David Miliband backs bid for university 'living wage'

One of the architects of New Labour has thrown his weight behind a student campaign to give Cambridge University and college staff a ‘living wage’.

About 1,000 staff at the university and its colleges are paid less than the ‘living wage’, judged by the Living Wage Foundation to be £7.20 an hour outside London. The National Minimum Wage is currently £6.08 for workers aged over 21.

Former Foreign Secretary David Miliband held a breakfast meeting with Labour students, who want the university to pay cleaners, waiters and other low-paid staff at least £7.20 an hour.

The Labour MP told the News: “It’s significant that Labour students should vote to run their number one campaign this year about the living and working conditions of others and not themselves.”

Student Richard Johnson, chairman of Cambridge Universities Labour Club, said: “A lot of the colleges are aware of being perceived as exploiting workers, although we are not saying they are doing that.

“They put on enormous banquets for students, which of course are great for them, but at the same time are paying these staff low wages. The colleges are conscious of that and the way they are seen.”

The 20-year-old added: “My hope is that by the end of this term there will be at least one college which will to commit to it.

“I do not think that is unreasonable. The colleges know it will be great publicity to be the first.”

Cambridge University itself, with a top pay grade of £131,395 a year, has 112 staff paid less than the ‘living wage’, according to a Freedom of Information request by the campaign last year.

A spokesman for the university would not comment directly on whether it would sign up to the living wage pledge, saying its pay scales were “derived from national pay bargaining” for universities across the country.

He added: “The minimum point of the university scale has just increased to £11,175 (a year). The university pay scales are above the national minimum wage.

“The impact of this year’s pay increase is that an individual on the lowest point of the scale would have enjoyed a higher percentage increase (1.3 per cent) than those on higher rates of pay.”

Homerton College had one of the highest numbers of staff paid below the ‘living wage’, according to the FOI request, with 65 on less than £7.20 an hour.

But college bursar Gale Bryan said these related to casual staff – all permanent employees were paid more than £7.20 an hour.

He said: “The unintended or intended objective (of this campaign) appears to be to increase the cost of casual labour, which meets the needs of many young people wishing to supplement their income.

NEWS BY:http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk

Top universities warned over places for 'disadvantaged' students

Top universities in England were warned yesterday they face having to slash their fees if they fail to recruit more students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The warning came from Professor Les Ebdon, the Government’s choice to take over as head of the Office for Fair access – the university admissions watchdog.

Professor Ebdon, vice-chancellor of Bedfordshire University and chairman of the million+ university think-tank, told MPs he was willing to use “the nuclear option” to force universities in the Russell Group – which represents leading research universities such as Oxford and Cambridge – if they fail to meet targets for recruitment.

He was being grilled by members of the Commons select committee on business, innovation and skills  – who have the power to veto his appointment.

At present, all universities seeking to charge more than £6,000 a year in fees have to sign an agreement with OFFA committing them to making efforts to recruit more students from disadvantaged areas.

If they fail to meet agreed targets, they can be fined up to $500,000 or have their fees reduced to £6,000 a year.

Professor Ebdon told the MPs that the performance of Russell Group universities has been “patchy” – “The commitment (to widening participation) has been mixed”.

“There are some colleagues in the Russell Group universities who are just as passionate about widening participation as I am,” he said.

“I would be aiming to strengthen that opposition so that is the case throughout the whole university system.”

He added: “If they don’t do that, then there will be a point at which we will not be afraid to use sanctions.

“At present there are £500,000 fines – which are hardly sanctions at all but the other is to refuse to sign an access agreement.

“That’s a significant sanction – the nuclear sanction – and one has to use the nuclear sanction with subtlety.

“If you have a nuclear sanction, thought, you have to be prepared to use it and clearly I would be prepared if people didn’t meet their targets.”

Professor Ebdon said he would like to have had a wider range of sanctions at his disposal - “a tactical strike option would be welcome as well”

Figures showed the ratio between disadvantaged students had gone from one to six to one to seven in leading universities, he said, and it was important to reverse that trend.

He was questioned at length by MPs on his outspoken opposition to the new fees regime while the legislation on the new fees was being steered through the Commons by the Coalition Government.  He is a supporter of a graduate tax.

He said he would make it clear it was not part of his role as head of OFFA to comment on that issue.

Brian Binley, Conservative MP for Northampton South, told him frankly he could not see any evidence of business acumen in his c.v.

NEWS BY:http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/top-universities-warned-over-places-for-disadvantaged-students-6348941.html

College research shows cause for concern about ready-made spectacles

The results of research commissioned by the College of Optometrists shows that many ready-made spectacles are not of appropriate quality to match the advertising around them.

Following the publication of a Which? report on ready-made reading glasses in October 2010, the College commissioned Professor David Elliott at Bradford University to carry out some further research in this area based on a much larger sample size.  The original Which? report pointed to some potential issues with the quality of ready-made  spectacles, and possible discrepancies between the standards claimed by the manufacturers and those actually found in the glasses tested for their report.   Although the Which? report highlighted an issue that was of interest (and if their findings were accurate, concern) to our members and the public, the conclusions were based on a sample of 14 ready readers, which opened the findings to question.

After assessing over 300 ready readers from a wide range of high street stores, with costs ranging from £1 to £32, Professor Elliot’s team found that:

    Just over half of all ready-made spectacles used in the study provided the optical standards required of them by the relevant British and European Standard.
    
    Higher-powered ready-made spectacles were more likely to have errors (+3.50DS).
    
    The quality of these ready-made spectacles could be easily improved by the use of more appropriate inter-pupillary distances for the work they are intended for.

The team at Bradford ran a range of tests on the spectacles.   They examined each pair’s quality in terms of:

    how closely they met their advertised specifications
    
    the positioning of the lenses in the frames
    
    whether the frames positioned the lenses in such a way that the distance between the focal centres of the lenses was likely to fall within the range for average distance between pupils in the UK population.

Professor Elliott’s report on this research will be published in the research journal of the American Academy of Optometry (Optometry and Vision Science) later this year.

NEWS BY:http://www.college-optometrists.org/en/knowledge-centre/news/index.cfm/ready_readers_1_12

Robert Pattinson, Sarah Palin And “Prometheus” In New TRAILER PARK

Three trailers have reached the Web as people attempt to scurry away from their laptops and enjoy the holidays with friends and family. But they are worth watching, so take a moment and enjoy the cinematic teases.

First, Ridley Scott has dropped our first look at “Prometheus,” a sci-fi adventure with a stellar cast (Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Noomi Rapace) that most thought would be a prequel to his seminal “Alien” (and many still believe will be connected somehow). Either way, Scott’s return to science-fiction heralds attention no matter what he’s attempting, and so “Prometheus” is high on our radar heading into 2012.

Next up is “Bel Ami,” Robert Pattinson’s steamy period romance that finds the “Twilight” heartthrob sleeping his way through Europe in search of wealth and power. Now that sounds like a tough task for the young actor, don’t you think? “Bel Ami” opens in March. The trailer is an MSN exclusive.

Finally, Julianne Moore and Ed Harris tackle real-life politicians Sarah Palin and John McCain in HBO’s “Game Change,” the adaptation of the best-selling book about their failed presidential campaign. “So find me a woman,” Harris’ McCain says when looking for a game-changing running mate. And Moore’s impersonation of Palin is a game changer, indeed.

I take it back. That’s not an impersonation. That’s the spitting image of Palin. It’s scary. And the movie looks scary good, no matter what side of the political fence you fall on. All three films will be out next year.


News By:
hollywoodnews.com