July 2013

  • Ofsted, universities, and the baseball umpire story

    A recent THE carried a story about Ofsted and university ITT courses.  It runs, ... Universities have suffered under Ofsted teacher training inspections since Michael Gove unveiled plans to increase school-based training, in what some claim is a politicised inspection regime...

  • My week

    The undoubted highlight was eating wild raspberries in Savernake Forest and then avoiding numerous black beetles as we walked its paths – Oh, and watching young children running about, hiding and seeking, climbing trees, riding bikes, chasing butterflies, and making dens.  Happily,...

  • More goodies from QAAHEA

    The Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) and the Higher Education Academy (HEA) are working "with experts" (that excludes me) on the development of a new guidance document for higher education providers on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD).  An initial draft looms,...

  • The Commission catches up – well, nearly – and a little late

    Thanks to Steve Martin for pointing me to the European Commission report on the Modernisation of Higher Education: improving the quality of teaching and learning in Europe’s Higher Education Institutes.  This was published in June. The report sets out "a...

  • Oxfam's barriers to understanding sustainable development

    The latest Oxfam Discussion Paper, A Safe and Just Space for Humanity, by Kate Raworth, opens with this: Humanity’s challenge in the 21st century is to eradicate poverty and achieve prosperity for all within the means of the planet’s limited...

  • Another league table, and something of a puzzle

    I cast a jaundiced eye over the Guardian's university league table the other week, and not just to see how Bath was doing – rising majestically, since you ask (but keep your Kipling open at the right page). Reading on,...

  • Straight Talk on Leadership

    It’s not widely known, but, when the UK's Vice Chancellors last marched on Whitehall, they did it to this chant: What do we want? More leadership development materials ... When do we want it? At the end of the next...

  • The EAC nudges Mr Gove on the UN and ESD

    Last month SEEd organised a letter to Michael Gove.  This is a response from Joan Walley, MP, Chair of the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) ... To the Signatories of the ‘Keep Sustainability in the National Curriculum Objectives’...

  • SD Indicators – no room for Education

    In 2012, Defra proposed a new set of sustainable development indicators, intended to measure national progress on key economic, social and environmental issues over time and complement the National well-being measures published by the Office for National Statistics.  There was...

  • Brewing, Quality and ESD

    On a recent pilgrimage to Norfolk I was sidetracked by visiting a micro brewery near to Walsingham.  It was an inspiring place, sustainability speaking. The barley was grown in adjacent fields and malted locally, the water came from the brewery's...