Schools in England will no longer be punished for failing to meet the government’s standards in national exams or tests, Damian Hinds will announce as part of a new strategy to attract and retain teachers in the profession. The proposals to be unveiled by the education secretary means schools will not be defined as failing or “coasting” based on results of national tests or GCSE exams, removing a burden of assessment that has been criticised for unfairly hitting schools with challenging pupil i...

The introduction of new, tougher GCSE exams in England has led to a widening of the gap between the results achieved by disadvantaged pupils and their better-off peers, according to official figures. The Department for Education (DfE) analysis of last summer’s GCSE exams found the gap between disadvantaged pupils and others at secondary school grew by 0.6 percentage points, after two years in which it had narrowed. While disadvantaged pupils showed an improvement in the proportion gaining a gr...

Universities in England making “indiscriminate” unconditional offers to potential students may fall foul of consumer legislation against “pressure selling”, the sector’s regulator warned as it launched a consultation on admissions. The Office for Students (OfS) said it was particularly concerned at the growth of so-called “conditional unconditional offers” in recent years, which see universities giving students guaranteed places only if they name that university as their first choice. “So-call...

As secondary school tables are published, BBC analysis shows it will take over 70 years for poorer pupils to catch up with their peers at GCSE. If the pace of change remains the same as it has been since 2011, poor pupils will not do as well until the 2090s. The data shows the achievement between the poorest pupils in England and their classmates is closing but very slowly. This year, 24.9% of the poorest pupils got good passes in English and maths GCSE, compared with 50.1% of the rest. The ...

Dr Graeme Atherton, director of the National Education Opportunities Network and co-author of the report “Post-qualification application: a student-centred model”, says YES. Going to university is the biggest decision that most young people face. They deserve a university admissions system that helps them make this decision properly. We are the only country in the world where university places are offered on the basis of predicted grades, and more than 80 per cent of these predictions are wro...

About 10% of students in English universities avoid having to rack up large debts and pay “sky-high” interest rates because they are rich enough to pay their fees upfront, researchers have said. Approximately 110,000 undergraduates are “escaping” the student fee system by paying for university in one go thanks to a “get-out-of-jail-free card” from their wealthy families, according to a think-tank. The study, by the Intergenerational Foundation, also found that the proportion of students who se...

Late last year, when Education Secretary Damian Hinds told universities and schools in the north-east of England that they had to “raise aspirations among all working class communities”, he was following in a venerable, if thoroughly ill-informed, tradition. Twenty years earlier his predecessor, David Blunkett, invoked a “poverty of aspirations”, later reflected in the 2003 White Paper which stated (without evidence) that “aspirations are low” among “families without a tradition of going to H...

Up to a quarter of students in England are doing degrees that will not give them sufficient earnings to justify the cost of their loans, a think tank says. The centre-right group urges ministers to cut places on those courses offering little financial return and increase those in post-18 technical education. Its study also says tax breaks of up to 50p in every pound owed should be offered to graduates repaying loans. The government is carrying out a review of post-18 education and funding...

The heads of UK universities have reacted angrily to leaked proposals they say would bar thousands of disadvantaged young people from going to university by preventing them from getting student loans. They also say that if the government goes ahead with rumoured plans to cut tuition fees, undergraduates would experience a poorer quality of education, less mental health support and a smaller choice of degree subjects. The ideas have been leaked from the prime minister’s review of post-18 educat...

The heads of UK universities have reacted angrily to leaked proposals they say would bar thousands of disadvantaged young people from going to university by preventing them from getting student loans. They also say that if the government goes ahead with rumoured plans to cut tuition fees, undergraduates would experience a poorer quality of education, less mental health support and a smaller choice of degree subjects. The ideas have been leaked from the prime minister’s review of post-18 educat...