Playing catch up: education and the pandemic

The coronavirus pandemic impact has been far reaching and it is predicted that the impacts will be felt for a number of years to come. However, one of the potentially longest-term impacts is that on children at school who have missed out on learning which has been significantly disrupted for the duration of the pandemic. […]

Further education: happy-ever-after for the Cinderella sector?

“It has, I believe, been an old complaint among many concerned with the technical side of education that that part of education has been the Cinderella. Well, the Government is determined that even if there was any truth in that in the past, there shall be none in the future.” That forthright pledge came, not […]

Education and youth work: collaborating to close the attainment gap

by Scott Faulds At this year’s Scottish Learning Festival, there was a large selection of seminars offered which allowed delegates to gain knowledge of good practice from across the Scottish education sector. One seminar of particular interest was run by YouthLink Scotland, the national agency for youth work, who discussed their youth work and skills […]

Scottish Learning Festival 2019: getting back to the basics in Scottish education

by Rebecca Jackson The Scottish Learning Festival (SLF) is the annual conference and exhibition for educational practitioners across Scotland. Across two days thousands of delegates and over 200 exhibitors from across the spectrum of Scottish education gathered at the SEC in Glasgow to take part in over 100 workshops and seminars reflecting the best of […]

Out of the classroom and into the world: the changing face of teaching in higher education

Since 2017, the Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework (TEF) has assessed the quality of undergraduate teaching in England’s higher education providers. The TEF rates universities as Gold, Silver or Bronze, and was introduced by the government which felt that universities were too focused on research. It’s still too soon to say what the impact […]

UK slipping to third place in international higher education – are UK universities losing their competitive edge?

By Steven McGinty Last year, Professor Simon Marginson published a report that would have worried university chiefs more than a BBC investigation into their eye-watering salaries. The concern? That UK universities are no longer able to compete with the world’s elite universities and have slipped from second to third in the international higher education rankings. […]

Five current challenges facing Further Education

As well as developing the careers of school-leavers and adults and contributing to the economy, further education (FE) also plays a crucial, but unsung role in our daily lives. As one college chief executive has observed: “Over the past 25 years, we have quietly gone about our work producing the people that matter most to […]

Addressing social mobility through education – is it enough?

We looked at the issue of social mobility and education last October, highlighting that although there has been continued investment by successive governments, the rate of progress is slow: “it has been estimated that at the current rate of progress it will take 50 years to close the attainment gap for disadvantaged pupils in England.” […]

Technical education – reformed for whose benefit?

by Stacey Dingwall The expansion of grammar schools may not have made it into this year’s delayed and reduced Queen’s Speech but another education policy did – the government’s planned ‘major’ reform of technical education. As Her Majesty set out, the government’s plan is to ensure that people “have the skills they need” for high-skilled, […]

What’s happening in the English education system and how does it compare to Singapore’s system?

by Stacey Dingwall At the end of last year, we looked at the state of the Scottish education system following the publication of some disappointing Pisa results for the country. In this blog, we focus on some of the issues recently highlighted within the English education system, and how the system compares to that of […]