Troops to man airports during 'general strike'

His warning came as it emerged at least three million children will be locked out as at least 8,000 schools close on Wednesday because of the strike.

Ministers believe Wednesday’s “day of action” will cost the economy up to ￡500m, cause the cancellation of countless NHS operations and see Whitehall grind to a halt.

It is feared as many as 57,000 NHS patients will be affected by the industrial action, with as many as 20 per cent of health service staff expected to strike.

Local councils believe between 20 and 30 per cent of their staff will not turn up to work, potentially hitting rubbish collections, leisure centres and funeral services.

Tourist attractions will also be affected, with parts of the British Museum set to be closed.

The action has been billed by unions as the biggest walkout since the general strike of 1926.

The biggest single impact will be on millions of working parents who will be forced to take the day off or arrange childcare as teachers, classroom assistants, dinner ladies, caretakers and cleaners join the strike.

Head teachers will join them, taking strike action for the first time in their history.

Some 40 per cent of schools will be shut or partially closed in the 66 local authorities that responded to a Sunday Telegraph survey, with councils predicting that more schools will announce closures tomorrow and Tuesday.

If the figures are replicated across all 152 authorities in England, it will see at least 8,000 schools closed.

With about 6.8 million children in schools in England, it will equate to a minimum of three million children left without education.

Parents groups warned last night of growing anger about the industrial action and said that the goodwill that exists between teachers and families will be destroyed.

This weekend, Nick Gibb, the schools minister, repeated warning to the unions that an improved offer on public sector pensions may be withdrawn if no deal is reached.

Ministers want workers across the public sector to pay more into their pensions, retire later and receive pensions based on their average earnings during their career, rather than their highest salary, to reflect greater longevity among the population.

The reforms, designed to reduce the crippling public pensions bill, will mean teachers who are more than 10 years from retirement will lose on average 20 per cent of their pot and pay higher contributions.

Separately, three trade union leaders overseeing the pensions strike have amassed retirement packages worth more than ￡1 million, according to analysis.

Brendan Barber, 60, the head of the TUC, was found to have the largest trade union pension pot, with a value of ￡1.8 million. Last year he received a salary of ￡98,056.

Paul Kenny and Len McCluskey, the general secretaries of the GMB and Unite, both have pension pots worth around ￡1.5 million, according to the research, which was validated by Hargreaves Lansdown, leading investment experts.

Trade unions do not publish valuations of their bosses pension pots, even though leading companies, government departments and other public bodies all do so.

By analysing the salaries, age and length of service, Hargreaves Lansdown was able to calculate how much it would cost a member of the public to buy an annuity to deliver the same retirement income as the union bosses will receive.

Tom McPhail, head of pensions research at the firm, said that this method was “conservative”. It does not take account of future years’ service or any pay rises between now and their retirement.

“The changes the government are trying to make to public sector pension are proportionate and fair,” said Mr McPhail.

“Everyone needs to get used to the prospect of retiring later, paying more into their pension and receiving less.”

The TUC said it “practises what it preaches” and provides the same defined-benefit pension for all of its staff. GMB said it did not recognise the figures. Unite did not comment.

Sutton Trust: social mobility in UK 'lagging behind other nations'

Schoolchildren from deprived backgrounds are more likely to underachieve in the UK than other developed nations, according to the Sutton Trust.?Photo: GETTY IMAGES

Research shows that the education gap between disadvantaged and “privileged” pupils is wider in the UK than elsewhere in the developed world.

Data suggests that children from low-income homes are more than a year behind richer classmates as they start school aged five.

The disclosure – in a study by the Sutton Trust charity – comes just days after Ofsted warned that deprivation continued to be a “significant factor influencing the quality of schools” in England.

In a blow to Labour’s education legacy, the watchdog said that schools serving the poorest 20 per cent of pupils were four times more likely to be “inadequate” than those for the wealthiest 20 per cent.

Sir Peter Lampl, the Sutton Trust chairman, said the problem was likely to get worse in coming years as children from wealthier backgrounds continue to pull ahead.

This comes despite a range of Coalition policies designed to tackle the problem, including the introduction of the “pupil premium” to reward schools taking large numbers of deprived children.

"These latest international comparisons confirm that the education gaps at every stage between disadvantaged children and privileged children are greater in the UK than in other developed countries,” said Sir Peter.

"In this country, unlike others, the educational achievement gap widens after age 11. As education is becoming increasingly important in determining prospects in adult life, these findings do not bode well for future social mobility in the UK.”

The study compares data from the UK and England with nine other countries, including the United States, Australia, Canada and Germany. It uses a series of indicators to assess children’s education and family background.

One dataset shows children’s average vocabulary scores at the age of five – when pupils start compulsory education – and ranks them from one to 100. Children with highly educated parents in the UK – those with at least a degree – were ranked in the 67 percentile on average, while those whose mothers and fathers left school with few qualifications were placed in the 29th percentile.

The 38 percentage point gap was “significantly larger” in the UK than in all countries other than the United States, where it extended to 46 points, it was disclosed.

The study also cites previous research by the Sutton Trust which showed children from “low income homes are over a year behind children from high income homes at the start of schooling in the UK”.

In a further move, researchers analysed the difference in academic standards achieved by pupils between the age of 11 and 16.

It found that gaps in achievement in the UK became “substantially bigger” at 16 compared with 11, although it found “no evidence of this… in other countries”.

The study said the differences were driven by the “social stratification that exists” in secondary education, adding: “The widening of the education gap in pupil performance after primary school appears to be related to the sorting of children into secondary schools. Better educated parents have their children in better quality schools.”

The conclusions come as a new education think-tank is launed on Monday in an attempt to promote fresh debate on the education system.

The Education Foundation – funded by a number of academics and head teachers – will seek to "inform the debate through a range of research and practical projects".

Ty Goddard, former chairman for education in the London Borough of Lambeth, and a Government advisor, said: “There’s much to celebrate when it comes to education in the UK. Millions of learners do well at school and in further and higher education, preparing for a changing world.

"But as last week’s Ofsted annual report showed, some do not, despite the resources available."

LSE to be criticised over £1.5m Libya donation

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, whose charity made a ￡1.5m donation to the LSE, was captured by Libyan rebels this month.?Photo: AFP

A major inquiry is expected to conclude that the institution was negligent in accepting donations from the Gaddafi regime.

The report by Lord Woolf, the former Lord Chief Justice, will attack the LSE’s lax handling of the affair, saying the university’s ruling council was given inadequate and incomplete information before deciding to accept the grant.

It will level personal criticism at Sir Howard Davies, the former LSE director, who quit in May amid lingering questions over the morality of the cash award.

The report’s conclusions come as Labour was again dragged into the row over the weekend when it was claimed that a company formerly headed by Adam Ingram, the ex-defence minister, gave a ￡100,000 donation to a charity run by the Gaddafi family around the same time it was awarded a multi-million contract in Libya.

The LSE – rated as one of the top universities in Britain – asked Lord Woolf to carry out an independent external inquiry into its links with Libya earlier this year.

His inquiry was submitted to the school in mid-October and is expected to be released on Wednesday afternoon after being considered by the LSE council.

A charity run by Saif-al-Islam Gaddafi – Muammar Gaddafi’s son – donated ￡1.5m to the LSE in 2009, although only ￡300,000 reached the university.

It came after Saif Gaddafi, 39, who was captured by Libyan rebel forces earlier this month after weeks on the run, completed a PhD at the university.

Lord Woolf’s inquiry will outline the errors made by the LSE in accepting the donation and establish clear guidelines for international donations to – and links with – the school.

The report will reportedly conclude that Sir Howard should have made a clearer judgment on the “acceptability of the cited sources of donation”.

It also suggested that David Held, an academic advisor to Saif Gadaffi and a professor of political science at the university, should have provided significantly more information to the LSE council before a decision on the donation was taken. Prof Held has since announced he is quitting the LSE to join Durham University.

It emerged that the LSE was warned against accepting the donation from Fred Halliday, an emeritus professor of international relations, who has since died.

He wrote to the council criticising Libya's human right's record and the unrestrained celebrations in Tripoli that followed the release of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber.

But minutes of a council meeting revealed that senior officials feared embarrassing Saif Gaddafi by rejecting the cash.

Last night, the LSE declined to comment on the findings until the inquiry is published.

A spokesman for Lord Woolf also refused to comment ahead of the publication.

Europe's top ten MBA schools favoured by employers

France's INSEAD was last year ranked Europe's number one MBA school by international employers. The average INSEAD graduate started the programme with six years of work experience and left commanding a base salary of $107,240. The course duration is ten months, places a strong focus on entrepreneurship and requires students to be tri-lingual.

The information provided is from QS, a global provider of specialist higher education and careers information and solutions, for the academic year ending 2010.

Picture: Directphoto.org / Alamy

University applications drop sharply after fees hike

But Liam Burns, president of the National Union of Students, said: "Ministers need to take responsibility for their disastrous education reforms and admit that, regardless of the final application numbers, the behaviour of prospective students will be affected by the huge rise in fees.”

Martin Lewis, creator of the Money Saving Expert website and head of the Independent Taskforce on Student Finance Information, admitted Britain was “close to a crisis point for university applications” because of misinformation about repayments.

“While university may not be right for everyone, there's no doubt the increase in fees are at the very least a psychological deterrent – often more with parents than with pupils themselves – and worryingly potentially those from poorer backgrounds too,” he said.

The total number of people applying to university by November 21 stood at 158,387 – a drop of 12.9 per cent compared with the same point last year.

British applications slumped by 15.1 per cent and applications from other European Union states fell by 13.1 per cent.

The biggest drops were among mature students, with applications from 25- to 29-year-olds falling by a fifth and demand from over 40s slumping by more than a quarter.

But applications from foreign students outside the EU – who can be charged more than British counterparts and do not count towards Government caps on student places – have actually increased.

Numbers are up by almost 12 per cent, it has emerged, to 15,996.

Mr Willetts said: “Going to university depends on ability not the ability to pay.

“Most new students will not pay upfront, there will be more financial support for those from poorer families and everyone will make lower loan repayments than they do now once they are in well paid jobs.”

Figures show that in Britain applications have dropped quickest among Scottish students – by 17.1 per cent – even though they get free tuition from the Scottish Government.

Demand among Welsh students, whose fees are fixed at just ￡3,465 by the Welsh Assembly, are down by 10.3 per cent – the smallest drop.

Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of Universities UK, the vice-chancellors' group, said: "We still have to hold back before coming to conclusions about these figures.

"It's worth noting that applicant numbers are currently down, not only in England, but also in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland who do not have the same fees system. And last year for various reasons, was something of a one-off in terms of record demand.

"If we compare today's figures with the same point in 2010, the numbers are broadly similar.”

Expat guide to Russia: schools

Background:

The International School of Moscow, not to be confused with its near-namesake, is also a comparatively young and fast-growing school, having been founded in April 2007. It is part of an association of nine schools, in locations ranging from Tashkent to Sao Paolo, run by the British Schools Group.

TISM, in a well-to-do area of west Moscow, is situated on the site of the 1980 Olympic Games: the ice hockey stadium is opposite. It operates from two adjacent sites, the recently opened upper campus complementing the original lower school site, which caters for foundation stage to lower primary age pupils.

The school currently educates pupils from the age of two to 13, with GCSE courses for older children due to start next year. Currently, around half of the school’s 400 pupils are in the younger age group (ages two to eight) on the lower school site.

For the past two years, the school has been attracting pupils from British embassy families, along with children whose parents are working in business and commerce. The largest national groups are Britons, who make up about 30 per cent of pupils, followed by Russians at 15-20 per cent, with 35 nationalities represented overall.

Facilities on the lower school site include playing fields, library, and computer suite, and on the upper site, a gym, basketball court and golf driving range.

Curriculum:

The school offers the English national curriculum and its associated tests, with local adaptations including daily Russian lessons, with French also taught. Children are taught to play a musical instrument from year one (age five).

Provision progresses from pre-nursery, where children aged two and three learn through play, through the English key stages one, two and three. Children’s progress is assessed and tracked closely. Teaching is usually in mixed-ability classes, although the school may offer tuition in smaller groups if it feels more support is needed.

Sporting and artistic activities range from dance and gymnastics to ultimate Frisbee, basketball, skiing, plays and musicals and extra music tuition while golf, a specialism of the school, is offered to all pupils during curriculum time.

Results:

Marks from key stage two English national curriculum tests, set at the age of 11, have been consistently well ahead of English averages, with all pupils achieving at least the UK Government’s target level four in reading, writing and science in 2010, and 64-73 per cent achieving the higher level five. The school does not yet have any GCSE results.

Admission:

TISM is selective, with academic assessments taking place at the school from reception (age four) upwards. The school likes children to spend a day in the classroom before joining, during which time most will take a written test. In the past, the school has not stressed special educational needs (SEN) provision, but has now appointed a SEN co-ordinator to cater for those with individual needs.

Fees:

Annual charges range from €11,970 (￡10,251) for pre-nursery to €19,665 (￡16,841) for years seven to nine. There is also a one-off €200 (￡171) application fee, a charge for “capital” of €6,000 (￡5,138) per family, a compulsory annual lunch charge of €1,222 (￡1,047) and uniform costs of €250 (￡214). Fees for the optional bus service are €2,205 (￡1,888) per year.

What the school says:

“The thing that parents often comment on when they come into the school is the atmosphere around the place. Although we have high expectations of the children, the relationship between the parents, students and staff is really very good.” Paul Seedhouse, headmaster.

What the parents say:

“When we arrived on our first day, the staff lined the corridors greeting the students with huge smiles and even the odd 'high five’. The children couldn’t have felt more welcome. What has impressed me most has been the holistic approach the school takes to learning: rather than being spoon-fed facts, TISM’s approach has resulted in far greater inquisitive behaviour and motivation from our children.” Sara Slim, whose two boys and a girl started at the school in August.

“Everyone has a great sense of belonging, whether it be the children, parents or teachers. The fact that our children all look forward to going to school, finish the day smiling and have gained so much confidence sums up the school for us.” Lucy Cranfield, who has had three children at the school since it opened.

ENGLISH INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL, MOSCOW

Highly international institution that emphasises a caring ethos

Background:

The English International School, Moscow prides itself on its small-school ethos: there are only 150 pupils here, spread over the ages of three to 18 with classes typically numbering 14-15.

Nevertheless, the school has grown rapidly since its foundation five years ago, when it had only 36 children. Next summer, the first group of students – five of them – will sit A-levels and this is also the first year when meaningful numbers are taking their International GCSEs.

The school, one of a group of five established in locations ranging from Majorca to Seoul by the private operator Orbital Education, is situated on a one-hectare site in Moscow’s eastern suburbs, a quarter of an hour’s journey from the city centre by Moscow’s underground system.

Sports facilities include provision for tennis, badminton and basketball, a small gym and a running track.

This is a truly international school, with 40 nationalities represented. A substantial minority speak English as a second or third language.

Curriculum:

The school offers an adapted version of the English national curriculum, followed by International GCSEs and then A-levels. One of most significant ways in which the curriculum is adapted is that children are routinely “accelerated” through their lessons from year five onwards, meaning that they go on to take IGCSEs in English, maths and one or two more subjects in year 10 rather than the more conventional year 11.

Unless they are learning English, all pupils here will study Russian from year one, and French from year three.

The EIS says that, because of its size, it can tailor its curriculum to suit the individual child. That said, the small numbers overall mean the school focuses on the core IGCSE subjects: English, maths, science, history, geography, French, Russian, art and religious studies. At A-level, eight subjects are offered, with a further one or two to be taught from next year.

EIS is said to be the only international school in Moscow playing sports fixtures against local Russian schools, while inter-school drama, dance and cultural events also feature. Last month, the school offered Russian Culture Week, with events ranging from classes in Cyrillic rune writing to a trip to the former royal palace of Kolomenskoye.

Results:

There are few to report, because next year will be the first that the school has pupils taking A-levels, while only three pupils have so far completed GCSEs. However, last year’s year 10 took a range of IGCSEs early, with a 100 per cent A*-C rate recorded in maths and seven out of 10 gaining Cs or better in English.

Admission:

Non-selective, or “all-enveloping”, as the school puts it. It is proud of its work to support children with special educational needs.

Fees:

Annual charges range from €13,900 (￡11,917) in nursery to €20,400-21,400 (￡17,490-￡18,348) in the senior school. There is also a one-off assessment fee on entry to the school of €2,000 (￡1,715). All meals, stationery, materials and exam fees are included, with bus service (€1,000, ￡857) per term and school uniform (about €200, ￡171) costing extra.

What the school says:

“We do not pretend to compete with the St Paul’s, Westminsters or Manchester Grammars, but we seek to be like a middle-ranking UK independent school. We have an absolutely lovely bunch of children here, everyone knows everyone and this means we are absolutely focused on individuals.” Ross Hunter, headmaster.

What the parents say:

“From the first time I visited the school, my experience was so positive that I thought I’m not going to look anywhere else. I liked the fact that the teachers were not bothered in trying to sell me what the school could do for me as a parent; they were interested in how they could help my children. They work out what each child’s needs are and work from that, at the child’s own pace.” Tina Lindsay, who has boys aged 11, 10 and six at the school.

This piece was originally published in the Telegraph Weekly World Edition

Return to the Expat country profiles index

David Cameron goes to war on Britain's 'coasting schools'

He says that while it is “relatively easy” to identify problem schools, it is just as important to tackle those that are resigned to mediocrity.

“It is just as important to tackle those all over the country content to muddle through — places where respectable results and a decent local reputation mask a failure to meet potential,” he writes.

“Children who did well in primary school but who lose momentum. Early promise fades. This is the hidden crisis in our schools — in prosperous shires and market towns just as much as in the inner cities.”

In January, new league tables will be published that will show how low-, middle- and high-achieving children are performing in their schools.

In June, a new national pupil database will be introduced to show how pupils have progressed during their time in school. The data will not disclose any names but should allow parents to identify schools that are better at pushing certain pupils in different subjects.

Mr Cameron writes: “This challenge is one for all parts of the country — places where governors, parents and teachers might never guess things might be wrong. That’s why it is vital to shine a spotlight on secret failure by giving people the information they need to fight for change.

“The last government shied away from the problem. It kept huge amounts of data under wraps — focusing only on league tables which seemed to show things were getting better every year. It set a narrow definition of coasting schools which allowed many to slip through the net undetected. By contrast, this Government is going to widen it so that more average schools are pressed to do better.”

The Prime Minister says Mossbourne Academy in Hackney, one of the most deprived areas in Britain, is now achieving far higher marks than comprehensives in middle-class areas across the Home Counties.

“The point of education is to change lives — it’s not good enough for teachers in shire counties to be satisfied with half of children getting five good GCSEs, when Mossbourne Academy achieves 82 per cent in Hackney,” writes Mr Cameron.

“When people involved in education can see what needs to be done to get out of a rut — and are given the freedom to make their own choices rather than orders from above — dramatic improvement is possible. Goffs School in Cheshunt, for instance, went from barely half its pupils achieving five good GCSEs including English and maths, to almost three quarters in a single year.”

It is understood that the Government has decided against sending “hit squads” into comprehensives identified as “coasting”. Ministers instead hope that by publicly identifying failing schools, parents and governors will put staff under intense pressure to improve standards.

Sir Michael Wilshaw, the incoming head of Ofsted, previously warned that the watchdog needed to do more to tackle teachers who were coasting.

He said extra effort was needed to identify “the teacher … who year in, year out just comes up to the mark, but only just, and does the bare minimum”.

The Government is also giving permission for dozens of new free schools, effectively independent schools paid for by taxpayers within the state system, across the country. Mr Cameron says he wants these schools to be the “shock troops of innovation” who will “smash through complacency”.

The Coalition is also relaxing admissions and expansion rules for successful schools, which is expected to lead to an increase in grammar school places.

Yesterday, it emerged that some grammar schools are planning to take over schools in neighbouring towns — effectively leading to the creation of the first new grammar schools since the 1960s.

Graham Brady, chairman of the Conservatives’ backbench 1922 Committee, said it was a “small but important step”.

More cash needed for state boarding schools, warns head

Raymond McGovern, chairman of the State Boarding Schools Association, called for a greater investment in the sector to allow them to expand.?

Raymond McGovern, chairman of the State Boarding Schools' Association, said schools would struggle to meet the requirements of a tough new inspection regime without more money.

He also called on ministers to put more capital into schools to enable them to expand to take in additional pupils.

In recent months ministers have praised plans to allow growing numbers of “vulnerable” children to be given a boarding education. A number of the Government’s flagship academies have built – or are planning to build – boarding houses for pupils.

But speaking on Sunday, Mr McGovern, headmaster of Sexey’s School in Somerset, said new inspections introduced for the first time this summer to regulate pupils’ health and welfare provided significant challenges.

“Lack of central funding places state boarding schools at a significant risk, especially as – quite rightly – they must comply with the new National Minimum Standards,” he said.

There are currently 38 state schools in the UK with boarding accommodation.

Almost 5,000 pupils board at these schools, up from 3,674 in 1998 and from 4,695 last year. Education is free although boarding costs between ￡7,500 and ￡12,000 per year.

In recent years, a series of the Government’s semi-independent academy schools have opened boarding facilities, including the new Wellington Academy in Wiltshire and Harefield Academy in Middlesex.

Another school, Durand Academy in Lambeth, south London, is planning to open a satellite boarding school in West Sussex for children aged 13 upwards.

Mr McGovern said: “The Secretary of State for Education expressed his support for boarding when visiting Durand Academy… This is a significant departure for the state sector as families have traditionally had to fund boarding from their own incomes, or via the Armed Forces’ Continuity of Education allowance or an external charitable trust such as the Royal National Children’s Foundation.

“If the Government truly believes that ‘boarding which is free of charge is a good thing for the young people of Lambeth’ then surely the same is true for any young person in every local authority, particularly for those young people who are vulnerable or otherwise disadvantaged?”

Students 'could be put off university' by confusion over fees, warns Martin Lewis

Confusion over the system of tuition fees in 2012 could be putting students off university, warns Martin Lewis.?Photo: REX FEATURES

Martin Lewis, the consumer expert, said students were “ill-equipped and uneducated” about how the new system would work next year.

From 2012, English universities will be able to charge up to ￡9,000 a year – almost three times the current amount.

Graduates will pay back loans when they earn ￡21,000 and make smaller monthly repayments than at present. Debts will also take much longer to clear but will be written off after 30 years.

Mr Lewis, who has been named the new head of the Independent Taskforce on Student Finance Information, said he was “no fan of the changes”.

But he insisted that the myths surrounding the practical finances of the system “may well end up more damaging to prospective students’ aspirations than the new fees themselves”.

It came as a poll of almost 2,000 adults, published by the taskforce today, found almost six-in-10 had little or no understanding of how the new fees system would work.

More than a quarter – 26 per cent – wrongly thought that students would have to pay their fees upfront and more than half said the system would make going to university less attractive.

The disclosure comes despite the fact that applications have already closed for some courses – including those to Oxbridge – and most students are expected to apply by January.

It also comes amid continuing uncertainty over fee levels at some universities.

Some 27 un-named institutions are yet to confirm their final average fees after submitting revised plans to the Government’s Office for Fair Access, it was confirmed this week.

Mr Lewis, head of Money Saving Expert, said: "The communication of tuition fees by all parties over the last few years is a national scandal.

"They've left us as a nation ill-equipped and uneducated about how this crucial and very different form of finance works.

"We need to start a war on this ignorance. After all, if students don't understand the true cost, how can they decide if it's worth it."

Non-Euro mod lang degree course guide

This course offer students the chance to get to grips with the language and cultures of a major non-European country or countries?Photo: Jeff Blackler/Rex Features

"Any man who does not make himself proficient in at least two languages other than his own is a fool." Martin H. Fischer

What qualification do you leave with?

Usually a BA. Scottish universities typically offer MAs.

What does it cover?

Chinese courses seem likely to grow in popularity, as the country's economic boom drives new career opportunities for British graduates with linguistic capabilities. Degrees vary in the extent to which they emphasise contemporary Chinese – Leeds offers a course entitled "modern Chinese" – or the language in its classical form: London's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) expects all students to study classical Chinese alongside the modern form for at least two years. Generally, options allow students to focus on subjects ranging from art and archaeology to literature and religion, and there are also chances to learn about Chinese business and enterprise.

Japanese is said to be one of the world's hardest languages, its lack of connection and similarity with English making it a challenging subject for many. Students on most courses will grapple with reading and writing the characters of the Japanese language, while building fluency in conversation, grammar and comprehension. Japanese degrees generally give undergraduates the chance to explore both the ancient origins of Japanese culture and its hi-tech contemporary expression, as well as taking modules on linguistics, the politics of Japan and its neighbours, and, in some cases, on the language and culture of proximate societies including China, Korea and Thailand.

Students wanting to immerse themselves in the language, cultures and often conflict-laden histories of the Indian subcontinent have a range of courses to choose from. At SOAS, South Asian Studies covers India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal, with undergraduates specialising in one of six languages. At Edinburgh, students can take South Asian Studies in combination either with Social Anthropology or Sociology. At Leeds, a range of joint honours degrees cover South East Asian Studies, embracing Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Indonesia. SOAS also offers courses in languages including Burmese, Thai, Vietnamese and Korean, while Sheffield also offers Korean.

Undergraduates attracted to the language and civilisations of the Middle East also have a range of possible destinations. Arabic – language, culture, history and politics – is taught at universities including Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Exeter, Manchester and SOAS, all of which also offer Persian, while Oxford, Manchester, SOAS and King's College London teach Turkish. Hebrew is taught at universities including Oxford, Cambridge, St Andrews and University College London. Middle Eastern Studies is offered by universities including Edinburgh, Leeds and Manchester.

Finally, students can take a degree in African studies at either Birmingham or at SOAS. Academics at Birmingham have particular expertise in West Africa, but the course covers the entire continent, including the historic relationship with Europe, the experience of the African diaspora in the Caribbean and the interaction of African peoples with Islam. Students also get the chance to learn the West African language of Yoruba. At SOAS, Yoruba is one of six languages taught, with the focus being on the culture, history and politics of sub-Saharan Africa.

What to expect

A chance to focus on any of a huge range of cultures, with language learning usually central.

What are the usual A-levels you need?

Generally, an A-levels in the language to be studied is not required, with universities expecting that most students will begin language learning from scratch. In some cases, a language degree of some sort is preferred. Universities often make requirements of higher grades at GCSE in subjects such as English, maths and a language.

Career prospects

Modern linguists are generally in demand, and the small numbers of students taking many of these degrees will give them highly specialised skills in the jobs market. Graduates emerging with knowledge of the language and societies of countries including China, Japan and India will find business opportunities associated with the trade the UK does with these powerful economies. Graduates from the featured subjects also find work in non government organisations such as the United Nations, Oxfam and other charities, in the civil and diplomatic services, in teaching and in journalism.

Top places to study

The Complete University Guide rates Cambridge, Oxford, the School of Oriental and African Studies, Cardiff and Nottingham as the top five universities for East and South Asian Studies (including Chinese and Japanese) according to an index based on student satisfaction; entry standards; an assessment of the quality of the university's research; and graduate prospects. The guide does not provide ratings for other subjects listed here.

Students 'could be put off university' by confusion over fees, warns Martin Lewis

Confusion over the system of tuition fees in 2012 could be putting students off university, warns Martin Lewis.?Photo: REX FEATURES

Martin Lewis, the consumer expert, said students were “ill-equipped and uneducated” about how the new system would work next year.

From 2012, English universities will be able to charge up to ￡9,000 a year – almost three times the current amount.

Graduates will pay back loans when they earn ￡21,000 and make smaller monthly repayments than at present. Debts will also take much longer to clear but will be written off after 30 years.

Mr Lewis, who has been named the new head of the Independent Taskforce on Student Finance Information, said he was “no fan of the changes”.

But he insisted that the myths surrounding the practical finances of the system “may well end up more damaging to prospective students’ aspirations than the new fees themselves”.

It came as a poll of almost 2,000 adults, published by the taskforce today, found almost six-in-10 had little or no understanding of how the new fees system would work.

More than a quarter – 26 per cent – wrongly thought that students would have to pay their fees upfront and more than half said the system would make going to university less attractive.

The disclosure comes despite the fact that applications have already closed for some courses – including those to Oxbridge – and most students are expected to apply by January.

It also comes amid continuing uncertainty over fee levels at some universities.

Some 27 un-named institutions are yet to confirm their final average fees after submitting revised plans to the Government’s Office for Fair Access, it was confirmed this week.

Mr Lewis, head of Money Saving Expert, said: "The communication of tuition fees by all parties over the last few years is a national scandal.

"They've left us as a nation ill-equipped and uneducated about how this crucial and very different form of finance works.

"We need to start a war on this ignorance. After all, if students don't understand the true cost, how can they decide if it's worth it."

Sports stars with degrees

Specialist subject teachers parachuted into primary schools

The reforms are outlined in a radical blueprint designed to overhaul the system of teacher training in England.

From 2012, funding will be reallocated to allow more state-funded training places to be made available for subject specialist primary school teachers.

They will get priority places over students taking general primary courses and schools will be offered the chance to train their own primary specialists.

Trainees teaching science, maths and foreign languages could be offered extra financial rewards because the subjects are seen as vital to pupils’ future chances of getting into top universities and securing a good job.

Ministers will also toughen up the selection process to weed out unsuitable trainees and introduce a package of generous incentives to attract the brightest graduates.

For the first time in 2013, students must pass basic tests in English and maths to start postgraduate training courses – and will only be allowed to re-sit assessments twice. Tests themselves will also be toughened up and the pass marks will be raised.

It will replace the current system in which student teachers normally take exams half-way through one-year courses and are permitted unlimited re-sits.

As reported on Tuesday, the Government will also introduce a system of tapered bursaries designed to attract graduates with first-class honours degrees.

The top students will be able to claim ￡20,000 scholarships – given out in monthly instalments throughout their course – to teach physics, maths, chemistry and modern languages. The best students will also be eligible for ￡9,000 bursaries to teach other “priority” secondary school subjects and to train as primary teachers.

Graduates with a 2:1 or 2:2 degree will handed smaller awards, while those with third-class degrees will be banned from claiming state funding.

But teachers condemned the move as elitist.

Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: “A first class degree does not necessarily a first class teacher make.

“The real incentive which Government needs to address in order to attract people into teaching is not simply bursaries.

“Teachers need to be given greater control over what goes on in the classroom, the unnecessary bureaucratic workload needs to go, pay and conditions need to remain competitive and of course Government needs to ensure a good pension.”

In further reforms, the Government will create a new training programme specifically to allow former Armed Forces personnel to gain qualified teacher status.

Alternative positions will be available in schools for ex-soldiers to act as advisors on discipline and “work with students at risk of exclusion or exhibiting anti-social behaviour”.

Fresh warning over A-level grade inflation

A-level results have increased much quicker than scores in the IB, according to figures.?Photo: PA

Data shows that average scores have increased by almost a quarter – 24 per cent – since the mid-90s.

Over the same period, results in the International Baccalaureate – a Swiss-based qualification favoured by dozens of independent schools – rose by less than 4.5 per cent.

The disclosure, in an analysis by the website Socialglue Schools Guide will fuel concerns that the sharp year-on-year rise in A-level grades is down to politically-motivated changes to the exam – and the comparable ease of tests – instead of rising standards in schools.

Jonathan Gittos, the website’s editor, said: “IB and A-level are taken by candidates of the same age and same schools.

“IB grades have gone up slightly in the UK compared to the rest of the world but the only reasonable explanation, we can think of, for most of the rise in A-level grades, is that the exam has become easier”.

He added: “One of the attractions of the IB is that it’s administered from Geneva and so seen as being freer from political interference and more reliable.”

Currently, students are awarded a certain number of points for each A-level exam, with higher grades attracting more points.

According to figures, the average points per entry in 1996 was 181.3, but by 2011 this increased to 224.7 – a rise of almost 24 per cent.

Over the same period, average points in the IB, which uses a different scoring system, increased from 31.6 to just 33 – a rise of 4.4 per cent.

The rise comes after Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, claimed that a shake-up of the traditional A-level grading structure was needed because of the rise in top grades.

He suggested that a fixed proportion of elite A* grades could be awarded each year to mark out the most exceptional candidates.

An alternative system in which all pupils are ranked in set order according to their performance in comparison with other teenagers could also be introduced, he said.

Speaking last month, Mr Gove insisted education standards had risen in recent years but not by the extent witnessed in exam results.

The rise may be driven by exam re-sits, the introduction of bite-sized modules and highly-structured questions that “sometimes lead the students by the hand through the process of acquiring marks”, he said.

London protests: police put a stop to Trafalgar Square 'tent city'

About 25 tents were pitched next to Nelson’s Column at 1.30pm after a group of 200 protesters broke free from the main march, which was protesting about the rise in university tuition fees and education cuts.

The breakaway group pledged to stay in the square indefinitely, mirroring the occupation at St Paul’s Cathedral.

About an hour later police removed the protesters, saying they had breached section 12 of the Public Order Act by deviating from the official protest route.

The success of the policing operation was in part attributed to the fact that Scotland Yard had 4,000 officers on patrol, the largest single body of officers policing any event since the summer riots.

The attempted occupation was the only notable incident of an otherwise peaceful protest. Last night only 24 arrests had been made despite an estimated 10,000 protesters turning out.

Earlier in the day Glyn Jukes, 37, one of the ringleaders of the breakaway group, said that the camp was “here to stay” and that “supplies were on the way”.

The joiner from Newtown, mid-Wales, said: “This camp will serve as a beacon for the old and the young and the disenfranchised around the world.” He handed out “bust cards” with instructions on what to do in the event of arrest.

However most of the breakaway group left to rejoin the march a short time later, leaving about 25 protesters to hold the camp.

Then at 2.45pm, about 100 police officers approached the encampment, set up a loudspeaker and demanded the protesters leave or face arrest. Fifteen minutes later they moved in and carried the protesters away.

By 3.15pm the Occupy Trafalgar Square camp was no more.

Police said that 12 arrests were made at the camp. They offered to return the tents but none of the protesters took up the offer.

“Freedoms are being eroded everywhere in this country, “ said Ben, 24, from Hertfordshire. This is just another example of that”.

Goodbye to Singapore's Mr Chips

The programme was an immediate success. Out of the 33 students from its pioneering cohort who applied to Oxford and Cambridge, 32 received places. Since this spectacular first year, more than 300 students have won places at Britain’s top two universities.

Lionel is modest about his achievements at Hwa Chong and how he helped launch the careers of some of Singapore’s most powerful and influential residents. “You find success breeds success. Once we put Hwa Chong on the map with Oxford and Cambridge and our students saw what was possible then things just took care of themselves.”

By 1986, of the six teachers who were recruited from England to set up the programme, Lionel was the only one left. Many would have been happy with his initial success but Lionel wanted to build on his track record and establish Hwa Chong as a major player in developing Oxbridge-educated future leaders.

As a result Hwa Chong is one of only two foreign schools in the list of top 20 institutions sending students to the University of Cambridge, while some Oxford colleges have taken students from Hwa Chong every year for the past 30 years.

Things are getting tougher though, as Oxbridge faces pressure to give more places to British students while established Singapore schools like Hwa Chong and Raffles College compete with the rising powers of India and China.

Demand for places from Singaporean students is also increasing as personal wealth grows and parents realise they can now afford to send their offspring to an elite foreign university.

But this increased demand is not just for top British universities. “We are seeing a lot more students head to America to Ivy League colleges which now compete with Oxbridge so the landscape has changed a bit.”

While success was important to win over critics in the early years, it has not all been plain sailing. Most of Lionel’s problems stemmed from the lack of freedom students were given, in a society known for its strong government control. To counteract this, Mr Barnard treated students like undergraduates, giving them more freedom than they were used to.

“If you give them a liberal education and let them think for themselves then they become more academically mature and more confident. It’s no surprise that you get out of that different types of students who can become President’s Scholars.”

Lionel himself studied philosophy, politics and economics at Bristol University and obtained a master’s in education from Lancaster University. He says being English helped when it came to dealing with admissions boards at Oxford and Cambridge.

The jovial Mr Barnard is married to a French ballet teacher and has three grown-up children. He is planning his retirement in rural France, leaving behind the skyscrapers of Singapore for an 18th-century farmhouse.

He knew it was time to call it a day when he discovered he was teaching the daughter of a former student – Singapore’s second permanent secretary for Trade and Industry. “I've been here long enough to teach both mother and daughter – that made me think I’d better retire,” he joked.

Lionel will leave behind a strong legacy for his successor and a track record hard to beat. One unintentional tribute came from the head of a “leading girls’ school” in the UK who contacted Lionel thousands of miles away for advice on how to get her most gifted students into Oxbridge.

While his former students heap praise on him, does feel he has achieved his original objective to rebalance the strong intake of maths and engineering graduates entering government and the public sector?

“Asia has a long history of producing many brilliant students who excel in maths and science as there has been so much emphasis on these subjects. Therefore it was always going to be an uphill struggle getting them to study history and other art-based subjects.

“But with so many maths and science students for the Public Service Commission to choose from, we helped students realise that studying other subjects would give them the language and communication skills that were lacking among other candidates.”

PPE is now the most popular subject studied by Hwa Chong students heading to Oxbridge followed by law, history, English, geography and politics. The 12 Hwa Chong students currently in Oxford are all studying PPE.

Was it hard leaving the UK to become an expat ?

“I was working as a teacher in 1979 and was offered a salary three times what I was currently earning. Margaret Thatcher had just come into power and I decided it was a good time to leave the country. I initially took the job for three years as the plan was for students returning from the UK would take over from me. But, obviously that never happened...” It's as well for Hwa Chong that it didn't.

The brightest family in Britain?

At Oxford there is no single graduation ceremony at the end of a degree as is customary in most universities. Instead, graduates make their own arrangements to attend one of several such events which are held throughout the year.

When Mark finished his exams 25 years ago, he went travelling and then got a job and never got round to collecting his degree. Helen did the same and so it became a family tradition not to graduate, the understanding being that if, by some fluke, they all got to Oxford, they could graduate together.

And so now, after just such a fluke and some negotiation, New College has agreed to host this historic occasion. Their parents – Stephen, a judge who read jurisprudence at Wadham, and Frances, who worked for the historian Christopher Hibbert – will be present, along with 19 of their grandchildren, to watch their children graduate en masse.

They can congratulate themselves that each of their offspring has forged his or her own career path: Mark lives in Paris and is European head of marketing for an American technology firm; Charles runs a sustainability consultancy; Elizabeth is pursuing a spiritual life at the Croatian pilgrimage site of Medjugorje, where the Virgin Mary is said to appear daily; and Edward runs an investment consultancy.

“Our parents never placed us under any pressure to conform,” says Charles. “Personally, I think university isn’t the be-all and end-all. What really matters is emotional intelligence rather than IQ.”

Such magnanimity puts paid to what is without doubt the bitterest academic schism – no, not between Darwinists and Creationists, but between Oxbridge alumni and everyone else, who hates them on principle. The principle being that the Dreaming Spires invariably churn out over-privileged, Master of the Universe types.

This is, of course, utter tosh. Oxford graduates are no more likely to Lord Snooty it over us than anyone else. Apart from David Cameron (Brasenose). And George Osborne (Magdalen). Oh, and William Hague (Magdalen). And Theresa May (St Hugh’s). And Michael Gove (Lady Margaret Hall). There’s more, but not in a good way, so let us turn back to the O’Malleys, who are an altogether more convivial and economically productive bunch. The boys attended the Catholic equivalent of Eton, Ampleforth, as did their father and their grandfathers. The girls went to St Paul’s Girls’ School.

Their parents employed no early hothousing methods to propel them to a top university. No classical music was piped into the womb (and certainly not K.626: as any fule kno it is Mozart’s Requiem Mass in D Minor), there was no extra-curricular Kumon after primary school, no Sunday afternoon tutors or Sixth Form College boot camps. But, oddly, ladybirds (collective term, the unforgettably delightful “a loveliness”) did play a part.

“My mother did show us Ladybird flashcards when we were little,” says Helen. “Maybe that had an effect?”

“And there was a poster of the Kings and Queens of England on the back of the loo door,” says Thomas. “I’m appalled to see five-year-olds who live near us being given homework – at the parents’ request. Our parents never showed any interest, although when I was about eight, I pleaded with my mother for help with my fractions and she got it wrong, so I never asked her again.”

Other than being encouraged to read the many history books in the house – one ancestor on their father’s side was Admiral Augustus Keppel whose flagship was HMS Victory before Nelson – there was no question of a helicopter parent hovering above them monitoring their activities. It was simply understood that school was for studying and home was for playing. “There was an old-fashioned emphasis on fresh air and being in the garden for hours at a time,” says Charles, who doesn’t own a television set and whose children attend a Rudolf Steiner School. “We ate together as a family and talked, but it wasn’t about politics or history. I recall a lot of my childhood being spent building with Lego and gung-ho games with toy guns.”

Pretend weaponry may no longer be considered politically correct, but gung-ho, inventive children make for gung-ho, inventive adults, something that he says has been lost. “Employers say that young people lack initiative and the ability to problem-solve – that’s because they spend their childhoods glued to screens, playing computer games that may be exciting, but don’t enhance their individual creativity the way building a den does.”

So here we have it; living proof of the benefits of education for education’s sake. They all agree that Oxford fosters confidence, analytical skills and articulacy, even if Helen dryly observes “that’s why politicians can drone on so extensively on subjects about which they know nothing.”

So it’s all the more appalling then, to learn how disillusioned some of the O’Malleys have become with academe. “University is now so expensive that none of us would have made it to Oxford,” says Thomas. “Our school fees were paid by my parents selling off family antiques, and by the end of A-levels there were none left.”

Charles concurs: going to university shouldn’t be equated with a trip to the jobcentre. “My concern is that young people will be saddled with such debts that they will base their choice of subject solely on financial grounds and what career they are guaranteed at the end of it.”

Helen, whose eldest child, aged 20, has cerebral palsy, says bringing up a child with special needs has given her an insight into the way children are shoehorned into a one-size-fits-all educational system. She isn’t even sure she wants her children to go to university.

“It’s nice to finally pick up my degree, if only to show my children that Mummy used to have a brain, but now that you get a degree in almost anything, the achievement has been devalued. I’d be quite happy if my children chose apprenticeships instead.”

But this afternoon all such gloom will be cast aside for the O’Malleys, whose winning Oxford streak puts them ahead of journalist and author Stanley Johnson, whose five children, including Boris, mayor of London, went there and the disgraced newspaper publisher Robert Maxwell. Six of his nine children graduated from Oxford, although not at the same ceremony.

“The most important thing about today is that it has given us an opportunity to get together as a family,” says Helen. “Having lunch, catching up, laughing and enjoying each other’s company. Those are the things that really matter in life.”

Performing arts degree course guide

What does it cover?

There tend to be three main elements to music degrees: performance, composition and musicology – the historical and scientific study of music – although the precise balance between the three can vary by course. It will also be heavily influenced by the individual's option choices. Universities can give the individual the option of tuition in up to two instruments along with the chance to build expertise of historical developments in music over the centuries and skills in critical analysis. Universities also offer specialist music courses, in subjects including popular music, music technology and music industry management, while joint honours degrees in combination with subjects as diverse as computing and fine art are also popular.

Drama and theatre studies degrees also blend the practical with the theoretical. Students get tuition in acting and in vocal skills, alongside studying the literature of the theatre: some courses cover dramatic writing from the classical era to today, with Shakespeare also prominent. Universities also offer chance to acquire a foundation in the skills of stage management, lighting, theatrical sound engineering, costume creation and stage design, while there are ample opportunities to take part in full-scale theatrical productions and some courses also allow the chance to take theatre to schools and care homes.

Dance degrees tend to focus on choreography and technique, underpinned by modules allowing opportunities for analysis of human movement, and teaching which puts the subject in its historical and cultural context. Students will become familiar with a range of types of dance, from ballet to street dance, and learn to engage critically with their own work and that of others. There are often opportunities to work with professional dancers, while productions are widely and understandably a staple of students' experiences. Some universities offer modules in which students perform for specific audiences outside the university, including in schools.

What can you expect?

While the accent for many will be on honing their performance skills, these degrees also provide academic and practical understanding of the foundations of these subjects which will be invaluable for some in future careers.

What are the usual A-levels you need?

For music, not all universities insist on an A-level in the subject, but performance to grade 8 is often required. Applicants may also be required to provide a recording of themselves performing.

For drama, universities vary in their requirements, some of them stipulating drama and theatre studies, others allowing English literature or wider humanities courses, and another group not specifying particular subjects. Many courses, though, will ask students to take part in an interview, audition or workshop.

For dance, some universities require or prefer dance or performing arts A-level, but they are in the minority. Students should expect to be interviewed and/or to undergo an audition.

Career prospects

Music graduates go on to jobs as performers, including in professional orchestras, and in composition (including film music composition) and music technology. They also take up work in arts administration, music teaching, publishing and journalism.

Drama graduates go on to become actors, directors, writers, designers, stage managers, technicians, drama teachers, TV researchers, producers and presenters and arts administrators, as well as entering wider careers such as public relations, marketing and publishing.

For dance, some graduates go on to teach, via Postgraduate Certificate in Education courses, while others find work either as dancers or behind-the-scenes work in dance companies. Dance therapy is another possible route, as, after further training, is physiotherapy.

Top places to study

The Complete University Guide rates Oxford, Cambridge, Bristol, King's College London and Sheffield as the top five universities for music according to an index based on student satisfaction, entry standards, an assessment of the quality of the university's research and graduate prospects. For drama/dance, Warwick, King's College London, Queen Mary, Manchester and Bristol top the guide's rankings.

Universities need Pepys as much as Newton

Leszek Borysiewicz: a university is defined by the breadth of its mission?Photo: ADRIAN SHERRATT / REX

For more than 800 years, the University of Cambridge has been a crucible of knowledge and culture. Our students and scholars – from Wordsworth, Wittgenstein and Pepys to Newton, Darwin and Crick – have contributed to society across the centuries. We value, in the widest sense, creativity and research across all disciplines.

Yet the current economic climate is encouraging many outside academia to assess universities’ impact in narrow, utilitarian terms, concentrating only on economic benefit or benefit to individual graduates and their employability. I believe that as global political and economic uncertainty increases, so does the danger of this viewpoint.

Cambridge is rightly celebrated for its innovation in science and technology – from the structure of the atom to the structure of DNA – and the university has more Nobel Prize winners than any other higher education institution in the world, in literature, economics and peace, as well as chemistry, physics and medicine. This reminds us that a university is not defined solely by science and technology but by the breadth of its mission.

And so it is essential that the full range of universities’ contributions is valued appropriately by the society we serve. The arts and humanities – which my colleague Professor Stefan Collini describes as “a series of disciplined attempts to extend and deepen understanding of human activity in its greatest richness and diversity, across times and cultures” – are an indispensable part of that contribution.

I am not alone in my concern. Reflecting on Cardinal Newman’s ideas on the role of the university, my predecessor as vice-chancellor, Professor Dame Alison Richard, observed: “The dichotomy between 'useful’ and 'not useful’ is itself increasingly 'not useful’.” With an anthropologist’s view of the benefits of biodiversity, she made a powerful case for its academic equivalent: “The case for breadth centres on the proposition that the greatest challenges facing the world today are of huge complexity and global scope, best tackled by people whose education enables them to integrate different fields of knowledge and work across conventional academic boundaries.”

As we face the aftermath of one recession and struggle to avoid another, governments are, reasonably, focused on short-term financial perspectives. But as an 800-year-old academic institution and one of the world’s leading universities, Cambridge has a responsibility to take the long – as well as the broad – view.

Recent debates on higher education have focused on undergraduate teaching, obscuring the true scope and nature of universities by neglecting their research role – even though the benefit to students of being taught by those with active research careers is transformative.

To address complex questions of critical importance requires research across many disciplines and over the long term. Cancer prevention offers a good example, not least because the disease presents a complex challenge: the core problem cannot be addressed by science alone.

I trained as a doctor and spent most of my career in academic clinical medicine, studying cervical cancer. A UK-wide vaccination programme has been under way since 2008 and take-up has been excellent. But just as a safe and effective vaccine depends on the best clinical research, in a society that exercises free choice, successful take-up depends on a programme whose acceptability to patients must be informed by rigorous social science research that complements and completes the medical science.

This is not to argue that humanities and social science research exists only to serve science, technology and medicine. Understanding the causes and consequences of human behaviour is an end in itself, and there are many examples of arts and humanities research at Cambridge that bring social benefit or help illuminate pressing global concerns.

Migration and multiculturalism are two of those concerns, and in March this year, Cambridge launched a collaboration with two German universities using the latest research on German history to shed new light on immigration and guest workers.

Given that declining populations mean Western Europe as a whole must face up to a need for immigration, we should welcome the fact that historical scholarship can help inform this debate.

Closer to home, academics from the Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics recently set up the Cambridge Bilingualism Network. Working in local primary schools where pupils speak dozens of languages, the Network is bringing the latest linguistic research into the classroom to help parents and teachers nurture the gift of bilingualism.

In economic hard times, who will look to the long term? Governments will not; stockmarkets cannot; businesses dare not. Instead, we must look to our universities, which by virtue of their autonomy can build the disciplinary breadth and long-term vision to discharge that responsibility.

Over 800 years we have discharged it to the benefit of Britain and the world, and we discharge it best by remaining committed to the arts and humanities. Cambridge this week is celebrating these disciplines and how they enrich all our lives, in the third annual Festival of Ideas – a showcase for Collini’s description of richness and diversity, across times and cultures.

Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz is vice-chancellor of the University of Cambridge

IT and Computer Science degree course guide

Computer scientists are much sought after by employers and can command high salaries?Photo: BRC Designs/Rex Features

"The future is already here — it's just not very evenly distributed." William Gibson

What qualification do you leave with?

Students usually leave with BSc but at University College London there are both MEng courses which stretch for an extra year as well as a three year BSc programme.

Degrees are usually three years but combined Masters courses as well as many opportunities to study

What does it cover?

Most computer science courses combine two strands, basic theories behind computer functions (ie algorithms) and more applied work such as Java programming. The initial course at UCL is 'Computer Architecture' which gives students a basic understanding of the structure of computers and the ways in which they hold information. Other common areas of study are professional specifications for software projects and the workings of microprocessors. Students then finish their degree with a large individual project which, at UCL, has included students designing commercially available iPhone applications and software which manages the reams of data already gathered on the athletes likely to compete in London 2012. Goldsmiths, University of London, run undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes that include the application of computer science to the arts, media, music, design, games, psychology and business.

At undergraduate level at the University of Bedfordshire, 17 specialist BSc degrees courses are on offer.

What can you expect?

Whilst most people think some kind of voodoo magic enables our phones to receive emails, computer science students are amongst the few humans who can fully comprehend how small devices like laptops and phones manage to do all the things we ask them to.

What are the usual A-levels you need?

UCL requires students to have mathematics at A level and – for their mathematical computation programme – further mathematic too. Some institutions will only require strong GCSE results in maths but students need to show that this is an area that they are passionate about and determined to succeed in.

Career prospects

It may have become a hackneyed truism but computers play an increasingly fundamental part in our lives, from managing financial transactions between international corporations to letting us stream television programmes we've missed earlier in the week. This therefore gives computer scientists a shaman-like position in society, opening doors to well-paid jobs across the public and private sectors.

Top places to study

The latest Complete University Guide (published in April 2011) rates Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial, UCL and Bristol as the top five universities for this subject according to an index based on student satisfaction, entry standards, an assessment of the quality of the university's research, and graduate prospects.

Do children learn best in silence?

Q We read that recent research suggests children learn best in silence. Do you have any thoughts on this?

David and Elizabeth Brucknell, Plymouth

A I think this is a part-truth. Children certainly need periods of time when they are working without any outside interference but they also need the stimulation of proper input from those with them. Nothing is more damaging to learning than disruptive and ill-disciplined talking in class but, equally, the most beautiful sound to a teacher’s ears is the hum of children working purposefully together.

A model lesson would include periods of whole-class teaching; periods of small groups (ideally pairs) working quietly together; and times when the pupils do written work on their own in silence.

Q My son is going through the Ucas process. It amazes me that the system requires exam predictions to be made by schools, and then university offers are predicated on these. This must generate added stress for candidates and parents alike, as they wait for the dreaded A-level results – to say nothing of the unseemly procedure called Clearing by which thousands of poor students have to scramble desperately for a few left-over places on courses they don’t really want to follow. Why on earth can’t universities offer places on the basis of grades actually achieved?

Sally Barton, Christchurch

That is a question generations of students, parents and teachers have been asking, and I suspect there has been more than a degree of lethargy in the tackling of this conundrum. At last it seems something is being done to try to resolve it. UCAS has been reviewing the whole university admissions system, and one of the outcomes it is proposing is a move, probably for 2016 entry, to a system by which students would only apply to universities (two of them instead of the current five) once they have their grades. This would mean A-levels being taken earlier and university courses starting later, with pupils having significantly more time to make those important decisions about their futures.

Predictably, the proposal is being opposed by some senior schools, who do not want any reduction in teaching time, though I suspect the culling of the horrendously over-engineered AS-levels would not only recoup this time but also relieve the sixth-form curriculum of a deeply unattractive element.

As for university, most courses could very comfortably be shorn of a few weeks – they might even start in January and take a shorter Summer break. But I do understand the concern that A-level exam marking would have to be fitted into a shorter window and that university selectors would have to make up their minds much more quickly.

Just think, however, of the reduction in time currently spent processing thousands of applications (with all the inaccurate predictions, concomitant offers, non-offers, refusals and so on), to say nothing of the decrease in the stress levels of everyone involved. I hope the Ucas proposals go through.

A decision is expected in January.

Punctuation Card

Many readers have written to say how much they appreciated Joseph Donovan’s Grammar Card. He has now finished writing the Punctuation Card and he has made it available for download on the following website for Telegraph readers https://sites.google.com/site/punctuationcard/home/punctuation-card. He has also provided a revised edition of the English Grammar card. If you have difficulty downloading the cards, email Joseph at grammarcard@yahoo.co.uk.

Specialist subject teachers parachuted into primary schools

The reforms are outlined in a radical blueprint designed to overhaul the system of teacher training in England.

From 2012, funding will be reallocated to allow more state-funded training places to be made available for subject specialist primary school teachers.

They will get priority places over students taking general primary courses and schools will be offered the chance to train their own primary specialists.

Trainees teaching science, maths and foreign languages could be offered extra financial rewards because the subjects are seen as vital to pupils’ future chances of getting into top universities and securing a good job.

Ministers will also toughen up the selection process to weed out unsuitable trainees and introduce a package of generous incentives to attract the brightest graduates.

For the first time in 2013, students must pass basic tests in English and maths to start postgraduate training courses – and will only be allowed to re-sit assessments twice. Tests themselves will also be toughened up and the pass marks will be raised.

It will replace the current system in which student teachers normally take exams half-way through one-year courses and are permitted unlimited re-sits.

As reported on Tuesday, the Government will also introduce a system of tapered bursaries designed to attract graduates with first-class honours degrees.

The top students will be able to claim ￡20,000 scholarships – given out in monthly instalments throughout their course – to teach physics, maths, chemistry and modern languages. The best students will also be eligible for ￡9,000 bursaries to teach other “priority” secondary school subjects and to train as primary teachers.

Graduates with a 2:1 or 2:2 degree will handed smaller awards, while those with third-class degrees will be banned from claiming state funding.

But teachers condemned the move as elitist.

Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: “A first class degree does not necessarily a first class teacher make.

“The real incentive which Government needs to address in order to attract people into teaching is not simply bursaries.

“Teachers need to be given greater control over what goes on in the classroom, the unnecessary bureaucratic workload needs to go, pay and conditions need to remain competitive and of course Government needs to ensure a good pension.”

In further reforms, the Government will create a new training programme specifically to allow former Armed Forces personnel to gain qualified teacher status.

Alternative positions will be available in schools for ex-soldiers to act as advisors on discipline and “work with students at risk of exclusion or exhibiting anti-social behaviour”.

Spend £27,000 on university? No, thank you...

When I tell people I’m not going to university, I am often met with shock and pity. I have the qualifications – three A-levels, including two As – but not the inclination.

This autumn, I have watched each and every one of my friends leave home for higher education. My entire school life had been based on preparing me for to university. In Year Seven, my teachers would hold up failed maths exams and bellow, “You will never go to university if you carry on like this”. In sixth form, I had two classes a week devoted solely to my Ucas application; and after I’d been suspended for a second time, the headmaster put his head in his hands and sighed, “Well, there’s always secretarial college”.

So higher education of some kind was not an option, it was a given. Now, when people find out that I am not participating in this rite of passage, they tend to assume that I am either about to come into a huge amount of money or that I failed my A-levels. Neither of which is the case: I just don’t want to go.

I became disillusioned with the idea of university when I realised that every one of my friends was applying. Not just the clever ones, or those who wanted to carry on studying: all of them – including those who “simply couldn’t miss out on freshers’ week”.

But the intensive competition for truly desirable courses meant the majority had to settle for subjects of minimal interest. My two best friends, neither of whom is entirely unintelligent, both applied to relatively competitive universities because of pushy parents and the assumption that university is everything. They have ended up studying Construction Management and Sports Performance Studies.

I don’t think anyone has ever turned around to a builder and demanded: “Before you put up that scaffolding, do you have a degree in construction management?” Or said to an athlete: “That was the most impressive triple jump we’ve ever seen. Did you learn that in sports performance studies?”

People try and convince me that I will be unable to get a job without a degree in the current economic climate. But I believe that if I fetch enough coffees in a enough offices, learn about the businesses in which I’m fetching those coffees and make friends with the people whose coffee I’ve fetched, then I am more likely to end up with a paid job than someone who has a 2:2 in Animal Psychology from the University of Wolverhampton — no disrespect to animal psychologists or Wolverhampton.

I believe that being interesting, charismatic and driven – and I am working on all three – are worth more than any degree. In my experience, the people who end up relying on a degree are those who have not been brave enough to back their own ambitions or follow a path that their friends have disparaged.

If you love a subject, you should pursue it, carry on studying and, hey, maybe even get a degree in it. But most of the people that I know don’t go to university to study something they enjoy. They go so they can spend three years making friends, getting drunk and ending up with some sort of clue about work at the end of it.

I’m quite sure that if you try hard enough, you can do all of those things without shelling out ￡27,000.

Universities with the richest students (or parents)

Of the UK's top 20 universities, Prince William's alma mater St Andrews hosts the highest proportion of financially independent students. Among last year's 1,625 first year entrants, 58 per cent lived and studied without the need for a student loan.

The loans referred to in this gallery are student maintenance loans and do not include tuition fee loans. The results exclude EU students.

We shall shame schools that 'muddle through'

Already free schools – fully independent schools within the state sector, launched by this Government, funded by taxpayers and set up by parents and teachers, charities and entrepreneurs – are revolutionising education. Today, the Government is launching plans for more – for children with behavioural problems or special needs.

I know free schools work. I have seen for myself – and what’s happening is fantastic. By next September, more than 80 free schools will have opened across England.

I want them to be the shock troops of innovation in our education system. They are going to smash through complacency. Two thirds of the first ones are oversubscribed, with some seeing more than three applications for every place.

Spotting the real problem schools, looking at the league tables and sending in the inspectors to sort them out is relatively easy. And we remain relentless about combating entrenched failure. We will soon have taken over more failing schools with new academies than in the whole eight years of the programme under Labour.

But it’s just as important to tackle those all over the country content to muddle through – places where respectable results and a decent local reputation mask a failure to meet potential. Children who did well in primary school but who lose momentum. Early promise fades.

This is the hidden crisis in our schools – in prosperous shires and market towns just as much as the inner cities.

So I am excited that Sir Michael Wilshaw, one of the finest head teachers this country has had, is taking over as chief inspector of schools. He’s already made clear that he has coasting schools in his sights.

This challenge is one for all parts of the country – places where governors, parents and teachers might never guess things might be wrong. That’s why it is vital to shine a spotlight on secret failure by giving people the information they need to fight for change.

The last government shied from the problem. It kept huge amounts of data under wraps – focusing only on league tables that seemed to show things were getting better every year. It set a narrow definition of coasting schools, which allowed many to slip through the net undetected. By contrast, this Government is going to widen it so that more average schools are pressed to do better.

From January, we are going to sort out league tables so that everyone involved in schools can see for the first time whether they are doing as well as they should.

From June, we will release data about the performance of all pupils from the National Pupil Database. Of course, it will be anonymous, but you will be able to see what happened to individual pupils: where they started, the progress they made and where they ended up. We’ve also made spending data public. All this will allow people to spot the truth and confront failure where it exists.

We are also toughening up exams. More pupils are taking essential core subjects. Already, around a quarter more children have been entered for modern language and history GCSEs than last year. There’s been a stunning 82 per cent increase in the numbers of pupils studying triple sciences. Later this week, we will also be saying more about plans for apprenticeships.

The point of education is to change lives. It’s not good enough for teachers in shire counties to be satisfied with half of children getting five good GCSEs, when Mossbourne Academy achieves 82 per cent in Hackney.

When people involved in education can see what needs to be done to get out of a rut – and are given the freedom to make their own choices, rather than take orders from above – dramatic improvement is possible. Goffs School in Cheshunt, for instance, went from barely half its pupils achieving five good GCSEs, including English and Maths, to almost three quarters in a single year.

Schools must help children to go further than anyone ever thought they could. We must give parents the evidence they need to get together to demand better. So that is what we are doing.

Children failed by 'flawed' maths lessons, warns examiner

Mark Dawe, head of the OCR exam board, has criticised the standards of maths lessons.?Photo: ALAMY

Mark Dawe, chief executive of OCR, one of Britain's biggest exam boards, said growing numbers of young people struggled to function in further education or the world of work after failing to “acquire the maths skills that society demands” at school.

He suggested that the existing curriculum was unable to cater for children with different needs, including the very brightest at one end and those that struggle with the basics at the other.

Currently, almost half of 16-year-olds fail to achieve grade C at GCSE, with just 15 per cent studying maths beyond that level.

It is also feared that as many as a quarter of economically active adults are "functionally innumerate".

Speaking ahead of a conference on maths education today, Mr Dawe said lessons "will always be flawed until schools, universities and employers agree on what maths skills they really want from young people".

“Maths means different things to different people," he said. "Some say it’s all about numeracy – the facility to add, subtract, multiply and divide whole numbers, with perhaps, a little bit of percentages thrown in – whereas others equate maths with arithmetic – the art of calculation.

“Some believe ‘real maths’ helps unpick the secrets of the universe. Whichever it is, the system clearly isn’t delivering.”

Speaking before a conference at the Royal Institution in London, he said: “Too many students do not acquire the maths skills that society demands which means they can’t enjoy mathematics or take it into further education, the workplace or use it in everyday life.”

OCR has now set up a new “maths council” to gather views on the future direction of the subject.

Physics degree course guide

Students initially look at the theoretical strands of physics, from waves and lasers to quantum mechanics and relativity?Photo: KeystoneUSA-ZUMA/Rex Features

"Physics is imagination in a straight jacket." John Moffat, physicist

What qualification do you leave with?

Students get a BSc or an MPhys if they do a combined undergraduate and masters degree.

Usually a three year degree but with all the possible specialisms and opportunities for further study, it's not difficult to find students on four year programmes.

What does it cover?

Such is the breadth of physics – it does seek to understand the entire universe – there are many areas which students can concentrate on later in their degrees such as the physics behind sound and music to electromagnetism. Students looking for the chance to concentrate on extraterrestrial and intergalactic areas of study might want to go straight into an Astronomy or Astrophysics degree, where the birth of our Solar System, planetary structure and the behaviour of stars are all explored if they are yet to be fully explained.

What can you expect?

Physicists may be still on the hunt for a theory of everything but what they do know is still pretty impressive. From the origins of our universe to the power involved in a motorway accident, Physicists are very good at finding an opportunity to apply their skills to answer the most profound questions and to better understand the details of everyday life.

What are the usual A-levels you need?

Students will find it difficult to be accepted – or to keep up if they are – unless they've taken Physics and Maths to A-level.

Career prospects

From the progress of nanotechnology to the reams of data that the Large Hadron Collider is currently accumulating, the edge of human knowledge is creeping further into unchartered territory so whilst the jobs and areas of research of tomorrow might be impossible to predict, the need for physicists to explore and explain the universe will undoubtedly always be there.

Top places to study

The latest Complete University Guide (published in April 2011) rates Cambridge, Oxford, St Andrews, Durham and Imperial College as the top five universities for this subject according to an index based on student satisfaction, entry standards, an assessment of the quality of the university's research and graduate prospects.

Universities with the richest students (or parents)

Of the UK's top 20 universities, Prince William's alma mater St Andrews hosts the highest proportion of financially independent students. Among last year's 1,625 first year entrants, 58 per cent lived and studied without the need for a student loan.

The loans referred to in this gallery are student maintenance loans and do not include tuition fee loans. The results exclude EU students.

Oxford University Conservative Association: famous alumni

William Hague, Foreign Secretary, who is association's current Honorary President

William Hague is currently the association's Honorary President (Picture: PA)

Guy Hands, former Goldman Sachs trader, chairman of Terra Firma and a close friend of William Hague

Guy Hands (Picture: REUTERS)

Dominic Grieve, Attorney General

Jeremy Hunt, Culture Secretary

Jonathan Aitken, former Conservative MP jailed for perjury

Members:

Theresa May, the Home Secretary

Theresa May, the Home Secretary (Picture: AFP)

Ed Balls, Shadow Chancellor,

John Bercow, Speaker of the House of Commons

Sally Bercow was a member during her days at Oxford (Picture: AMELIA TROUTBRIDGE/ EVENING STANDARD)

Sally Bercow, the speaker's wife

Nick Robinson, BBC's political editor

Nick Robinson, the BBC's Political Editor, outside No 10 Downing St. (Picture: REX FEATURES)

Lord Rees-Mogg, former editor of The Times

Ed Vaizey, Culture minister

Courtney Love, the rock star made a non-executive officer for "rock 'n' roll" earlier this year

Courtney Love, pictured with Kate Moss in 2007 (Picture: REX FEATURES)

Earl of Dartmouth

Sir George Young, the Leader of the House

Andy Street, the managing director of John Lewis

Andy Street, the boss of John Lewis, was a member of the Association (Picture: PAUL GROVER)

Student tuition fees protest in London

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationpicturegalleries/8879313/Student-tuition-fees-protest-in-London.html

Other modern European languages degree course guide

Modern linguists are generally in demand, thanks to their ability to communicate where others fail?Photo: Markku Ulander/Rex Features

"Language is the dress of thought." Samuel Johnson

What qualification do you leave with?

Usually a BA. Scottish universities typically offer MAs

What does it cover?

Portuguese, Scandinavian and Russian/Eastern European studies enable students to get to grips with languages and cultures which are less widely-studied in the UK. This potentially gives graduates in these subjects scarcity value for employers, while often these courses benefit from having small teaching groups. All these courses include linguistic study, from beginner level, throughout the degree, and also offer a year abroad at university, working in a school or on work placement.

Portuguese, which outside the universities of Oxford and Cambridge is usually offered in combination with another subject in a joint honours degree, gives students the chance to acquire fluency in the language, histories, literature, film and wider culture not only of Portugal, but of Brazil and of African nations including Angola and Mozambique. It is also possible to study Portuguese as part of Hispanic Studies courses which also embrace Spanish language and culture. (See Spanish/Hispanic Studies).

Scandinavian Studies courses are available at the universities of Aberdeen, Edinburgh and University College London. Students get the chance to learn Danish, Norwegian or Swedish, while encountering the literature of their specialist country from the Middle Ages to the modern period, studying the history and politics of the region and being given the chance to specialise in aspects ranging from linguistics to music. Specialist options include "The Enlightenment in Scandinavia", "Ingmar Bergman and cinema" and "Nordic welfare states and social democracy". UCL also offers modules covering Finland and Iceland, and a course in Viking Studies.

Russian/Eastern European studies is more widely offered, and allows students to investigate these rapidly developing though persistently enigmatic societies, their often traumatic histories and their rich cultural backgrounds. Students will be able to select options including a focus on Russian writers including Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, on modern Russian history, on individual personal experiences of the Soviet regime and, in some courses, to take complementary language study in Czech, Polish or Ukrainian.

European Studies tends to emphasise contemporary continental politics and history, which students can study while building fluency in one or two European languages. Some courses, such as that at University College London, also offer students the chance to specialise in aspects of European civilisation much wider than politics, including anthropology, law, philosophy and urban planning, while modules taught at the University of Essex include "sociology of the new Europe" and "art, sex and death in 18th century Europe". Students will also learn about the institutions and politics of the European Union.

What to expect

A chance to follow your interests in learning about fascinating cultures less commonly investigated in this country.

What are the usual A-levels you need?

These degrees tend not to insist on the relevant language at A-level, as they offer teaching in the subject for beginner linguists. Teaching is, however, generally tailored so that those who do have proficiency will be taught at a higher linguistic level in the degree's initial years. Many courses require or prefer a language of some kind at A-level. Good GCSE grades in English, maths and sometimes a language are also often stipulated.

Career prospects

Modern linguists are generally in demand, and those fluent in either Portuguese, in Scandinavian languages or in Eastern European languages have the added advantage that their skills are relatively rarely found in Britain. Graduates with Portuguese, benefiting from the language's connection with Brazil, and Russian linguists, will gain in particular from the fast-developing opportunities associated with these countries' booming economies. Graduates in these subjects find work as translators/interpreters, in international companies, in journalism and broadcasting, in teaching and in the civil and diplomatic services. European Studies graduates are particularly well-placed to work within the institutions of the European Union.

Top places to study

The Complete University Guide rates Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, St Andrews and Bath as the top five universities for Iberian Languages according to an index based on student satisfaction, entry standards, an assessment of the quality of the university's research and graduate prospects. For Russian and East European Languages, the guide's top-ranked universities are Oxford, Cambridge, St Andrews, Exeter and Bristol. The guide does not provide ratings for Scandinavian Studies and European Studies.