The teachers of tomorrow should be eager to prepare for “your future, their future”, according to the National College for Teaching and Leadership’s new teacher-training recruitment campaign. Sadly they…
As higher education has gradually become more commercialised, universities are getting used to employing professional marketers to help develop and manage their reputations and brands. But while the sector…
A proposal in Germany to make all migrants speak German in public and at home has ignited a heated debate about immigration and language. The proposals come from the German Christlich-Soziale Union (CSU…
In South Africa, as in many countries, the release of senior secondary school exam results, referred to locally as “the Matric”, causes a media furore every year. At 18-years-old, students either pass…
Recruitment of student teachers to begin training in 2015 is well underway, and the government hopes it will lead to well over 30,000 new teachers entering the profession in England. But data from the…
Overcoming educational disadvantage is not easy. Even before they enter the school gates for the first time, a variety of factors including inheritance, social class, parenting style and family income…
Israel is a deeply divided society, a fact reinforced by separate schools for Jews, Arabs and Christians. In 1984, the Hand-in-Hand movement began working to build peace via a network of integrated, bilingual…
Universities are acutely aware of their role in preventing terrorism. Now the government has proposed a statutory duty in the Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill that will require universities, schools…
Lucinda Platt, London School of Economics and Political Science
As they reach the end of primary school, the UK’s children face persistent inequalities in their cognitive development. New findings from the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS), a survey of children born between…
Music is what penetrates most deeply into the recesses of the soul, according to Plato. Language has been held by thinkers from Locke to Leibniz and Mill to Chomsky as a mirror or a window to the mind…
If a school has a good governing body it has a better chance of being a good school. But any governing body will only be as good as its individual members, which puts a real premium on the recruitment…
Is your birthday in June or December? An irrelevant question for most adults, but for children whether they were born in the summer or the winter can have a real impact on how well they perform at school…
Only 20.1% of university vice-chancellor and principals are women, according to a new report from the Equality Challenge Unit. This wide gender gap at the top of universities makes it all the more vital…
The furore over the suggestion by shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt that private schools need to contribute more to state education or face the removal of their tax breaks has been predictable…
Through its higher education system, the US student population is slowly shedding an unfortunate image it may have once had of being rather parochial. The US continues to be the destination of choice for…
As students take to the streets calling for free higher education, a spotlight is being shone again on the sustainability of England’s higher education system. While much of the debate centres around financial…
What is it that sets academic publications apart from articles on The Conversation? Peer review might be your first answer. While The Conversation is built around a journalistic model, there is a big growth…
In 1982 I was toying with the idea of a career in teaching. That year a controversial film, Made in Britain, starring Tim Roth was released and I almost didn’t become a teacher. The film’s central character…
The chief inspector of schools’ intervention into the running of seven London schools shines a light onto several emerging developments in the Prevent strategy for countering violent extremism. Michael…
The domination of top British universities by people who have attended private schools remains controversial. Defenders of the status quo would argue that successful applicants to Russell Group universities…
Our world is built on ideas. We have ideas about how science should be conducted, how a liberal society should defend itself, how discussion is better than conflict, how far toleration should be extended…
How robust are languages learned in childhood but disused later in life? A new study by researchers at McGill University and the University of Montreal has found that the forgotten birth language of adoptees…
During the magical month of December 2013 teachers across the UK were given an early Christmas gift from the least expected donor. Twitter buzzed with the news. I first saw it thanks to @teachertoolkit…
Kim Allen, Manchester Metropolitan University and Daniel Silver, University of Manchester
George Osborne’s recent announcement that households would receive personalised “annual tax statements” allowing them to track how their taxes are spent has been heavily criticised as manipulative and…
It is now as close to a consensus as makes no difference that the current regime for funding higher education in England through high fees paid by students – or repaid by some graduates – is bust. Lord…