1,500 university students face visa inquiry

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

About 1,500 foreign students risk being deported after they were reported to immigration officials over alleged visa irregularities.

The figures, obtained via a Freedom of Information request by the pressure group Manifesto Club, have prompted claims that universities are being "overzealous" in reporting students to the UK Border Agency. The Club says most referrals were based on "ill-founded suspicions". It claims academics are being put off from coming to the UK.

Universities denied they are being overzealous. Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of Universities UK, said they took their responsibilities seriously and "must meet a range of obligations set out by the UK Border Agency".

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Chalk Talk: Private schools - shouldn't we be demanding an inquiry?

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

The headlines last Saturday were predictably all about the leading independent schools and the widening the gap in performance between them and state schools. Quite natural, really, as private schools in membership of the Independent Schools Council (ISC) had seen a 0.9 percentage point increase in A* grades at A-level compared with just 0.1 percentage point nationally.

However, what seems to have escaped scrutiny were some of the other findings that flow from a closer analysis of the figures. For instance, if the ISC schools have shown a 0.9 percentage point increase but independent schools overall show only a 0.2 percentage point increase, what does that say about the rest of the sector?

The ISC represents the bulk of the sector and the more elite end of the market – Eton, Westminster, Winchester, Cheltenham Ladies College and Roedean are in membership. It follows that, if their improvement is so marked, some of the others must be witnessing a tailing off of their performance.

Then again, a glance at the state school statistics notes that the gap between independent schools and state selective schools widened more than between the private sector and comprehensive schools.

The performance of the comprehensive schools did improve this year – going up from 5.8 per cent of scripts being awarded A*s to 5.9 per cent, whereas that of the selective grammar schools deteriorated from 12.5 per cent last year to 12.1 per cent in 2011.

It was difficult for education experts to fathom the reason for this, other than the fact that comprehensives started from a lower bases, from which it is easier to improve, while grammar schools were defending a higher score.

One difference this year is that academies' performance is listed separately for the first time (they notched up 8.7 per cent), although that hardly seems to be an answer as the bulk of academies have come from the comprehensive sector.

That itself raises an interesting question: if the comprehensive sector is improving despite many of its members now being classified as academies, it seems to indicate that any simplistic attempt to portray academies as outstanding schools and those remaining in local authority control as less so is wide of the mark.

Meanwhile, if the comprehensive schools had presided over a 0.4 percentage point drop in top grade awards, you can bet your bottom dollar somebody would be demanding an inquiry into what had happened. Need I say more?

r.garner@independent.co.uk

View the original article here

Peliculas Online

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Chalk Talk: Private schools - shouldn't we be demanding an inquiry?

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

The headlines last Saturday were predictably all about the leading independent schools and the widening the gap in performance between them and state schools. Quite natural, really, as private schools in membership of the Independent Schools Council (ISC) had seen a 0.9 percentage point increase in A* grades at A-level compared with just 0.1 percentage point nationally.

However, what seems to have escaped scrutiny were some of the other findings that flow from a closer analysis of the figures. For instance, if the ISC schools have shown a 0.9 percentage point increase but independent schools overall show only a 0.2 percentage point increase, what does that say about the rest of the sector?

The ISC represents the bulk of the sector and the more elite end of the market – Eton, Westminster, Winchester, Cheltenham Ladies College and Roedean are in membership. It follows that, if their improvement is so marked, some of the others must be witnessing a tailing off of their performance.

Then again, a glance at the state school statistics notes that the gap between independent schools and state selective schools widened more than between the private sector and comprehensive schools.

The performance of the comprehensive schools did improve this year – going up from 5.8 per cent of scripts being awarded A*s to 5.9 per cent, whereas that of the selective grammar schools deteriorated from 12.5 per cent last year to 12.1 per cent in 2011.

It was difficult for education experts to fathom the reason for this, other than the fact that comprehensives started from a lower bases, from which it is easier to improve, while grammar schools were defending a higher score.

One difference this year is that academies' performance is listed separately for the first time (they notched up 8.7 per cent), although that hardly seems to be an answer as the bulk of academies have come from the comprehensive sector.

That itself raises an interesting question: if the comprehensive sector is improving despite many of its members now being classified as academies, it seems to indicate that any simplistic attempt to portray academies as outstanding schools and those remaining in local authority control as less so is wide of the mark.

Meanwhile, if the comprehensive schools had presided over a 0.4 percentage point drop in top grade awards, you can bet your bottom dollar somebody would be demanding an inquiry into what had happened. Need I say more?

r.garner@independent.co.uk

View the original article here

Peliculas Online

Read More