ISC Daily News Summary
24 April 2009
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General education
Art lessons fail to stimulate creativity warns Ofsted
General education
Compulsory service
Times
Community service would become part of the national curriculum for those aged 14 to 16 under proposals from Gordon Brown. At least 50 hours of service would be required by the age of 19.
Compulsory service (Times not online)
Higher education
80,000 could miss out on university place in cash crisis
Higher education
Allow weak universities to fail, urges Policy Exchange think-tank
Times
Struggling universities should be allowed to fail or be taken over by private companies, a think-tank report suggests today. It warns that there is a real risk of some universities, particularly in London, not being able to survive in the current climate. The report, by the Policy Exchange, a right-leaning research centre, says that there is a culture of concealing serious problems. It argues: “Within the capital, where there are an astonishing 42 higher education institutions competing for students, there should be a realisation that a university could close, if that is shown to be the best use of public money and assuming that students can be satisfactorily located elsewhere. All of the senior university figures we spoke to agreed that the loss of an institution in the capital is far from unthinkable.”
Allow weak universities to fail, urges Policy Exchange think-tank (Times)
That Friday feeling
Britain's kids are couch potatoes before they even get to school
Britain's couch potato kids spend hours in front of the TV - before they even get to school, according to a new survey. Findings show almost one in two children watch programmes or play non-active video games in the early morning. When they return home from school most kids stay on the couch, with just one in five doing something active after their evening meal.
Britain's kids are couch potatoes before they even get to school (Daily Mail)