By Joe Rukin
NATFHE, has warned that many universities and colleges may be unprepared for new disability discrimination legislation which came into force on September 1st. After the media hype which followed the rejection of Anastasia Fedotova, a deaf student who like many others who got rejected from Oxford, got straight As at A-Level, NATFHE's Equality Official, Kate Heasman, said:
"Whatever the truth about this incident, it rings alarm bells about the
extent to which universities are prepared to accept their new
responsibilities under the Disability Discrimination Act, and ensure
that they do not treat disabled students less favourably, at the point
of admission, and throughout their studies. We fear that many colleges and universities are woefully unprepared for their new responsibilities to ensure fair treatment for all disabled students."
The Disability Discrimination Act was introduced in 1995, but until now educational institutions have been exempt. This has maybe been reflected in the statistics. While 7.2m of the working population are registered disabled- 19.4%, only 31,000 out of the 800,000 students -just 4% have a disability. The regulations mean all education establishments have a strict duty to make their buildings completely accessible to people with a range of disabilities and that all disabled students have equal access to the curriculum and educational opportunities. This will make the provision of Braille materials, audiotapes and hearing loops compulsory. In Scotland it is estimated that complying with new legislation will cost Universities and Colleges £100m, with costs rising to around £1bn to get schools compliant.
Useful links;
Skill
RNID
Disability Rights Commission
The Governments usual justification for tuition fees; that graduates earn more than none-graduates has been blown out of the water with news that one of every twelve homeless people has a degree. That's around 33,000 of the nations 400,000 rough sleepers. Debbie Hilton, head of project management for homeless charity, Crisis said;
'These are the hidden homeless. They are excluded from government figures because they are educated enough to secure temporary accommodation for themselves, despite suffering problems too severe to enable them to escape the streets altogether.' The added tragedy is that being educated can often work against these people's favour when applying for help out of homelessness. There have been reports of educated people being rejected by welfare services because of assumptions that, if they have qualifications, they must be able to negotiate their own way out of their difficulties.'
Student loan repayments which have been taken from graduates' pay packets through the tax system have failed to get through to the Student Loans Company. The Inland Revenue is investigating after the cock-up was only noticed by a graduate who rang the SLC to check her balance after paying installments on her loan for two years. Pay slips showed that she had repaid £1,800, but the SLC said nothing had come to them and she had been charged interest on the full loan amount. The episode is being blamed on a computer error at the Inland Revenue and only affects graduates who are paying back 'new' loans on the system introduced in 1998 .
The creeping privatisation of education has taken another step as this year, for the first time ever staff from a private education firm will teach in a mainstream school during school hours. Staff from Ryde College near Watford will teach children from five through to GCSE information technology at Lea Junior Primary School in Slough, this term. This follows on from previous arrangements between Ryde and the state sector after last year 13 students from three London schools all passed GCSE IT after getting seven months of out of school training. 10 pupils at Lea Junior will take their GCSE this year at the age of ten, with their parents paying half of the £1,200 fee.
St George's hospital medical school in London has just launched a fast-track degree that will make you a Doctor in just four years. A graduate entry programme will take any graduate from any other discipline. It doesn't matter if you've never looked at a Biology textbook, you're in. Well as there were 627 applicants for 70 places, maybe not, but you know what I mean.
Teachers union NUT will hold a ballot this month for a one-day strike in October over the London weighting for teachers.
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According to a survey of parents, it costs £9,515 to put a child through school (ages 5-16). State school that is. £7.7bn is the estimated yearly national expenditure on things such as school uniform, lunches and sports kit. Average costs per child per year work out as; School lunches £324; Clothes/shoes £178; Transport £108; Books £31; School trips £84; Sports kit £57; After-school clubs £45;
Extras £38. Ian Beggs of Norwich Union who conducted the survey said:
"Many parents think of state schools as being free but the costs are significant. Nearly £8bn of our money gets spent every year just covering the everyday costs of sending our children to school - that's nearly £900 per child. It's important to allow for these costs when managing your finances. If parents do their school sums now they'll know what they need to put aside."
Cost may be one of the factors influencing low post-16 stay on rates which School standards minister David Miliband says are "a national disgrace". In the current league tables produced by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Britain is 22nd out of 24 for staying on until 18. Mr Miliband said:
"It must be one of the most stunning statistics that we are 20th out of 24 countries for staying-on rates at 17. This is a national shame and it is a national disgrace."
New plans for secondary and tertiary education in England will be announced next month, with the idea of keeping students in Further education until 19 having been 'postponed'.
The University of Wales, which was in danger of a break-up with cardiff ans swansea wanting out has invited five institutions to join it as it expands. The five institutions are the University of Glamorgan, North East Wales Institute (NEWI) of Higher Education in Wrexham, Swansea Institute of Higher Education, Trinity College, Carmarthen and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff. As part of the changes, University of Wales Institute, Cardiff and University of Wales College, Newport will be upgraded from university colleges to full constituent institutions of the University of Wales.
'Team Bath' have become the first University side to enter the FA cup since 1880- when both Oxford & Cambridge took part. They beat the Barnstaple Town 4-0 in the first preliminary round tie, leaving them four matches away from the first round proper. They will now face Backwell United on 14 September in the first qualifying round of the competition.
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