Universities to pay cash incentives to attract students

At City University London, scholarships of ￡3,000 will be paid to AAB plus students in each year of a three or four year degree, subject to them passing their university exams. ?Photo: ALAMY

Institutions across the country, including City University London, and Leicester, Surrey and Northumbria universities, are introducing payments to attract candidates with the best exam grades.

The non-means tested academic rewards are in response to new Government rules which allow universities to take unlimited numbers of sixth formers gaining at least two As and a B at A-level - known as AAB+ students.

With the new freedom to recruit more high-achieving students, less prestigious institutions fear that good quality applicants will increasingly be poached by higher ranking universities.

In the first signs of a "scholarship arms race", universities are now vying to give the best deals to 2012 students, the first to face tuition fees of up to ￡9,000 a year.

At City University London, scholarships of ￡3,000 will be paid to AAB plus students in each year of a three or four year degree, subject to them passing their university exams.

Surrey University is offering ￡2,000 to candidates who achieve three A grades who select the university as their firm choice, while Northumbria is offering ￡1,000 a year to AAB+ students.

Leicester, which is ranked in the top 20 of UK institutions, is offering ￡2,000 awards each year over three years for students gaining three A grades.

Departmental scholarships of ￡1,250, paid towards tuition fees, will also be given to students who meet specific course requirements.

Universities with the highest proportion of students with at least AAB at A-level include Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial, London School of Economics, Durham, Bristol, University College London, Warwick, Exeter and Bath.

Many in the list also have the lowest proportions of pupils from state schools and deprived backgrounds.

But institutions in the "squeezed middle" of the league tables are most likely to feel forced to compete financially for students, according to the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi).

"They are vulnerable to losing some of their AAB+ students to more selective, more prestigious, institutions," said Bahram Bekhradnia, Hepi director.

"At the same time they are competing with their peers to hold onto their existing and to recruit additional AAB+ students.

"This is likely to give rise to an arms race of 'merit-based' scholarships – if one university offers them others will be obliged to do so."

Critics of the AAB policy said universities were "fighting over" applicants by offering cash incentives to students who already tended to be from more advantaged backgrounds.

Claire Callender, professor of higher education policy at Birkbeck College, London, said: "All the research from the US which has a long history of scholarships which are purely merit-based shows that they are to the advantage of middle and upper class white students who are the ones who predominantly achieve the necessary test scores."

A spokesman for the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, said: "Our reforms free up places at the institutions where students wish to study.

"We have made sure that under new access rules, more support is going to people from disadvantaged backgrounds and they are treated fairly.

"Beyond this, universities are free to use their own resources in any way they choose in order to attract new students."

More cash needed for state boarding schools, warns head

Raymond McGovern, chairman of the State Boarding Schools Association, called for a greater investment in the sector to allow them to expand.?

Raymond McGovern, chairman of the State Boarding Schools' Association, said schools would struggle to meet the requirements of a tough new inspection regime without more money.

He also called on ministers to put more capital into schools to enable them to expand to take in additional pupils.

In recent months ministers have praised plans to allow growing numbers of “vulnerable” children to be given a boarding education. A number of the Government’s flagship academies have built – or are planning to build – boarding houses for pupils.

But speaking on Sunday, Mr McGovern, headmaster of Sexey’s School in Somerset, said new inspections introduced for the first time this summer to regulate pupils’ health and welfare provided significant challenges.

“Lack of central funding places state boarding schools at a significant risk, especially as – quite rightly – they must comply with the new National Minimum Standards,” he said.

There are currently 38 state schools in the UK with boarding accommodation.

Almost 5,000 pupils board at these schools, up from 3,674 in 1998 and from 4,695 last year. Education is free although boarding costs between ￡7,500 and ￡12,000 per year.

In recent years, a series of the Government’s semi-independent academy schools have opened boarding facilities, including the new Wellington Academy in Wiltshire and Harefield Academy in Middlesex.

Another school, Durand Academy in Lambeth, south London, is planning to open a satellite boarding school in West Sussex for children aged 13 upwards.

Mr McGovern said: “The Secretary of State for Education expressed his support for boarding when visiting Durand Academy… This is a significant departure for the state sector as families have traditionally had to fund boarding from their own incomes, or via the Armed Forces’ Continuity of Education allowance or an external charitable trust such as the Royal National Children’s Foundation.

“If the Government truly believes that ‘boarding which is free of charge is a good thing for the young people of Lambeth’ then surely the same is true for any young person in every local authority, particularly for those young people who are vulnerable or otherwise disadvantaged?”

University applications drop sharply after fees hike

But Liam Burns, president of the National Union of Students, said: "Ministers need to take responsibility for their disastrous education reforms and admit that, regardless of the final application numbers, the behaviour of prospective students will be affected by the huge rise in fees.”

Martin Lewis, creator of the Money Saving Expert website and head of the Independent Taskforce on Student Finance Information, admitted Britain was “close to a crisis point for university applications” because of misinformation about repayments.

“While university may not be right for everyone, there's no doubt the increase in fees are at the very least a psychological deterrent – often more with parents than with pupils themselves – and worryingly potentially those from poorer backgrounds too,” he said.

The total number of people applying to university by November 21 stood at 158,387 – a drop of 12.9 per cent compared with the same point last year.

British applications slumped by 15.1 per cent and applications from other European Union states fell by 13.1 per cent.

The biggest drops were among mature students, with applications from 25- to 29-year-olds falling by a fifth and demand from over 40s slumping by more than a quarter.

But applications from foreign students outside the EU – who can be charged more than British counterparts and do not count towards Government caps on student places – have actually increased.

Numbers are up by almost 12 per cent, it has emerged, to 15,996.

Mr Willetts said: “Going to university depends on ability not the ability to pay.

“Most new students will not pay upfront, there will be more financial support for those from poorer families and everyone will make lower loan repayments than they do now once they are in well paid jobs.”

Figures show that in Britain applications have dropped quickest among Scottish students – by 17.1 per cent – even though they get free tuition from the Scottish Government.

Demand among Welsh students, whose fees are fixed at just ￡3,465 by the Welsh Assembly, are down by 10.3 per cent – the smallest drop.

Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of Universities UK, the vice-chancellors' group, said: "We still have to hold back before coming to conclusions about these figures.

"It's worth noting that applicant numbers are currently down, not only in England, but also in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland who do not have the same fees system. And last year for various reasons, was something of a one-off in terms of record demand.

"If we compare today's figures with the same point in 2010, the numbers are broadly similar.”

Other creative arts: film studies/photography, craft, imaginative writing degree course guide

Craft BAs tend to last three years. FdA craft courses usually take two years.

Imaginative writing degrees usually last three years.

What does it cover?

The emphasis in film-related courses tends to vary, depending on the institution, between developing a more academic understanding of cinema and the moving image, and hands-on practical work creating films. Examples of the former approach include the course at Southampton, where modules on "early silent cinema from 1825 to 1928" and "utopian and dystopian science fiction cinema" compete for students' attention beside practical work in a modern video production suite. Courses in film production and cinematography, by contrast, see much more emphasis on building vocational skills of production, directing and editing. Nevertheless, almost all courses include both theoretical/critical and practical modules.

Photography courses tend to have the development of students' photographic skills at their core, with critical, contextual and historical modules used in support to build students' analytical understanding. Courses often culminate in a final degree show of students' work. At universities including Leeds and Roehampton, undergraduates can combine film studies and photography.

Craft degrees can be categorised as those offering the chance to follow an initially broad-based course, such as in design crafts or three dimensional design, and then to specialise within that course; and those targeted throughout at a specialist craft field, including jewellery, furniture design, textiles, theatrical design and embroidery. Most will combine extensive technical and practical work with more theoretical or conceptual study, interaction with current professionals including work placements, and often the opportunity to showcase your work in a degree show.

Creative writing degrees focus on building students' literary and imaginative skills, with guidance not only from course tutors – many of whom will be professional writers themselves – but often from visiting writers and through discussion with fellow students in workshops. Students will also explore the work of established writers through extensive reading. Britain also boasts several scriptwriting degrees, embracing writing for the theatre and radio alongside television and film, as well as courses focused specifically on writing for the screen. Again, the approach is to focus on developing individual writing capability, while developing background understanding of the craft. Workplace placements are often central to these courses.

What can you expect?

The chance to develop practical creative skills while building theoretical and background knowledge. This will prepare many graduates for a place in Britain's established and often thriving creative industries.

What are the usual A-levels you need?

Film studies/photography: universities often prefer candidates to have passed an A-level in English or a media or arts-related subject. There is a strong chance they will want to interview you, too, and you may be asked to provide examples of your creative work.

Craft: some universities prefer candidates to have an A-level or equivalent in art and design or a related subject. Some require students to have taken a foundation course. Many students will be interviewed, and it is routine for candidates to have to produce examples of their work.

Imaginative writing: students can expect to be interviewed, while many universities also ask for examples of their creative writing. Some universities require or prefer undergraduates to have achieved success in English Literature A-level or in wider arts/humanities A-levels.

Career prospects

Film studies/photography. Though there is high competition for entry to the visual industries, they also provide varied career opportunities. Students with experience and flair in visual arts get work in film production, screenwriting, advertising, the video games industry, web design, journalism, and commercial, architectural, art and fashion photography.

Craft: these are vocationally-orientated degrees, preparing undergraduates to put their skills to use in the commercial or artistic worlds, so students generally tend to seek employment directly related to that field, from jewellery to furniture design.

Imaginative writing: some creative writing students do go on to become professional writers of fiction, although this is a highly competitive field. Others go into newspaper and magazine journalism, the book trade, library and archivist work and lecturing, or into the less directly related careers of web design, marketing and publicity and administration. Script/screenwriting students go into writing for TV, film and radio, as well as working in the computer game field, in script reading and editing and in wider careers in the media and communications.

The UK's most bike-friendly universities

Biking is big business in Cambridge and for the 12,000 or so students there are 6,200 bike spaces dotted around what is the UK's second oldest university. Bike theft is Cambridge's biggest crime with nearly 3,000 stolen from the city centre last year. Buying a decent lock, however, shouldn't be a problem with more than 20 bike shops in the town to choose from.

The data used in this gallery comes from the annual Estates Management Statistics courtesy of the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA).

Picture: Rob / Alamy

LSE to be criticised over £1.5m Libya donation

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, whose charity made a ￡1.5m donation to the LSE, was captured by Libyan rebels this month.?Photo: AFP

A major inquiry is expected to conclude that the institution was negligent in accepting donations from the Gaddafi regime.

The report by Lord Woolf, the former Lord Chief Justice, will attack the LSE’s lax handling of the affair, saying the university’s ruling council was given inadequate and incomplete information before deciding to accept the grant.

It will level personal criticism at Sir Howard Davies, the former LSE director, who quit in May amid lingering questions over the morality of the cash award.

The report’s conclusions come as Labour was again dragged into the row over the weekend when it was claimed that a company formerly headed by Adam Ingram, the ex-defence minister, gave a ￡100,000 donation to a charity run by the Gaddafi family around the same time it was awarded a multi-million contract in Libya.

The LSE – rated as one of the top universities in Britain – asked Lord Woolf to carry out an independent external inquiry into its links with Libya earlier this year.

His inquiry was submitted to the school in mid-October and is expected to be released on Wednesday afternoon after being considered by the LSE council.

A charity run by Saif-al-Islam Gaddafi – Muammar Gaddafi’s son – donated ￡1.5m to the LSE in 2009, although only ￡300,000 reached the university.

It came after Saif Gaddafi, 39, who was captured by Libyan rebel forces earlier this month after weeks on the run, completed a PhD at the university.

Lord Woolf’s inquiry will outline the errors made by the LSE in accepting the donation and establish clear guidelines for international donations to – and links with – the school.

The report will reportedly conclude that Sir Howard should have made a clearer judgment on the “acceptability of the cited sources of donation”.

It also suggested that David Held, an academic advisor to Saif Gadaffi and a professor of political science at the university, should have provided significantly more information to the LSE council before a decision on the donation was taken. Prof Held has since announced he is quitting the LSE to join Durham University.

It emerged that the LSE was warned against accepting the donation from Fred Halliday, an emeritus professor of international relations, who has since died.

He wrote to the council criticising Libya's human right's record and the unrestrained celebrations in Tripoli that followed the release of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber.

But minutes of a council meeting revealed that senior officials feared embarrassing Saif Gaddafi by rejecting the cash.

Last night, the LSE declined to comment on the findings until the inquiry is published.

A spokesman for Lord Woolf also refused to comment ahead of the publication.

Families may 'move from England to avoid tuition fee hike'

Families may attempt to move to Scotland or Wales to avoid fee rises in England, said HEFCE.?Photo: ALAMY

An analysis by the Government’s Higher Education Funding Council for England said families may flee over the border to avoid fees of up to ￡9,000 in 2012.

Parents living “close to the borders” are among those most likely to relocate to another country, it was claimed, potentially creating “distortive effects on local economies and housing markets”.

A move from England to Scotland could save students as much as ￡36,000 for a four year degree because of sharp differences in fees policies operated by devolved governments across the UK.

The comments came as it emerged that the Scottish Executive could carry out checks on applicants to ensure they are legitimate residents and not attempting to exploit the generous funding system north of the border.

From next year, English students will be forced to pay up to ￡9,000 wherever they study but Scottish undergraduates will be given free tuition.

Fees for Welsh students will be fixed at ￡3,465 and those in Northern Ireland will pay a similar amount, but only if they stay in their own region.

The system has already caused outrage in England, with several students pursuing legal action against the Scottish government amid claims that the fee rises will breach their human rights.

The Scottish Conservatives have branded the plans “vindictive” and warned that it would “stir up resentment in the rest of the UK against Scotland”.

A paper presented to a HEFCE board meeting warns that there “may be issues with families, particularly those close to the borders, seeking to domicile themselves in Wales or Scotland in order to benefit from favourable fee arrangements”.

The report adds: “This could have distortive effects on local economies and housing markets if it occurred with significant numbers.”

Bob Osborne, emeritus professor of public policy at Ulster University, told Times Higher Education magazine that if a family “was living 15 miles from the Scottish border then you can see how they might try to wangle it”.

But he doubted there was going to be a “mass exodus of people from Surrey to Glasgow”.

The Scottish Executive has already said children whose parents move to Scotland for their careers will be eligible for a free university education.

But families who seek to exploit the system by buying a home north of the Border will not. A spokesman said the Student Awards Agency for Scotland will decide on a case-by-case basis, with people not living north of the border for long likely to be scrutinised.

The HEFCE paper also warned that there is a “question of affordability” attached to the reforms for devolved administrations. Most countries are committed to subsidising students’ tuition even if they study outside their home country and budgets may stretched if universities in England put up their tuition fees, it was claimed.

Anti-Bullying week is launched

Since the first Anti-Bullying Week in 2004, Actionwork has taken anti-bullying roadshows to schools up and down the country, using theatre, film and entertainment to highlight issues which might otherwise be ignored, or handled in a ham-fisted, preachy way.

“Children don’t respond well to being lectured,” says Hickson. “Our workshops encourage young people to share ideas among ourselves. We also try to accent the positive, not just produce a long list of things children shouldn’t do or say to each other. Often the best way to counter bullying is simply to form friendships which boost your self-confidence.”

Although the anti-bullying message is slowly getting across, Hickson still encounters ignorance and complacency. “You would be surprised how often people say to me that if you experience bullying and survive it, you are going to be a stronger person. That may be true up to a point, but only up to a point. What about the children – and we have all met them – whose lives have been permanently blighted by bullying?”

Teachers and parents should be natural allies in the campaign against bullying, supporting vulnerable children, but Hickson believes that teachers need to raise their game: many of them have good intentions, but not the delicate personal skills needed to make appropriate interventions. “All schools now have to have anti-bullying policies, but I find it odd that anti-bullying training is not a core part of teacher training,” he says. “I have lobbied successive prime ministers on the issue, but been told that tfunding is not available.”

Even teachers with a gimlet eye for bullying, able to nip it in the bud, cannot beat the bullies alone. As we all remember from our own school days, if pupil A is being bullied by pupil B, it is very, very hard for pupil A to report pupil B to a teacher – it goes completely against the grain of playground culture.

Hence the increasing trend, in schools with enlightened anti-bullying policies, for systematic “peer support”: pupils in years 9 and 10 (age 13-15) say, being trained to be listening posts and counsellors to pupils in year 7 (11-12) who are often most vulnerable – new pupils ripe for targeting.

At Acland Burghley School in Camden, north London, a pioneer in this field, there is a dedicated room where pupils who feel they are being bullied can take their concerns to peer counsellors. The counsellors even visit local primary schools to spread the message about bullying as anti-social behaviour.

The schools with the most effective anti-bullying policies tend to be the ones that recognise that, because of the sensitivities involved, there need to be as many possible conduits as possible for complaints of bullying.

At Dulwich Preparatory School in Cranbrook, Kent, pupils who feel they are being bullied are spoiled for choice when deciding how best to raise the issue. They can put a note in a special “worry-box”. They can email comments on the school intranet. They can talk to their “buddy” – their personal mentor, drawn from the form two years above them. They can enlist the help of their “tribe” – as the school houses are known. Or they can talk to their form tutor, who has overall responsibility for their welfare.

“We are a big, mixed-sex school, so some problems are inevitable,” says Alison Eckersley, the school’s head of pastoral care. “Where bullying does occur, we have found it tends to involve pupils of the same sex. Cyber-bullying is a concern, obviously, although it usually starts with pupils using the internet at home rather than on the school premises. But we work hard to teach pupils to distinguish between thoughtless but hurtful comments and intentional malice. The goal is always to encourage good social skills and considerate behaviour.”

Worried about bullying?

If your instincts tell you that your child is being bullied, trust them.

Tread softly. Don’t rush in with half-substantiated accusations against other children.

Encourage your child not to overreact and to avoid developing a victim complex.

Think of teachers as allies: a successful counter-strategy will need patience and co-operation.

Read the school’s anti-bullying policy and discuss it with the head.

If your child encounters cyber-bullying, keep a record of offensive text messages and Facebook comments as evidence

Academic condemns 'torturous' university admissions

The university admissions process is "needlessly torturous", said Professor Mary Beard.?Photo: GETTY IMAGES

Mary Beard, the Cambridge University classics professor, said the admissions system employed in Britain was “more difficult and stressful than it should be”.

She also condemned the “shameless self-marketing” candidates committed on their application forms, suggesting many personal statements were copied from the internet.

In further comments, the academic rejected criticism of the notoriously tough Oxbridge admissions process, saying that common attacks on the system by politicians of all parties were misguided.

The comments were made after the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service proposed a sweeping overhaul of the current system.

They are planning to allow students to apply for places after receiving their results for the first time in a move that would lead to A-levels being brought forward and candidates choosing courses over the summer.

Writing for the BBC News website on Sunday, Prof Beard said that the changes would involve “more upheavals than you can imagine” but insisted it could take the “unnecessary heat out of the whole process”.

“The whole business of university applications in this country, for any university, is needlessly tortuous,” she said.

“The end result might be OK - happily many kids get where they want to go.

“But the route they have to take is more difficult and stressful than it should be.

“It relies on ridiculously minute distinctions between exam grades, it demands shameless self-marketing from the students on their application forms, and it operates according to a timetable that any outside observer would say was plain bonkers.”

Prof Beard, classics editor of the Times Literary Supplement and presenter of the recent documentary series Pompeii: Life and Death in a Roman Town, said many universities now relied on students’ A-level grades and their personal statement – instead of an interview – to select candidates.

But she insisted: “Today's statements are much less concerned with good works, and are often uncomfortably corporate in style - weaving together clever quotations from Shakespeare and Aristotle with carefully constructed personal anecdotes, to create an implausibly perfect impression.

“They're so professional that they have to be put through "plagiarism detection" software - which apparently many fail.”

Currently, students are supposed to apply to Oxbridge by October – around a year before courses start – and to other universities in January. Candidates are then given provisional offers based on the proviso that they gain predicted exam grades the following summer.

Those who fail to score high enough in A-levels and other qualifications are eligible for “clearing” – the system that matches students to spare places.

But writing on BBC online, Prof Beard said: “More than anything, it is the bizarre timetable that makes the application process so preoccupying.

“When we say in January or February that someone ‘got in’ to their chosen university, we don't actually mean that. We mean that they will have got in if they achieve the grades demanded by the university in their summer exam, which even if all goes well, drags out the nail biting for a good six months.”

She added: “If it doesn't go well and they don't get the grades, they enter a whole new round of applications in August.

“This is a frenetic process, with applicants tracking down the remaining unfilled places by email and phone - then being given maybe a few hours to accept a place for a course they haven't really explored at a university they know little about.”

Teach Jane Austen, state schools to be told

They include Looking for JJ, by Anne Cassidy, published in 2004, which tells the story of a teenager, neglected by her mother and put in to care, who kills her best friend, goes to prison and then tries to rebuild her life.

A boy with social problems struggling to discover the truth about his parents break-up is the central character in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon, published in 2003.

Other novels included The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, by John Boyne, which was published in 2007 and Holes, by Louis Sachar, which dates from 2000.

In contrast the list of the most popular books from 20 independent schools included Pride and Prejudice, The Lord of the Flies and To Kill a Mockingbird.

Plans to make English more challenging underline the determination by Michael Gove, the education secretary, to deal with what he believes is a lack of rigour in schools.

"The academic demands placed on children in state schools have been too low for too long," said a Government source.

"Schools need to raise the bar by requiring pupils to read a larger selection of books."

The review represents the biggest shake-up of the national curriculum since it was introduced by the Tories more than 20 years ago.

Ministers use of comparisons between state and private schools reveals the extent to which their thinking is influenced by the traditional teaching found in independent school classrooms.

In September, David Cameron, the Prime Ministers, held a summit at Downing Street with the headmasters of 10 private schools, including Eton, Harrow, Radley and Wellington College, asking them to play a wider role in state education.

But teaching unions and many in the educational establishment, who oppose the move to more traditional teaching, claim the Government is trying to impose a 1950s-style curriculum.

Bethan Marshall, a senior lecturer in English education at King's College, London, said forcing children to read the classics too early could backfire.

"I think getting children to read more books is a very good move but it should be books that children want to read," she said.

"Putting too much emphasis on the classics too early can be a mistake. I read the pre-20th century literature at grammar school and hated it."

Under the review only maths, English, science and PE will remain compulsory, compared to the current 14 subjects. An advisory panel is deciding whether to make other subjects statutory or allow schools to drop them altogether.

Subject experts are drawing up the "essential knowledge" that children should know at certain ages, apparently scrapping the detailed content and instructions on how to teach it which developed under Labour.

In English, secondary schools can currently choose from a list of hundreds of recommended authors which include contemporary writers, authors who represent English literary heritage and writers from different cultures and traditions. Pupils also study at least one Shakespeare play.

Tim Oates, director of research at Cambridge Assessment exam board who is leading the review, said last week that fewer topics would be covered in the main subjects and suggested that teachers should go over the same ground until all pupils in the class had gasped the concept.

The most popular books mentioned by independent and state schools in a survey by the Department for Education:

Private schools

Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck

Lord of the Flies, William Golding

Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

Great Expectations, Charles Dickens

Skellig, David Almond

Chinese Cinderalla, Adeline Yen Mah

State schools

Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck

Holes, Louis Sachar

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, John Boyne

Stone Cold, Robert Swindells

A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

Private Peaceful, Michael Morpurgo

Skellig, David Almond

Great Expectations, Charles Dickens

Looking for JJ, Anne Cassidy

Frankenstein, Mary Shelley

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon

Non-European modern languages degree course guide

This course offer students the chance to get to grips with the language and cultures of a major non-European country or countries?Photo: Jeff Blackler/Rex Features

"Any man who does not make himself proficient in at least two languages other than his own is a fool." Martin H. Fischer

What qualification do you leave with?

Usually a BA. Scottish universities typically offer MAs.

What does it cover?

Chinese courses seem likely to grow in popularity, as the country's economic boom drives new career opportunities for British graduates with linguistic capabilities. Degrees vary in the extent to which they emphasise contemporary Chinese – Leeds offers a course entitled "modern Chinese" – or the language in its classical form: London's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) expects all students to study classical Chinese alongside the modern form for at least two years. Generally, options allow students to focus on subjects ranging from art and archaeology to literature and religion, and there are also chances to learn about Chinese business and enterprise.

Japanese is said to be one of the world's hardest languages, its lack of connection and similarity with English making it a challenging subject for many. Students on most courses will grapple with reading and writing the characters of the Japanese language, while building fluency in conversation, grammar and comprehension. Japanese degrees generally give undergraduates the chance to explore both the ancient origins of Japanese culture and its hi-tech contemporary expression, as well as taking modules on linguistics, the politics of Japan and its neighbours, and, in some cases, on the language and culture of proximate societies including China, Korea and Thailand.

Students wanting to immerse themselves in the language, cultures and often conflict-laden histories of the Indian subcontinent have a range of courses to choose from. At SOAS, South Asian Studies covers India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal, with undergraduates specialising in one of six languages. At Edinburgh, students can take South Asian Studies in combination either with Social Anthropology or Sociology. At Leeds, a range of joint honours degrees cover South East Asian Studies, embracing Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Indonesia. SOAS also offers courses in languages including Burmese, Thai, Vietnamese and Korean, while Sheffield also offers Korean.

Undergraduates attracted to the language and civilisations of the Middle East also have a range of possible destinations. Arabic – language, culture, history and politics – is taught at universities including Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Exeter, Manchester and SOAS, all of which also offer Persian, while Oxford, Manchester, SOAS and King's College London teach Turkish. Hebrew is taught at universities including Oxford, Cambridge, St Andrews and University College London. Middle Eastern Studies is offered by universities including Edinburgh, Leeds and Manchester.

Finally, students can take a degree in African studies at either Birmingham or at SOAS. Academics at Birmingham have particular expertise in West Africa, but the course covers the entire continent, including the historic relationship with Europe, the experience of the African diaspora in the Caribbean and the interaction of African peoples with Islam. Students also get the chance to learn the West African language of Yoruba. At SOAS, Yoruba is one of six languages taught, with the focus being on the culture, history and politics of sub-Saharan Africa.

What to expect

A chance to focus on any of a huge range of cultures, with language learning usually central.

What are the usual A-levels you need?

Generally, an A-levels in the language to be studied is not required, with universities expecting that most students will begin language learning from scratch. In some cases, a language degree of some sort is preferred. Universities often make requirements of higher grades at GCSE in subjects such as English, maths and a language.

Career prospects

Modern linguists are generally in demand, and the small numbers of students taking many of these degrees will give them highly specialised skills in the jobs market. Graduates emerging with knowledge of the language and societies of countries including China, Japan and India will find business opportunities associated with the trade the UK does with these powerful economies. Graduates from the featured subjects also find work in non government organisations such as the United Nations, Oxfam and other charities, in the civil and diplomatic services, in teaching and in journalism.

Top places to study

The Complete University Guide rates Cambridge, Oxford, the School of Oriental and African Studies, Cardiff and Nottingham as the top five universities for East and South Asian Studies (including Chinese and Japanese) according to an index based on student satisfaction; entry standards; an assessment of the quality of the university's research; and graduate prospects. The guide does not provide ratings for other subjects listed here.

Students' 'right' to work from home

Seven out of ten students also believe that it is unnecessary to go to the office regularly, while a quarter say that working from home will improve their productivity.

Networking company Cisco’s ‘Connected World’ report, which interviews 2,800 current students and graduates under 30 in 14 countries, also found that similar proportions of employees already felt being in the office was largely unnecessary. Students said working at home should not be considered a ‘privilege’.

The report also found that working conditions were more important to some young people than how much they were paid.

“The ability to use social media, mobile devices, and the internet more freely in the workplace is strong enough to influence job choice, sometimes more than salary”, the report concluded.

It also warned that “Mobile networking, device flexibility, and the blending of personal and work lifestyles are components of a work environment that will determine which companies land the top talent”.

Many large companies, especially those working in communications such as BT, have already moved some jobs to working at home by default. The Government is hoping to use the Olympics to encourage people to work from home to lighten the burden on public transport.

Two out of five employees also told the survey that their company’s attitude to social media and technology had already been a factor in their recruitment. More than half of students said if a company banned the use of social media sites such as Facebook, they would either turn down a job offer or circumvent the policy. Nearly two thirds said they would ask about a firm’s approach to social networks in a job interview.

A third of college students and young employees also said that they would prioritise social media freedom, device flexibility, and work mobility over salary in accepting a job offer.

Phil Smith, chief executive of Cisco in the UK and Ireland, said that it showed the rising expectations of young people. “Companies are faced with a workforce that increasingly expects to be able to use the latest technology and set their own terms”. He said that although many potential recruits were unrealistic in their expectations, businesses were also using new tools to work more effectively.

Heads 'shun female teachers after childbirth'

Government figures show that 20 years ago 15,000 teachers returned to work every year, half of them full-time, compared with just 9,000 today?Photo: Getty Images

Taxpayers are spending more than necessary on training new teachers because "out-of-date" heads avoid hiring mothers who want to return to work while still having time to care for their families, it was claimed.

Stephen Hillier, chief executive of the Training and Development Agency, said some school leaders had told him that part-time and job-share arrangements posed a timetabling problem and that hiring fresh graduates was cheaper.

There are also fears among heads that women in flexible roles could not be trusted to "maintain the necessary focus and intensity on driving up pupil standards" and that they lacked the "energy and up-to-dateness" of newly qualified teachers, Mr Hillier said.

Speaking at a conference last month, he added: "In my view, some of these attitudes are 20 years out of date. Bluntly, some of our schools are a lot more willing than others to embrace the modern work patterns that are now common in other professions."

Government figures show that 20 years ago 15,000 teachers returned to work every year, half of them full-time, compared with just 9,000 today.

Mr Hillier, who is in charge of ensuring enough well-qualified teachers enter the profession, said heads "can't afford not to" start rehiring women, especially in subjects like physics and chemistry where there is a shortage of staff.

He said: "This now means that each year we are training, and schools are recruiting, 6,000 more newly qualified teachers than was previously necessary.

"Schools are the employers of teachers and only they can judge who it is best to employ ... on the other hand, taxpayers are entitled to wonder why we are spending 25 per cent more than we need to on newly qualified teachers."

David Trace, head of Ramsey Grammar School on the Isle of Man, disputed Mr Hillier's comments and branded him "out of touch".

He told the Times Educational Supplement: "My school, which is fairly typical, has seven part-time female teachers and four teaching assistants who have come back from maternity leave from full-time previously.

"In order to accommodate the needs of my seven we bend over backwards with the timetable at the expense of other important parameters."

Russell Hobby, general secretary of the National Union of Head Teachers, said schools should not be blamed for "conservative" employment practices and that they "won't be against flexible working for flippant reasons."

But Chris Keates, head of the NASUWT union, said: "These are not working practices of the 21st century; this is taking us back to the Victorian attitude towards employment ... Stephen has exposed something which is scandalous."

Times tables key to good maths, inspectors say

Multiplication tables form part of the National Curriculum in maths but some schools have been more rigorous than others at teaching them?Photo: ALAMY

A study published by Ofsted, the schools watchdog, says pupils without instant recall of multiplication tables struggle in maths.

It also condemned a modern teaching method which replaces traditional learning with "chunking" numbers as "cumbersome and confusing".

And it said that in schools which teach maths well, pupils tended to use traditional methods to add, subtract, multiply and divide.

Jean Humphrys, Ofsted's education director, said a range of methods could be used to teach times tables but that the teaching must be "rigorous".

"It is really important that children have the tools of arithmetic at their finger tips," she said. "Without that it is like sending a plumber out to do a job without knowing how to use a spanner."

Nick Gibb, the schools minister, said: "It is vital that all children can grasp and master arithmetic while they are still at primary school. If we fail children at this early stage, the risk is they will never catch up.

"It is important that pupils are fluent in calculation and have learnt the multiplication tables by heart before they leave primary school."

The warning came in a study of top-performing schools, which for the first time has included independent schools, adding to evidence that ministers are determined to overhaul teaching in the state system to resemble the approach found in private schools.

"Lack of fluency with multiplication tables is a significant impediment to fluency with multiplication and division," the report said. "Many low-attaining secondary pupils struggle with instant recall of tables.

"Teachers in the schools visited included fluent recall of multiplication tables as an essential prerequisite to success in multiplication."

Inspectors cast doubt on modern methods of calculation adopted by many state primaries, which include "chunking", where simple division questions are solved by repeated subtraction.

The method, which often baffles parents, was described as "cumbersome and confusing", particularly for the lower attaining pupils that it was initially introduced to help.

Multiplication tables form part of the National Curriculum in maths but some schools have been more rigorous than others at teaching them.

Many parents complain that their children only seem to know the 2, 5 and ten times tables, which the national curriculum specifies must be taught in the first few years of primary school.

Agriculture & Forestry degree course guide

Agriculture and forestry degrees have emerged as vital fields of science, applied art, and technology.?Photo: LYNN M. STONE / Nature Picture Library/Rex Features

"For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver." Martin Luther

What qualification do you leave with?

Commonly students leave with a Bachelor of Science (BSc).

Most students complete their studies in three years but many institutions will expect you to have built up a number of months of work experience before you begin (perhaps to make sure students are used to waking up before dawn).

What does it cover?

Farming in the UK is changing and farmers are being forced to diversify. For this reason core early courses now often include business and food production as well as crop and livestock science. Environmentalism and even agricultural marketing are included in agricultural degrees and institutions such as the Royal Agricultural College and Harpers College organise paid placements on farms whilst larger institutions such as the highly-ranked University of Nottingham have their own out-of-town campuses where students can learn about farming, the environment and animal husbandry first hand. The University of Nottingham also offers an Agriculture and European Studies degree which allows students to gain an extra language (complete with relevent terminology) and experience farming methods in another country. The National School of Forestry at the University of Cumbria runs a Forestry and Woodland Managment undergraduate degree and a masters degree in Forest Ecosystems Management which enable students to design sustainable forests and better understand the inner workings of the UK's wooded regions. A range of Agricutural and Forestry degrees enable students to concentrate on animal welfare, soil science, environmentalism, business management and many other specialisms.

What can you expect?

A lot of walking outdoors, getting muddy shoes, rosy cheeks and frozen hands. Students will come away with the tools to appreciate and protect one of the UK's most valuable and yet threatened resources: our green spaces.

What are the usual A-levels you need?

Nottingham's top-rated agriculture course usually requires two A-levels in science subjects whilst the forestry course accredited by the University of Cumbria looks for roughly the equivalent of three Cs at A-level from students. More than many subjects, agriculture and forestry students will be expected to have shown a commitment prior to arriving for interview and work experience or previous employment in the sector is as good as mandatory for many institutions.

Career prospects

As well as the obvious career route into farming or gamekeeping, students find employment in consultancy, working for companies that support farming, country park management and environmentally focused charities and businesses.

Top places to study

The latest Complete University Guide (published in April 2011) rates Nottingham, Reading, Harper Adams, Aberdeen and Queen's Belfast as the top five universities for this subject according to an index based on student satisfaction, entry standards, an assessment of the quality of the university's research and graduate prospects.

Brightest graduates 'to receive £20k bursaries to teach'

Graduates with first-class honours degrees will be able to claim the most lucrative financial incentives to teach subjects seen as vital to pupils’ future career prospects, such as maths, physics, chemistry, biology and foreign languages.

Students awarded a 2:1 or 2:2 at university will be eligible for smaller bursaries and ministers will refuse to fund teacher training courses for students with third-class degrees.

The plans will be outlined on Tuesday by Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, as part of a sweeping reform of the teacher training system in England.

Under the strategy, student teachers will be expected to display better standards of English and maths before being allowed to qualify – scrapping a current rule that gives trainees unlimited attempts to pass basic tests in the three-Rs.

The Government will also attempt to encourage former Army Forces personnel into the classroom with the establishment of a new “Troops to Teachers” programme.

In a further move, teacher training courses will be reformed to put more focus on behaviour management and reading.

And ministers will also build on plans to train more students directly in schools – instead of university-based postgraduate programmes.

The reforms are designed to raise the profile of the teaching profession amid fears that English state schools are falling behind those in other developed nations.

It comes just days after Sir Michael Wilshaw, the incoming head of Ofsted, warned that the watchdog needed to do more to crack down on coasting teachers.

He said extra effort was needed to identify “the teacher… who year in, year out just comes up to the mark, but only just, and does the bare minimum".

Mr Gove said: "If we want to have an education system that ranks with the best in the world, then we need to attract the best people to train to teach, and we need to give them outstanding training.

"We have some excellent teachers in this country, but many who could make a huge difference in the lives of children choose other professions.”

The reforms being announced on Tuesday are expected to be introduced for new trainee teachers starting in September 2012.

It will place a significant emphasis on improving standards in traditional subjects that are seen as key to progression to top universities and in heavy demand among employers.

Bursaries of ￡20,000 will be available for students with a first-class degree to teach maths, sciences and foreign languages. Lesser awards – believed to be around ￡9,000 – will be awarded to top students teaching other secondary subjects and to work in primary schools.

Students with a 2:1 degree are set to get ￡15,000 to teach the most important subjects, while those with 2:2s could receive ￡11,000.

In addition, the Government will fund around 100 scholarships through the Institute of Physics – worth ￡20,000 – for exceptional physics graduates to train.

Ministers will also underline their determination to focus on the best students by refusing to fund courses for those who fail to gain at least a 2:2 - potentially preventing thousands of graduates from entering the profession.

We shall shame schools that 'muddle through'

Already free schools – fully independent schools within the state sector, launched by this Government, funded by taxpayers and set up by parents and teachers, charities and entrepreneurs – are revolutionising education. Today, the Government is launching plans for more – for children with behavioural problems or special needs.

I know free schools work. I have seen for myself – and what’s happening is fantastic. By next September, more than 80 free schools will have opened across England.

I want them to be the shock troops of innovation in our education system. They are going to smash through complacency. Two thirds of the first ones are oversubscribed, with some seeing more than three applications for every place.

Spotting the real problem schools, looking at the league tables and sending in the inspectors to sort them out is relatively easy. And we remain relentless about combating entrenched failure. We will soon have taken over more failing schools with new academies than in the whole eight years of the programme under Labour.

But it’s just as important to tackle those all over the country content to muddle through – places where respectable results and a decent local reputation mask a failure to meet potential. Children who did well in primary school but who lose momentum. Early promise fades.

This is the hidden crisis in our schools – in prosperous shires and market towns just as much as the inner cities.

So I am excited that Sir Michael Wilshaw, one of the finest head teachers this country has had, is taking over as chief inspector of schools. He’s already made clear that he has coasting schools in his sights.

This challenge is one for all parts of the country – places where governors, parents and teachers might never guess things might be wrong. That’s why it is vital to shine a spotlight on secret failure by giving people the information they need to fight for change.

The last government shied from the problem. It kept huge amounts of data under wraps – focusing only on league tables that seemed to show things were getting better every year. It set a narrow definition of coasting schools, which allowed many to slip through the net undetected. By contrast, this Government is going to widen it so that more average schools are pressed to do better.

From January, we are going to sort out league tables so that everyone involved in schools can see for the first time whether they are doing as well as they should.

From June, we will release data about the performance of all pupils from the National Pupil Database. Of course, it will be anonymous, but you will be able to see what happened to individual pupils: where they started, the progress they made and where they ended up. We’ve also made spending data public. All this will allow people to spot the truth and confront failure where it exists.

We are also toughening up exams. More pupils are taking essential core subjects. Already, around a quarter more children have been entered for modern language and history GCSEs than last year. There’s been a stunning 82 per cent increase in the numbers of pupils studying triple sciences. Later this week, we will also be saying more about plans for apprenticeships.

The point of education is to change lives. It’s not good enough for teachers in shire counties to be satisfied with half of children getting five good GCSEs, when Mossbourne Academy achieves 82 per cent in Hackney.

When people involved in education can see what needs to be done to get out of a rut – and are given the freedom to make their own choices, rather than take orders from above – dramatic improvement is possible. Goffs School in Cheshunt, for instance, went from barely half its pupils achieving five good GCSEs, including English and Maths, to almost three quarters in a single year.

Schools must help children to go further than anyone ever thought they could. We must give parents the evidence they need to get together to demand better. So that is what we are doing.

London protests: police put a stop to Trafalgar Square 'tent city'

About 25 tents were pitched next to Nelson’s Column at 1.30pm after a group of 200 protesters broke free from the main march, which was protesting about the rise in university tuition fees and education cuts.

The breakaway group pledged to stay in the square indefinitely, mirroring the occupation at St Paul’s Cathedral.

About an hour later police removed the protesters, saying they had breached section 12 of the Public Order Act by deviating from the official protest route.

The success of the policing operation was in part attributed to the fact that Scotland Yard had 4,000 officers on patrol, the largest single body of officers policing any event since the summer riots.

The attempted occupation was the only notable incident of an otherwise peaceful protest. Last night only 24 arrests had been made despite an estimated 10,000 protesters turning out.

Earlier in the day Glyn Jukes, 37, one of the ringleaders of the breakaway group, said that the camp was “here to stay” and that “supplies were on the way”.

The joiner from Newtown, mid-Wales, said: “This camp will serve as a beacon for the old and the young and the disenfranchised around the world.” He handed out “bust cards” with instructions on what to do in the event of arrest.

However most of the breakaway group left to rejoin the march a short time later, leaving about 25 protesters to hold the camp.

Then at 2.45pm, about 100 police officers approached the encampment, set up a loudspeaker and demanded the protesters leave or face arrest. Fifteen minutes later they moved in and carried the protesters away.

By 3.15pm the Occupy Trafalgar Square camp was no more.

Police said that 12 arrests were made at the camp. They offered to return the tents but none of the protesters took up the offer.

“Freedoms are being eroded everywhere in this country, “ said Ben, 24, from Hertfordshire. This is just another example of that”.

Student tuition fees protest: as it happened November 9

Oxford University Conservative Association: UK's leading student politics body

John Bercow, the speaker, met his wife Sally through the association.?Photo: PA

The Oxford University Conservative Association is considered one of the leading student organisations for young members of the Tory party in Britain.

With two prime ministers, 13 cabinet ministers and three leaders of the Conservative Party among its high-profile alumni, it has become a conveyor belt for future leaders since it was founded in 1924.

The student body, whose patron is Baroness Thatcher, a former president, is considered one of the oldest, and biggest, youth political organisations in the country, with more than 650 members.

OUCA, whose honorary president is William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, uses its website to promote a public image of studious debate, with recent guest speakers including Sir John Major and Iain Duncan Smith.

It is the biggest single organisation within Conservative Future, the body for young Tories, which is run from the party’s London headquarters.

Among its famous members include John Bercow, the speak of the House of Commons and his wife Sally, Nick Robinson, the BBC’s Political Editor and Theresa May, the Home Secretary and Andy Street, the managing director of John Lewis.

Founded amid a rising of the Labour party, according to its history, the first recruitment notice declared its purpose was “to strengthen the Conservative cause among undergraduates and to ground that cause on its broadest foundations”.

“Today the Association continues to provide a Conservative voice within the University and communicate the ideas of its members to the Party,” its website adds.

But OUCA has been embroiled in controversy and faced repeated accusations of racism and sexism in the past that that has forced the Conservative party to distance itself from it.

In 2000, four members were expelled for making Nazi-style salutes, and in 2009 Oxford University temporarily banned OUCA from using “Oxford University” in its name after two candidates made racist jokes at a hustings meeting.

Last year it became embroiled in a sexism row amid claims a female speaker was told to “go back to washing the dishes”.

Both Oxford University and the Conservative Party said that racism had “no place” within their organisations.

Specialist subject teachers parachuted into primary schools

The reforms are outlined in a radical blueprint designed to overhaul the system of teacher training in England.

From 2012, funding will be reallocated to allow more state-funded training places to be made available for subject specialist primary school teachers.

They will get priority places over students taking general primary courses and schools will be offered the chance to train their own primary specialists.

Trainees teaching science, maths and foreign languages could be offered extra financial rewards because the subjects are seen as vital to pupils’ future chances of getting into top universities and securing a good job.

Ministers will also toughen up the selection process to weed out unsuitable trainees and introduce a package of generous incentives to attract the brightest graduates.

For the first time in 2013, students must pass basic tests in English and maths to start postgraduate training courses – and will only be allowed to re-sit assessments twice. Tests themselves will also be toughened up and the pass marks will be raised.

It will replace the current system in which student teachers normally take exams half-way through one-year courses and are permitted unlimited re-sits.

As reported on Tuesday, the Government will also introduce a system of tapered bursaries designed to attract graduates with first-class honours degrees.

The top students will be able to claim ￡20,000 scholarships – given out in monthly instalments throughout their course – to teach physics, maths, chemistry and modern languages. The best students will also be eligible for ￡9,000 bursaries to teach other “priority” secondary school subjects and to train as primary teachers.

Graduates with a 2:1 or 2:2 degree will handed smaller awards, while those with third-class degrees will be banned from claiming state funding.

But teachers condemned the move as elitist.

Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: “A first class degree does not necessarily a first class teacher make.

“The real incentive which Government needs to address in order to attract people into teaching is not simply bursaries.

“Teachers need to be given greater control over what goes on in the classroom, the unnecessary bureaucratic workload needs to go, pay and conditions need to remain competitive and of course Government needs to ensure a good pension.”

In further reforms, the Government will create a new training programme specifically to allow former Armed Forces personnel to gain qualified teacher status.

Alternative positions will be available in schools for ex-soldiers to act as advisors on discipline and “work with students at risk of exclusion or exhibiting anti-social behaviour”.

MPs: higher education reforms could 'polarise' universities

It will be seen as a blow to the Coalition which has already faced strong opposition to the changes from students, lecturers and several vice-chancellors.

The latest comments come just days after it emerged 27 universities have still to finalise tuition fee levels for next September – even though thousands of students have already applied for places.

Liam Burns, president of the National Union of Students, said: “Rather than unleashing more ill-thought out and controversial reforms and plunging universities and students into fresh chaos, ministers must now pause and reflect amid widespread concern."

Under the Government’s reforms, almost all direct state funding for university teaching is abolished from 2012. To plug the gap, universities can charge students up to ￡9,000 a year in fees – almost three times the current limit.

At the same time, ministers also want to create more of a market by allowing universities to compete for up to 85,000 places.

As part of the move, existing limits on the number of bright students achieving two A grades and a B at A-level that universities can recruit will be abolished – affecting around 65,000 places in total.

A further 20,000 places will be placed in an “auction” and offered to institutions that keep fees under ￡7,500.

But today’s report claims it could “polarise” higher education in England, with top universities recruiting more “AAB” students and “low price" institutions charging less than ￡7,500.

“This could have undesirable consequences for social mobility if able candidates from lower socio-economic backgrounds felt constrained to choose lower-cost provision,” it said. “Further education colleges (and other providers) are capable of offering excellent low-cost and high-quality provision, but they may not offer the same experience as a student might receive in a traditional university."

It calls for the proposals to be delayed for at least 12 months after tuition fee reforms have been introduced to allow universities to be consulted further on the issue.

But David Willetts, the Universities Minister, rejected calls to delay the reforms.

“We have to get on with ending the present system of setting quotas of places at each university because it lets students down,” he said.

In a further move, the Coalition is proposing the creation of “off-quota” places. This would allow companies to sponsor students onto courses – usually at a much higher cost than normal fees. Places are intended to be in addition to undergraduates those who get onto courses through conventional routes.

But the report suggested that the policy could be open to abuse, with students from wealthy backgrounds playing the system to get into top universities.

“Without detailed proposals we are unable to see how the Government will ensure that admissions to ‘off-quota’ places are ‘based on ability to learn not ability to pay’,” said the report.

The top 10 nursing degree courses

Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.

Universities need Pepys as much as Newton

Leszek Borysiewicz: a university is defined by the breadth of its mission?Photo: ADRIAN SHERRATT / REX

For more than 800 years, the University of Cambridge has been a crucible of knowledge and culture. Our students and scholars – from Wordsworth, Wittgenstein and Pepys to Newton, Darwin and Crick – have contributed to society across the centuries. We value, in the widest sense, creativity and research across all disciplines.

Yet the current economic climate is encouraging many outside academia to assess universities’ impact in narrow, utilitarian terms, concentrating only on economic benefit or benefit to individual graduates and their employability. I believe that as global political and economic uncertainty increases, so does the danger of this viewpoint.

Cambridge is rightly celebrated for its innovation in science and technology – from the structure of the atom to the structure of DNA – and the university has more Nobel Prize winners than any other higher education institution in the world, in literature, economics and peace, as well as chemistry, physics and medicine. This reminds us that a university is not defined solely by science and technology but by the breadth of its mission.

And so it is essential that the full range of universities’ contributions is valued appropriately by the society we serve. The arts and humanities – which my colleague Professor Stefan Collini describes as “a series of disciplined attempts to extend and deepen understanding of human activity in its greatest richness and diversity, across times and cultures” – are an indispensable part of that contribution.

I am not alone in my concern. Reflecting on Cardinal Newman’s ideas on the role of the university, my predecessor as vice-chancellor, Professor Dame Alison Richard, observed: “The dichotomy between 'useful’ and 'not useful’ is itself increasingly 'not useful’.” With an anthropologist’s view of the benefits of biodiversity, she made a powerful case for its academic equivalent: “The case for breadth centres on the proposition that the greatest challenges facing the world today are of huge complexity and global scope, best tackled by people whose education enables them to integrate different fields of knowledge and work across conventional academic boundaries.”

As we face the aftermath of one recession and struggle to avoid another, governments are, reasonably, focused on short-term financial perspectives. But as an 800-year-old academic institution and one of the world’s leading universities, Cambridge has a responsibility to take the long – as well as the broad – view.

Recent debates on higher education have focused on undergraduate teaching, obscuring the true scope and nature of universities by neglecting their research role – even though the benefit to students of being taught by those with active research careers is transformative.

To address complex questions of critical importance requires research across many disciplines and over the long term. Cancer prevention offers a good example, not least because the disease presents a complex challenge: the core problem cannot be addressed by science alone.

I trained as a doctor and spent most of my career in academic clinical medicine, studying cervical cancer. A UK-wide vaccination programme has been under way since 2008 and take-up has been excellent. But just as a safe and effective vaccine depends on the best clinical research, in a society that exercises free choice, successful take-up depends on a programme whose acceptability to patients must be informed by rigorous social science research that complements and completes the medical science.

This is not to argue that humanities and social science research exists only to serve science, technology and medicine. Understanding the causes and consequences of human behaviour is an end in itself, and there are many examples of arts and humanities research at Cambridge that bring social benefit or help illuminate pressing global concerns.

Migration and multiculturalism are two of those concerns, and in March this year, Cambridge launched a collaboration with two German universities using the latest research on German history to shed new light on immigration and guest workers.

Given that declining populations mean Western Europe as a whole must face up to a need for immigration, we should welcome the fact that historical scholarship can help inform this debate.

Closer to home, academics from the Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics recently set up the Cambridge Bilingualism Network. Working in local primary schools where pupils speak dozens of languages, the Network is bringing the latest linguistic research into the classroom to help parents and teachers nurture the gift of bilingualism.

In economic hard times, who will look to the long term? Governments will not; stockmarkets cannot; businesses dare not. Instead, we must look to our universities, which by virtue of their autonomy can build the disciplinary breadth and long-term vision to discharge that responsibility.

Over 800 years we have discharged it to the benefit of Britain and the world, and we discharge it best by remaining committed to the arts and humanities. Cambridge this week is celebrating these disciplines and how they enrich all our lives, in the third annual Festival of Ideas – a showcase for Collini’s description of richness and diversity, across times and cultures.

Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz is vice-chancellor of the University of Cambridge

Oxford Tories' nights of port and Nazi songs

One officer claimed that members regularly sang a song which includes the words: “Dashing through the Reich…killing lots of kike (Jews).”

The Daily Telegraph has been shown a video of one of the members reciting the first line of the song before a friend silences him, saying, “No, no!”

Matters came to a head this week after a series of emails in which senior members express concerns about the “absolutely disgraceful” behaviour at meetings were leaked to The Oxford Student newspaper.

One officer told the newspaper that “lots of people were singing (the song) that night, and indeed on many other nights”.

Joe Cooke, who was president of OUCA during this year’s spring term, is one of the senior members who have decided to resign.

He told The Daily Telegraph he was quitting “because of the extent of the debauchery” at meetings, where the annual bill for port runs to ￡10,000, the equivalent of a third of a bottle per person per meeting.

“It has become more like a pub than a political association,” he said, likening the meetings to those of the Bullingdon Club, the drinking club once frequented by David Cameron.

“I am committed to the Conservative Party but this association has come to represent everything we’re supposed to stand against,” he added.

The students’ antics are a far cry from the days when the likes of Margaret Thatcher, Edward Heath and Theresa May were members.

At one recent event, OUCA’s returning officer, Tom Hendriks, was photographed pouring alcohol into a pith helmet as another student drank through a hole in the top.

Another picture shows a fancy dress party in which one student is dressed as Baroness Thatcher, while another is dressed as a miner and a third is holding a sign saying “miners love shafting”.

Mr Cooke, 21, who is a former comprehensive school pupil from Barnsley, added that when he spoke at meetings after he first joined the Association “I was ridiculed for my accent…they would say things like ‘ee bah gum’ and create a culture of intimidation”.

OUCA has faced repeated accusations of racism in the past. In 2000 four members were expelled for making Nazi-style salutes and in 2009 Oxford University temporarily banned OUCA from using “Oxford University” in its name after two candidates made racist jokes at a hustings meeting.

James Lawson, a student at St Edmund Hall college and president of OUCA, said: “I haven't seen the video yet and we are investigating to find out whether this was a member of the Association.

"If it turns out this person is a member we will take immediate action to expel them from the Association. Racism has no place in the Association or our society.”

OUCA is the biggest single organisation within Conservative Future, the body for young Tories which is run from the party’s London headquarters.

A spokesman for the Conservative Party said: “Racism of any kind has absolutely no place in the Conservative Party, and we will look into any allegation against a party member as a matter of urgency.”

A spokesman for Oxford University said: “The University Proctors, who are responsible for discipline, have been made aware of the article and will be considering whether there are grounds for further investigation.”

Additional reporting by James Rothwell

Universities with the richest students (or parents)

Of the UK's top 20 universities, Prince William's alma mater St Andrews hosts the highest proportion of financially independent students. Among last year's 1,625 first year entrants, 58 per cent lived and studied without the need for a student loan.

The loans referred to in this gallery are student maintenance loans and do not include tuition fee loans. The results exclude EU students.

IT degree course guide

Computer scientists are much sought after by employers and can command high salaries?Photo: BRC Designs/Rex Features

"The future is already here — it's just not very evenly distributed." William Gibson

What qualification do you leave with?

Students usually leave with BSc but at University College London there are both MEng courses which stretch for an extra year as well as a three year BSc programme.

Degrees are usually three years but combined Masters courses as well as many opportunities to study

What does it cover?

Most computer science courses combine two strands, basic theories behind computer functions (ie algorithms) and more applied work such as Java programming. The initial course at UCL is 'Computer Architecture' which gives students a basic understanding of the structure of computers and the ways in which they hold information. Other common areas of study are professional specifications for software projects and the workings of microprocessors. Students then finish their degree with a large individual project which, at UCL, has included students designing commercially available iPhone applications and software which manages the reams of data already gathered on the athletes likely to compete in London 2012. Goldsmiths, University of London, run undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes that include the application of computer science to the arts, media, music, design, games, psychology and business.

At undergraduate level at the University of Bedfordshire, 17 specialist BSc degrees courses are on offer.

What can you expect?

Whilst most people think some kind of voodoo magic enables our phones to receive emails, computer science students are amongst the few humans who can fully comprehend how small devices like laptops and phones manage to do all the things we ask them to.

What are the usual A-levels you need?

UCL requires students to have mathematics at A level and – for their mathematical computation programme – further mathematic too. Some institutions will only require strong GCSE results in maths but students need to show that this is an area that they are passionate about and determined to succeed in.

Career prospects

It may have become a hackneyed truism but computers play an increasingly fundamental part in our lives, from managing financial transactions between international corporations to letting us stream television programmes we've missed earlier in the week. This therefore gives computer scientists a shaman-like position in society, opening doors to well-paid jobs across the public and private sectors.

Top places to study

The latest Complete University Guide (published in April 2011) rates Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial, UCL and Bristol as the top five universities for this subject according to an index based on student satisfaction, entry standards, an assessment of the quality of the university's research, and graduate prospects.

Value of degrees to be revealed for first time

The information will be vital to students who face paying ￡27,000 for a three year degree and years of debt when they start work?Photo: PA

Official work force surveys are to quiz respondents about which universities they attended, revealing which institutions are most and least successful at producing graduates who go on to certain careers.

The information will be vital to students who face paying ￡27,000 for a three year degree and years of debt when they start work.

It is part of a move by ministers to make higher education more accountable and reveal key details about what undergraduates get for their money.

The data will be collected by the Office for National Statistics as part of the Labour Force Survey (LFS), which questions 110,000 people in 50,000 households at quarterly intervals and is used to show national employment levels.

The survey already asks respondents about their qualifications but it will now publish information on what universities they attended.

As a results, it will be possible to show which university graduates dominate lucrative careers like law and banking, where the highest paid and lowest paid went to university and the financial benefits over time of attending particular institutions.

It comes in addition to 15 key pieces of information that will be published next year to help students select courses, including the proportion of students who are employed sixth months and three years after they graduate and the level of work they are doing.

A Government source said: “Some of the best universities like Oxford and Cambridge can do quite poorly on measures tracking students straight after graduation because a lot of students go on to postgraduate study before work.

"The labour force survey gives details of salaries and employment over time, which students can make judgements on.

“Over time the LFS information could enable modelling of lifetime earnings by institution and help contribute to our understanding of social mobility.”

Last month, Which? magazine revealed plans to launch an online guide for students showing which degrees provide the best value for money.

The consumer champion will use the information from universities including students views on course content and teaching quality, details about contact hours and exams, as well as access to facilities like libraries, laboratories and information technology.

David Willetts, the university minister, said: “We hope independent organisations like Which? and the website Student Room will present this new information in innovative ways so that no one is left in the dark when deciding where to apply.”

University applications for 2012 – the first year of higher tuition fees – are running at 9 per cent below last year’s level, according to figures released last month.

When overseas applications are taken out, the figures show a 12% drop in applications from UK students.

Universities UK cautioned that the final application deadline is not until January and that the figures were “unreliable indicators”.

Fresh warning over A-level grade inflation

A-level results have increased much quicker than scores in the IB, according to figures.?Photo: PA

Data shows that average scores have increased by almost a quarter – 24 per cent – since the mid-90s.

Over the same period, results in the International Baccalaureate – a Swiss-based qualification favoured by dozens of independent schools – rose by less than 4.5 per cent.

The disclosure, in an analysis by the website Socialglue Schools Guide will fuel concerns that the sharp year-on-year rise in A-level grades is down to politically-motivated changes to the exam – and the comparable ease of tests – instead of rising standards in schools.

Jonathan Gittos, the website’s editor, said: “IB and A-level are taken by candidates of the same age and same schools.

“IB grades have gone up slightly in the UK compared to the rest of the world but the only reasonable explanation, we can think of, for most of the rise in A-level grades, is that the exam has become easier”.

He added: “One of the attractions of the IB is that it’s administered from Geneva and so seen as being freer from political interference and more reliable.”

Currently, students are awarded a certain number of points for each A-level exam, with higher grades attracting more points.

According to figures, the average points per entry in 1996 was 181.3, but by 2011 this increased to 224.7 – a rise of almost 24 per cent.

Over the same period, average points in the IB, which uses a different scoring system, increased from 31.6 to just 33 – a rise of 4.4 per cent.

The rise comes after Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, claimed that a shake-up of the traditional A-level grading structure was needed because of the rise in top grades.

He suggested that a fixed proportion of elite A* grades could be awarded each year to mark out the most exceptional candidates.

An alternative system in which all pupils are ranked in set order according to their performance in comparison with other teenagers could also be introduced, he said.

Speaking last month, Mr Gove insisted education standards had risen in recent years but not by the extent witnessed in exam results.

The rise may be driven by exam re-sits, the introduction of bite-sized modules and highly-structured questions that “sometimes lead the students by the hand through the process of acquiring marks”, he said.

Student fees protest: who is behind latest London demonstrations

"What the police have done is extremely political and a cynical attempt to put people off from coming to a national demonstration What they are doing is trying to put people off and pre-criminalising the process.

"They are ramping up the pressure and in the process being completely irresponsible. We've been very explicit that what we are calling for is non-violent, direct action."

Other key supporters

The National Union of Students

Liam Burns, its president, supports the protest.

“When fees are trebled, the Education Maintenance Allowance scrapped, and even less money is spent on supporting students financially, don’t be surprised that demonstrations are here to stay.”

Occupy LSX (London Stock Exchange):

Campers from outside St Paul’s Cathedral are reported to be joining the march when it passes by the London landmark.

UK Uncut:

The group has stated online: “Last year students, pupils and workers fought back. We were the biggest youth rebellion since the Sixties, and we aren’t going away. Together we can save education and the welfare state from the Tories.”

Education Activist Network,

The group, led by Mark Bergfeld, has stated on its page on Facebook, the social networking site: “Students and lecturers are under attack. The (Education) White Paper seeks to dismantle and destroy publicly-funded Higher Education creating a two-tier system. Institutions will fail, others will privatise, and again others will become bastions for the wealthy.”

Trade unions:

Members of the University and College Union, for lecturers and academics and Unite, representing the electricians in their dispute over pay cuts are also expected to join the protest.

Others

The N9 Anarchist Bloc:

Plans to join the march using red and black flags and banners.

Its website said: “This is our opportunity to join together with those who will not be governed by markets, dictated to by politicians, or accept the conditions being forced upon them.”

Socialist group Revolution:

Writing on its site, John Bowman, an activist, said: “The 9th November needs to show those thousands of young people who showed discontent through rioting in the summer that there can be more structured, thought out and successful ways to protest.”

Mervyn King Collective:

Its website said: “The global sea of rage continues and the next crash of the waves will be in The City of London on November 9th. Brothers and sisters. This is a call. This is yours. This is it.”

Meanwhile, adding to the headache for police, two other protests will take place in London.

Taxi drivers will stage a demonstration in Trafalgar Square, while electricians are also set to march.

Schoolchildren 'must learn the meaning behind the poppy'

On 11/11/11 pupils from my school will be engaging for themselves with the moral dilemma posed by Remembrance.

Portsmouth Grammar School has a strong emotional sense of the sacrifice of war.

The War Office gave a Field Gun to the school in recognition that a higher percentage of our former pupils bore arms in the First World War than apparently any other school.

Located on the site of Richard the Lionheart’s crusading palace, we are housed in nineteenth century army barracks in a High Street which survived the Blitz.

Many of our pupils have parents and siblings currently serving in the armed forces.

A recent inscription on the school gate records that once soldiers left through this archway and that now girls and boys enter through it to learn and play.

Rather than retreat into silence, valuable though such contemplation is, I believe that young people should have the opportunity to express creatively their feelings about war.

In this way they can more meaningfully honour the dead.

Since 2001 we have commissioned each year a leading composer to work with pupils in creating a new work for Remembrance.

To mark a decade in this unique programme of commissions, pupils will be performing two of the most significant works created as part of this collaboration in St John’s, Smith Square with our orchestral partners, the London Mozart Players, on the evening of 11/11/11.

Stephen Montague’s The Last Trumpet is a mind-blowing Requiem which weaves together Portsmouth fog horns, American folk tunes and, importantly, twenty first century pupils’ poems in an unforgettable tribute to those who took part in the D-Day Landings in 1944.

Its companion piece will be the work which caused the Master of the Queen’s Music to reflect on his wearing of the poppy last year. Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ tribute to Harry Patch is a setting of Sir Andrew Motion’s poem about the life of Britain’s last great Tommy.

It is a challenging work for its young singers and has proved particularly thought-provoking for its composer.

As Sir Peter said in rehearsals, the subject matter is not easy and nor should the music be either.

My pupils will be wearing poppies for Remembrance this year and they will be raising funds for both the Royal British Legion and Help for Heroes.

But rather than marking the occasion with a two minute silence, they will be helping to create over sixty minutes’ worth of new music and in the process finding their own voice in singing for our unsung heroes.

‧ James Priory is the Headmaster of Portsmouth Grammar School.

Student protesters march through central London

Students marched through London on Wednesday in the latest display of anger against the government's austerity measures, with police promising a larger presence to prevent any repeat of the violence and rioting seen earlier this year.

They were joined by hundreds of activists currently living at the Occupy tented camp outside St Paul's Cathedral. The demonstrators plan to march through Trafalgar Square and end the day with a rally in the City of London.

There was heavy police presence at the march, with some 4,000 officers monitoring events. The Metropolitan police force wants to avoid a repeat of last year's student demonstrations which saw attacks on the Westminster headquarters of the Conservative Party and violent clashes between protesters and riot police.

The Met has sent letters to people arrested during those demonstrations warning them they will face the full force of the law if they cause any trouble during Wednesday's demonstration.

Police have also been given the authority to use rubber bullets if there is serious violence.

The march is organised by the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts and is supported by the National Union of Students, the University and College Union, the Education Activists Network, UKUncut and the Anarchist Bloc.

Spend £27,000 on university? No, thank you...

When I tell people I’m not going to university, I am often met with shock and pity. I have the qualifications – three A-levels, including two As – but not the inclination.

This autumn, I have watched each and every one of my friends leave home for higher education. My entire school life had been based on preparing me for to university. In Year Seven, my teachers would hold up failed maths exams and bellow, “You will never go to university if you carry on like this”. In sixth form, I had two classes a week devoted solely to my Ucas application; and after I’d been suspended for a second time, the headmaster put his head in his hands and sighed, “Well, there’s always secretarial college”.

So higher education of some kind was not an option, it was a given. Now, when people find out that I am not participating in this rite of passage, they tend to assume that I am either about to come into a huge amount of money or that I failed my A-levels. Neither of which is the case: I just don’t want to go.

I became disillusioned with the idea of university when I realised that every one of my friends was applying. Not just the clever ones, or those who wanted to carry on studying: all of them – including those who “simply couldn’t miss out on freshers’ week”.

But the intensive competition for truly desirable courses meant the majority had to settle for subjects of minimal interest. My two best friends, neither of whom is entirely unintelligent, both applied to relatively competitive universities because of pushy parents and the assumption that university is everything. They have ended up studying Construction Management and Sports Performance Studies.

I don’t think anyone has ever turned around to a builder and demanded: “Before you put up that scaffolding, do you have a degree in construction management?” Or said to an athlete: “That was the most impressive triple jump we’ve ever seen. Did you learn that in sports performance studies?”

People try and convince me that I will be unable to get a job without a degree in the current economic climate. But I believe that if I fetch enough coffees in a enough offices, learn about the businesses in which I’m fetching those coffees and make friends with the people whose coffee I’ve fetched, then I am more likely to end up with a paid job than someone who has a 2:2 in Animal Psychology from the University of Wolverhampton — no disrespect to animal psychologists or Wolverhampton.

I believe that being interesting, charismatic and driven – and I am working on all three – are worth more than any degree. In my experience, the people who end up relying on a degree are those who have not been brave enough to back their own ambitions or follow a path that their friends have disparaged.

If you love a subject, you should pursue it, carry on studying and, hey, maybe even get a degree in it. But most of the people that I know don’t go to university to study something they enjoy. They go so they can spend three years making friends, getting drunk and ending up with some sort of clue about work at the end of it.

I’m quite sure that if you try hard enough, you can do all of those things without shelling out ￡27,000.

Non-Euro mod lang degree course guide

This course offer students the chance to get to grips with the language and cultures of a major non-European country or countries?Photo: Jeff Blackler/Rex Features

"Any man who does not make himself proficient in at least two languages other than his own is a fool." Martin H. Fischer

What qualification do you leave with?

Usually a BA. Scottish universities typically offer MAs.

What does it cover?

Chinese courses seem likely to grow in popularity, as the country's economic boom drives new career opportunities for British graduates with linguistic capabilities. Degrees vary in the extent to which they emphasise contemporary Chinese – Leeds offers a course entitled "modern Chinese" – or the language in its classical form: London's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) expects all students to study classical Chinese alongside the modern form for at least two years. Generally, options allow students to focus on subjects ranging from art and archaeology to literature and religion, and there are also chances to learn about Chinese business and enterprise.

Japanese is said to be one of the world's hardest languages, its lack of connection and similarity with English making it a challenging subject for many. Students on most courses will grapple with reading and writing the characters of the Japanese language, while building fluency in conversation, grammar and comprehension. Japanese degrees generally give undergraduates the chance to explore both the ancient origins of Japanese culture and its hi-tech contemporary expression, as well as taking modules on linguistics, the politics of Japan and its neighbours, and, in some cases, on the language and culture of proximate societies including China, Korea and Thailand.

Students wanting to immerse themselves in the language, cultures and often conflict-laden histories of the Indian subcontinent have a range of courses to choose from. At SOAS, South Asian Studies covers India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal, with undergraduates specialising in one of six languages. At Edinburgh, students can take South Asian Studies in combination either with Social Anthropology or Sociology. At Leeds, a range of joint honours degrees cover South East Asian Studies, embracing Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Indonesia. SOAS also offers courses in languages including Burmese, Thai, Vietnamese and Korean, while Sheffield also offers Korean.

Undergraduates attracted to the language and civilisations of the Middle East also have a range of possible destinations. Arabic – language, culture, history and politics – is taught at universities including Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Exeter, Manchester and SOAS, all of which also offer Persian, while Oxford, Manchester, SOAS and King's College London teach Turkish. Hebrew is taught at universities including Oxford, Cambridge, St Andrews and University College London. Middle Eastern Studies is offered by universities including Edinburgh, Leeds and Manchester.

Finally, students can take a degree in African studies at either Birmingham or at SOAS. Academics at Birmingham have particular expertise in West Africa, but the course covers the entire continent, including the historic relationship with Europe, the experience of the African diaspora in the Caribbean and the interaction of African peoples with Islam. Students also get the chance to learn the West African language of Yoruba. At SOAS, Yoruba is one of six languages taught, with the focus being on the culture, history and politics of sub-Saharan Africa.

What to expect

A chance to focus on any of a huge range of cultures, with language learning usually central.

What are the usual A-levels you need?

Generally, an A-levels in the language to be studied is not required, with universities expecting that most students will begin language learning from scratch. In some cases, a language degree of some sort is preferred. Universities often make requirements of higher grades at GCSE in subjects such as English, maths and a language.

Career prospects

Modern linguists are generally in demand, and the small numbers of students taking many of these degrees will give them highly specialised skills in the jobs market. Graduates emerging with knowledge of the language and societies of countries including China, Japan and India will find business opportunities associated with the trade the UK does with these powerful economies. Graduates from the featured subjects also find work in non government organisations such as the United Nations, Oxfam and other charities, in the civil and diplomatic services, in teaching and in journalism.

Top places to study

The Complete University Guide rates Cambridge, Oxford, the School of Oriental and African Studies, Cardiff and Nottingham as the top five universities for East and South Asian Studies (including Chinese and Japanese) according to an index based on student satisfaction; entry standards; an assessment of the quality of the university's research; and graduate prospects. The guide does not provide ratings for other subjects listed here.