HE Academy Sustainable Devleopment newsletter (April 2009) now available

The HE Academy Education for Sustainable Development newsletter is now available

e-Newsletter April 2009, Vol. 2, Issue 4

Exam boards worry about Diplomas

The main exam boards have urged the government "in the strongest terms" to delay its academic Diplomas in England.

They said they feared the planned start in 2011 would harm the development of assessment and standards.

BBC website

Job cut plans at education centre

Staff at one of the largest lifelong learning centres in Wales say they have been stunned by moves to cut all teaching in the arts and humanities.

[...]
In the letter from the university outlining its proposals, it states that in order to secure the centre's long-term future it is "likely to be necessary" to reduce course programmes to three areas: science, environment and computer studies; social sciences, including business; and modern foreign languages.


BBC website

Teachers 'script GCSE oral exams'

An ex-exam board official runs seminars in which he advises language teachers to "script" pupils' GCSE oral exams, a BBC undercover investigation has found.

Terry Murray said, if pupils learned a few key phrases, the teacher examining them could "flannel" to fill in gaps.

BBC website

Lost Aboriginal language revived

The sounds of a lost language echo across a packed classroom in suburban Sydney as high school children help to revive an ancient part of Australia's rich indigenous culture.

Dharug was one of the dominant Aboriginal dialects in the Sydney region when British settlers arrived in 1788, but became extinct under the weight of colonisation.

BBC news

Large foreign donations are influencing courses at British universities, according to a new report

Does money from foreign donors come with strings attached? Dangerously so, according to research last week that claimed foreign governments have corrupted British universities and threatened their academic impartiality.

The report, A Degree of Influence, from the Centre for Social Cohesion, lists the millions of pounds that leading UK universities have accepted from donors in the Middle East, Asia and Russia. Robin Simcox, the report's author, says foreign donors that give enough money get a say in how things are run. "Edinburgh and Cambridge received £8m each from Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia last year to set up Islamic studies centres," he says. "He gets to appoint as many as three or five members of the management committee."

7 April 2009
The Guardian

Report from the Centre for Social Cohesion

Multi-lingual London school reverts to sending letters to parents in English

At Woodside High, a 1,000-pupil comprehensive in Tottenham, north London, those whose home language is not English account for four out of five pupils – and between them speak 64 languages.

The Independent

Monday 30 March 2009