ISC Daily News Summary

ISC chief executive David Lyscom has appeared on two radio programmes following the suggestion, raised earlier this week by HMC chairman Andrew Grant, that there was a “moral pressure” on parents not to spend money on their children’s education. In an interview with BBC Radio Humberside yesterday, Mr Lyscom highlighted the positive alternatives offered to parents in the independent education sector. The item can be heard by clicking here and starting the audio at 1 hour 37 minutes. He then took part in a debate exploring the issues this morning on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Breakfast Show. The link is available here, and the segment starts at 2 hours 42 minutes and 25 seconds.

The education news is dominated today by the revelation that three-quarters of England’s universities are facing real-term budget cuts this year. Figures released by the Higher Education Funding Council for England show that 99 of the 130 universities in England – including Oxford and Cambridge – have had their funding cut in real terms, while a further two face a freeze. In cash terms the budget has been cut by £573 million, or 1.6 percent. It is thought that about 220,000 aspiring students could be left without a place, out of an estimated total of 700,000 applicants. In the wake of the cuts, the HEFCE has given priority to funding top-class research, with the top five research universities getting 33 percent of the funds available. A number of newspapers say the announcement – which has been condemned by lecturers’ leaders and some vice-chancellors – will add weight to the growing calls for the tuition fee cap to be lifted. In a separate story, research from Sodexo, the catering and facilities management firm, suggests that half of UK students expect to graduate with debts of more than £15,000.
Universities challenged (Independent)
Comment and opinion: Higher education, too, must adapt to more austere times (Independent)
Universities facing 'first budget cuts in years' (BBC Online)
Warning over university budget cuts (Telegraph)
Comment and opinion: Liberate our universities (Telegraph)
University students expect to graduate with debts in excess of £15,000 (Guardian)
Comment and opinion: Higher education is a shambles of Labour’s making (Daily Express)

The Telegraph reports new research which has found that one in six A-level pupils now achieves a hat-trick of A grades. According to the exam board Cambridge Assessment, the number of A-level students being awarded at least three A grades soared to 17.5 percent last year, compared with 8.8 per cent in 1996. The research also revealed that 33 percent of pupils at fee-paying schools received the marks compared with 8 percent in comprehensives and 26 percent in grammar schools. From a total of 175,233 students who took three or more A-levels, 30,595 – or 17.5 per cent – achieved a hat-trick of A grades. In its report, the Telegraph quotes Lucy Neville-Rolfe, Tesco's legal affairs director, who recently expressed concerns that exams were getting “easier”, creating difficulties for employers in differentiating between applicants.
Pupils scoring three As at A-level double under Labour (Telegraph)

An article in the Independent’s education supplement today looks at the growing trend for pupils to look overseas for university courses.
Why students are heading overseas (Independent)

A number of feature articles appear in the press today relating to the legal “party drug” mephedrone, which has been linked to the deaths of two teenagers in recent days. An article in the Telegraph argues that banning the drug will not stop teenagers wanting to experiment, while the Independent’s Big Question page asks whether the drug should be made illegal.
Comment and opinion: Let’s be honest about ‘party drugs’ (Telegraph)
Comment and opinion: Should legal-high drugs such as mephedrone now be made illegal? (Independent)

The vast majority of young people turn to the internet for help in solving personal problems, rather than asking their parents, a new study has shown. Nine in 10 of the 1000 under-25s surveyed by Maximiles said they had used the internet to search for help with a personal problem. On the other hand, the survey found that only one third of young people would turn to their mother to discuss a problem, whilst an even smaller number, one in 20, would speak to their father.
Nine in 10 of young people turn to internet for help in solving personal problems (Telegraph)

The ISC Manifesto, launched earlier this week, can now be seen on our website by clicking here. The press release launching it can be viewed here.

A mother of four writes to the Times today to say that, in addition to parents who do not have the time or education to help their child with homework, there are other parents who “simply find it too boring”. She says she “gave up the will to live” while helping her six-year-old daughter with reading homework. The daughter, she notes, achieved ten GCSEs last summer at A and B with no homework help from her mother.
Letters: Horrid homework (Times)