Author Archives: owmyfoothurts

Do you want to help investigate the education system?

TweetWe’re looking for a new editor to help run Help Me Investigate Education, as I have found a job as a result of my work on the site! If you’re interested in or concerned about education – and curious about using FOI and … Continue reading

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How influential are re-takes on today’s A-level students?

TweetLast week, it was announced that Michael Gove wanted Universities to have a big influence on the curricula of A-level exams. With Gove’s requests to Ofqual ringing in university’s ears, it’s key to look at some of the elements that … Continue reading

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University Governance deconstructed… then constructed again…

TweetIf something has a Wikipedia entry that’s difficult to understand, it’s bound to be an intricate, complex, and rarely explained subject. University governance is one of those subjects. Rarely looked into, examined or explained, (outside of academia at least) the … Continue reading

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The exempt charity status of Academy Trusts…

TweetRecently, on a post on the Help me Investigate Blog, Chris Dodd discussed the ways in which you can look into the actions of charities and not-for-profit organisations. During the follow-up of this post, he discovered that all Academy Trusts … Continue reading

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Access to Unreliable Children’s Services Data…

TweetIn early November, Paul blogged about local authorities submitting shaky figures to the Department for Education, as reported on the Channel 4 blogs. As Paul quoted and Patrick Worrall stated; “So to recap, these spending figures don’t actually reflect the … Continue reading

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The price of a University drop-out 4: Time for some numbers.

TweetIn the last post, we worked out the cost weight of a non-completion when it comes to public-funding, and the different variable factors that can send this cost sky-rocketing. But, it’s key to look at the effect on different institutions, … Continue reading

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The price of a University drop-out 3: Exactly how much is each student worth?

TweetIn the last post, we looked into how HEFCE derive predicted non-completion figures year on year so that when we unwrap the data we know what we’re looking at. But, in order to figure out the wider effect on Universities, … Continue reading

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The price of a University drop-out 2: how do you work out the numbers?

TweetIn part 1, we tried to sift through the rulings and regulations and explain exactly how the HEFCE fund higher education institutions, and what criteria must be met. Next, before finally digging into the data in detail and filtering out … Continue reading

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FOI legislation opens up UCAS and higher education…

TweetAs of this month, there are three more organisations that are under the scope of The Freedom of Information Act; and most appropriately for the Help Me Investigate education site, UCAS, the charitable organisation who organise the higher education application … Continue reading

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The price of a University drop-out 1: higher education funding in context.

TweetOne of the first big data-driven investigations we wanted to put on this site was focused on HEFCE and the way in which higher education is funded. HEFCE fund 130 higher education institutions in England and 122 further education colleges in … Continue reading

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