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UNITED KINGDOM: EDUCATION
Cambridge architect degrees saved
Its future had been placed in doubt because of concerns that the quality of its research was not good enough. Cambridge's general board voted unanimously to keep the department open, although six of its 17 academic staff must take early retirement. The university's vice-chancellor, Alison Richard, said "longstanding concerns" had been addressed. Leading architects, such as Lord Foster, who designed of London's Millennium Bridge, had backed a campaign to keep open the department, which has 150 undergraduate and 100 graduate students. Comedian Griff Rhys Jones, whose son is studying architecture at Cambridge, took part in a protest. The university authorities considered closing the department after two reports in 2001 and 2003 had raised concerns about its quality. A closure date of 2008 - when the last of the current students are due to finish their courses - was suggested. However, the general board voted instead for a "new academic strategy", placing more of the department's focus on "sustainable design". This change in policy, the university said, was the reason for the planned early retirements. Professor Roger Parker, chairman of Cambridge's Council of the School of Arts and Humanities, said: "We regard the closure of any department as a very grave step. "So it is particularly pleasing that we have been able to overcome the difficulties and reach a positive solution, one that will enable architecture to become a leader in research, as it already is in teaching." A recent survey showed one in five UK universities had closed or downsized departments in the past year or were planning cuts.
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Anger at 'skin cream' teacher ad
Does working with children keep you young?
The Advertising Standards Authority has received nine complaints about the commercial, commissioned by England's Teacher Training Agency. If the ASA upholds them, the "skin cream" advertisement could be stopped. The TTA said the response to its latest campaign had been positive, with the number of recruits increasing. The ASA said the complainants, some of whom claimed to be teachers, had objected on the grounds that it was misleading. Some believed it had failed to illustrate how demanding teaching was, with one saying the reverse of the "anti-ageing" claim was true. Another believed there was no scientific evidence to back it up and believed the TTA was being "ludicrous". An ASA spokesman said: "We are looking into the complaints made but are at an early stage in the process." A TTA spokesman said the organisation had only received two letters of complaint since the £12m campaign - featuring the slogan "Use your head: teach" - began last September. The five adverts all depict real teachers and pupils in classrooms and were "trialled extensively" among existing staff and trainees before being aired, he added. Last November, the TTA announced that more people were training to become teachers than at any time in 29 years. Some 34,400 began courses in 2004 - with another 7,000 learning on the job. The inquiries by those eligible to study so far this year are up 13.5% on the same period last year, the TTA said. The spokesman added: "The overwhelming response is that the adverts convey what teachers think: that they have a rewarding career and enjoy working with young people."
Girls' school adds most
'value'
A Muslim girls' comprehensive heads a new table of the progress children make in England's secondary schools. Feversham College, Bradford, tops the "value added" measure - which overall sees grammar schools doing very well. Value added shows how children's attainment rose between their final primary school year and their GCSE year, rather than just the end results. But the performance tables have still been criticised by unions, opposition politicians and independent schools. Feversham College, which was in the independent sector until 2001, scored 1,099.8 on the new "all through" value added measure, which is based around 1,000. The school said it was underpinned by its Islamic ethos. "Our added value has increased because we monitor student progress and teaching and learning with a rigorous focus on exam preparation." Nationally, though, teenagers in comprehensive schools averaged a score of 984. In grammar schools the figure was 1,021. In secondary moderns, 982.9 - just below the comprehensives. The chair of the National Grammar Schools Association, Brian Wills-Pope, said: "What this shows is that selective schools do get the best from their students and it goes to prove that we do add significant value." The average in community special schools, which do not normally feature in the tables published by news organisations, was 1,013.2. In independent schools - selective and non-selective - the average was 1,034.2, though they choose whether or not to have their individual scores published.
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Cambridge
University's architecture department is to be saved following a
vote by academics. 
A
television advert claiming that becoming a teacher is "better than any
anti-ageing cream" for keeping people young is being investigated.