A rise in fees would make university education fairer
IT IS A curious branch of Keynesian economics that, in the midst of a recession, bails out poorly performing industries while cutting funds for improving the nation's skills. Yet that was what business secretary Lord Mandelson announced last week. Happy...

Academics oppose Mandelson's universities move
Higher education leaders warn of severe pressures from £500m budget cutAcademics and vice-chancellors from across England's universities united today to oppose cuts announced yesterday of more than half a billion pounds from their budgets next...

Two-year degrees get top marks | Andrew Haldenby
Lord Mandelson is right. In a weak economy, students need universities to help them learn at a lower costLord Mandelson is arguing this morning that universities should teach some degree courses in two years rather than three as part of their efforts to...

Universities policy: The good times are over, and Mandelson gets it | Michael White
There's always waste, always bad or marginal courses that students might be wise to avoid, always better ways of doing things. We know that in the private sector, don't we?Peter Mandelson and Jack Straw were both on the airwaves promoting government...

A chilling vision for higher education | Tom Sperlinger
Two-year degrees are fine in principle, but Lord Mandelson's words point to a divisive approach to universities and learningFew ministers write bureaucratic prose with Lord Mandelson's evident love of the form. For all its austerity, his letter on...

Goodbye to blue skies research? | Francis O'Gorman
The new Research Excellence Framework has some dangerous wording about measuring the 'impact' of academic studiesOriginal and high-level thinking often leads to real innovation. And it may indeed lead to "benefits to the economy, society, public...

Reading: "channelnewsasia.com - Insistence on bilingualism in early years of education policy was wrong MM Lee" ( http://bit.ly/3KLZbh )

An interesting, but ultimately muddled and inconclusive discussion of education policy on Newsnight. Very frustrating #fb

Andy Powell gets tough on government's incoherent education policy in latest white paper http://bit.ly/Yf1AD #schoolisntworking