Archie White awarded fine arts degree from East Sussex College aged 96 years and 56 days
A former solicitor from Hastings is believed to have become Britain’s oldest new graduate after receiving a degree in fine art at the age of 96.
Archie White, who retired at 92, said he was “not too bothered about being the oldest graduate or not” and had thoroughly enjoyed studying at East Sussex College.
Continue reading...A great teacher can change a child’s life. As this school year ends, we ask cultural figures including Charles Hazlewood and Kerry Hudson to remember a teacher who inspired them
So, it’s July. Finally. The UK is half-way through the summer of sport and, in schools up and down the country, teachers, classroom assistants, pupils, students and their parents are starting to believe the finishing line is in sight. No matter that there are still sports days to be negotiated, end of term assemblies and awards’ days, leavers’ proms or tea parties. For those whose children are staying on, the moment of learning if your child has got the form teacher that they (or you) wanted for next year, or if they’ll be in the same class as their best friends. From reception and infant school, primary to secondary, it’s a timetable that has altered little since the 1960s and 1970s when I was at school. Taking all the posters down from the walls, emptying lockers and desks, marks on the walls and dust. The slightly melancholy atmosphere of corridors suddenly empty, of another year over. I remember the texture of those last goodbyes, the making of a card for the teacher or a present. Nowadays, these leave-takings are commercialised – printed cards, special gifts, beautiful biscuits or baskets of flowers. Then, it was more homespun but, as the daughter of a teacher, the wife of a teacher, the daughter-in-law of a teacher I know how much those moments mean.
This year, more than any year, teachers deserve our thanks. It’s too soon to know the true cost of the pandemic on students’ and teachers’ mental health, but it’s clear that the lack of clarity, the incompetence and mismanagement of examinations, the bias and the appalling lack of knowledge shown by government about the majority of children and young people’s experiences of education, have had a profound effect on attainment, on confidence, on a generation’s love for learning. And all the time, from those first uncertain days in March 2020 to this imminent end of term in July 2021, teachers have been on the front line – trying to support pupils, to teach students, to decipher the mixed messages coming from politicians and local authorities, withstanding unwarranted and ill-informed attacks from sections of the media. Because, in the end, teachers have done their best to keep things going for the students in their care, in spite of the obstacles put in their way. They have been frontline staff without the protection, they have kept a watching brief for vulnerable children to make sure they didn’t slip through the cracks. A year and a half of never quite knowing where they stand, what the rules are, what they are allowed and are not allowed to do. Many months of educational leaders not being listened to or being criticised by those who know nothing about what it means to stand up in front of a class of 30 boisterous 12-year-olds and bring history to life, maths to life, music to life.
Continue reading...A landmark report by Human Rights Watch has detailed accounts of pro-democracy students and academics in Australia who are being harassed and threatened over their comments relating to China. In some cases, people have been doxxed, and others claim their actions have been reported to Chinese authorities. Reporter Daniel Hurst explains why academics and students are experiencing this harassment, and what Australia can do about it
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Continue reading...Universities say they have received inadequate guidance on red tape and costs for academic years abroad
Thousands of UK students hoping to spend the year abroad are caught in limbo after facing major disruption to their travel plans due to post-Brexit red tape and costs, in respect of which universities say they received inadequate guidance from the government.
Coordinators of academic years abroad who spoke to the Guardian said there had been limited information from the Foreign Office ahead of Brexit on the onerous requirements that the shift in their status would incur in EU countries.
Continue reading...The pandemic has exposed the impact of 20 years of turning higher education into a marketplace and students into increasingly dissatisfied customers
In 2018-19 Manchester City FC had revenues of £535.2m. Manchester United had £627m. The University of Manchester made more than £1bn – not far short, in other words, of the combined income of the city’s two global sporting brands. This is in many ways a cause for celebration, a sign of the economic power of higher education, of British success in attracting foreign students and the high fees that they pay, of the contribution that universities can make to the prosperity of their host cities.
But, for a billion-pound business, you might have expected better than their handling of the pandemic. Last summer, as students tried to decide whether to stay at home or go to the campus for the first term of the academic year, they were told they would receive “blended learning”, a combination of online and in-person teaching. They were offered the “hope” as one student says, “that everything would be as normal as possible”. They didn’t need much encouragement, especially all those first-years for whom arrival at university was the pinnacle and goal of their education to date, and they went.
Continue reading...Links to early eugenicists such as Francis Galton a source of ‘deep regret’ to institution
University College London has expressed “deep regret” for its role in the propagation of eugenics, alongside a promise to improve conditions for disabled staff and students and a pledge to give “greater prominence” to teaching the malign legacy of the discredited movement.
The formal apology for legitimising eugenics – the advocacy of selective breeding of the population often to further racist or discriminatory aims – is UCL’s latest effort to address its links to early eugenicists such as Francis Galton, who funded a professorship in eugenics at the university.
Continue reading...Exclusive: 28 institutions issued fines, with Nottingham University students alone hit for £58,865
Universities fined students more than £170,000 for breaching coronavirus safety rules in the first weeks of the new academic year, a Guardian analysis has found, as students told of struggling to make friends without flouting restrictions.
Twenty-eight institutions fined students for breaking university, local and national Covid rules, including on household mixing, mandatory face coverings and social distancing, according to responses from 105 universities to freedom of information (FoI) requests.
Continue reading...Exclusive: students would be told to remain on campus and all teaching done online
Ministers want to place universities in England into lockdown for two weeks before Christmas, with students told to remain on campus and all teaching carried out online, the Guardian has learned.
Under the government’s plan, which is in its early stages, universities would go into lockdown from 8 December until 22 December, when all students would be allowed to return to their home towns.
Continue reading...Oliver Dowden says everyone must follow rules after Labour urges promise on ‘unfair’ restrictions
University students should be able to return home to their families at Christmas if the country “pulls together” and observes the new coronavirus rules, a cabinet minister has said.
The government is under pressure to guarantee young people are not confined to their halls of residence over the festive period because of Covid-19 outbreaks on campuses.
Continue reading...From asking students to report illicit gatherings to expanded online teaching, educational institutions continue to adapt
From overcrowded lecture halls in France to a ban on sleepovers in Ireland, special coronavirus apps in the UK, snitching on dorm parties in the US and shuttered campus gates in India, students face a range of experiences when – or if – universities reopen.
Authorities around the world have introduced different measures to try to balance the needs of third-level education with those of public health amid an autumnal surge in Covid-19 infections. Students will encounter new rules, tensions and scrutiny in response to fears that universities and colleges will open the pandemic’s floodgates.
Continue reading...New infections in UK growing by 4% to 8% every day; measures to come into force in three areas in Wales this weekend; London placed on watchlist
A further 33 people who tested positive for coronavirus have died in hospital in England, bringing the total number of confirmed deaths reported in hospitals to 29,871, NHS England said on Friday.
The patients were aged between 56 and 93 and all except two, aged 84 and 88, had known underlying health conditions.
The mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, has called for financial support from the government for areas under extra restrictions.
At his weekly press conference, he told reporters:
These restrictions in our case have been in place for a number of weeks, getting on for seven to eight now, and they are having an impact on people’s lives but also on people’s jobs and people’s businesses.
There was not any compensatory support for many of those people announced yesterday and I think this is an unacceptable situation.
Greta Thunberg leads protests as Covid rules restrict numbers compared with last year
School pupils, youth activists and communities around the world have turned out for a day of climate strikes, intended to underscore the urgency of the climate crisis even in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
Social distancing and other Covid-19 control measures dampened the protests, but thousands of activists posted on social media and took to the streets to protest against the lack of climate action from world leaders. Strikes were scheduled in at least 3,500 locations around the globe.
Continue reading...Ucas says institutions have seen a 9% increase, as 44,300 students are set to start studies
UK universities are on course to recruit record numbers of international students during the global pandemic, defying predictions of financial disaster, the latest admissions figures reveal.
The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas) said UK universities enjoyed a 9% increase in the number of undergraduate students from outside the UK and the EU starting their studies this autumn, rising to a new record total of 44,300.
Continue reading...Find a course at one of the top universities in the country. Our league tables rank them all subject-by-subject, as well as by student satisfaction, staff numbers, spending and career prospects
Continue reading...This year’s report sees Oxford moving up from third to first for the first time in a decade
Oxford University has vaulted into top place in the Guardian’s annual universities guide for the first time in a decade, thanks to new employment data showing that more Oxford students are moving into graduate-level jobs after completing their studies.
This year’s Guardian university guide sees Oxford moving up from third to first, while the University of St Andrews stays in second place and Oxford’s ancient rival Cambridge drops to third after occupying the top spot for nine years.
Continue reading...Indolence project is serious look at societal values of success versus sustainability, says Hamburg arts college
A German university is offering “idleness grants” to applicants who are seriously committed to doing sweet nothing.
The University of Fine Arts in Hamburg advertised three €1,600 scholarship places on Wednesday to applicants from across Germany. The applicants can submit their anonymous pitches until 15 September and will have to convince a jury that their chosen area of “active inactivity” is particularly impressive or relevant.
Continue reading...This year’s isolation has been painful, but in some cases it has also provided a valuable chance to pause, reflect and take decisions that seemed unthinkable before. Here, six readers describe how lockdown inspired them to turn their lives around
As soon as he heard about the impending lockdown, Alex Harrison, 34, drove to his local casino in Liverpool and asked them to ban him for life. In the manager’s office, his photograph was taken and his details were recorded on an iPad. To his surprise, the manager congratulated him.
Harrison has battled with a gambling addiction for 10 years. When he walked into the casino that day, he owed around £1,000 to friends, family and payday lenders. Occasionally, he would gamble his entire month’s salary on the day he was paid.
Continue reading...Candidate for ‘cake rep’ sparks anger after comparing killing of black man to flour shortages
An Oxford college has ordered staff and students to undergo training to combat racial bias after an undergraduate made a “joke” drawing a comparison between protests over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and flour shortages.
The comments, described as racist and trivialising by witnesses, were made during a virtual hustings event by a candidate for the position of “cake rep” – a welfare position on the junior common room committee at Christ Church college.
Continue reading...While campuses are shut by Covid-19, students are still being forced to pay for unused accommodation
Notttingham Trent University students Eleanora Brown and her boyfriend Nizar Ruiz are in lockdown at home in Norwich, with no prospect of returning to campus any time soon. The teaching buildings are closed and the university has released all of its tenants from paying rent this term. Yet their hall of residence, run by Collegiate, a private developer, is demanding £1,700 from each of its residents to cover the summer term.
While students at most university-owned accommodation do not have to pay rent for the third term, Brown and Ruiz are among thousands of students trapped in expensive contracts with private hall operators.
Continue reading...Call for a government bailout worth billions to help sector survive the crisis
Some universities are already expecting to lose more than £100m as foreign students cancel their studies, with warnings that the impact of coronavirus will be “like a tsunami hitting the sector”.
Several organisations are now planning for a 80-100% reduction in their foreign student numbers this year, with prestigious names said to be among those most affected. The sector is already making a plea to the government for a cash injection amounting to billions of pounds to help it through the crisis, as it is hit by a drop in international student numbers, accommodation deals and conference income.
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