The latest Green Paper in the UK on higher education puts ‘Student Choice’ as a top policy objective. But are there real choices for those who believe in “education for education’s sake”?
Current funding of higher education in Britain places an unfair burden on the young. It cannot be right that teenagers celebrating their A-Level triumphs this week face a debt-burdened future and poorer health in order to protect the pensions of those who enjoyed a free education.
The British university system was until recently seen as one of the best in the world. Now students pay dearly for the privilege of supporting big business, says Barbara Gunnell
We pretend that the university entry system is broadly meritocratic. But in Britain the privately educated child of a professional family is three times more likely to get into a top university than the child of poorer parents. It will take radical reforms to reverse that.
Britain’s Coalition Government has announced further cuts to benefits and social services. But while it demonises those out of work, where is its strategy for jobs?
Jobs are disappearing in the UK, wages are dropping, and there is a shocking absence of political debate about the changing nature of work and the disappearance of full-time secure employment.
It was predictable and in fact predicted. The British Government’s austerity programme has turned back the clock on women’s rights and hard-won economic gains.
As the number of families in Britain with at least one working parent fall below the poverty threshold and 'payday loans' show a steep rise, Barbara Gunnell asks : who benefits from the British bargain-basement low-wage economy?
Unemployment in Britain could reach 3 million this year, an entire new welfare-to-work industry has sprung up, and the Government still thinks its main task is to get the 'work shy' stacking shelves. Barbara Gunnell asks how, in this Government's vision, has a lack of jobs become the fault of the
A new report reveals pockets of extreme poverty among young working-age adults, including those who have jobs. Barbara Gunnell on how a low-wage economy punishes us all.
Unemployment and discrimination still wreck the lives of millions in the UK. On the launch of Centrestage , Barbara Gunnell examines the context of economic exclusion today
