If poor people don’t vote, will their children be poor as well?
By . None of us has any control over the family we are born into. Yet the accident of birth determines a large share of each of our future earnings. Alarmingly, the more somebody’s own earnings depend upon what their parents earned, the more inequality persists. If this dependence – known as intergenerational earnings persistence – is high, a society is characterised by a dynastic structure where the poor stay poor and the rich stay rich. More...
Ranking African universities is a futile endeavour
By . African higher education circles have reacted with suspicion and disdain after it was revealed that a system is being developed to rank the continent’s universities against each other. More...
As the baby boomers retire, will there be an education bonanza?
By . Adult education has been through the wringer recently, with governments in all the UK nations making heavy cuts in what were already small and marginal services. At the same time, all European nations have growing numbers of older adults, and we have a vested interest in making sure they stay active – mentally as well as physically – for as long as possible. More...
Every hour you spend in front of a screen is linked to poorer exam results
By . By the time they are teenagers, more than two-thirds of young people are not doing enough physical activity. Teenagers spend an average of eight hours every day sitting, with 11 to 15-year-olds watching nearly three hours of television. Most of us are well aware that such behaviour risks damaging their physical health, but there’s an additional problem. More...
Lack of women professors means research grants are skewed towards men
By , , , and . Our new research has shown that when women working in the social sciences apply for a research grant, they are just as likely as men to win funding. But while there is equality in the success rate, the fact that so few women are in professorial positions applying for grants means men still get more research money than women in the social sciences. More...
Why universities will have to pay more attention to the quality of their teaching
By . The Conservative government is moving fast to fulfil its manifesto pledge to recognise those universities that offer the highest quality teaching. In July, the higher education minister Jo Johnson proposed that a new Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) would be created to sit alongside the existing system that recognises research excellence at universities. More...
Bilingual children lag behind in language learning early on, but catch up by age five
By . Given the increasing number of non-English speaking families in the UK, concern has increased over the impact that growing up in a bilingual or non-English speaking home environment may have on children’s performance and readiness for school. So are bilingual children at an educational disadvantage when starting school compared to their classmates who speak just one language. More...
Why access to computers won’t automatically boost children’s grades
By . Filling classrooms to the brim with computers and tablets won’t necessarily help children get better grades. That’s the finding of a new report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). More...
Universities UK is wrong to take sides on question of EU membership
By . The leadership of British universities has come out in favour of continued UK membership of the EU. Universities UK, their representative organisation, has recently launched Universities for Europe to campaign on this issue. More...
Have low-skill jobs really grown more than high-skill jobs in Britain?
By , and . A recent report by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) claimed that the UK is one of the very few EU countries which saw larger growth in low-skill jobs than in high-skill ones between 1996 and 2008. All this at a time when the share of graduates in the economy increased dramatically. More...
