A half‐educated society doing half a job — this is the description of the UK as given by Dr George Tolley, Higher Education Adviser to the Training Agency, in the Comino Lecture…
Abstract
A half‐educated society doing half a job — this is the description of the UK as given by Dr George Tolley, Higher Education Adviser to the Training Agency, in the Comino Lecture given at the Royal Society of Arts, London, in May. The very real achievements in the economy have not eradicated the shortcomings of a society in which low aspirations and low expectations still characterise a large part of the population. The low aspirations and low expectations are reflected in low achievement. He stressed: “Our major problem in this country is the distrust of education, not the distrust of industry”.
A further contribution to the debate about ways of cutting costs in higher education was made last month by the Rev George Tolley, principal of Sheffield Polytechnic and…
Abstract
A further contribution to the debate about ways of cutting costs in higher education was made last month by the Rev George Tolley, principal of Sheffield Polytechnic and vice‐chairman of the Committee of Directors of Polytechnics. The pressures for demanding ‘a reduced scale of increase in expenditure (which is not the same as a cut‐back)’ are inevitable, he said. Shorter courses, a reduced commitment to research a ‘shift’ system and a worsening of the staff‐student ratio were amongst the possibilities that would have to be considered.
What is the role of the DES Further Education Curriculum Development Unit? Despite the leadership provided first by John Tomlinson — who has now gone to chair the Schools Council…
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What is the role of the DES Further Education Curriculum Development Unit? Despite the leadership provided first by John Tomlinson — who has now gone to chair the Schools Council, and is one of the most imaginative and dynamic Chief Education Officers in the business — and latterly by the Revd. Dr. George Tolley — who has made such a success of the development of Sheffield Polytechnic — the Unit has yet to make any significant impact on the world of further education. This is doubtless in part because the Unit is understaffed and underfinanced; a budget of under £100,000 is peanuts when set against the mammoth task of reviewing what is taught in FE and how, or by comparison with the budgets of any of the institutions the Unit should be guiding.
The purpose of the visit was four‐fold: • to discuss at first hand, with those directly involved, the major movements and problems in American higher education, especially those…
Abstract
The purpose of the visit was four‐fold: • to discuss at first hand, with those directly involved, the major movements and problems in American higher education, especially those matters arising from relationships between two year and four year colleges; • to examine certain aspects of management education and training and, in particular, to ascertain the scope and nature of activities of the Small Business Administration of the US Government and to determine the involvement of business schools in management education and development for smaller businesses; • to ascertain the major thrusts and practices in education and training for allied health services, in particular, in nursing and social work; • to see something of the social services in operation, as provided by city, State and voluntary (including Church) agencies and to discuss major problems in relation to existing and developing social need.
The reform of vocational qualifications is now under way. Britain's workforce is seriously underqualified and the need for competence, properly assessed and accredited, and…
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The reform of vocational qualifications is now under way. Britain's workforce is seriously underqualified and the need for competence, properly assessed and accredited, and personal qualities, such as attitudes and adaptability, must be met. The National Council for Vocational Qualifications is developing three major thrusts: towards competence, framework (the National Vocational Qualification), and accessibility and progression, giving a wide and more flexible range of learning opportunities.
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George Tolley and Morris Brodie
We are familiar with the wringing of hands and beating of breasts about the state of British industry. There is much to be concerned and fearful about. A prime and vital national…
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We are familiar with the wringing of hands and beating of breasts about the state of British industry. There is much to be concerned and fearful about. A prime and vital national activity, that of creating wealth and providing jobs, has come to be identified with conflict, discontent and uncertainty. Whole chunks of industry have become a political football, almost a political plaything.
Revd. and George Tolley
The title of this Conference Staff motivation and morale in a static situation is all wrong. We are not in a static situation. Even if numbers and resources remain static — which…
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The title of this Conference Staff motivation and morale in a static situation is all wrong. We are not in a static situation. Even if numbers and resources remain static — which is unlikely; they could go up or down, and will almost certainly go up — we shall be in a rapidly‐changing situation. For change is, and ought to be, of the essence of education. Part of the trouble is that teachers in HE and FE are not prepared to change fast enough or radically enough. Part of the trouble also is that expectations built up on the back of years of rapid growth and improvement cannot be met, simply because all normal growth has to be exponential anyway.
This audience, taken together, is responsible for the development of a vast resource for the education, training, and development of the British manager. Each year you spend…
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This audience, taken together, is responsible for the development of a vast resource for the education, training, and development of the British manager. Each year you spend approaching £l0m on teaching staff, and some 40,000 managers pass through your hands. What good has it done, this expenditure of resources and energy over the years; what good will it do as young managers who have absorbed whatever it is you give them take their place, in the next few years, in more senior posts? We have to live with those questions, and we have to be prepared to provide answers; not merely because we are spending a good deal of public money, but because the British manager is fighting for survival and is going to need all the help he can get.
There are just over half a million students in full‐time higher education in this country. The great majority of them go straight into higher education from school and for most of…
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There are just over half a million students in full‐time higher education in this country. The great majority of them go straight into higher education from school and for most of them, until they graduate at 21 or 22, gainful employment will be a matter of expediency, to provide income to eke out a student grant, rather than a serious experience of the initial stages of a career. These young people comprise about 16 per cent of the age group which has within it, speaking very generally and with no desire to sound exclusive, the most able people of their generation. About £1000 million of public money is currently committed, annually, to their education. That money is an investment in — what?
Revd and George Tolley
1984 will be, presumably, post‐Bullock, post‐devolution, post‐North Sea oil euphoria; and by then the productivity, growth, and economic indicator curves will either be…
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1984 will be, presumably, post‐Bullock, post‐devolution, post‐North Sea oil euphoria; and by then the productivity, growth, and economic indicator curves will either be post‐catastrophic or will have shown some turn for the better. By 1984 EEC will be a reality, even for the conservative insular English. But, at the moment, questions abound. Will England's biggest trade rival in 1984 be Scotland? Will the return on North Sea oil, or the improved balance of payments position, have enabled British industry to have been retooled and rejigged? What, by then, will be the balance of the mixed economy? Will it be much as now; or shall we, by then, have moved so much nearer the East European bloc? Will overall productivity have improved to bring us somewhere near the levels of our industrial competitors? Will small and beautiful have won the day over big and ugly? Shall we have identified the most profitable and the most necessary developments requiring priority investment? What will be the technological eggs in our basket that we shall be most expectantly awaiting to hatch? There are plenty of questions.