NEWS...

In each edition PSE provides a synopsis of over 100 reported events across a range of media and research. Did you know:

• Lord Mandelson tells university 'leaders' that the 2006 introduction of fees has strengthened university resources "without sacrificing accessibility to students" (PSE53)
  

• Pay - six unions representing 250,000 FE staff reject the AOCs 1% pay offer, made in reply to a 6% claim. Meanwhile, all HE unions reject the 'improved' UCEA 0.4% offer (PSE 52)
  

• Bob Willerton is sacked after 25 years at Barnsley College for refusing to dismiss a colleague. UPDATE: charge of gross misconduct dropped, but Bob not reinstated (see Letters PSE 48)
  

• 1 in 12 FE lecturers has been physically abused by a student? (UCU staff satisfaction survey)

• Pay: a UCU special conference on HE pay agrees to submit a claim for either 8 per cent or RPI plus 5 per cent. The employers (UCEA) maintain a 'zero percentage' awaits (see News Update PSE 49)

• More pay: Colin Campbell, VC at Nottingham University, manages on £585,000 gross annual salary.
  

• 31 per cent of working age people in London are unemployed? (LSC figures, week beginning 3/3/08)
  

• In 2006-07, the average annual salary (including employer pension contribution) of a university vice-chancellor was £200,266? (THE survey, week beginning 10/3/08)
  

• The LSC has paid failed private trainer Carter and Carter a total of around £90m? (Week beginning 10/3/08)
  

• The Corus/British steel pension fund had a £15.6m holding in Carter and Carter, none of which can now be recovered? (Guardian week beginning 14/4/08)
  

• In 2007, the 20 or so prestigious 'Russell Group' universities together received 41 per cent of all HE income, leaving 59 per cent to be shared amongst the 110 other institutions?
  

• From September, the fee paid to the Edexcel exam board by a college or school entering a student for an A-level will average £90.52? (TES, week beginning 31/3/08)
  

• The total of UCU members in FE colleges balloted for the current industrial action over pay was only 27,500?
• Online learning: a study by Sunderland University finds that elearning unintentionally (and undesireably) tends to prevent students becoming 'bound in' to a university's culture.
  

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About PSE

The Editorial Board

The editorial board consists of grass roots activists from UCU and the NUT working together to organise readers and contributors into a national network that is democratic, that develops our practice and our thinking, and that equips us to take action over issues rather than always having to react to changes imposed from above.

The editors welcome articles of any length by and/or for practitioners and intending practitioners in any area of post-16 education, especially by women, plus letters, news items, photographs, materials and illustrations. Articles can be published anonymously if required. 

The Point

There are several real debates going on in post-16 education at the moment. Practitioners need to engage in these debates before decisions get made. Post-16 Educator covers all the major issues in the post compulsory sector.

Each bi-monthly issue includes news and commentary from those working within post compulsory education, plus regular contributions from other interested activists. Comprehensive news coverage picks up on reports in national and local media, together with academic and government papers relevant to the sector. Recent features have included the Israeli academics boycott, the 2006 FE White Paper, prisoner education, teaching practice and the recently formed University and College Union (UCU).

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