Blog posts for ‘Higher Education’ 
-
Perhaps it is society not schools which fails boys
Wednesday 9 January 2013
Categories: Education, Higher Education, Media Influence, Politics
David Willetts, the universities minister, spoke earlier this week about how few white working-class boys go on to study at university. He called this “the culmination of a decades-old trend in our education system which seems to make it harder for boys and men to face down the obstacles in the way of learning … That is a challenge for all policymakers and all parties.“
Dr Wendy Piatt, director general of the Russell Group, which represents 24 of the country’s most selective...
-
Stating the obvious...
Monday 14 May 2012
Categories: Family Relationships, Health, Higher Education, Media Influence, Parenting
Yes I know that a great deal of research is extremely useful but sometimes when I read newspaper headlines I just want to scream “Well obviously!” And at other times I seriously doubt the intelligence of the headline writers.
Two recent examples illustrate the cause of my frustration. The most recent concerned people who stay on in education longer. This, the newspapers report, “makes people smarter” and “results in superior memory skills later in life”. Isn’t it more likely...
-
Why we have too few women leaders...
Monday 2 April 2012
Categories: Careers, Higher Education, Role Models
If you have 17 minutes to spare sometime, do watch this inspiring video of Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer at Facebook, talking about the position of women in the workplace, and think how we are preparing our daughters to face the personal and professional challenges they will meet in the future.
Sheryl bemoans the fact that there are insufficient numbers of women at the top in so many key professions and positions of responsibility. She suggests we need to change this...
-
What price success?
Monday 20 February 2012
Categories: Careers, Education, Higher Education
In a recent issue of The Times Educational Supplement, maths teacher Jonny Griffiths recounted a conversation he had had with a highly achieving but anxious A level student who had approached him (again) for advice about his studies. Seeing how anxious the student was, and knowing how counter-productive that can be, Jonny encouraged the student to try not to worry so much about his grades, finally saying, ‘what is better: to go to Cambridge with three As and hate it or to go to Bangor...
-
Why enterprise and entrepreneurial skills are important for young people
Tuesday 25 October 2011
Categories: Careers, Education, Higher Education
Guest contributor Claire Young talks about the importance of entrepreneurship and enterprise skills for girls in today’s difficult economic climate.
Job hunting, or deciding on a career path as a young person in today’s world, is a bit like walking over an exploding mine field. You only have to pick up a newspaper or turn on the TV to see the statistical bombs going off:
- A recent survey revealed that top employers feel that 1 in 3 students leaving school do not have the appropriate...
-
How will she survive?
Tuesday 27 September 2011
Categories: Growing up, Higher Education, Letting go, Teenagers
Apparently research shows that many university Freshers lack basic life skills, having never before cooked, cleaned or shopped for food. The Independent 26/9/11 We are clearly meant to find this shocking but if we think back to our younger selves could we have said any different? Like nearly 70% of those questioned for Sainsbury’s research I certainly hadn’t paid a utility bill when I was 18. It’s true that, unlike one in five of them, I had cleaned a bath but I too hadn’t done my...
-
Trailblazing at the New College of the Humanities
Wednesday 8 June 2011
Categories: Careers, Education, Higher Education
When Anthony Grayling spoke to the senior students at St Paul’s recently, offering them an effortless, witty, note-free guided tour of the history of Western philosophy in slightly under 35 minutes, it was clear that here was someone supremely in command of his subject. The rapt attention of his audience also reflected his instinctive gift for the kind of communication that works for intelligent 17-year-olds, albeit of the hands-free, information-rich generation, afloat on a largely...
-
Has Education UK lost its way?
Friday 19 November 2010
Categories: Extra curricular, Girls' schools, Higher Education, Politics, School curriculum, Teenagers
There seems to me to have been a national shift over recent years to a perceived emphasis on examinations rather than education; on structures rather than students; inspection rather than inspiration; on specifications rather than scholarship; compliance rather than common sense; and testing rather than teaching. The result at a national level has been a distortion of purpose and outcomes.
This is not the fault of schools, but of previous Government initiatives. While the new Government...
-
Inside the ivory towers
Thursday 9 September 2010
Categories: Education, Extra curricular, Higher Education
Responding to an Oxford admissions director’s claim that elite universities do not value extra-curricular activities – Why being a fancy flautist won’t help win a place at Oxford, Gillian Low writes in favour of a more balanced approach…
It is disappointing Oxford has chosen to tell its aspiring students that it only values academic achievement. Anyone wishing to study there needs to have first-class academic achievements and the potential for more, but how can they get the best out of...