.”
One of the report’s key recommendations is that BAME students would benefit from a racially diverse campus environment.
“University leadership teams are not representative of the student body and some curriculums do not reflect minority groups’ experiences,” the report concluded. “A greater focus is needed from universities, working with their students, on ensuring that BAME students have a good sense of belonging at their university, and on understanding how a poor sense of belonging might be contributing to low levels of engagement and progression to postgraduate study.”
The report noted that in 2017 BAME people made up 16% of all academic staff – a higher rate than in the UK population – but just 10% of professors. Of all professors, just 0.6% were black.
Amna Atteeq, the president of the University of Aston’s student union who participated in discussions forming the report, said it was important for universities to look further afield for BAME role models if they were not on staff.
She said: “Role models should be staff who can inspire students to achieve their best, but role models can also be graduates or people who are successful in a particular field, like engineering, who can help students overcome the unconscious bias in what types of careers they follow.”
But, she added, to close the attainment gap universities “need to have black and minority ethnic staff and students around the table.”
Chris Millward of the Office for Students (OfS), the higher education regulator in England, said universities should urgently act on the report’s recommendations.
He said: “We know that stubborn gaps in attainment between certain ethnic groups are stopping some students from fulfilling their true potential. In particular, black students are much less likely to complete their studies, secure a first or upper second-class degree, or find graduate-level employment than their white peers. This is not right, and it must change.”
The OfS has set a target for the sector to eliminate the gap in degree outcomes between white and black students by 2024-25.
Publicație : The Guardian
Attempted Ramsay Centre no platforming reveals the dangers of hypocrisy in progressive ideals
What’s a progressive academic to do when standing up for non-Western values is at odds with their ideals, asks Constantine Sandis
I recently gave a talk titled “How to understand others (without going mad)” at an inaugural conference on Understanding others through narrative practices at the University of Wollongong’s new School of Liberal Arts.
I was looking forward to other talks on the bill, particularly those by Judith Hurley, director of identity at Edmund Rice College and a founding member of Illawarra People for Peace – a local human rights association – and Sheikh Jamil El-Biza, a UOW alumnus and local Muslim community leader.
Hurley’s advertised talk was to be on what it means to be “people for peace” and El-Biza’s was to be on narratives in Islam, referencing the verse from the Koran: “That you may know one another.”
The event coincided with UOW’s Stand with Muslims initiative against racism and Islamophobia, created in the wake of the terrorist attacks at two Christchurch mosques.
El-Biza had recently been celebrated for encouraging Muslims to show the same grace and kindness in their dealings with non-Muslims as they had been shown in the aftermath of Christchurch.
He had also publicly berated Queensland senator Fraser Anning for his Islamophobic statement after the attacks, and accused Prime Minister Scott Morrison of shedding crocodile tears over the attacks. The sheikh’s concern with “rhetoric which puts the blame on you, because you’re a Muslim, and lifts the blame of others because of freedom of speech”, was to prove prophetic.
I never got to see the speakers I had been looking forward to seeing. Both Hurley and El-Biza withdrew from the UOW event after protesters dug up a 2017 homophobic Facebook post by El-Biza to protest against the “shameful workshop” we were all speaking at.
This was the latest in a number of protests by activists attempting to derail the school’s new Bachelor of Arts in Western Civilisation, because of its controversial Ramsay Centre funding. Protesters, who include UOW staff and students, claim the new degree is “racist” and will promote Western values over non-Western ones.
Protesters claimed the event was for the purpose of promoting the new degree. One academic described the workshop as “propaganda to give some legitimacy to the Ramsay degree”.
Personally, I found El-Biza’s Facebook post – for which he has since apologised – utterly vile and disgusting; I deeply empathise with anyone who would not wish to attend a talk by its author.
The inclusion of LGBT+ rights is a matter of paramount importance, as are the values of freedom of religion and freedom of expression. Australia’s own laws forbidding hate speech are accordingly based on a particular ethical sensibility about where to place limits on the right to freedom of speech, a stance shared by some, but not all, Western countries.
Progressive academics want to stand up for academic freedom. We want to stand up for rights to freedom of speech, including the right to protest and organise safe spaces. We want to stand against hate speech. We want to stand with, and respect, Islam. We do not want to place Western values above others.
But what happens when we are confronted with non-Western values that appear to be at odds with all that we want to stand for?
Those who protest against Western supremacist and racist attitudes complained that the workshop organisers invited a “fundamentalist”, thereby resorting to a pejorative term used to vilify Islamic revivalism.
It is hypocritical for them to try to ban a Muslim community leader from giving a talk on narrative accounts of understanding others, let alone by invoking a single derogatory statement he made two years ago on social media that clashed with the very same Western values they worry the new BA would champion.
People have become exactly what they claim to fear, in an effort to resist that very thing. When they play all their progressive cards at once, the right to be aggressively intolerant comes up top trumps.
In the most ironic twist, “concerned citizens” emailed the principal of the school where Hurley teaches, in what she described as “a patronising bid to pressure me to withdraw”.
She went on to tell me: “I would be protesting if I thought that there was something to protest. I have spent my life committed genuinely to social justice and human rights. They said that this School of Liberal Arts was one with white supremacist views. When a Muslim cleric who holds Muslim views was slated to speak at a forum hosted by the School of Liberal Arts, those with a political agenda went digging.
“The emails voiced objections about the sheikh’s hate speech and views. I could not ignore that. But, you see, the political agenda motivated them…in conscience I took the only course of action I could which then also led to the Muslim cleric being withdrawn. Which, in a way, plays right into the idea that the white man is setting the agenda. Ironic.”
Anybody who reads its curriculum design and content can see that the new BA is ideally positioned to provide an interface between Western and non-Western practices. Rejecting it for unsubstantiated concerns that it will curtail academic freedom and promote supremacist ideologies is bad enough. Doing so by attempting to no platform a Muslim community speaker and bully a founding member of the Illawarra People for Peace into pulling out of a seminar on understanding others is pure madness.
Publicație : The Times
Fury over Edinburgh fellowship with no pay for summer months
Hundreds sign petition calling for teaching post to receive salary in July and August
The part-time role in English literature, on a 17-and-a-half hours a week contract, covers a temporary absence from September 2019 to December 2020 and comes with a salary of £33,199 to £39,609 per annum, pro rata.
The original job advertisement said the “post will be pay suspended during the months of July and August 2020 when no work will be available”.
It has subsequently been amended to say that “for the months of July and August working hours will be zero” and that “salary is calculated on an annualised basis and paid in 12 equal monthly instalments initially”.
An open letter calling on Edinburgh to do the “decent thing” and pay all its staff for the entire duration of their contract attracted more than 300 signatures in less than 24 hours after being launched by Anindya Raychaudhuri, a lecturer in English at the University of St Andrews.
The letter sets out “how anyone who has had any kind of teaching-only position in higher education knows” that they are always expected to work over the summer.
“I don’t believe the new wording changes any of the actual conditions of the job,” Dr Raychaudhuri told Times Higher Education. “You still don’t get paid for the work you do over the summer. I think it is absolutely disgraceful.”
Grant Buttars, president of the University and College Union’s Edinburgh branch, said that the job advert should be removed and that Edinburgh should “ensure all posts are properly remunerated”.
UK universities’ use of nine-month contracts that cover only the main academic year has proved controversial, with frequent calls for them to be scrapped.
Durham University announced last year that it would employ all teaching fellows for a minimum of 12 months, increasing the pressure on other institutions to follow suit.
“I think there are many, many issues with nine-month contracts, but if anything this goes further,” said Dr Raychaudhuri.
An Edinburgh spokesman said the original job advert “contained an error, which has since been corrected”.
“We value the work of our teaching fellows,” the spokesman said. “We have recently agreed with the trade unions further improvements around pay and conditions, which mean staff will get a guaranteed salary every month, regardless of the pattern of their work.”
Publicație : The Times
Science paper retracted in seismic fraud case
Aftershocks continue amid new revelations of fabrication
A simmering volcano in disaster-weary Japan has unleashed a spout of academic misery, generating multiple misconduct scandals and blowing the lid on a little-recognised arena of research fabrication.
The journal Science has retracted a November 2016 paper which suggested that a series of earthquakes seven months earlier in Kyushu, which killed dozens when they devastated the city of Kumamoto, could have been worse if a magma chamber under Mount Aso had not cushioned the force.
Kyoto University, host institution of five of the six authors, launched a confidential investigation in August 2017 into reported irregularities in the paper. In April this year, the university announced that the probe had uncovered falsifications in four images and instances of plagiarism.
The episode follows nearby Osaka University’s revelation in March this year that one of its former researchers, Yoshiya Hata, had fabricated data in five papers, including four about the Kumamoto earthquakes. The first of the articles was subsequently retracted by the journal Seismological Research Letters.
Osaka said the investigation had reserved judgement on another 17 of Dr Hata’s papers, explaining that the committee had been unable to interview him or examine his raw data because he had died before the inquiry began.
Geophysicist Ross Stein, an adjunct professor with Stanford University, highlighted the consequences for science. “Publications that are subsequently identified as fraudulent mislead both scientists and the public,” he wrote on his earthquake watch site Temblor.
“Even though publication can be fast, self-correction can be slow…as is evident from the 28-month period from publication of these papers to public exposure.”
The Kyoto investigation found that maps in the Science paper had been distorted, geographical features mislocated and data from a University of Tokyo researcher plagiarised and manipulated.
Lead author Aiming Lin reportedly blamed the falsifications on carelessness and said they did not affect the paper’s conclusions. The investigating committee found that the distortions were not random errors caused by the difficulty of conducting field observations in a disaster zone. Rather, they systematically supported the authors’ hypothesis.
While deferring judgement on whether Professor Lin had been deliberately deceptive, the investigators nevertheless branded his actions as fraud. Kyoto has flagged punishment but has not specified what action it will take, with Japan currently observing a 10-day holiday to mark its new emperor’s accession.
The investigation absolved his co-authors. Professor Stein said research fraud in seismology was under-reported and “always “hushed” because colleagues wanted to avoid appearing vindictive or incurring legal problems. “There are rumours, retractions and – when things really implode – news articles. But otherwise very little appears above the waterline,” he told Times Higher Education.
“If we as a community talk more about this issue, researchers can foresee these problems and learn what their options are.”
Volcanology is a flagship research area for Kyoto. Its laboratory at Aso, Japan’s biggest active volcano, was damaged in the 2016 earthquakes.
Publicație : The Times
Derniers jours pour faire sa demande de bourse ou de logement universitaire
Le Figaro Étudiant revient pour vous sur les démarches à suivre pour effectuer cette demande sur le site du gouvernement. Cette procédure sera clôturée le 15 mai 2019.
Le temps presse pour les candidats à la bourse d’études ou de logement social étudiant pour l’an prochain. Il ne reste plus que deux semaines avant la fin des inscriptions, ouvertes depuis le 15 janvier dernier, et qui fermeront le 15 mai 2019. Pour formuler sa demande, une seule et unique solution: constituer un dossier social étudiant (DSE) sur le site du gouvernement MesServices.etudiant.gouv.fr. La démarche ne dépend pas de Parcoursup, ainsi, si vous êtes lycéens, pas besoin d’attendre les résultats d’admission ou d’examens avant d’effectuer cette demande pour la rentrée 2019-2020.
Qui peut prétendre à cette bourse?
Les bourses d’études sont attribuées par les Crous (Centres régionaux universitaires et scolaires). Ces organismes publics traitent les DSE des candidats par académie. Il donc utile de rappeler que toutes les démarches sont à effectuer auprès de votre académie actuelle. Il existe, en plus de la bourse d’études sur critères sociaux, des aides au mérite, et aides à la mobilité internationale. La bourse sur critères sociaux est nécessaire pour les obtenir. Afin de déterminer qui peut bénéficier de celle-ci, le Crous s’appuie sur plusieurs critères:
■ Conditions d’âge: le bénéficiaire doit avoir moins de 28 ans au 1er septembre de l’année de sa formation, pour une première demande de bourse. S’il n’interrompt pas ses études, il peut continuer à toucher cette bourse après ses 28 ans. En cas de handicap, il n’y a aucune limite d’âge.
■ Conditions de diplôme: le candidat doit obtenir le baccalauréat, qui conditionne son admission dans une formation supérieure. Il faut aussi que le candidat soit inscrit dans une formation d’enseignement supérieur publique ou privée reconnue par l’Etat, habilitée à recevoir des boursiers. Il doit faire preuve d’assiduité, «suivre à temps plein» sa formation et se présenter aux examens. Pas question de sécher!
■ Conditions de nationalité: Pour toucher cette bourse, il faut être français, ou ressortissant de l’union européenne ayant occupé un emploi en France ou ayant un parent qui a travaillé en France. Les étudiants de nationalité étrangère peuvent bénéficier de cette bourse s’ils ont un statut de réfugié reconnu par l’Etat, s’ils bénéficient de la protection subsidiaire accordée par l’Ofpra, ou s’ils ont une carte de séjour ou de résident. Dans ce cas, l’étudiant doit habiter en France depuis au moins deux ans et avoir au moins un parent salarié en France depuis 2 ans.
■ Conditions de revenus: Les revenus de la famille doivent être en dessous d’un certain seuil pour toucher la bourse sur critères sociaux. Il faut regarder l’avis fiscal de la famille deux ans avant la demande de bourse. Si vous demandez une bourse pour l’année 2019-2020, il faut regarder les revenus de l’année 2017. Ensuite, moins les revenus sont importants, plus la bourse sera conséquente. Ce barème intègre également le nombre d’enfants dans la famille. Enfin, l’éloignement du lieu d’études avec le domicile familial est une condition pour percevoir la bourse.
Les étapes de la procédure
En vous rendant sur le site MesServices.etudiant.gouv.fr, vous pourrez effectuer les démarches suivantes:
- La simulation:le site vous permet d’estimer si vous êtes éligible à la bourse, et quels avantages celle-ci vous octroierait. Il le calcule à partir des données suivantes que vous devez entrer: le foyer fiscal de vos parents, le nombre d’enfants à charge de la famille, la distance entre le domicile familial et le lieu d’études. Si vous êtes éligible, vous pourrez alors entrer dans la phase 2: l’enregistrement de vos données.
- L’enregistrement des données personnelles: La constitution de ce dossier social étudiant est à faire en 7 jours à partir du moment où vous commencez, sans quoi les informations seront effacées. Il faut que vous indiquez votrenuméro INE, l’avis fiscal de vos parents, et 4 vœux dans des établissements d’enseignement supérieur. Si votre établissement d’admission sur Parcoursupn’est pas dans l’académie que vous avez demandée dans votre DSE, demandez un transfert auprès du Crous de cette académie. Enfin, lors de la constitution de votre DSE, vous pouvez cocher la case «Je demande un logement», et la démarche sera à effectuer après l’enregistrement de ce DSE. Les affectations se feront début juillet.
- Réception et renvoi du dossier: Après la constitution de votre DSE, vous recevrez soit un mail récapitulatif de votre dossier (pour les Crous avec procédure dématérialisée), soit un dossier que vous devez renvoyer par courrier avec les pièces justificatives nécessaires. Attention! Même si vous postulez dans d’autres académies, vous n’aurez besoin d’envoyer le dossier qu’à l’académie dont vous dépendez actuellement, elle se chargera de transférer vos informations.
»»» Pour plus de renseignements sur la procédure, n’hésitez pas à consulter la page d’explication du site étudiant.gouv.
Publicație : Le Figaro
|
