Leading Article: UCU is picking the wrong fight

Quote from the article:
The union is entitled to be wary of private sector involvement, but it looks as though it has chosen the wrong target for an active campaign. This is not privatisation as most people would understand it. The universities remain in control of admissions and are not handing assets over to private firms. It would be a shame if opposition to change resulted in universities losing out on important opportunities.

Thursday, 31 May 2007
The Independent

'I am the mum and I can't help my children'

Immigrant women are dismayed at cuts in the English language classes that are their lifeline. Mira Katbamna reports

Tuesday May 29, 2007
The Guardian

Joint project builds Eastern European expertise

Article about the collaborative Centre for Russian, Central and Eastern European Studies.
Friday, 25 May 2007, p. 56
Times Higher Education Supplement (subsciption required online).

Why we're still Brits Abroad

Ginny McGrath laments the behaviour of British people abroad, including their failure to even try to speak in a foreign language.

Wednesday, 23rd May 2007
The Times

Chinese writing '8,000 years old'

Chinese archaeologists studying ancient rock carvings say they have evidence that modern Chinese script is thousands of years older than previously thought.

Friday, 18th May 2007
BBC website

Johnson takes vocational message to European ministers

The education secretary, Alan Johnson, today put UK reforms around widening participation and promoting more vocational degrees to create graduates fit for the workplace on to the European agenda.

Debbie Andalo
Thursday May 17, 2007
EducationGuardian.co.uk

Languages Lacking

Professor Dick Hudson of University College London tells a British Academy discussion that a lack of research into language learning is to blame for low numbers of school pupils studying languages.

Friday 18 May 2007, p. 4
Times Higher Education Supplement (subscription required)

Routes into languages: Who got that cash?

Who got that cash?

Anthea Lipsett
Published: 11 May 2007

It took a consortium of three different organisations and some serious persuasion to secure the Routes into Languages programme's £4.5 million grant from the Higher Education Funding Council for England to bolster language study in the UK.
The programme, which is run by the national languages subject centre at Southampton University with the University Council of Modern Languages and the National Centre for Languages, is made up of outreach work in schools and three research projects


Friday, 11th May 2007
Times Higher Education Supplement (subscription required), p.52

How do I become... a lexicographer?

Lexicographers have a fascination with words, although an ability to look at language analytically is a must

Emily Ford

Thursday, 10th May 2007
The Times

1. Press release: Routes into Languages announces regional consortia members

Press release, 8 May 2007

Four innovative regional consortia have been selected to increase the take up of languages in their area. They will focus particularly on encouraging students to continue studying languages in school and then at university.

The funding for the three-year consortium projects comes through Routes into Languages, a 4.5 million programme funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), in partnership with the Higher Education Academy (HEA) Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies, with the University Council of Modern Languages, and CILT, the National Centre for Languages. The Routes into Languages programme is coordinated by a team at the University of Southampton, directed by Professor Michael Kelly.

Professor Kelly comments: "We have been astonished at the imaginative ideas and the innovative activities that are proposed. The consortia will build on a lot of experience, and we expect they will produce a real 'sea change' in attitudes to language learning around the country."

Full details available on LLAS website

Harvard introduces teaching reforms

Are universities neglecting teaching? Many critics think so. And now even Harvard is introducing reform.

Lucy Hodges
Thursday, 10 May 2007
The Independent

Thousands join exodus from state education

Nearly 40,000 more children are now being educated privately than when Tony Blair came to power, new figures reveal today

The article cites provision of modern languages as one of the reasons for this trend.

Saturday, 4th May 2007
The Times

Ulster-Scots phone not used once

A special government voicemail service for phone calls from Ulster-Scots speakers has not been used once in more than three years.

Thursday, 3 May 2007
BBC website

Getting closer by degrees

The Bologna Process aims to standardise university courses across Europe. Is that to be welcomed? Jessica Shepherd reports

Tuesday May 1, 2007
The Guardian

Wales watching

There is a part of the UK where languages aren't in freefall and bilingualism is the norm, says Diane Hofkins

Tuesday May 1, 2007
The Guardian