EduLinks – Random Links of Note

Including linkage to the news of schools and unis linking up…and seemingly a bit more comment from me than usual. Good luck!

Department for Innovation, Universities & Skills – Press Release: Government calls on universities to partner schools to tap into talent [Their official Prospectus is also linked on the release. I’m still trying to get my head around this and can’t help thinking there are too many words and not enough solid evidence for anything. My thoughts may well turn into an article of some sort, so watch this space…]

The Guardian – Leading universities urged to forge links with academies [Another article describing what’s been announced, rather than analysing it a great deal. I imagine there will be a lot more analysis from commentators in the near future.]

The Independent – Oxbridge survey is no surprise [Lots of elite independent schools succeed in sending high numbers of their students to Oxbridge. Of course they would…it’s hardly surprising. However, the article concludes, “we need now to concentrate on improving the opportunities of those who don’t have well-heeled and well-informed parents”. This is what the uni/school collaborations are looking to tackle, so would it work?]

Daily Mail – How the irregular verb is being ‘drived’ to extinction [While I can certainly see this happening over time, I don’t agree with the choice of words likely to change and those likely to remain the same. I’m sure the researchers have got many reasons behind the choices, while I’m only considering my own experiences of said words. Drinked…Drawed…Breaked…I’ve heard them said plenty times over the years. I think there’s a chance those words will change too. Still, see what you think.]

Spiked – Why greens don’t want to ‘solve’ climate change [A great piece by James Woudhuysen, a professor at De Montfort Uni. I hadn’t given much time to his argument, but I’m sure it’s at least partially true.]

BBC News – Concern over ‘student call girls’ [Seems a bit of a non-story to be honest. Cambridge University’s student magazine has spoken to one person who claims to have earned money as a call-girl to fund an expensive lifestyle. Not quite a shocking story of half the student population turning to prostitution to help pay back their loans…]

Avoid having your drink spiked

Yesterday, as I was looking around The Student Room, I found a post about the dangers of having your drink spiked.

Basically, I thought it wise to post on here today the advice I gave on the forum.

In any drinking environment, there are always risks that your drink could be tampered with or spiked. Whether with pills or with a few shots of vodka that you might not notice after you’ve already had a few drinks, it’s always possible. So here are a few tips to staying as safe as you can:

  1. Don’t accept drinks from strangers.
  2. Buy your own drinks. Try not to rely on others to get them in.
  3. Don’t share drinks.
  4. Don’t leave your drink unattended, even for a short amount of time. If you absolutely MUST (and I don’t think the toilet is often a MUST), then only ever ask a close friend if they can look after your drink. It’s still not a totally safe option, though.
  5. Don’t drink too much in the first place.
  6. Stay with friends so that you can get home properly with them. If you’re feeling unusually sick or drowsy, don’t try getting home on your own. Ask a close and trusted friend to look after you and help you get home. If the situation is bad, it may also need reporting.
  7. Men need to be just as aware of the problem of spiking as women. It can happen to ANYONE.
  8. I’ll repeat that. It can happen to ANYONE. You’re not immune and you can’t believe you’ll be one of the lucky ones. Neither should you bury your head in the sand and deal with any problems as and when they arise.

These websites may give you more tips, information and ideas on how to stay safe:

http://www.roofie.com/
http://www.alcotop.co.uk/

EduLinks – Random Links of Note

The Guardian – Cambridge’s young ambassadors [This is great stuff. There should be more outreach in this way. Funny that I found this at the same time as searching for info on this morning’s post on schools linking up with universities.]

Lifehack.org – 7 Tips for Writing Exam Essays [Not only a great article, but also check out the comments below the piece by Nathan Ketsdever. He adds even more help. It’s a very useful article to bookmark for nearer the time to when you’ve got loads of exam essays to write.]

Scholastici.us – Meta-Notes: Notes About Your Notes = Success on Exams and Papers [Again, another great and helpful article that has even more help in the comments too, this time by Riley. Blogs are great!]

VOTE GIDEON (Travis Addington) @ SCHOLASTICI.US…I have, have you? [If you like Scholastici.us, like I do, then get voting for Gideon to win the 2007 Blogging Scholarship.]

The Independent – Walking isn’t enough to keep you fit, say experts [Let’s get physical.]

The Independent – Sit down, switch off, zone out: the ultimate stress buster [Just chill.]

The Independent – Brian Viner: Rudeness: you just can’t get away from it [Click on the link, you idiot!]

Hero – Giving Something Back [If you love uni, tell everyone about it.]

BBC News – Students teaching the teachers [Getting technical, faced with the eMentors.]

New Scientist – The appendix: good for something after all

Schools linking up with universities

So, all secondary schools are going to be partnered with a university. This is according to a report on the BBC News website.

John Denham, the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills, is going to announce this in order to promote Higher Education to pupils from low-income families.

There don’t appear to be a huge number of details right now. In fact, despite searching around most websites this morning, I have only seen the news on the BBC website and it’s hardly forthcoming.

Even John Denham’s departmental website is lacking in a press release for this, as far as I can tell (time of writing, 0830 on October 10).

So what’s going on? When is all this going to be announced for real?

I’m definitely interested and so should you be, even if you are currently installed at uni. It begs so many questions, such as:

  • How will the schools be linked up?
  • What difference will it make?
  • Will there be more or less onus on the university you’re at?
  • Will there be more or less funding for your university?
  • Will this change the face of uni living, or go relatively unnoticed?
  • How many schools can each university get linked up with?
  • Who will be responsible for the linking?
  • How will the linking work and take place?
  • Can links change once they have been made?
  • Will some unis get no linkage, while more popular unis get bombarded by schools?
  • Would the more popular unis be able to boast their number of links as a positive thing?

This news has the potential to change Higher Education rather a lot, which is why I’d love to hear more news and why I’m asking so many questions.

I will provide more links when I find them and when they’re available. Do you have any further news on it? I’d love to hear from you in the comments if you do!