By Graeme Paton. Old-fashioned gender “stereotyping” is leading to a huge division in A-level subjects taken by boys and girls, leading examiners have warned. Figures show that the gender split has been “very significantly widened” this year as more pupils sit courses that match traditional expectations.
It emerged that girls accounted for more than seven out of 10 English exams sat this year – an increase on 2012 – while boys’ likelihood of studying the subject dropped. At the same time, almost eight-in-10 physics papers were taken by boys – up by four per cent in a year – while fewer girls sat exams in the discipline.
Examiners suggested that teachers and parents may be fuelling the trend by filling pupils with stereotypical advice about their future career path. It was also feared that a lack of good role models in some subjects may be putting boys or girls off certain disciplines. More...

By Graeme Paton. An investigation is to be launched into the state of foreign language teaching in schools after the number of pupils taking A-levels in French and German plummeted to a record low.
Examination boards said they were working on a rescue plan in an attempt to revive interest in the subject following a year-on-year fall in entries over the last decade.
The inquiry is likely to look into areas such as the types of students studying a language and why relatively few A-levels are awarded a top grade.
It came after French and German – traditionally the two most popular language courses in schools – both appeared in a list of the 10 fastest declining subjects this summer. Some 11,272 pupils studied French in 2013 – a drop of 10 per cent in a year and a near 50 per cent decline over the last decade. More...

By Telegraph View. The drop in A-level grades indicates that Michael Gove's reforms are having an effect.
The announcement of A-level results is a time-honoured summer ritual, with households around the country gathering in trepidation and then, ideally, exhilaration. Yet this year, there is a different flavour to events. As in 2012, grades are doing something decidedly untraditional: namely, going down.
This is not a fact to be lamented. No one seriously disputes that the exam system fell victim to rampant grade inflation: how else to explain the threefold rise in the proportion of A grades since the mid-Eighties? That this trend is now going into reverse is a tribute to the Coalition’s efforts, with the watchdog Ofqual and the exam boards given the clearest indication by Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, that he wants to restore rigour and integrity to the system. More...

By Graeme Paton. Almost 3,000 courses were still available at Britain’s best universities on Thursday night as elite institutions scrambled to recruit bright students. Sixteen out of the 24 members of the elite Russell Group are advertising degree places through the clearing system. Courses are being left open to students who may have narrowly missed out on their original offer of a place at another highly sought-after institution. Many places are also likely to be taken by students who want to “trade up”, shunning their existing course offer after gaining better than expected grades. Last year, just 1,300 students gained places through “adjustment” but it is thought numbers could rise this summer. It represents the first evidence of a competitive market between universities after the Coalition reforms to the higher education system in England. More...

By Don Nutbeam. A growing emphasis on interdisciplinary research is not matched by university learning and teaching, says Don Nutbeam. Such is the success of collaborative research in our universities that it is now almost second nature for specialists from different disciplines to choose to work together. Cross-disciplinary collaboration helps usresolve some of the most challenging issues facing society; in areas ranging from sustainable energy to global health, climate change to cyber-security. What is remarkable is that this increasing emphasis on interdisciplinary research not been matched in university learning and teaching. The curricula offered by the UK's research intensive universities remain largely discipline-based and designed to deliver a set of subject-based outcomes – of great depth but increasing narrowness. This status quo is, to a large extent, upheld by the requirements of the many professional, statutory and regulatory authorities responsible for accrediting courses for the different professions; and to a lesser degree by conservatism in the academic community. More...

By David Willetts. The government would like university students to see themselves as 'consumers'. But they should be proud first and foremost to be students.
Dear A-level students
I hope when you collect your results this morning you discover that you have got the grades you were looking for, particularly if you are hoping to go to university. If it has all worked out, congratulations! You are about to embark on one of the most important experiences of your life. But please don't pitch up at university at the end of September behaving like a consumer. You will be something more complex, more challenging and more important: you will be a student. It is not the same thing at all.
Unfortunately for you, being a student is an expensive business these days. The coalition government, muttering darkly about austerity back in 2010 and claiming that the nation could no longer afford generous support for students, has cut funding to universities and tripled university fees to £9,000 per year. To sell the new fee regime the government placed a heavy emphasis on the promise that students paying the elevated fees would be at the heart of the system and effectively acquire the status of consumers with the purchasing power to drive up standards as universities chase for business in a reinvigorated market in higher education. More...

By Jill Papworth. Determining where to live is the next step for those whose A-level results have secured them a place at university. If Thursday's A-level results mean your child has a confirmed place at university, the next task is to make sure their first-year accommodation is sorted out. Those with the right grades to secure their first choice offer may already have fixed up where they are going to live; new students can apply for accommodation once they have accepted an offer of a university place as their first choice before they get their A-level results. Others who have missed out on their first choice and are accepting a second choice or clearing place offer will need to contact the relevant university's accommodation services department swiftly and see what is left. More...

By Richard Adams. Fewer students having to take part in clearing, suggesting universities have been making more generous offers. A record number of students have been accepted and confirmed on university courses, as the rush to secure a university place continues the day after A-level results were released. The latest update by Ucas, which administers the UK university admissions process, said that as of Friday morning more than 401,000 applications had been accepted by colleges and universities, the highest number on record. The previous highest total at this stage was 397,000 in 2011. Read more...

By Matthew Wood. On 11 July 2013 the European Commission issued a communication on its new Internationalisation strategy “European Higher Education in the World”.  The communication examines how the EU, individual Member States and higher education institutions (HEIs) should work closely together with sophisticated internationalization strategies for cooperation with partners in other parts of the world, not only in terms of student mobility but also at the level of strategic academic partnerships. 
The Commission highlights that education is at the heart of the Europe 2020 Strategy to make Europe a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy to generate growth and prosperity.  Its communication aims to contribute to these objectives by encouraging Member States and individual HEIs to develop strategic partnerships to deal with the global challenges.  
The international landscape for higher education has been changing considerably in the last few years with the emergence and competition from new powerful regional higher education hubs in other parts of the world.  New technological developments such as the developments of the MOOCs (massive open online courses) are also calling for higher education institutions to rethink their international education in the face of global competition. Strategies for “internationalization at home” and digital learning are critical to provide an international dimension to study programmes for non-mobile students. Read more...

INFORM - Issue 13 - National qualifications frameworks: contributing to better qualifications
By Michael Graham. WHAT ARE NATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS FRAMEWORKS?
National qualifications frameworks or NQFs classify qualifications according to a hierarchy of levels in a grid structure. Each level is defined by a set of descriptors indicating the learning outcomes relevant to qualifications at that level, which vary in number according to national needs. Currently NQFs have 5, 7, 8, 10 and 12 levels. Qualifications in an NQF can be compared by individuals, employers and institutions. When different countries’ NQFs are linked internationally, qualifications can be compared, which in turn supports mobility. But the implications of establishing and using an NQF go well beyond simply classifying and comparing qualifications.
Countries develop NQFs for many reasons. While many EU Member States use NQFs to coordinate their existing qualifications systems more efficiently, ETF partner countries use them to support wider national education and training reforms. These include bringing education and training closer to the labour market, developing relevant qualifications, creating progression routes linking vocational education and training (VET) with higher education, and working towards a greater recognition of qualifications within the country and abroad.
NQFs are not new, but the recent surge in the number of countries developing them is remarkable for its speed and geographical coverage. Before 2000, only a handful of countries had NQFs. Now 142 countries worldwide have embarked on developing NQFs, including 27 of the ETF’s 31 partner countries. NQFs are part of a wider search for international solutions in education and training. They are also an attempt to support mobility at a time when economies are increasingly integrated and interdependent, where technical specifications of products or services are becoming more unified and where labour migrates across borders. Download INFORM - Issue 13 - National qualifications frameworks: contributing to better qualifications.