Archive for December, 2011
Is there any room at the inn? (or anywhere for that matter)
Posted by Stephen Clarke in Economics, Politics on 20/12/2011
Yesterday the FSA set out new rules for mortgage lending. The new rules were positively received as a way to prevent the excessive risk taking that occurred in the run up to the financial crisis when people were clearly sold unaffordable mortgages. This tightening of the standards comes almost a month after the Government pledged to back mortgages for first-time buyers, another move that was widely supported as a way to stimulate the housing market. Is there a contradiction though between subsidising lending and tightening up standards?
How to avoid another exam board scandal
Posted by Nick Cowen in Education on 15/12/2011
By David Green
The Telegraph’s brilliant exposure of the behaviour of some exam boards should not be dismissed with a couple of sacrificial sackings. It revealed profound flaws, not just in our school system, but also in the way our democracy is currently functioning. The attitudes behind the scandal are closely allied to the self-serving atmosphere in Parliament that led some MPs to fiddle their expenses. Deception of the people had became the norm, whether it was creative use of second homes, or manipulating exam results. The rot always starts at the top, and getting rid of the hapless examiners who got caught will make little difference unless we go much further.
Human rights: in praise of practice over principle
Posted by Nick Cowen in Civil Liberty, Crime, Human Rights on 12/12/2011
Sigrid Rausing offers a powerful and clear defence of keeping European Court of Human Rights’ decisions superior to the democratic will of Parliament. But her argument is lacking in a number of important respects and, in the end, risks weakening the power of the concept of human rights to command reasoned agreement in a democratic society.
No one puts David in the corner!
Posted by Natalie Hamill in European Union on 09/12/2011
The UK woke up reeling from the astonishing news that Prime Minister David Cameron has walked out of an EU Summit and effectively removed the UK from EU treaty negotiations: treaty negotiations which were aimed at ‘salvaging’ the Eurozone. Not just making headlines in the UK; it seems David Cameron’s decision has captured attention across the globe. Of all the angles being examined, two are particularly striking – the apparent shock that David Cameron has followed through and done exactly as he said he would, and whether such a brash move has damaged the UK’s international standing and its ability to negotiate with its EU neighbours.
Stephen Clarke: Why we need to manufacture a new kind of graduate
Posted by Stephen Clarke in Economics, Education on 07/12/2011
IT is not just higher borrowing and lower growth that is grabbing the headlines. Despite the Government’s attempt to rebalance the economy, Britain is struggling to increase goods exports and the resurgence in manufacturing hoped for by ministers is not coming.
It is a question seldom asked when discussing the country’s economic woes, but is Britain producing the right graduates to increase manufacturing output?
Read the rest of the comment piece in the Yorkshire Post here
Rise in STEM subjects disproportionately due to overseas students
Posted by Nick Cowen in Economics, Education, Press Release on 05/12/2011
Universities are educating 6,000 fewer British engineers a year than 10 years ago
British universities are adding fewer STEM subject graduates to the labour market than total student figures suggest, according to a new Civitas report. The STEM subject push by Stephen L. Clarke finds that the number of overseas students attending British universities to study engineering increased by 12,308 from 1997 to 2007, but that the number of British engineering students declined by 5,769. [p. 3] As a result, the British economy will struggle to find the skills necessary to drive a production-led recovery.