Britain's trade union movement: why strike?

The public sector strike on November 30 will be the largest strike in the UK since the general strike of 1926.

Two to three million workers could take part. Unlike our continental counterparts, coordinated strikes of this kind are extremely rare in the British trade union movement. As such, its political importance, if the action is successful, will be much greater than in the continent.

Why has it come to this? In a sense, the answer is obvious. 'Austerity' involves the most serious attempt to restructure the economy, to the detriment of working class living standards, in decades. It involves reducing wages and pensions, diminishing bargaining rights, cutting jobs and reducing the bargaining power of labour. Everywhere that these measures have been introduced, whether in Wisconsin or Greece, there has been resistance.

Yet, there was no guarantee that the British trade union movement would respond in the way that it has. Decades of declining union composition since the serious defeats inflicted on organised labour – notably, on the miners and the print workers – have left unions in a weaker position.

The orthodoxy among trade union leaders since then has been a form of tactical conservatism known as the 'new realism'. This approach involved unions avoiding confrontation in favour of bargaining with the government of the day. Every sign until last year was that the Trade Unions Congress (TUC) would adopt this approach in dealing with the government's cuts, negotiating to mitigate the effects of cutbacks rather than seriously attempting to obstruct them. Indeed, before grumblings from the shop floor scuppered the plan, union leaders had intended to invite prime minister David Cameron to address congress last year. So, what changed?

NEWS BY:http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/3702498.html

What the Battle of the Crater Means Today

When our Founding Fathers wrote in the Declaration of Independence​ that it was a “self-evident” truth that “all men are created equal,” endowed by our Creator with unalienable rights of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” they enshrined those words as an eternal principle for which the war for liberty would be fought.

A decade later, our Constitution aspired to create a system of self-government which respected both the equality and liberty of all. When the delegates could not agree on the question of slavery, the document fell short of that principle for too many Americans—especially African Americans.

Seventy-six years after the Constitution was written, in the middle of a Civil War to resolve at last its worst failure, Abraham Lincoln stood at Gettysburg and returned to the promise of the Declaration, recasting the struggle to save the Union and cementing the cause of our nation. America he said, was “dedicated to the proposition” of the Declaration, “that all men are created equal.”

One of many heroic groups of African American volunteers fought and gave their lives to prove that they were, indeed, created equal, nine months after Lincoln spoke those words.

NEWS BY:http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=47260

U.K. Banks Blame Economy on Lending

The comments to the parliamentary Treasury Committee came as data from the British Bankers Association on Wednesday showed that U.K. businesses made net repayments on their debt in October.

Nonfinancial companies made a net repayment of £700 million in October, after borrowing £1 million in September, confirming the continuing uncertain tone of business at the moment as the euro-zone sovereign debt crisis rumbles on and concerns over the U.K.'s economic situation grow. Meanwhile, seasonally-adjusted net mortgage lending grew £900 million in October, just up from the £800 million increase in September, but weaker than the £1.3 billion increase reported a year earlier.

The role of bonuses in business decisions was raised after Robert Jenkins, a member of the Bank of England's Financial Policy Committee, Tuesday said banks should cut bonuses to help bolster their balance sheets, and accused banks of falsely claiming regulatory reforms could harm the economy.

Messrs. Hester and Flint and Ms. Botin were testifying along with Tim Tookey, interim CEO of Lloyds Banking Group PLC. The government has pledged to have a formal response to the ICB report by mid-December and will then start drafting legislation.

The ICB is calling for banks to hold as much as 20% capital against their assets—far more than international peers—and to segregate, or "ring fence," their retail arms from other activities. The ultimate aim of the rules is to reduce the chances of any taxpayer bailouts of the sector, after a debilitating financial crisis for the country.

NEWS BY:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204630904577056253335436664.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Preserving Unique Culture, Tibetan Education Flourishes in UK

London- The education of Tibetan children in exile is of paramount importance to the Tibet cause. Many would deem that teaching children about their homeland, most of whom have never even seen Tibet would be difficult. However, as a shining beacon of hope, the Tibetan community in Woolwich, London (UK) have proved otherwise.

‘Tashiling Tibetan Children's School, Woolwich' is an education programme run by the Tibetan community in East London, which number at around 100.

A growing concern faced by parents in the community, and indeed globally for the Tibetan diaspora, was that Tibetan children were growing up knowing little about their country's rich culture, and particularly its unique language.

The community in Woolwich discussed the issue, and on August 13th 2011, set up the first classes for the Tashiling Tibetan Children's School.
The school has proved an inspiring success.

The students, which number at least twenty, have lessons on Saturdays attentively. As a reminder and practice of Tibetan culture, the students wear traditional Tibetan chupas; silk garments which outmatch any generic British school uniform. Upon a visit to the school, I was stuck by the genuine alert attentiveness and hard work of both students and staff. The importance of learning the Tibetan language was genuine and heartfelt.


NEWS BY:http://www.thetibetpost.com/en/features/education-and-society/2175-preserving-unique-culture-tibetan-education-flourishes-in-uk

Student receives fellowship for work in prevention of child abuse, neglect

a second year doctoral student in the School of Social Work, is the recipient of the Doris Duke Fellowship for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect. 

The Doris Duke Fellowships are designed to identify and develop a new generation of leaders interested in and capable of creating initiatives that will advance child abuse prevention practice and policy. Fellows receive an annual stipend of $25,000 for up to two years to support the completion of their dissertation and related research at their academic institution. The fellowship is funded through the Doris Duke Foundation and administered through Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago.

Mullins has earned bachelor's degrees in psychology and French (2001) and a master’s degree in social work (2004) from ASU. Her research interests include the prevention of child abuse and neglect, foster youth transitioning to adulthood, and pregnancy and parenting among foster youth. She is involved with community agencies that promote the well-being of foster children, including the Arizona Friends of Foster Children Foundation and the Arizona Citizen Review Panel. She also worked as a child welfare specialist with Maricopa County for several years.

“Jennifer is a bright, motivated student who clearly demonstrates social work’s commitment to child welfare," says Cynthia Lietz, assistant professor in the School of Social Work. "Jennifer and I worked on a project that was recently published related to parents’ perceptions of intensive in-home child welfare services. Currently we are working on a project to examine the needs of foster parents."

"I am deeply honored to receive such a prestigious award from the Doris Duke Foundation and Chapin Hall that will allow me to do truly meaningful research to improve our understanding of the cycle of child abuse and neglect among foster youth," Mullins says.

NEWS BY:http://asunews.asu.edu/node/22204

Teaching staff in further education colleges vote for 30 November strike

Teaching staff in further education colleges in Northern Ireland have voted to go on a one-day strike.

Lecturers at Stranmillis and St Mary's colleges also voted in favour.

Seventy-five per cent of those balloted in the further education colleges voted to strike but the turnout was low at only 28%.

The University and College Union (UCU) is the fifth teaching union to vote to join the public sector strike on 30 November.

The lecturers are in the teachers pension scheme and the UCU said they are angry at proposals to make them work longer and pay more into the scheme.

It said turnout was higher in the university colleges at 32% and 62% of them agreed to join the strike.

The National Association of Head Teachers, the Irish National Teachers Organisation, the NASUWT and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, have also voted for strike action over pension concerns and education budget cuts.

Members of the Ulster Teachers' Union also voted in favour of strike action but not by a wide enough margin to permit a strike.

Members of the Unite union in two sectors that make up Northern Ireland public services have also voted for strike action on 30 November.

NEWS BY:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-15821801

UK: University entries in record fall

This week the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service is due to release the number of applications received by October 15. This is the deadline for those wishing to study at Oxford and Cambridge or for any medicine, dentistry and veterinary degree.

Many other candidates also put in forms well before the January 15 deadline. Although just over 10% of applications have been lodged by now, it is seen as a key indicator of the final demand for places.

The last time applications fell was before the rise in tuition fees in 2006. However, applications picked up in subsequent years.

It is expected the biggest falls this time will be among mature students. The government is expected to seize on a smaller fall in numbers of teenage applicants as evidence that its information campaign in schools is working.

However, the decline will be inflated by a 1.5% fall in the number of 18-year-olds next year.

Those with the greatest declines so far include several institutions in London — applications at City have plunged 41.4%; at Goldsmiths they are down 35% and at Brunel 24% fewer people have applied. Queen Mary has bucked the trend in the capital, as has the London School of Economics, where applications have gone up by 6.6%.

Other big fallers include Manchester, with a decline of 16%, while Exeter and Surrey have both seen falls of more than 7%.

Applications to some universities have risen. At Warwick, they are about 10% higher than at the same point last year, while at Bath there has been an 8% rise.

NEWS BY:http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/university-entries-in-record-fall-in-england-wales/story-e6frgcjx-1226175150600

Air University boss ready for budget realities

Q. Your predecessor, Lt. Gen. Allen Peck, restructured AU. How is that working?

A. We effectively — and it was really in the name of trying to achieve manpower efficiencies and the like — cut down on redundant headquarters staff. We basically reorganized into six centers and a couple of institutes. .... This reorganization is three years old and it’s time to make sure that the reorganization is working to ensure that there are not additional efficiencies out there that could be realized. So I’ve just established a working group to take kind of a relook at that major reorganization.

Q. Air University has started a doctoral program. Where’s that at?

A. All of the major hurdles have been crossed, the most important being endorsement from our Department of Education. … It will be a doctorate in philosophy in military strategy. It actually builds upon the program we have here at the School of Air and Space Studies. The SASS degree has been renamed from a Master of Arts to a Master of Philosophy in military strategy. For those who do well … the cutoff is an A-minus kind of grade-point average, but for those who do well and basically express an interest in pursuing a doctorate, they will graduate from SASS. But instead of graduating with a [Master of Philosophy] in military strategy, they will graduate with an ABD — all but dissertation. They will effectively graduate with an ABD, go back into their career fields, get back to the operational Air Force, but at a later date, they will likely have the opportunity go off on a fellowship.So instead of doing your traditional Air War College or National War College resident program, they will go off on a fellowship and use that year to complete their dissertation, to defend their dissertation, and then hopefully be awarded at the end of it all a doctorate in philosophy in military strategy. The only thing we’re waiting now is for the final notification of [Office of the Secretary of Defense] to Congress to make it official.


NEWS BY:http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2011/11/air-force-david-fadok-air-university-budget-realities-111311w/

Gaddafi son's LSE thesis 'written by Libyan academic

The LSE, widely criticised for the way it solicited funding from Libya, resulting in it being dubbed the "Libyan School of Economics", has launched an inquiry into the plagiarism and funding controversy.

Colonel Gaddafi's son enlisted Libyan academics to help ghost-write his thesis, according to Professor Abubakr Buera of Benghazi's Garyounis University. "I learnt that Saif gathered some PhD holders from Garyounis University in Benghazi, Libya, to help him write his doctoral

Among the people he consulted was a professor of economics who was a graduate from Germany. His name is Dr Menesi; what gives credibility to this allegation is that Dr Menesi, who was then retired, was brought back to active service as a government bank chairman in Libya, then governor to the Central Bank in Libya, then minister of finance, and finally Libya's ambassador to Austria."

Professor Buera described Saif Gaddafi as a "war criminal", and called for the LSE to strip him of his doctorate. "After Saif's stand and lies against the Libyan people, it should be no longer an honour for the LSE to keep him as one of its graduates; from now on, he is being looked down at by many Libyans as a war criminal," he said.

NEWS BY:http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/gaddafi-sons-lse-thesis-written-by-libyan-academic-2233667.html

Bristol Scientists Turn Urine Into Electricity

Who’d have thought it; turning urine into electricity. On the surface it might seem laughable to most people, but a team of scientists in the UK believe there’s a lot of potential in ‘pee power’. Particularly animal urine.

We apparently produce 2.5 litres of the decidedly unpleasant waste product daily  – 6.4 trillion litres globally. A team of scientists from the University of the West of England, in Bristol, have been conducting research into whether urine could be used in microbial fuel cells.

In a recently published paper by Dr Ioannis Ieropoulos and his team, their investigation has concluded that the waste product is rich in chemicals that can be used in the cathode half of a fuel cell to react with bacteria in the anode. The fuel cells would clean the urine, therefore leaving it safe to be discharged into the environment.

According to the paper – Urine utilisation by microbial fuel cells; energy fuel for the future – initial tests have confirmed that it is ‘technically feasible’ to turn urine into electricity. However, the team only managed to produce a very small amount of power, so further research will need to be conducted, which will involve looking at ways of stacking up the fuel cells which would allow the stream of urine to run through the system to produce more power.

Scientists are particularly interested in the potential power of animal pee. It’s hard to conceive, but farm animals produce around 38 billion litres of urine daily. However, animal urine can be harmful to the environment if it is not properly managed, so using urine in biomass has great potential.

Biomass – a form of renewable energy – is considered to be a future key renewable resource. The term refers to any organic matter burnt as fuel that can produce heat or power.

NEWS BY:http://www.homeheatingguide.co.uk/blog/bristol-scientists-turn-urine-into-electricity.html

University sells off wireless technology

In what is claimed to be the biggest commercial deal by a New Zealand university or Crown research institute, Auckland University has sold its spinoff HaloIPT to a wireless technology giant.

The sale to US Nasdaq-listed Qualcomm – a mobile phone computer chip company – could eventually lead to cheaper electric cars by making wireless charging technology for them more readily available.

Terms of the deal are under wraps but Peter Lee, chief executive of UniServices, the university's commercial arm, said it was larger than any done before by a New Zealand university or CRI. Just before the dot-com crash, Australian telco Telstra bought Victoria University's internet service provider company, Netlink, for A$21 million.

This year, Crown research institute IRL sold a controlling stake in its superconductor technology firm HTS-110 to Dunedin's Scott Technology for $4.4m.

But an outright sale was unusual in the academic world, said Mike Doig, a policy analyst with Science New Zealand, formerly the Association of Crown Research Institutes."A company going strictly from university ownership into somebody else's ownership – that's quite a rare event."

HaloIPT was set up about a year ago as a joint venture between engineering consultancy Arup and Auckland Uniservices to commercialise the Halo technology.

Under the Qualcomm deal, Arup and two seed capital funds will leave the company but Auckland University will retain the intellectual property rights and receive royalties.

Qualcomm will own the assets and licensing right of HaloIPT and will commit $500,000 towards supporting further research at Auckland over the next four years. Six staff building prototypes would be kept on.


NEWS BY:http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/5939224/University-sells-off-wireless-technology

Kappa Delta Pi Honors Northcentral University's Dr. Melanie E. Shaw

Since the award's establishment in spring of 2008, Kappa Delta Pi has named a select few from around the world as Teachers of Honor.

This award recognizes both recipients and their schools for the accomplishment. “We are honored to have Dr. Shaw be recognized for her professional development, leadership, community service, meaningful contributions to the education profession, and commitment to integrity and high standards,” said Dr. Gardner. “She truly embodies the spirit of this award.”

About Kappa Delta Pi
Kappa Delta Pi, International Honor Society in Education, is a not-for-profit organization that supports the professional growth and teaching practices of educators throughout the world. For nearly 100 years, the Society has recognized excellence in education, advanced professional development, provided a reasoned voice for significant issues, and linked learning communities of educators.

About Northcentral University
Founded in 1996, and located in Prescott Valley, Arizona, Northcentral University  is an accredited, private, 100% online university serving adult students worldwide. Northcentral's weekly course starts with no residency requirements are designed to meet the needs of busy professionals. Degree programs are customized to each student's interests, and faculty and advisors provide one-on-one guidance to ensure academic success.

NEWS BY:http://www.benzinga.com/pressreleases/11/10/p2016657/kappa-delta-pi-honors-northcentral-universitys-dr-melanie-e-shaw

Laura's German essay wins top student award

ONE OF President Mary Mcaleese's final functions in the office she held for 14 years was to present a young Swords woman with a prestigious undergraduate award named after one of Ireland's greatest writers. Laura Sinnott from Swords, was named as one of the 23 winners of the Undergraduate Awards, an awards programme open to undergraduate students on the island of Ireland and, recently, the USA. Laura was awarded the Oscar Wilde Gold Medal for academic excellence by President Mary Mcaleese, at the Undergraduate Awards Ceremony held at Dublin Castle recently. As the winner of the Undergraduate Awards Languages & Linguistics category, Laura was recognised for her essay entitled ' The audio-visual juxtaposition of Günter Grass' Die Blechtrommel'.

Having studied German and History at Trinity College Dublin, Laura was also awarded a scholarship to attend the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Arts and Culture after winning the annual essay competition organised by the Irish Austrian Society in Dublin.

In addition to this, the talent Swords student was awarded the 2011 Carr-jackson Prize by the Department of Germanic Studies at Trinity College Dublin for her undergraduate dissertation on Ingeborg Bachmann's Todesarten-zyklus. She is currently working in Vienna and hopes to do research in the area of Germanic Studies.

There were 2,381 submissions to the 2011 Undergraduate Awards programme, of which only 23 winners were selected. Founded in 2008 by two Trinity graduates, Oisin Hanrahan and Paddy Cosgrave, the Undergraduate Awards programme is open to students in their final or penultimate year on a degree course from every third level institution on the island of Ireland as well as a selection of top universities in the UK, Canada and the USA.

NEWS BY:http://www.fingal-independent.ie/local-notes/lauras-german-essay-wins-top-student-award-2929610.html

Observations and lessons from my first week of teaching

Of course, the first week swiftly reminded me of some home truths. The first was that while I may have balanced a 3:2 workload, I did that two years ago, and had spent the intervening time glued to my laptop in pursuit of a completed PhD thesis. I had completely forgotten the difference between being an isolated researcher and being part of a community, in the widest sense of the word, with all the additional human interaction that goes along with it. Possibly the most obvious instance of this was when two of the dissertation students I am supervising this year came to talk to me about their proposed projects on Thursday afternoon, before a deadline to submit chapter titles and a bibliography on Friday.

That's a perfectly reasonable thing to do – but in both cases, those meetings had been arranged on Thursday morning. I became used to arranging meetings with my supervisor at least a week in advance, since I was living off-campus for my last two PhD years, so setting up meetings only a couple of hours in advance felt like going at break-neck speed.

A second realisation was that while I may have balanced a full time teaching load, I had been mercifully spared from the deluge of administrative emails that come into the inbox of a fully functioning academic.

I'm still in the process of learning how to filter out things that aren't relevant to me, like details of the MA dissertation marking procedure, and how to read standard documents that get circulated every year that I do need to know about, like the schedule for setting undergraduate assessments. A lot of the information is very helpful, but it can get a bit overwhelming, not to mention dangerously tempting – I had to stop myself signing up for absolutely every workshop that the e-Learning team is running this term, just because while learning about new tools is helpful, becoming swamped in workshops isn't

NEWS BY:http://www.guardian.co.uk/higher-education-network/blog/2011/oct/29/my-first-week-of-teaching?newsfeed=true

Graduate College Dissertation Fellowships awarded to 17 doctoral candidates

Seventeen doctoral candidates at Arizona State University have been awarded Graduate College Dissertation Fellowships to complete their post-candidacy doctoral work.

Fellowships are awarded across five areas: arts, humanities and social sciences; natural sciences and mathematics; engineering; professional programs and education; and interdisciplinary research.

"These fellowships reward outstanding doctoral students who enrich their fields of study with significant research," says Andrew Webber, associate vice provost.

“The award plus tuition allows them to devote full time to writing their dissertation.”

The fellows’ diverse research explores such topics as: how private and public interests can be aligned to support sustainable development; writing processes of English-as-a-second-language (ESL) learners; causes of infertility among disadvantaged socio-demographic groups;

international relations and the politics of memory; a study of conversations and writing about race in a high school classroom; and cultural imperialism in Central America as seen in the events of the Filibuster War.

The seventeen new fellows for 2011-2012 are:

NEW BY:http://asunews.asu.edu/20111104_dissertationfellowships

Scholar: ‘Hard to say’ if Arab Spring is positive

According to Jonathan Adelman, professor in the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver, it is "hard to say" right now if the Arab Spring sweeping the Middle East and North Africa is positive or negative for the security interests of the United States and Israel.

Adelman, a frequent guest commentator on network TV news, is a popular speaker for Israel. He served as the doctoral dissertation adviser to former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and is a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies in Washington. Since receiving his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1976, Adelman has written or edited 10 books, many of which focus on the Middle East.

The Jewish Light caught up with Adelman for a phone interview shortly before his trip to St. Louis.

Now that the so-called "Arab Spring" has had some time to evolve-resulting in the ouster of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia, Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and the capture and death of Muammar Qaddafi in Libya-would you say overall that its effect has been positive or negative for the security interests of Israel, the United States and the West?

Overall, it's really hard to say. Some things are positive in the sense that authoritarian, repressive dictatorships inevitably fade away, and the fact some fairly strong secular liberal movements emerge is positive. But the negative could be worse than the positive from an Israeli perspective. The future of the Islamist fundamentalism in the region looks very strong. We just saw that in the election in Tunisia Islamists got 40 or 50 percent of the vote, even though they are more moderate. We are obviously very concerned about what's going on in Turkey, where we have seen a strong anti-Israel move by the Islamist Justice Development Party, and we are also very worried about Iraq. So, I think on the whole, it's not been positive, but it's really too early to tell.

NEWS BY:http://www.stljewishlight.com/news/local/article_6b5f7418-056b-11e1-8cc5-001cc4c002e0.html

Education: Why Has Cheating Become An Epidemic?

ebraska surveyed students and found that “89 percent said glancing at someone else's answers during a test was cheating, but 87 percent said they'd done that at least once. Also, 94 percent said providing answers to someone during a test was cheating -- but 74 percent admitted to doing it.”

Paying someone else to write your course work is also common, and now a big business. More than 100 websites provide essays that students hand in as their own work. eCheat.com, a particularly shameless site, flaunts this motto: “It’s Not Cheating, It’s Collaborating....Welcome to eCheat.com, a leading free essay and student resource site. eCheat has an extensive archive of free essays, all submitted and graded by high school and college students. eCheat also has an archive of 60,000 professionally written papers available for purchase.”

One solo scribe bragged in an ad: “I have been making a living doing this work for the last three years....I have graduated with four clients, start to finish, am working with three Masters level clients, and partner with a wide range of clients on an assignment to assignment basis.”

Another hustler said, in a mighty burst of sophistry: “It's not plagiarism if I write it for you.”

It certainly is. Just as every grade, and every degree, that results from cheating is a lie, and surely constitutes fraud on future employers. (Consult your lawyer. Wouldn’t the cheater and the ghostwriter be engaged in racketeering?)

NEWS BY:http://www.rightsidenews.com/2011101414705/life-and-science/health-and-education/education-why-has-cheating-become-an-epidemic.html

Fall in Welsh uni applications second-smallest in UK

The Welsh government said it had introduced the "most equitable student finance system Wales has ever had".

"We've been clear, access to higher education should be on the basis of the individual's potential to benefit, and not on the basis of what they can afford to pay," a spokesman said.

NUS Wales president Luke Young said: "Even in the devolved governments of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, where students will be paying lower fees, there is a knock-on effect as young people reconsider going to university.

"Although Wales has seen the lowest fall in applicants, it is deeply concerning that they may be basing their options on a funding system for English students.

"The drop in the number of students from England coming to Wales is reflective of the overall decrease of English students applying to university at this stage."

The number of English students applying to study in Wales is down 710 (13.4%).

The Conservatives said the drop should be a "harsh wake-up call" for Education Minister Leighton Andrews.

Shadow education minister Angela Burns said: "His wafer-thin tuition fees policy is based on a steady flow of students from England alleviating costs."

Across the UK, Ucas said applications for university courses were down 9% compared to 2011

NEWS BY:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-15430721

Student visa curbs are damaging our reputation, Universities UK warns

The Universities UK action group has issued a warning about Britain's reputation in education after new figures revealed that the government's curb on overseas students had reduced their numbers by 11,000 and led to more than 450 colleges pulling out of the market.

The Home Office said more than 400 of the pre-degree colleges lost their right to recruit international students because they could not meet the standards of a new inspection regime.

Universities UK said cutting such courses was damaging Britain's reputation for being "open for business" and undermining the pathway programmes operated by many universities. It estimates that 40% of international students go through such colleges before going taking a degree at a British university.

Student visa reforms, which included tougher sponsor and English language requirements, came into effect in April.

The Home Office said new inspection standards were designed to ensure that genuine international students received the highest quality education.

About 400 colleges – more than 20% of the sector – had their sponsorship revoked as they did not apply in time and 51 had their licences revoked after the UK Border Agency investigated a spike in applications from south Asia just before the tougher English language tests came into force.

NEWS BY:http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/nov/02/student-visa-curbs-damaging-uk-reputation?newsfeed=true