Abstracts » Education

New academy to raise status of teaching

Article Abstract:

All university teachers in the United Kingdom will be expected to meet new nationally defined professional skills standards, with new recruits being given compulsory teacher training, under a raft of new measures unveiled by the government in its white paper on higher education. Key points of the white paper include the creation of the Teacher Quality Academy by 2004, which will promote best practice in teaching; additional money for pay being conditional on clear strategies for the reward and promotion of teachers; the accreditation of all new teaching staff to new professional standards by 2006; the strengthening of the external examining system with a new national programme for externals by 2004-2005; the establishment of a National Union of Students-run guide to universities; a review of the degree classification system; the creation of a student complaints ombudsman supported by legislation and from 2004-2005, institutions will no longer have to have degree-awarding powers in order to become an university.

Management, Social policy

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Ministers to review teaching only plan

Article Abstract:

Ministers are reconsidering plans contained within the January 2003 higher education white-paper to create teaching-only universities following the rejection of the plan by existing universities on the grounds that they threaten the link between research and teaching. At present in the UK only institutions with the power to award both higher research degrees and taught degrees are allowed to use the title "university", but under the white paper plans it was suggested that this be extended to facilities just able to award taught degrees.

Government regulation, Colleges & Universities, Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools, Colleges and universities, Universities and colleges, Licensing, certification and accreditation, Degrees, Academic, Academic degrees

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Offa loses teeth in scrap over bill

Article Abstract:

The government has tabled an amendment to its Higher Education Bill that will ensure that the Office for Fair Access (Offa), the planned access regulator for higher education , will have no real power to inflict penalties on universities that fail to broaden the social background from which they draw their students. The concession by the government is intended to head off a number of planned amendments designed to remove all of Offa's regulatory powers ahead of the report stage for the Bill in the House of Lords.

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