• David Willetts understands the flurry of activity and debate as A Level results approach: his son is awaiting his results. The Universities Minister is unhappy with the current state of A Levels, favouring a more diverse range of exams. He believes that social mobility suffers due to A Levels failure to create differentiations between candidates, leaving admissions tutors to make decisions based on their extra-curricular activities. The villains, in his view, are less the admissions tutors but the state school teachers who foist easier subjects on pupils. Times


• Disclosures about the diploma qualifications blast Labour's trademark qualification, once hailed as a potential replacement to GCSEs and A Levels. Top universities - Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Imperial and University College London - have offered no places to diploma students, either having rejected or received no applications from those taking the qualification; Warwick made one offer. It has emerged that a quarter of pupils who started the diploma two years ago have not completed the course. Telegraph


• 32% of children aged 10-16 regularly go without breakfast before school. The lead author of the study, Dr Sandercock, reported finding that those children who skipped breakfast were less fit, less active and more likely to be obese. Guardian


• Boys may gain more of the new A* grades at A Level than girls, suggests Professor Alan Smithers of the University of Buckingham. It is thought that changes to A Level format, which mean students take four course modules rather than six and answer more challenging questions could play on boys' strengths and turn the traditional gender divide on its head. Telegraph


• Firms such as Gems, Pearson, Serco, Tribal and Nord Anglia are all said to be scouring the new expansion of independently run education for opportunities to pair with parent groups and run the new Conservative's flagship 'free schools'. They will not be allowed to make a profit; Gems is in talks with 'up to ten' of the 60 groups which have already applied to set up the schools. BBC


• Antony Seldon argues that the three purposes of schools: passing on a deep knowledge of the arts, sciences and humanities; fostering pupils' inquiring and original minds and nurturing the whole child in moral, physical, social, spiritural and creative attitudes are being hindered by GCSEs and A Levels. He suggests the International Baccalaureate offers a 'richer solution' but schools fear to offer it due to the conservatism of university admissions departments. Telegraph


• The head of learning at the British Library deems the current generation of teenagers to be 'culturally impoverished' because they believe that everything of value can be found online. He claimed that despite being supposedly technologically proficient, the teenagers prove themselves to be unable to sort between useful and ill-informed material. The library opens a new learning centre next month. Times

• The record shortage of clearing vacancies will likely leave seven candidates fighting for each spare place at university when A Level results are released on Thursday. 156,640 prospective students will battle over 21,400 undergraduate positions. Every year around 100,000 people fail to get places, but this year academics predict that 50,000 students who would have found places in other years will miss out. Times


• Former Education minister and Liberal Democrat Andrew Adonis has said that Labour had considered a graduate tax only to reject it as unworkable. He suggested the current government consider more flexible thresholds for the point when graduates start to repay loans, which would not necessitate the overhaul of the system currently under consideration. Adonis recommended the government instead concentrate on failing secondary schools. Times


• British universities have come out dismally in a Chinese league table of the top world universities. While Cambridge and Oxford gained places in the top ten, US universities occupied 17 of the top 20 places, a conclusion some fear will exacerbate the financial woes of British universities by discouraging foreign students from attending. Telegraph


• Mary Curnock Cook, chief Executive of the University and College Admissions Service (Ucas) has warned that 'the golden age of the gap year is over'. She suggests that the 'gap year' - taken by around a quarter of a million school leavers - should become viewed as a 'bridging year', which candidates should use strategically to boost their attractiveness to universities. Telegraph


• This year, BT received 24,000 applications for its 221 apprenticeship places, more than the total number of applicants to Oxford University, who has 17,000 applicants for 3,000 places. Network Rail received 4,000 applications for 200 apprenticeships and Pricewaterhouse Coopers said applications for its school-leavers scheme had doubled over two years. Guardian


• Dundee has been identified as the least expensive city in Britain for students: they spend about £175.24 a week in term time. They are also the hardest working in the country, bringing in £125.84 a week from an average of 19.3 hours of work. Nearly a quarter of Scottish undergraduates claim to have chosen their place of study on factors such as the cost of living, proximity to home and earning potential. Times


• The Natwest Student Living Index has found London the most, and York the least cost-effective city in which to study. The research analysed student expenditure, rent and living costs, against earnings from part-time work. London students earned hourly wages of £9.91, Dundee was in second place where students earned less but worked longer. 46% of students received no parental funding this year. Guardian


• An alternative to the jobs crisis and impending winter: Teaching English as a Foreign Language qualifications are cheap and open doors for graduates unable to find a job and in search of challenging work experience and a good salary. Guardian

• Former Labour Health Secretary Alan Milburn is to be appointed as the government tsar on social mobility, in a move engineered by the Liberal Democrats. He will return to government as an independent advisor to Nick Clegg. The ideas he mooted at the end of the Brown administration include a national internship service, credit vouchers for parents of children in failing schools to pick another one and reform of the cadet service to better open up officer training to those of less privileged backgrounds. Guardian


• More than 100 children are calling ChildLine each week to talk about their parents drinking or taking drugs. Last year, there were 5,700 calls from children regarding their parents' substance abuse, physical and sexual abuse or neglect. Those whose parents were drinking excessively were over three times as likely to mention physical abuse; 10% mentioned sexual abuse. Guardian


• The Trouble With Boys: is the failure of boys to keep up with the academic achievements and employment records of girls anything new, and anything to be worried about? Guardian


• The Times meets Albert David, the man from the British High Commission who goes after the British girls forced into marriage in Pakistan. Last year, the Forced Marriage Unit dealt with 377 cases, although it fears the real figures are far higher. Times


• Feminism: the battles still to be won. Seven modern-day activists explain their motivations. Guardian

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