The authors analysed school performance data to review how well disadvantaged pupils achieve in academy chains. They included chains only if they had at least three academies in 2013, and two sponsored secondary academies for the whole period from September 2010 to July 2013. This means that academies are included in our analysis only when there…

Background: Dyslexia is a common learning difficulty affecting up to 10% of British children that is associated with a wide range of cognitive, emotional and physical symptoms. In the absence of effective conventional treatment, it is likely that parents will seek complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) to try and help their children.…

The present paper uses British Household Panel Survey data from 1991 to 2002 to assess the extent to which labour market returns have been influenced by changes in the nature of educational supply. We find that whilst there have been substantial shifts in the returns to schooling over the period, these effects are much more pronounced for younger…

The paper reflects on the use by the UK central government of statistical evidence in educational policy matters. Particular attention is given to school league tables. The paper is generally critical of government attitudes, but suggests that progress towards rational decision-making does occur. (Contains 5 notes.)

This paper discusses the difficulties of establishing a clear count of UK higher education students in terms of the categories used for widening participation, such as occupational background or ethnicity. Using some of the best and most complete data available, such as the annual figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, the paper then…

This paper presents facts and figures of the international higher education. Facts reveal that the UK sells more brainpower per capita than anywhere else in the world. The UK has 1% of the world's population but undertakes 5% of the world's scientific research and produces 14% of the world's most highly cited papers (Universities UK 2010). More…

Gender inequality exists within higher education in the UK and Germany. In the UK only 15.3% of professors in pre-and post-1992 universities were women (2003), whilst in Germany only 8.6% attained the highest grade of professorship (2003). The research uses existing data sets combined with theoretical constructs to investigate the reasons for…

Background: Research reveals that the relationship between a student and a supervisor is so crucial that students cannot afford to leave it to chance. It must be managed. Phillips and Pugh (2000, p. 193) maintains that if students are to do this well, they must understand what their supervisors expect of them. Once they have this "inside…

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to examine the extent to which UK universities' achal international achievements match their strategic intent on internationalization. Design/methodology/approach: Both factor analysis and cluster analysis were applied on data collected from HESA (2001), and on the data collected from the mission statements…

This paper focuses on parents' perspectives of combining special and mainstream services for their children in the early years, offering insights into: how parents came to make this choice for their children's education; what parents expected from the combined provision and how their expectations were being met in practice. The data presented…

This research explores the attitudes of parents and teenagers towards the proposals in the "Raising expectations" Green Paper. It is based on a public opinion poll of 920 parents and 380 teenagers in the United Kingdom, which ran between 30 March and 10 April 2007. The results were analysed by Learning and Skills Network statisticians.…

Despite the strategic importance of the private-school sector to education policy reform, and a general belief in the superiority of private schools, there is very little evidence on the relative effects of such schooling in comparison with public schools. This paper reviews the current evidence in the United States and United Kingdom on the…

If personal computers (PCs) are used to facilitate learning, then a home computer might be considered a potential input in an educational production function. Using data on British youths from the British Household Panel Survey between 1991 and 2001, this paper explores the link between ownership of a home computer at ages 15 and 17 and subsequent…

Statistical comparison of trends shows that the decline in the proportion of Australian matriculation students studying science subjects is less than that in the United Kingdom. In Australia, the decline in the proportion of new tertiary enrollments in the sciences occurs primarily in the applied and professional science courses which have quotas…

School systems aspire to provide equal opportunity for all, irrespective of socio-economic status (SES). Much of the criticism of recent school reforms that introduce accountability, autonomy, and choice emphasizes their potentially negative consequences for equity. This report provides new evidence on how national features of accountability,…