UK ranks above US for research quality in government report

The UK is publishing fewer articles in the environmental, biological and physical sciences compared to a decade ago, a study finds. Photograph: STRINGER/TAIWAN/REUTERS

The UK is producing less research in science, mathematics and engineering than a decade ago, but has surpassed the US to be ranked first for its research quality, according to a new report.

The report commissioned by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and produced by publishing giant Elsevier, looks at how the UK’s research base compares internationally with 10 other countries, including China, France, Germany, US, India and Brazil.

The report says the UK “punches above its weight as a research nation and reflects the underlying well-roundedness and high impact of UK research across most disciplines.”

Figures from the report show that while the UK represents just 0.9% of the global population, it accounts for 3.2% of research expenditure, 4.1% of researchers, 9.5% of downloads and 15.9% of the world’s most highly-cited articles, as measured by comparing the average number of UK citations received by a group of publications to the average world number of citations received by the same type of publications.

The UK is publishing fewer articles in the environmental, biological and physical sciences compared to a decade ago with a shift in research focus towards three other areas: social sciences, business and humanities. In comparison, China, Japan and Russia have focused more on publishing scientific research.

Dr Andrew Plume, associate director in scientometrics and market analysis at Elsevier, who worked on the report, believes this shift in the focus of UK research could be tied to the UK research excellence framework (REF) or former research assessment exercise (RAE) – the process of ranking research in UK universities.

He said: “In social science and humanities there is a culture of research outputs going into monographs and other forms of scholarly output that are not journal articles – and in this report we are looking at journal articles. With the drive of REF and RAE towards published outputs for a researcher, social sciences and humanities article publishing may be growing in the UK.”

Despite this relative fall in the number of UK scientific papers published, universities and science minister David Willetts said: “This report clearly demonstrates the continued strength of our science research base and that the UK continues to punch above its weight.”

He added: “I’ve often said that I want the UK to be the best place in the world to do science and this research shows that we are well on our way to achieving this goal. An excellent research base contributes directly to economic growth and is keeping us at the forefront of the global science race.”

The report raises concerns that the UK may not be able to sustain its position as a world-leading research nation and that “traditional research powerhouses” such as the UK and US may be eroded by the sheer volume of research produced by emerging nations in the East, most notably China.

Other findings show that international collaboration and research mobility are key to the UK retaining its position as a world-leading research nation. The UK has the second-highest rate of international co-authorship, after France, and this rate continues to rise. The UK also had the fourth highest number of PhD graduates among the surveyed countries in 2011.

The report acknowledges that the global research ecosystem has become increasingly complex in recent years due to increased collaboration and competition in the higher education sector. It states that while the UK is well positioned to remain a research leader in the future, continued investment in the research base is essential to meeting this.

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UK ranks above US for research quality in government report

Government stops private colleges taking on new students

David Willetts, minister at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills Photograph: David Cheskin/PA

Personal schools in England have been thrown into chaos right after the government acted to cease half from recruiting any much more college students from Britain and the EU to study higher national diplomas and certificates.

A sudden intervention from the Division for Business has meant that in the past ten days colleges educating 1000′s of students on courses this kind of as organization finance, hospitality management and IT management are no longer in a position to recruit any a lot more this academic yr.

Sally Hunt, basic secretary of the UCU, which represents lecturers and academic employees, explained her union had “specifically warned” ministers about recruitment at the colleges and added the department had acquired its sums “so spectacularly wrong” and that the predicament had grow to be “embarrassing”.

In the past 10 days it has emerged that the department’s budget for supplying pupil loans and grants was overspent by £80m in 2012/13 – and that ministers have been taking into consideration cuts to make sure that the spending budget balanced in future years.

The Division for Company has now suspended recruitment to HND and HNC programs at 22 personal larger training schools and chains.

With college students at alternative suppliers accessing loans and grants now considered to quantity practically 40 000, the department has been forced by budget pressures to reverse its policy of encouraging rapid growth in the larger education sector.

In all, the division has halted 200 courses from becoming taught to new college students at the schools. 1 hundred of the programs are provided by London College UCK, primarily based in Notting Hill Gate. The department accepted these programs in 2011/12, taking just four days to deal with the application paperwork.

The colleges exactly where pupil recruitment has successfully been suspended by the curtailing of economic support are virtually exclusively positioned in London and the south-east.

The record of suspended schools involves London School of Company and Finance (LSBF), which won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in 2013. The suspension also impacts its Birmingham and Manchester campuses.

David Blunkett, Labour MP and former education secretary, receives £40,000 annually from LSBF for a “going to lecturer” position and the college’s site attributes pictures of large profile celebrities this kind of as Richard Branson, Tony Blair and Bill Clinton.

But despite the influence on the government department’s budget, some of the affected colleges nevertheless appeared satisfied to accept the predicament. A spokesman for LSBF mentioned: “We are pleased to have witnessed a sustainable growth in demand for HND programmes.”

He extra its courses “have been a excellent achievement” and the school was “hopeful that, following its assessment, [the business division] will proceed to fund HND and HNC programmes”. LSBF also has the very same owners as St Patrick’s University Worldwide, yet another college affected by the suspension.

“These programs are widely recognised, which includes by David Willetts, as effectively-respected and reputable qualifications,” the college added.

A division spokesperson stated that HNDs and HNCs were “well respected qualifications”.

The department explained: “Get up is developing quickly and we’re taking measures to control this growth inside of our budgets. We have instructed the suppliers that are increasing most rapidly to cease recruiting students to these courses for this year.”

In an exchange of letters witnessed by the Guardian, Willetts dismissed fears from the head of University School Union (UCU) that a lack of controls on student recruitment in the private schools sector would trigger budget troubles.

UCU basic secretary Sally Hunt wrote to Willetts in the spring of 2012 saying “UCU finds it unacceptable that … personal [schools] working programs designated for public support do not have to observe any controls on the amount of college students they recruit.”

In a reply Willetts explained that her worries had been “mentioned” but government programs to assistance the sector to help it compete with public universities would carry on.

Government stops private colleges taking on new students

Government must stop treating sixth-form colleges unfairly

Sixth-kind college college students acquire significantly less funds from government in contrast to college pupils, because of funding cuts and VAT guidelines. Photograph: Howard Barlow

I am angry. I want to employ new teachers, lower down class sizes and boost personnel wages at the degree of inflation, but I can’t. Why? Due to the fact I am the principal of a sixth-kind college.

Between 2011 and 2017 my university will have skilled a 14% lower in funding per student. In genuine terms this quantities to a 29% reduction in funding. This is a end result of cuts to enrichment funding for sixteen- to 19-yr-old college students and the effect of a new funding methodology, which will hit sixth-type schools in September 2016.

As a sixth-kind university we’re obtaining to make a disproportionate contribution to the government’s austerity programme in contrast to major and secondary schools whose budget was protected in the 2010 comprehensive spending overview.

On leading of being hit tougher by funding cuts, we are not reimbursed for the VAT we devote on the purchases we make, as opposed to colleges, which get the money back from the government.

Just imagine for one fantasy minute that an training marketplace is the secret to driving up standards, a crucial dogma in Michael Gove’s policy. Absolutely, it really is entirely incorrect for competitors to be rigged to favour 1 set of suppliers to the disadvantage of an additional? Nevertheless this is exactly what is taking place with VAT. Colleges, which are in a position to claim back their VAT expenses, are in effect acquiring paid a greater value from the state for their sixteen- to 19-12 months-outdated students.

Final 12 months VAT price my university £310,000. That income could make a actual contribution to mitigating the worst results of the cuts. It could be utilised to employ nine additional teachers, which would let us to increase educating time for our A-level courses and reduce set sizes. It could enable us to improve staff wages at the degree of inflation, with income left more than to fund planned maintenance, sadly neglected in the final few many years. Or, it could reverse the planned cuts in our stock of personal computers and enable us to reintroduce meals technology or religious scientific studies – subjects we have had to axe. In essence, there would be much more funds to commit on the frontline – supporting college students and rewarding difficult-pressed teachers.

The failure to offer a degree playing area for colleges and sixth-type colleges in relation to VAT is not the only example of how the government promotes competitors as the most effective way of delivering schooling and but fails to manage that industry relatively. Particular privileges for totally free schools, this kind of as the correct to make use of non-competent teachers, sponsoring new school sixth-types in locations exactly where they are not necessary and pressurising colleges to turn into academies towards their will are all additional examples of approaches that the government is satisfied to set aside marketplace philosophy when it suits and use the energy of the state to support its pet tasks and prejudices.

David Adelman is the principal of Godalming Sixth Kind School.

Government must stop treating sixth-form colleges unfairly

When it comes to special educational needs, the government is helping a few but ignoring thousands of others

A class for children with specific educational wants. The new legislation aims to integrate solutions. Photograph: Andrew Fox

The legislation on unique educational wants functioning its way by way of parliament has obtained broad support and has even been described as landmark legislation. I hope this proves to be the situation. But the troubles of attaining its principal objective, which is to carry collectively wellness, training and social solutions, shouldn’t be underestimated. Prior attempts to alter the culture of the different organisations concerned haven’t been effortless.

Success could lead to better education for youngsters as nicely as bringing an end to the bureaucratic nightmare faced by so a lot of families when they attempt to secure the assist they need.

There are two massive confessions by the government, though, behind this legislation. The 1st is an acceptance by the government that de-regulation does not resolve almost everything. The proposals are at odds with its typical technique to education policy. Preceding adjustments have eliminated several duties and responsibilities from schools – from behaviour partnerships and Ofsted self-evaluation kinds to nutritional specifications and, in the situation of academies, the want to make use of completely qualified teachers. At the quite core of the SEN legislation in the children and households bill is a fresh set of legal duties and obligations to force schools, regional authorities and the health providers to operate with each other. The most vulnerable young children and youthful individuals require far more safety than the government’s typical market-led method can ever provide and I presume that the government recognises this.

The second confession underlying the alterations is an acknowledgement that if vulnerable kids are to do properly it will require much more than schools to perform their element. The skills of all those pros doing work with youngsters will be known as for.

Now, if this is proper for the two% of young children with statements of specific needs, why isn’t it right for the twenty% of young children also with special wants who do not have statements, not to mention the 1000′s of other vulnerable young children in mainstream schools who are also dependent on the support of providers past education to overcome their barriers to studying?

Even though the government is legislating for integrated companies for one particular group of kids, it is undermining it for others. From the closure of Confident Start centres to the narrowing of the curriculum and achievement targets in schools, the secretary of state would seem dismissive of the broader children’s providers agenda.

Some colleges have usually been ready to efficiently support their most vulnerable kids they have the knowhow and the capacity to get what they need from other companies. However, a lot of colleges uncover it extremely hard to make the method operate – specially in which the level of deprivation of their pupils makes the need for support from other providers so fantastic. The hard work that is essential and the disappointment that can result grow to be all-consuming – and take teachers’ time away from educating.

I had some doubts about the role of director of children’s companies, which was launched by the last government. The work demanded a broad assortment of skills and knowledge in one man or woman. Yet the underpinning rationale, collectively with the Each and every Little one Issues agenda, was correct. It was designed to offer an infrastructure in every single college, bringing with each other distinct experts in the interests of the youngster. Local authorities have been accountable for bringing companies together so colleges did not require to do so themselves. Now no one is responsible.

Every single Youngster Matters tried to do for all children what this bill is trying to do for a number of. It helps make a potent argument for an integrated service for statemented youngsters.

The tragedy is that at the same time, the government’s dismantling of children’s providers, in all but identify, has largely gone unnoticed, except in the schools where it was generating a distinction – and that truly ought not to have been allowed to happen.

When it comes to special educational needs, the government is helping a few but ignoring thousands of others

Sale of student loans knocks £160m off government debt

Student loans sold off to a private consortium. Photograph: Johnny Green/PA

The government has sold a student loans guide with a encounter worth of £890m for just £160m.

A consortium known as Erudio Pupil Loans led by investment fund manager CarVal bought the book of home loan design loans which have been taken out by close to 250,000 students amongst 1990 and 1998.

The price paid reflects the consortium’s assessment of the proportion of loans likely to be paid back in full or in portion, with the bulk of the book in arrears or deferred. Of the loans sold, just 14% of borrowers are at present repaying their debts. About 46% are earning under £28,775, the level at which the repayment threshold kicks in.

A more 40% are not repaying their debts in line with the terms of their loans.

The Department for Organization, Innovation and Capabilities uncovered strategies to promote the last remaining tranche of home loan type loans in March, arguing the personal sector was very best placed to acquire the outstanding debt.

Announcing the sale on Monday, universities and science minister David Willetts said the deal represented “good value for money, helping to decrease public sector net debt by £160m”. Total public sector net debt was £1.2tn or 75.four% of gross domestic item at the end of October in accordance to figures published final week by the Workplace for National Statistics.

Willetts added:”The private sector is effectively placed to maximise returns from the guide which has a deteriorating worth. The sale will allow the Pupil Loans Organization to target on supplying loans to current college students and collecting repayments on newer loans.”

The minister assured borrowers that there would be no alter to their terms and situations, including to the interest rates charged.

The sale to Erudio Pupil Loans follows two earlier sales of mortgage type loans by the former Labour government in 1998 and 1999, which transferred £2bn of student debt to the personal sector.

Sale of student loans knocks £160m off government debt

Study Finds Cheating College Students More Likely to Want Government Jobs

A new survey has located that university students who cheated on a straightforward process have been far more likely to want government jobs in adulthood. The new review of hundreds of college students in Bangalore, India, was performed by researchers from Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania.

Researchers carried out a series of experiments with a lot more than 600 college students finishing up college in India. The review, which is launched as a doing work paper by the National Bureau of Financial Analysis, showed that a single of the contributing forces behind government corruption could be who will get into government work in the very first area, writes Emily Alpert Reyes of Los Angeles Times.

In 1 check, school students were asked to privately roll a die and report what amount they received. The higher the quantity, the more they would get paid. Every single student rolled the die 42 instances.

“If individuals have the view that jobs in government are corrupt, folks who are sincere might not want to get into that method,” said Rema Hanna, an associate professor at the Kennedy College of Government at Harvard. To fight that difficulty, governments may need to find new ways to display people searching for jobs, she stated.

Even though researchers do not know for positive if any 1 pupil lied, they could inform no matter whether the numbers each and every individual reported had been wildly distinct than what would turn up randomly — in other words, whether there had been a suspiciously large amount of 5s and 6s in their results.

Researchers located that a lot more than a third of college students had scores that fell in the prime 1% of the predicted distribution, and students who apparently cheated had been 6.three% a lot more most likely to say they desired to operate in government, according to research.

“Overall, we discover that dishonest men and women — as measured by the dice activity — desire to enter government service,” according to Hanna and coauthor Shing-yi Wang, an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton College.

Researchers give the identical test to a smaller sized set of government nurses and found that people who appear to have cheated with the dice were also a lot more probably to skip perform.

Furthermore, researchers ran other tests to gauge character. In one more check, college students played a game in which they could send a message anonymously to one more player, both telling them honestly what move would earn them much more money, or dishonestly nudging them towards a worse option. Tricking the other pupil would help them obtain much more funds.

In a third test, college students were asked to divide up a sum of rupees between themselves and a charity of their option. For every single rupee they chose to donate, the quantity given to charity would double. In some other tests, researchers measured their memory and cognitive capability, or quizzed students about no matter whether they would cheat on exams or believed that most businesses paid bribes.

According to a Transparency Global index, India is ranked 94th out of 176 nations and territories in perceived corruption. Complaints of corruption have stirred up past scandals in India.

Researchers mentioned they have been curious whether or not the exact same benefits flip up in other countries exactly where government workers get higher wages and corruption is witnessed as significantly less of a difficulty.

Study Finds Cheating College Students More Likely to Want Government Jobs

Views from the start and end of local government careers

Derek Myers says …

I acquired a task as a social worker in Essex in 1977. I did not see myself then as joining neighborhood government. But 36 many years later as I retire, I feel intensely loyal to the men and women and the troubles of councils.

I share this piece with Becky Skellett who has just began her job. She is optimistic, enthusiastic and keen. Just as I was, however I doubt I was as clever or effectively motivated.

I in fact began just prior to the 1970s retrenchment but it made no impression on me. I was complete of zeal for my radical occupation. I was intolerant of my betters and elders. I undoubtedly by no means imagined to think about in which the budget came from, although I complained it was not adequate.

Of course it now looks a slower and easier age prior to technological innovation quickened the speed and enhanced accountability produced folk a lot more nervous.

Then promotion for some (I was lucky) was anticipated and competitors most likely significantly less aggressive. A specific degree of maverick behaviour was tolerated (in my case longish hair and white shoes worn to court).

I was a male graduate, armed with a newly minted social operate qualification. In a workforce of older, unqualified ladies this made me exotic. I was in turns mothered and teased.

I bear in mind currently being unkind and intolerant of my line manager who in the Autumn of his occupation chose to ignore my brilliant programs for performing factors differently. He ought to have slapped me down. Today’s workplace is, I believe, a lot more permissive of opinions, however still basically hierarchical.

Professional practice now is fortunately so significantly better than then. My current front-line staff are far better qualified, better supported, have smaller caseloads and operate inside of clearer expectations.

I had no dealings with councillors for many years. I commenced in a county, and the headquarters work seemed on an additional planet. I was not to know then I would devote almost all of my waking hrs in the 2nd half of my career in and amongst members.

In-residence training then was patchy though I was lucky to be allowed to do a two yr day release for a diploma in management. I learnt some management theory, realised not all councils were the same and met my wife, so it was fairly valuable.

These days education is a lot more systematic and greater delivered. Newer entrants come with higher expectations of self development, which is beneficial.

When I joined regional government, graduate entry spend was fair but the presumed deal was even now that you settled for security but modest rewards. As correct specifications for local government grew to become more codified it became a lot more obvious which councils had been succeeding and which failing. We also had a generation of career graduate entrants like me who reached senior office early.

This gave rise to a new skilled elite who had been verified to be competent, had job miles left in them and looked desirable as an alternative if specifications had to be raised or maintained.

This elite came to be well paid-far better paid than their predecessors and possibly the ideal paid, ideal pensioned generation of public servants ever. But surely when I began this merely did not figure as a career consideration.

Now a wise nearby government entrant may want to calculate profession progression probabilities and most personal sector careers will nevertheless reward the very best greater, and the regular just as properly.

And so would I suggest a neighborhood government occupation to today’s graduates? With a daughter half way by means of pricey university this feels a actual issue.

But I am inspired by Becky’s enthusiasm. She is finding out quick and doing an crucial task. It is just how I felt 36 years in the past. I reckon Becky’s story is a fine advertisement and my job displays how persistence and effort can get even modestly experienced men and women a prolonged way.

Neighborhood government has had and will have its ups and downs but I nevertheless advise it to anybody who is interested in their fellow citizens can operate in teams and has a social conscience. Which is not everyone but in my expertise it covers a lot of men and women.

Becky Skellett says …

As I commence my job up coming to an individual who has reached the highest stature of theirs, I am reminded of the resilience and continuity that can make up the heart of neighborhood government. Like Derek, it’s hard to pinpoint beyond serendipity what brought me into local government, the much more I look back at my profession and personal feats to date, I can see that for a pupil nominated ‘ Most likely to Save the World’ in her university 12 months-guide. My choice of paths should not be that surprising. I was heavily involved in charity, welfare and student politics at Durham university, I actually need to have anticipated that pursuing a profession in the city after graduating would be an unfulfilling encounter.

I was torn in between a longing for ‘meaningful’ work and an apprehension of the red tape of the public sector, allow alone of the town hall. Realizing that a job serving society drove my interests, I joined the Local Government Association’s graduate programme in October 2012 expecting to be met with organisational behaviour that was resistant to the dramatic changes the sector faced localism was still striving to be interpreted, there have been cuts, there have been redundancies, but there was also innovation.

Tremendous support redesign has been borne from the difficulties dealing with local government nowadays. The birth of the tri-borough and bi-borough shared support model is a proud legacy of Derek’s leadership and is the clearest instance of the innovation that can be born from change.

Ashamedly, seeking back I didn’t really know the attain of regional government and the hundreds of ways in which we interact and form men and women and locations. The term multifaceted even feels understated when considering nearby government and the ‘five Ps’ that need to be deemed in each and every choice politics, people, policy, place and partnerships. The part of regional government is genuinely irreplaceable and more and more dynamic in producing efficient and sustainable options to regional difficulties.

Following a initial six month placement in financial improvement I have taken on a one 12 months role managing a venture on behalf of the Property Office’s Avert Method, aiming to stop men and women getting to be attracted to violent extremism and terrorism. Thirty-six years in the past would a youthful Derek sporting his Saturday Night Fever attire have been amazed to hear that counter terrorism would be a regional government duty? I think so, but it truly is a indicator of emerging local community wants that can only be met with a localised approach.

Do I see myself continuing a occupation in neighborhood government? At present, it truly is an ardent yes. I might be preaching to the converted, but I come to feel I am fortunate to have a job that makes it possible for me to get out of bed on a cold winter’s morning being aware of that I am producing a constructive variation to the lives of other folks.

If after 36 years of support I can look back like Derek and reflect as proudly at my very own job, I will be an really fulfilled public servant. There is no other sector as resilient and resolution-centered as regional government. Enjoying a portion in that is not only an enthralling encounter, but in itself a privilege.

Derek Myers: former joint chief executive of RB Kensington and Chelsea, and LB Hammersmith and Fulham (retired) and Rebecca Skellett: National Graduate trainee (raring to go).

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Views from the start and end of local government careers