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| Mixed results at every level of the British education system | Mixed results at every level of the British education system |
| (about 1 month later) | |
| In his damning critique of universities aping business practices, Jonathan Wolff notes that “most universities are held together by a core of academics and support staff who preserve the authentic values of teaching and research” (Everything must be measured: how business practices have tainted universities, 8 August). | In his damning critique of universities aping business practices, Jonathan Wolff notes that “most universities are held together by a core of academics and support staff who preserve the authentic values of teaching and research” (Everything must be measured: how business practices have tainted universities, 8 August). |
| BUT he also recognises that goodwill has a limit and that target-setting and insecure contracts risk eroding our successful higher education sector. | BUT he also recognises that goodwill has a limit and that target-setting and insecure contracts risk eroding our successful higher education sector. |
| While vice-chancellors’ pay has been back under the spotlight recently, little has been said about the pay and conditions of the staff who provide the goodwill that Wolff mentions. Despite vice-chancellors feathering their own nests, they have continued to hold down staff pay, which has resulted in staff receiving real-terms pay cuts in recent years. | While vice-chancellors’ pay has been back under the spotlight recently, little has been said about the pay and conditions of the staff who provide the goodwill that Wolff mentions. Despite vice-chancellors feathering their own nests, they have continued to hold down staff pay, which has resulted in staff receiving real-terms pay cuts in recent years. |
| Meanwhile UCU’s own figures reveal that, on average, 53% of academics are employed on insecure contracts, rising to 59% at the research-intensive Russell Group of universities. | Meanwhile UCU’s own figures reveal that, on average, 53% of academics are employed on insecure contracts, rising to 59% at the research-intensive Russell Group of universities. |
| The increasing casualisation of the university sector and the ever-increasing levels of senior pay that Wolff talks about are two sides of same coin. Proper reform of the sector must include reform of the employment model. We need to tackle pay inequality, rising workload and job insecurity so that the hard work of all is recognised and rewarded.Sally HuntGeneral secretary, University and College Union | The increasing casualisation of the university sector and the ever-increasing levels of senior pay that Wolff talks about are two sides of same coin. Proper reform of the sector must include reform of the employment model. We need to tackle pay inequality, rising workload and job insecurity so that the hard work of all is recognised and rewarded.Sally HuntGeneral secretary, University and College Union |
| • Reading Jonathan Wolff and Andrew Adonis (One-man summer Twitter storm, 8 August), one might be misled into thinking that the senior staff of our universities are a bunch of greedy and unprincipled opportunists. Far from it. Look at their results: in the last decade the number of students achieving first-class degrees has doubled and the number achieving upper-seconds has surged. Let’s not grudge a few extra hundred thousands to the men and women who have brought about an improvement in our national brilliance that is surely unparalleled in history.Tony HuftonNorwich | • Reading Jonathan Wolff and Andrew Adonis (One-man summer Twitter storm, 8 August), one might be misled into thinking that the senior staff of our universities are a bunch of greedy and unprincipled opportunists. Far from it. Look at their results: in the last decade the number of students achieving first-class degrees has doubled and the number achieving upper-seconds has surged. Let’s not grudge a few extra hundred thousands to the men and women who have brought about an improvement in our national brilliance that is surely unparalleled in history.Tony HuftonNorwich |
| • While school pupils might be “shunning university amid cost concerns” (Report, 10 August), are they turning to alternative ways to gain a degree? The Ipsos Mori survey for the Sutton Trust did not ask about degree apprenticeships, which are growing fast and do not burden students with debt.Michael CrossRichmond, Surrey | • While school pupils might be “shunning university amid cost concerns” (Report, 10 August), are they turning to alternative ways to gain a degree? The Ipsos Mori survey for the Sutton Trust did not ask about degree apprenticeships, which are growing fast and do not burden students with debt.Michael CrossRichmond, Surrey |
| • Regarding your article It’s for universities to tackle segregation, and they’re failing (16 August), when I was a junior clerk at the Bodleian Library in the early 1950s, I worked for a time in the Indian Institute Library. It closed in the summer vacation. I continued to file the Hindu and Dawn, India and Pakistan’s leading newspapers, but the Asian students who remained in Oxford couldn’t read them, and, of course, there were no online editions in those days. Even as a 19-year-old I found the myopia of the university authorities appalling.Don ChapmanWitney, Oxfordshire | • Regarding your article It’s for universities to tackle segregation, and they’re failing (16 August), when I was a junior clerk at the Bodleian Library in the early 1950s, I worked for a time in the Indian Institute Library. It closed in the summer vacation. I continued to file the Hindu and Dawn, India and Pakistan’s leading newspapers, but the Asian students who remained in Oxford couldn’t read them, and, of course, there were no online editions in those days. Even as a 19-year-old I found the myopia of the university authorities appalling.Don ChapmanWitney, Oxfordshire |
| • The excellent piece by Laura McInerney (The new GCSEs cut off life chances for students like my nurse, Aisha, 15 August) and several letters published the same day point to an obvious conclusion: the obsession of successive governments with diversifying the control of schools and breaking up the system has taken their eyes off the big picture of who and what these schools are for. The educational opportunities for many children in our secondary schools seem to be shrinking. With the date of the next election uncertain, let’s hope Labour and other opposition parties are beavering away developing policies on secondary education that start from the glorious diversity of our children and their differing needs. Dr Janet DobsonYork | • The excellent piece by Laura McInerney (The new GCSEs cut off life chances for students like my nurse, Aisha, 15 August) and several letters published the same day point to an obvious conclusion: the obsession of successive governments with diversifying the control of schools and breaking up the system has taken their eyes off the big picture of who and what these schools are for. The educational opportunities for many children in our secondary schools seem to be shrinking. With the date of the next election uncertain, let’s hope Labour and other opposition parties are beavering away developing policies on secondary education that start from the glorious diversity of our children and their differing needs. Dr Janet DobsonYork |
| • It comes as no surprise to learn that Prince Charles has attempted, yet again, to influence national policy through backdoor influence (Prince Charles lobbied for looser rules on teacher education, 15 August). Leaving aside constitutional questions, important issues of transparency and hobby-horsing for pet projects, this is no way to ensure a well trained and sustainable workforce for Scottish schools. In recent years, England has experienced a plethora of short-term, uncoordinated and ideologically-driven initiatives in the field of initial teacher education, delivered by multiple providers. Let’s hope the General Teaching Council for Scotland holds the line in its requirements that prospective teachers for Scotland’s schools are properly trained for their role. The last thing Scotland needs is the kind of fragmented, deregulated muddle currently operating south of the border. A strategic approach to securing a stream of high quality and motivated professionals is too important for Scotland’s wellbeing to leave to royal manipulation and interference.Gus PenningtonStokesley, North Yorkshire | • It comes as no surprise to learn that Prince Charles has attempted, yet again, to influence national policy through backdoor influence (Prince Charles lobbied for looser rules on teacher education, 15 August). Leaving aside constitutional questions, important issues of transparency and hobby-horsing for pet projects, this is no way to ensure a well trained and sustainable workforce for Scottish schools. In recent years, England has experienced a plethora of short-term, uncoordinated and ideologically-driven initiatives in the field of initial teacher education, delivered by multiple providers. Let’s hope the General Teaching Council for Scotland holds the line in its requirements that prospective teachers for Scotland’s schools are properly trained for their role. The last thing Scotland needs is the kind of fragmented, deregulated muddle currently operating south of the border. A strategic approach to securing a stream of high quality and motivated professionals is too important for Scotland’s wellbeing to leave to royal manipulation and interference.Gus PenningtonStokesley, North Yorkshire |
| • You suggest that Learndirect considers that the Ofsted report on its adult training and apprenticeship programme is of doubtful validity because it is based on a sample of only 0.6% (Report, 15 August). If the leaders of Learndirect think the validity of a sample depends on its percentage of the population concerned, they are not qualified to run the organisation. May I suggest they go on a course in elementary statistics?Jeremy MitchellEdinburgh | • You suggest that Learndirect considers that the Ofsted report on its adult training and apprenticeship programme is of doubtful validity because it is based on a sample of only 0.6% (Report, 15 August). If the leaders of Learndirect think the validity of a sample depends on its percentage of the population concerned, they are not qualified to run the organisation. May I suggest they go on a course in elementary statistics?Jeremy MitchellEdinburgh |
| • I was pleased to see a contemporary of David Bowie, Howard Scholey (Letters, 15 August), defending their old school, in the wake of Hanif Kureishi’s article (The Bromley contingent, Review, 12 August). I taught for over 30 years in a comprehensive school in a deprived area, and while some pupils probably thought of it as such, it never deserved to be classed as a “shithole”. There were certainly numerous unruly pupils and many lessons disrupted, even a small number of “hopeless” teachers. But most were hardworking and many colleagues were inspirational. | • I was pleased to see a contemporary of David Bowie, Howard Scholey (Letters, 15 August), defending their old school, in the wake of Hanif Kureishi’s article (The Bromley contingent, Review, 12 August). I taught for over 30 years in a comprehensive school in a deprived area, and while some pupils probably thought of it as such, it never deserved to be classed as a “shithole”. There were certainly numerous unruly pupils and many lessons disrupted, even a small number of “hopeless” teachers. But most were hardworking and many colleagues were inspirational. |
| Schools tend to get labelled, with local press and gossip not helping, and the label is difficult to change. Had the school I taught in not had such a reputation, many more parents would have enrolled their children there, and more students would have stayed on for A-levels. Bernie EvansLiverpool | Schools tend to get labelled, with local press and gossip not helping, and the label is difficult to change. Had the school I taught in not had such a reputation, many more parents would have enrolled their children there, and more students would have stayed on for A-levels. Bernie EvansLiverpool |
| • The local education authority for Bromley deserves great credit for providing David Bowie with a technical school education which had “liberal arts” on its curriculum. If anyone had suggested teaching anything other than science and technology at the technical school I attended in Somerset they would have been laughed out of court as a Space Oddity.Ivor MorganLincoln | • The local education authority for Bromley deserves great credit for providing David Bowie with a technical school education which had “liberal arts” on its curriculum. If anyone had suggested teaching anything other than science and technology at the technical school I attended in Somerset they would have been laughed out of court as a Space Oddity.Ivor MorganLincoln |
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| • Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters | • Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters |
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