Welsh colleges get £4 million boost
The Welsh Assembly has announced a £4 million boost for further education colleges in Wales. An extra £3.17 million will be provided this year to help colleges reward their best teaching staff and to develop post-16 partnerships. Another £800,000 will be allocated to support greater collaboration between further and higher education institutions.
Nurse and midwife reforms launched
The government published draft legislation to set up regulatory bodies for nurses, midwives and other health professions last week. A Nursing and Midwifery Council will replace the United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting and the four National Boards.
A Health Professions Council will replace the Council for Professions Supplementary to Medicine. The councils are smaller bodies with more lay involvement and will be responsible for ensuring standards on award-bearing courses.
No confidence vote for Sheffield Hallam v-c
Staff at Sheffield Hallam University have passed a vote of no confidence in vice-chancellor Diana Green. A total of 699 staff voted for, with 23 voting against. The vote was organised by lecturers' union Natfhe with the support of the other campus unions, Unison and the MSF.
Staff are unhappy about plans to close the Sheffield Business School, which resulted in about 48 staff being asked to apply for their own jobs, Natfhe said.
The university said the ballot represented only 17 per cent of staff.
Is Tiger the greatest golfer of all time?
Tiger Woods, pictured, is the first man ever to win golf's four major titles in a row, but is he the greatest golfer ever? The answer may be simply yes, but the topic will be open to debate at Edinburgh College of Art's first Golfers' Question Time next Thursday.
The college, which runs the world's first MSc in golf course architecture, is bringing together a panel of golfing experts to field questions from the public about the sport and golf course architecture.
Bristol links with World University Network
The University of Bristol has joined the World Universities Network of 12 United Kingdom and United States institutions.
The network, which will fund exchange postgraduate studentships in areas such as bioinformatics from September, is expected to bid to become part of the e-university.
Its members include Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Southampton and York universities and the American universities of Illinois, Pennsylvania State, California at San Diego, Washington, Seattle and Wisconsin-Madison.
Sir Brian gives evidence on healthcare training
Universities can meet the government's targets on increasing nursing and other healthcare student numbers, but they are facing huge difficulties in terms of capital funding and salaries, according to Sir Brian Fender, chief executive of the Higher Education Funding Council for England.
Sir Brian was giving evidence to the public accounts committee last week about the National Audit Office's report, Educating and Training the Future Health Professional Workforce in England .
FE trainees get £6,000 golden handshake
Trainee further education lecturers are to receive the £6,000 training salaries that have also been offered to trainee school teachers, lifelong learning minister Malcolm Wicks announced this week.
From September, full-time Certificate in Education students training to teach non-degree craft subjects and postgraduate trainee teachers in further education, sixth-form colleges, adult and community education and work-based training will be included in the training salaries pilot scheme.
FE gets go-ahead for institute for learning
Further education lecturers are to get their own version of higher education's Institute for Learning and Teaching.
The government has given the go-ahead for an Institute for Learning (FE) to be established later this year, following consultation on how it will operate.
The Further Education National Training Organisation is overseeing its development, although the institute will be independent of Fento.
GNVQ students opt for art
Research from the Institute for Employment Studies shows that students with non-traditional qualifications favour certain degree courses. Most popular are creative arts courses, with 37 per cent of students having qualifications such as GNVQs and Btecs. The survey also found more students are choosing to study near home.