Food must be imported and water use tightly regulated to protect dwindling supply, a leading groundwater expert has warned China needs to reduce food production on its dry northern plains or aquifers will diminish to a “dire” level in 30 years, the country’s leading groundwater expert has warned. Zheng Chunmiao, director of the Water Research Centre at Peking University, said the world’s most populous country will have to focus more on demand-side restraint because it is becoming more expensive and difficult to tap finite supplies below the surface. “The government must adopt a new policy to reduce water consumption,” Zheng told the Guardian. “The main thing is to reduce demand. We have relied too much on engineering projects, but the government realises this is not a long-term solution.” Zheng’s comments are based on his studies of the aquifers under the North China plain, one of the country’s main wheat growing regions. He said the water table is falling at the rate of about a metre a year mainly due to agriculture, which accounts for 60% of demand. “The water situation in the North China plain does not allow much longer for irrigation,” Zheng said. “We need to reduce food production even though it is politically difficult. It would be much more economical to import.” The government will be reluctant to accept such a radical step, which could weaken the country’s ability to feed itself. But it may not have a choice. Over the past 10 years, Zheng estimates the annual water deficit in northern China at 4bn cubic metres. This is increasingly made up from underground sources, which account for 70% of water supplies. Although some aquifers remain 500 metres thick, others are emptying at an alarming rate. This has created depletion cones, the deepest of which is at Hengshui near Xizhuajiang. Before trimming agricultural production, the government will try to improve usage efficiency. Plans are now being drawn up to measure and centrally manage the remaining resources, which are currently under the control of regional governments that often tend to draw up water unsustainably for the short-term benefit of the local economy. The Yellow River Conservancy Commission – which has the nation’s most advanced river management network – is expected to serve as a model. “The government is considering a system similar to ours that will collect data on underground water resources and connect it to our Yellow River monitoring system,” said Pei Yong, director of the water regulation division. “I think it will start three or four years from now.” Even before this begins, controls on underground water use are slowly being tightened. Well digging – once a lucrative, ubiquitous and poorly regulated business – is already feeling the pinch. Kaifeng Well Drilling – a company in Henan – charges 100-500 yuan for each metre drilled, but it has recently laid off workers because it gets permission for only two wells a year now, compared to about 30 in the 1980s. “Business is very bad. Many firms have had to change business,” said the director, who only gave his surname, Wang. “The controls are very tight now. You only get permission to drill in areas with severe water shortages.” Such restrictions are said to have slowed the rate of aquifer depletion, but the situation remains critical. Zheng said much more needs to be done, including demand reduction, water transfers and greater use of desalination plants. “We will get there because we have to,” he said. “If nothing changes, then in 30 years, we will face a dire situation.” Water Food Drought China Jonathan Watts guardian.co.uk
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More than 5,000 police officers to guard central Athens as striking workers plan to march on parliament Greece is facing major disruption on Tuesday as unions begin a 48-hour general strike before a parliamentary vote on harsh austerity measures demanded in return for international rescue loans. Protest rallies in Athens are due to converge on parliament as industrial action called in protest against tax hikes was expected to disrupt or halt most public services. More than 5,000 police have been deployed to guard central Athens where anti-austerity demonstrations earlier this month ended in scenes of violence as protesters clashed with riot officers. “We expect a dynamic and massive participation in the strike and the march to the centre of Athens. We will have 48 hours of working people, unemployed, young people in the streets,” Spyros Papaspyros, leader of public sector union ADEDY, told Reuters. Doctors, paramedics, journalists, postal workers and private sector employees were all expected to join the protest. Stoppages by Greek air traffic controllers are likely to disrupt flights and ferry departures from Athens are also expected to be hit. The unions are angry that the proposed austerity package would raise taxes on minimum wage earners and other Greeks in addition to earlier cuts that have driven unemployment past 16%. Parliament must approve and implement the programme this week if Greece is to receive a scheduled bailout loan of €110bn from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. Without the loan Greece risks becoming the first eurozone country to default on its debts – an event that could trigger a crisis in other economically weak European countries and have major global consequences. “These measures are a massacre for workers’ rights. It will truly be hell for the working man. The strike must bring everything to a standstill,” Thanassis Pafilis, a member of parliament for the pro-strike Greek Communist party, told Associated Press. The three-day parliamentary debate over the austerity package came as France, among eurozone nations scrambling to prevent a default, suggested rolling over some Greek debt for 30 years. The proposal by the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, offered hope to Greece’s socialist prime minister, George Papandreou, before the debate. “I call on you to vote for survival, growth, justice, and a future for the citizens of this country,” Papandreou told politicians. Unable to offload its sovereign debt, Greece is dependent on bailout loans and is banking on a new rescue package to cover a 2012 financial hole. Although any further assistance is likely to be dependent on approval of austerity measures, Papandreou said he hoped the terms of a second bailout would be better than the first. “I call on Europe, for its part, to give Greece the time and the terms it needs to really pay off its debt, without strangling growth, and without strangling its citizens,” he said. Theodoros Pangalos, the deputy prime minister, rejected suggestions Greece might be forced to abandon the euro and return to its old currency, the drachma. “There would be riots everywhere, shops would have empty shelves and people would be jumping out of windows … It would also be disastrous for the entire economy of Europe,” he told the Spanish daily El Mundo. Greece Europe Protest European debt crisis European banks Barry Neild guardian.co.uk
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Higher education white paper promises to give students more power to ensure they get their money’s worth, but Labour brands reforms a ‘complete shambles’ University courses with a poor track record of employment will be “named and shamed” under government proposals to give students a clearer choice of degree and curb the costs of tuition fee loans. Measures to open up the sector and give more power to students to ensure they get their money’s worth are reforms tied to the government’s plans to triple tuition fees to £9,000 from 2012, due to be outlined in the government’s long-awaited white paper on higher education on Tuesday. In what is seen as the most radical shakeup of the higher education system in decades, the white paper is expected to contain measures to allow popular universities to take in any student who gains at least two A grades and a B at A-level, allowing these institutions to grow. Universities charging low fees, including higher education colleges, could also be told that they can increase their numbers in a move that will be seen as a way to encourage institutions to lower their fees. The proposals were criticised by Labour and the National Union of Students, who warned that the reforms would see the quality of degree courses suffer and leave students open to “market chaos” in the higher education sector. The government also wants to see courses that are not valued by employers either scrapped or overhauled. Ministers will ask for the publication of detailed information about the employment and earning outcomes of specific degrees, to limit losses to the taxpayer from students who fail to repay their loans. At present, two-thirds of universities are seeking to charge the maximum £9,000 fee from next year, despite wide variations in employability. Universities will be required to publish comparable data on teaching hours and accommodation costs, and to account for how fee income is spent. In a round of broadcast interviews given ahead of the publication of the white paper, David Willetts, the universities minister, said the government was looking for a “transformation” in the amount of information students receive. “There are some courses that are far better at preparing young people for the world of work than others. At the moment, the student finds it very hard to get that information,” he told BBC Breakfast. “In future, they are going to be able to see ‘if I do biological sciences at one university, I have got a much better chance of a job in a pharmaceutical company than if I do biological sciences at a different university’. Yes, all that information should be out there and we are insisting for the first time that it should be available for prospective students.” Willetts said he wanted to see education institutions compete both on fees, but also on the “quality of the experience” for students as the government dismantles the system of quotas on student places. He told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme that UK universities should dispense with the public sector “mindset”. “They are not, they do not belong to the public sector. What they do receive is a large amount of public money … what we will be saying today is if there are alternative providers that come in they may be FE colleges, of course should have the opportunity of offering higher education but they should be regulated on the same basis as everyone else and I think there’s a great opportunity here. “Existing universities have been over-regulated so we’re going to cut back the burden of regulation The ones outside the system often have not been regulated at all.” John Denham, the shadow business secretary, branded the reforms a “complete shambles” and accused the government of “making it up as it goes along”. “Whatever we get this afternoon wasn’t any part of the proposals that were put to the House of Commons last December,” Denham told Sky News. “Remember, the government cut higher education funding by 80%, which is why we have this huge increase in fees. They then said very few universities would charge £9,000 – most of them want to charge £9,000. “So what’s happening here is that they’re trying to drive down the cost of some courses, but I fear very much at the expense of quality of higher education and the stability of some universities and we will do our students no favours if we give them a cut-price, low-quality degree when what they need is a really good quality higher education.” Aaron Porter, president of the National Union of Students, said the reforms would leave the majority of students facing “complete market chaos”. “To use proposals for more information as a justification for lifting the cap on fees to £9,000 is outrageous and will not fool students and their families. It’s the price, rather than educational standards, that will have tripled,” said Porter. “Ministers are at risk of creating stability for the perceived best but complete chaos for the rest. The vast majority of university entrants, who don’t get the very best grades, will be treated to complete market chaos and real uncertainty about their universities and courses.” The white paper comes as research revealed that graduates are facing record levels of competition for jobs, with more than 80 fighting for every position, research suggests. Employers are now receiving 83 applications on average for each job – almost double the numbers of two years ago (49), and nearly treble compared with three years ago (31) according to the Association of Graduate Recruiters. Higher education Students Student finance David Willetts University funding Jeevan Vasagar Jessica Shepherd Hélène Mulholland guardian.co.uk
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In an effort to avert Thursday’s strikes, the prime minister will call on unions to keep negotiating after talks failed to reach a settlement to avoid this week’s walkouts David Cameron is to appeal directly to public sector workers not to go on strike this week, telling an audience of local government leaders that the current pension arrangements are “not fair to the taxpayer”. The prime minister will intervene in the furious row between the government and unions over pension reforms after talks on Monday failed to negotiate a settlement to avoid Thursday’s walkouts. Up to 750,000 teachers, lecturers and civil servants are preparing to strike over the reforms. He is expected to say, during a speech to the Local Government Association in Birmingham on Tuesday, that the current system is “unsustainable” and reforms inevitable. Downing Street sources said that the language would be “non-confrontational” and that he would urge unions to keep negotiating before moving to strike action. Monday’s talks failed to reach any firm agreement, despite the government appearing to offer a significant compromise over local government pensions. Two hours of talks left the unions and government still fundamentally divided with major unresolved gaps in opinions, according to Brendan Barber, the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress. Unions said they had made no progress on the most contentious proposals – to increase public sector workers’ contributions, change the system of uprating schemes, and raise the pension age for government employees. But the biggest public sector union, Unison, indicated the government had given enough ground on local government pensions to delay their strike ballot until later in the summer, in the hope of further concessions. The government described the talks as constructive and indicated that it was preparing to offer concessions on the local government scheme, which is funded and has 3.5 million mostly low-paid members. There have been warnings that higher contributions could tip the scheme into surplus while forcing low-paid workers out. Lord Hutton, the Labour former business secretary who drew up the blueprint for the coalition’s pension reforms, last week warned that the proposed three percentage point increase in contributions might trigger a mass opt-out, jeopardising the viability of the scheme. The minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude, and the chief secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, said in a joint statement that the talks would now continue into July – although one Whitehall source also suggested that there was no pressing deadline to end the talks before the pension contributions are due to kick in next April. “We recognise that the funding basis for the local government pension scheme is different. There are important implications for how the contributions and benefits interact, as both Lord Hutton and the unions have set out. On that basis, we have agreed to have a more in-depth discussion with local government unions and the TUC about how we take these factors into account,” the statement said. “While the talks are ongoing it is obviously disappointing that some unions have decided on industrial action. But what the recent ballot results show is that there is extremely limited support for the kind of strike action union leaders are calling for. Less than 10% of the civil service workforce has voted for strike actions and only about a third of teachers.” Barber said: “In some areas it’s clear that there is the possibility of agreement, but in terms of some of the key issues there is clearly a major gap between our position and that of the government. “The strikes will be taking place on Thursday. Four unions balloted their members and reached that decision and that reflects the degree of anger and worry and real fear there is across everyone who works for public sectors that their pensions are under threat.” Dave Prentis, the head of Unison, which has 1.2 million members in the pension scheme, said his union would not now ballot until after further talks in the summer, indicating that they went into the talks fully expecting to do so. “There was a sense that today we were in real negotiations,” he said. The Association of Teachers and Lecturers, the National Union of Teachers, the University and College Union and the PCS all confirmed they would go ahead with Thursday’s strike. Some unions have privately said they will stick with the talks – despite believing they are doomed – to avoid the public relations disaster of being perceived to be responsible for negotiations collapsing. Unions and government are eager to win over public opinion ahead of strikes. One ComRes poll suggested that although 55% of people believe the public will not support co-ordinated strikes, 78% agree it is unfair for low-paid public employees to “pay the price for mistakes made by bankers before the financial crisis”. David Cameron Trade unions Public sector cuts Public services policy Public finance Public sector pay Public sector careers Public sector pensions Local government Polly Curtis guardian.co.uk
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Officer taken to hospital with hand injuries as Met launches investigation after dogs die on hot day An investigation has been launched into the deaths of two police dogs who were left in a car on one of the hottest days of the year. The Metropolitan police animals, a working Belgian malinois and a German shepherd puppy, were found collapsed in an unventilated vehicle at the force’s training centre in Keston, Kent, on Sunday. A Met police officer, believed to be their handler, was found by colleagues following the incident in the Newham area of London suffering from hand injuries. It is not known if his wounds were self-inflicted. He was last night still receiving medical treatment, police said. The Directorate of Professional Standards has launched a probe into the circumstances of the incident, which took place as temperatures soared to as high as 29C in the south-east. A Scotland Yard spokesman said: “On Sunday June 26 at approx 11am staff at a Metropolitan police service (MPS) building were alerted to two police dogs having been left in an unventilated private vehicle. “Entry was forced to the vehicle and two MPS dogs, a working Belgian malinois and a German shepherd pup, were found in a state of collapse. “Both were taken to an emergency vets where they subsequently died. “An investigation by the Directorate of Professional Standards into the circumstances of this incident has begun.” Police refused to name the officer linked to the incident, but confirmed a policeman was found with injuries following the discovery of the dead canines. The Scotland Yard spokesman added: “The officer was located in Newham Borough suffering a hand injury. He was taken to an East London Hospital as a precaution and is currently receiving medical treatment.” The deaths follow those of two German shepherd police dogs, who were left to die in a baking hot car outside Nottinghamshire police headquarters in July 2009. A spokeswoman from the Dogs Trust, the UK’s largest dog welfare charity, said it was “saddened” to hear of the two latest deaths. She added: “Whilst the cause of death is still to be determined, the charity would like to remind dog owners and police dog handlers that leaving your dog in a car can prove rapidly fatal, particularly during a heatwave. “It can take just 20 minutes for a dog to die and temperatures can reach over 40C in some vehicles.” Police dog handler PC Mark Johnson was handed a six-month conditional discharge after he was found guilty of animal cruelty in relation to the deaths of the two dogs in Nottinghamshire. During his trial in February last year, Nottingham magistrates’ court was told he suffered from depression and obsessive compulsive disorder, which led to him forgetting that he had left the dogs in his car outside Nottinghamshire police’s Sherwood Lodge headquarters near Arnold as temperatures reached 29.3C. Metropolitan police Police Animals London guardian.co.uk
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Hundreds of guards sentenced to between four months and seven years over 2009 mutiny that left 74 people dead Hundreds of Bangladeshi border guards who challenged the government in a deadly 2009 mutiny have been sentenced to up to seven years in prison. The bloody mutiny – which killed 74 people, most of them commanding officers – erupted at a crucial time for Bangladesh’s troubled democracy, just two months after the powerful military had handed power over to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s newly elected government. The guards began the revolt in late February 2009 during an annual gathering in the capital, Dhaka. They said they were fighting against alleged discrimination and demanding parity in pay and other perks enjoyed by commanding army officers. The mutineers opened fire, blocked roads and drove officers out of their offices and homes. Fifty-seven commanders, including the head of the paramilitary border security agency, were among the dead. The uprising quickly spread across the impoverished country that has struggled for decades with shaky democracy and chronic flooding that has stymied economic development. The military has backed 21 coups since the country’s 1971 independence from Pakistan. A court on Monday gave 108 border guards seven-year prison sentences, and another 549 guards sentences ranging between four months and six years, the force’s chief, Major General Rafiqul Islam, said. Hundreds of others charged in the case have yet to face the special court handling mutiny cases. The military has been angry with Hasina’s handling of the mutiny, which ended in negotiations and offers of amnesty for mutiny leaders. The government rescinded the amnesty offers, however, after dozens of bodies were found dumped in shallow graves and sewers. Hasina has pledged justice for the victims’ families. Bangladesh guardian.co.uk
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The Hollywood actor, who plays the pro-democracy leader in movie, was deported on the day she arrived in Rangoon The Hollywood actor Michelle Yeoh, who stars as the pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in an upcoming movie, has been deported from Burma. The Malaysian actor arrived in the country’s main city, Rangoon, on 22 June and was deported the same day because she was on a blacklist, a government official said. The official did not say why Yeoh was on the list, but Burma’s repressive government has routinely rejected the visa requests of journalists and perceived critics for years. Aung San Suu Kyi’s spokesman Nyan Win confirmed Yeoh had been deported but had no other details. The Luc Besson movie about Aung San Suu Kyi’s life, The Lady, is due out later this year, and Yeoh has said she hopess her portrayal of Aung San Suu Kyi will raise awareness about the Nobel peace prize winner’s story . Aung San Suu Kyi, 66, has spent most of the past two decades detained by the former military junta. She was released last year , days after an election that her party boycotted and in which she was barred from being a candidate. The vote was the nation’s first in 20 years, and in March the junta handed power to a civilian government. But critics say little has changed and the new government is merely a front for continued rule by the army, which has been in power since 1962. Yeoh visited Burma in December and spent time with Aung San Suu Kyi for the movie, which was filmed in neighbouring Thailand. Yeoh, a former Miss Malaysia, shot to international fame when she co-starred with Pierce Brosnan in the 1997 James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies as a tough but beautiful Chinese spy. She has also starred in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Memoirs of a Geisha. Burma Aung San Suu Kyi guardian.co.uk
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Aide to Cameron who died in Glastonbury had radical plans to make Tory membership more palatable No 10 and Conservative headquarters had been deeply involved and supported the radical plans to transform Tory party membership drawn up by Christopher Shale and leaked hours before he died in unexplained circumstances at the Glastonbury festival. The damning assessment by Shale, David Cameron’s constituency chairman, of the Conservative membership offer to voters was initially seen as a freelance operation. But it has now emerged that Shale’s strategy paper, Project Vanguard, was backed by Conservative HQ and was calculated to make membership more palatable to the “98% of Tory voters” who are “politics light” and would be terrified of canvassing. Shale, 56, had been feeling ill before he had found out about the leak, according to a source close to his widow, Nikki. A coroner ordered toxicology tests to be carried out after an initial postmortem proved inconclusive. The aim of the project was to launch proposals for membership on 6 October, the day after Cameron’s speech to the Conservative party conference. Some of the analysis by Shale, who was found in a toilet in a VIP area at the festival, had clear echoes of the 2002 conference speech by Theresa May, who as chairman of the party said the Conservatives were still seen as the “nasty party”. Shale’s goal was to boost party membership by recognising that membership, and the offer made to potential members, were deeply unappealing. The objective was “to achieve a transformational increase in membership of West Oxfordshire Conservative Association and to do this in ways other apply to similar effect nationally”. In his preface, Shale said he wanted to “thank everyone at Number 10 who has given their time support and ideas”. He wrote: “If one asks Tory voters as I have done many times over the years to complete the sentence ‘I should join the Conservative Party because …’ there is no compelling response. If there was I’d have heard it by now. There is not. The claimed benefits – the right to attend party conference, take part in selecting our MPs, and so on – are of zero interest to most current, let alone potential, members.” The leaking of the document might have proved embarrassing for Shale, but not devastating, even if it were written in a jocular tone that might have disturbed older party members. Shale listed reasons not to join the Conservatives, including “collectively we are not an appealing proposition”. He went on: “As a group we don’t look that much different to how we looked 10 to 20 years [ago]. Everyone else does. The perception is that we are too fond of looking inwards rather than outwards”. He added: “To many potential members the idea of Tory party social activity is at best rather a threat than promise, at worst a perfect oxymoron. And they are generally right.” He went on: “The widespread perception is that our party plunders its members at every turn… we rarely miss an opportunity to pick a member’s pocket. Their money disappears into a bottomless pit. And then we ask for more ad nauseam.” Shale said the public regarded membership as a big step, losing intellectual independence and being forced down a slippery slope leading “to leafleting on a wet Wednesday evening or worse still, terrifying in fact, canvassing”. Some people would be deterred by any idea they might be publicly identified as member of the party. They also fear “they have to support us even when you know we’re wrong”. He admits that “literally 98% of Tory voters are politics light” – meaning they are not really interested in politics and find heavy politics a big turn-off. He says the answer is to change the environment in which the Conservative party operates so it does not turn off “politics-light people” . He says the party has to give an undertaking: “We will behave look sound and present ourselves differently. We’ll raise money by earning it, not begging it. They wont be asked to sign up anything onerous, agree with all our policies or defend us when they think we’re wrong. They won’t be pressganged into activism. They will have the option to keep their membership as private as they want. They can leave at a moment’s notice.” His solutions included getting into “the events management business, a day in HMP Wormwood Scrubs, an evening with a non-politician celebrity, a great debate modelled loosely on the Oxford Union, a day watching prime minister’s questions .He also promised one social action element far removed from the stereotypical spectre of “marauding hordes of Tories armed with paintbrushes loose in the vicinity bursting with bonhomie furiously painting for victory”. Christopher Shale Conservatives Glastonbury festival Patrick Wintour guardian.co.uk
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Scrapping ‘dead-end’ courses will ‘ensure students get their money’s worth’ as universities set to charge higher tuition fees University courses with a poor track record of employment will be “named and shamed” under government proposals to give students a clearer choice of degree and curb the costs of tuition fee loans. In a higher education white paper, ministers will ask for the publication of detailed information about the employment and earning outcomes of specific degrees. David Willetts, the universities minister, believes too many courses are not valued by employers. Ministers recognise some graduate professions, such as teaching or nursing, are less well paid than others. But they are concerned that only nine out of 141 computer gaming-related courses , for example, are accredited by the industry body. Scrapping or overhauling “dead-end” courses would limit losses to the taxpayer from students who fail to repay their loans. At present, two-thirds of universities are seeking to charge the maximum £9,000 fee from next year, despite wide variations in employability. A Whitehall source said: “The reforms are all about ensuring that students get their money’s worth. We’re asking graduates to contribute more once they are earning, so it is only right that universities deliver for students. Universities will become more accountable to students and they will have to be far more transparent about what they are offering.” Universities will be required to publish comparable data on teaching hours and accommodation costs, and to account for how fee income is spent. The government will expect them to publish online student surveys of lectures and courses, to stimulate competition between academics. The white paper comes as research revealed that graduates are facing record levels of competition for jobs, with more than 80 fighting for every position, research suggests. Employers are now receiving 83 applications on average for each job – almost double the numbers of two years ago (49), and nearly treble compared with three years ago (31) according to the Association of Graduate Recruiters. Ministers want teenagers to have better information when choosing A-levels by asking universities to publish the qualifications of previously successful applicants. The Russell group, for example, favours traditional subjects : maths, English, geography, history, the three pure sciences and languages. Sir Steve Smith, president of Universities UK, which represents the sector, said: “Students are not in a position to make critical decisions if they don’t have access to transparent and comparable information. But does everyone get the same access to information? “Amongst 18-year-olds, those in higher socioeconomic groups have their parents, and those in lower socioeconomic groups rely on [school] careers guidance. There is pressure on schools to increase their tariff scores, so they might get you to do an A-level that is not accepted by the most demanding institutions.” The white paper is also expected to free up recruitment of the 50,000 students a year who achieve grades AAB or higher at A-level. Today, universities have a fixed number of government-funded places for home undergraduates each autumn, and are fined if they over-recruit. Expansion by grades would reward selective schools. Nearly a third of students achieving AAB or above are at private schools – about 16,000 – and 20% of those achieving the top grade at state sixth forms are in grammar schools. The Office for Fair Access, the government watchdog which vets proposals to charge fees above £6,000, has been privately warning universities that they must set higher targets for admissions of low-income students. One highly-ranked university, which did not want to be named, was told by Offa it was not enough to measure itself against its rivals. “Our aim is to improve the performance of the sector as a whole and we therefore need you to improve your absolute performance … as well as measure how you are doing compared to others,” the watchdog wrote. “Please consider this issue as soon as possible and make any amendments you think appropriate …” The white paper is expected to propose scaling back of student quotas under a model known as “core-margin”. A reduced number of places will be given as a coreallocation, and institutions will be invited to bid for the rest by demonstrating strength of demand and value for money. Universities charging fees beneath a set threshold – thought to be £7,500 a year – are expected to be permitted to expand their places. A poll of employers has found intense competition for graduate jobs, with an average of 83 candidates chasing each vacancy. The number of applications per job has reached the highest ever recorded, according to the survey by the Association of Graduate Recruiters. Carl Gilleard, chief executive of the association, said this was partly because job-hunters were making multiple applications and partly because of pressure from those who had failed to get a toehold on the ladder in previous years. The poll finds a sustained recovery of the graduate recruitment market is under way with vacancies expected to rise by 2.6% this year. For the first time in two years, employers predicted that graduate starting salaries would increase, with the average salary expected to reach £25,500. Ucas, the universities and colleges admissions service, released figures on Monday giving a final portrait of applications for 2011 ahead of exam results in August. The figures show applications are up 1.4% overall, to 647,008. There is a rise of 5.6% in the number of 19-year-olds applying, indicating that many candidates squeezed out last year may be having another go. Higher education Students Tuition fees Education policy Jeevan Vasagar Jessica Shepherd guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …So the news on the debt ceiling talks is filled with two issues today, one is suddenly defense spending was put on the table by Republicans. As President Obama prepares to meet Monday with Senate leaders to try to restart talks about the swollen national debt, some Republicans see a potential path to compromise: significant cuts in military spending. Senior GOP lawmakers and leadership aides said it would be far easier to build support for a debt-reduction package that cuts the Pentagon budget — a key Democratic demand — than one that raises revenue by tinkering with the tax code. Last week, Republicans walked out of talks led by Vice President Biden, insisting that the White House take tax increases off the table. {} In listening sessions with their rank and file, House Republican leaders said they have found a surprising willingness to consider defense cuts that would have been unthinkable five years ago, when they last controlled the House. While the sessions have sparked heated debate on many issues, Rep. Peter Roskam (Ill.), the deputy GOP whip, said there are few lawmakers left who view the Pentagon budget as sacrosanct. The second bit of news is that Mitch McConnell has declared that there will be no new taxes included in budget talks . Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday renewed his call to take tax increases off the table in the debt-limit talks between congressional leaders and the Obama administration. Republicans “want to finally get our economy growing again at a pace that will lead to significant job growth,” McConnell wrote in an op-ed published on CNN.com , hours before he is to huddle with President Obama and Vice President Biden at the White House to discuss the debt ceiling. First of all, you can’t have negotiations between two party’s if the one, the GOP refuses to include tax increases of any kind in the mix. That’s not negotiating, that’s hostage taking. I don’t believe for a second any proposed cuts to military spending will be anything more than some paper clips and staplers in the Pentagon, but it does make for some juicy talking points they can use on TV. See, we’re willing to cut Defense, but Democrats won’t cut medicare and Social Security. We’re serious, they’re not. Conservatives understand that the beltway bipartisan fetish is always running high in DC and they will help them make the case that this is a significant shift for the GOP. As talking points go, Atrios says: I give it about 2 days before Republicans start screeching about how Democrats want to cut defense money while our heroes are in harms way, blah blah blah Now the WH is already cutting like crazy, but Eric Cantor wants more. The White House has offered nearly $1 trillion in cuts to domestic agencies over the next decade and $300 billion more from security agencies. But House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) pressed for as much as $1.7 trillion in cuts. And he wanted an overall cap on spending that would leave the door open to slashing the entire sum from domestic programs — such as education, food safety, health research and criminal justice — when lawmakers draft spending bills next spring. “Everything is on the table,” Cantor said in an interview afterward. But the decision on how much to cut defense “belongs in the appropriations process.” White House budget director Jack Lew objected, and the meeting grew heated. Democrats said they could never support a package that targets only social programs and extracts no pain from the military, big business or the wealthy. Every “cut” is on the table, but not revenue increasers. This is all kabuki and the debt ceiling isn’t the same type of game they played with as shutting down our own government was. But if Democrats use meaningless military cuts to justify massive cuts in education, food safety, health research and criminal justice as some kumbaya moment, then this will be not a deal, but a ritual sacrifice. Digby: Good cuts, bad cuts: Seriously, the defense budget is a very logical place to look for savings. It’s been off limits to any kind of serious oversight for decades, particularly the one just past. I have no doubt that significant savings can be found there. If they can come up with some cuts in obsolete programs that don’t hurt any of their prized constituencies and donors too badly, a deal could potentially be made that would give President Obama an argument to take to his base as his liberal accomplishment in this “deal”. But keep in mind that when they make the argument that we can’t raise taxes because the economy is too fragile, the economic logic of that is the same as cutting spending. So it isn’t about the economy — it’s about shrinking government. No matter how worthy a goal cutting the Pentagon is on the merits, it’s not a liberal economic policy. In fact, none of this is an economic policy at all — it’s a ritual sacrifice. We’ve feared for a long time that Medicaid is something that might end up on the chopping block to help complete some Grand Bargain which would excite the Villagers for sure. Progressives been warning our readers about this for a long time. mcjoan writes: White House Medicaid proposal would likely force states to cut aid Drew Westin tries to explain to the Democrats how they can win in 2012: Three Ways Democrats Could Choose to Lose in 2012, and What They Can Do to Avoid It “If Democrats think that the average senior who votes will be able to distinguish competing claims about which party’s Medicare cuts will cut them the deepest, they are deeply mistaken. We will end up with a he-said/she-said about which party “really” cares about grandma’s health, and the media will offer voters guidance such as, “Democrats say their cuts will have less impact on seniors, whereas Republicans say their plan will give seniors more choices.” Andrea Mitchell was talking to Cillizza today at the end of her show and mentioned that if Republicans won’t raise taxes then how can they really negotiate? Chris agreed. I found that interesting because maybe in some tiny way a piece of truth is slipping through the DC wall because the never raising taxes mantra has been considered a principled position by Republicans when in reality it’s all about making the rich, richer off the backs of the working class.
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