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Abuse studies joins Manchester curriculum

The case of Baby P is moving straight from the headlines into the lecture hall for the UK's first degree course in abuse studies.

The toddler's horrific death in the London borough of Haringey and other episodes of cruelty involving children, women and the vulnerable will be subjects of study for undergraduate students at Manchester Metropolitan University which is launching the course as a full degree next September.

This year, 23 students are taking abuse studies as part of a combined degree with subjects such as psychology or legal studies.

Course leader Dr Geraldine Lee-Treweek, a social psychologist, said: "We realised the degree title, BA abuse studies, was contentious but dealing with the most important issues in society is always challenging."

When she suggested the idea three years ago, she encountered resistance from academics who felt students would not be able to cope with the subject matter.

"It's gloomy I suppose but we are trying to look at what can be done. These young people genuinely believe that things can be done and that is fabulous," she said, adding that the first intake of students were extremely lively and engaged.

The degree includes study of the sociological, psychological, philosophical, legal and social work perspectives of abuse, and looks at how professional groups try to manage incidents of abuse and help people cope with their experiences.

Students will analyse contemporary cases and their treatment in the media and through the courts and are promised frontline experience of working in the social professions.

Lee-Treweek said: "This is a course designed in collaboration with the professions – police, health and social care services, and charities. It gives students the opportunity to work with community groups and welfare organisations to gain frontline experience and skills.

"It's a very challenging but very rewarding area of work, and we have had a lot of interest in the course, so far."

A teacher describes the discrimination she faced because of her HIV status

A teacher describes the victimisation she felt after disclosing her HIV status to the head of the school she worked in

Planet and the Semantic Web

I had a meeting with Tony Linde (U&I Semantic Web) and Vania Dimitrova / Lydia Lau (AWESOME project - Leeds Uni) today where Tony looked at how the semantic web might be applied to JISC projects. With regard to Planet Tony suggested that there were opportunities to apply semantic Web approaches, particularly when we seek [...]

HIV in schools: 'The head physically pulled away from me'

One mother on her experience with sending a child with HIV to a primary school

HIV-positive pupils refused places at some UK schools

Government urged to issue guidelines, as discrimination against children and teachers is uncovered

UK universities' commerical opportunities

Paul Wellings issues a warning to universities which fail to make the most of their commercial opportunities

Vocational A-levels may hamper university chances, report warns

Pupils may be unwittingly ruining their chances of getting into top universities by choosing vocational A-level subjects such as law and accounting, a report suggests.

Research by the Policy Exchange thinktank found top universities favour applicants with traditional A-levels but fail to inform students and parents this is the case.

Students at state schools taking profession-based subjects such as law and accounting with a view to getting a place at university and a job afterwards may not realise they could be barred from top universities as a result.

Data obtained from 27 leading research universities found they do not accept 'soft subjects' such as media studies and tourism or 'professional subjects' including business studies and psychology, which are largely taught in state schools.

Only Cambridge University and the London School of Economics publish lists of 'non-preferred' subjects; other universities offer no clear advice about subjects that may count against students.

Instead, pupils and parents are left to play a guessing game about which subjects might give them an advantage when applying to a top university.

Non-selective state school students are far more likely to take non-traditional A-levels than those attending independent and grammar schools, the report found.

While 75% of all A-level exams are taken in non-selective schools, 96% of law and 93% of media studies A-level entries are in these schools.

And schools often fail to offer sound advice about the implications of the subjects pupils choose to study at A-level.

For instance, at the University of Oxford, more students were accepted in 2007-08 with an A-level in further maths (711) than in 15 other vocational A-level subjects including law, accounting, psychology and sociology combined (494).

For undergraduate law admissions, law A-level comprised two out of a total of 738 A-level entries at Queen's University Belfast, six out of 242 at University College London and 18 out of 527 at the University of Durham.

Maths, physics, chemistry, biology and further maths made up nearly half of all accepted A-levels for Bristol (49.8%) and UCL (46.9%).

None of these departments state publicly on their websites that law is a non-preferred subject.

The report urged all research-intensive universities to be more open about subject choice and admissions, including publishing lists of 'non-preferred' subjects.

Universities should give clear guidance stating which subjects they consider give less effective preparation for certain courses, it suggested.

Anna Fazackerley, Policy Exchange's research director, said: "While universities have the right to make their own decisions about whether a subject provides the right preparation for a course or not, the current lack of transparency is unacceptable.

"Subject choice has become yet another hurdle that may prevent students from less-advantaged families achieving their full academic potential."

Recession must not rein in university research

Ian Carter argues that higher education institutions have plenty to offer during these tough economic tough times

University spin-outs spot spin-offs from recession

The government is counting on universities to help the country recover from the economic downturn.

Vice-chancellors met with Gordon Brown last week to discuss universities' role in boosting the country's finances and argued their case for continued investment in research, development and higher-level education, saying it was more important than ever in an economic downturn.

After years of significant investment in the higher education sector, it will be a hefty responsibility for universities to bear, especially with tightened budgets.

But there are upsides of the downturn for universities. The small companies "spun out" from university research expect to be increasingly able to snap up some of the City's big players to help their fledgling businesses to grow.

Russ Cummings, the chief investment officer of Imperial Innovations, the independent company set up by Imperial College London to help commercialise research, said he now received triple the number of CVs he did a year ago.

"I'm getting up to 10 CVs a week and more personal recommendations compared with one or two six months to a year ago. Part of that is down to the recession," he said.

Imperial Innovations has set up 24 companies over the past two years. They have raised £95m in investment and 91 people are now employed by the 11 spin-outs the company has invested in. Over the past 12 months, it has recruited 14 chairmen and 11 chief executives.

"It will be a challenging time but one with opportunities and, for some, an opportunity for university start-up companies to recruit talent at operational and senior management level," Cummings said.

He feels people will become available or more easily prised out of their established careers because their "golden handcuffs" of share options are worth less in a downturn so they have less to lose.

"The spin-outs get the benefit of their expertise but they get a faster pace of work, where they can make things happen quicker, which is part of the fun," he said.

Getting these people on board can be the difference between a start-up company's success and failure, he said. "If you're trying to build and develop a high growth start-up, you need an ace team in it raising capital, technology development and recruiting other people – a good person can act as a magnet. If you have a great CEO, it can make all the difference between success and failure."

Mark Barry, the chief executive of Q Chip, what he calls a "drag out" company from the University of Cardiff, said the market would be flooded with good people – particularly as big pharmaceutical companies are laying off thousands of employees.

"We've just taken someone on to do business development who was a senior executive of a biotech company. It's difficult for small biotech companies to recruit CEOs who expect to earn £150,000 but, in this kind of market, they're more likely to consider working for a spin-out," he said.

"There are people out there who have a range of skills who are becoming consultants and who are now much easier to get hold of."

But Barry said funding might be more difficult to come by, even if university spin-outs managed to recruit a good senior management team.

British universities generate about £42bn each year - an increase of £8bn in the past five years – employing a significant proportion of the workforce as well as bringing in £3.6bn from educating overseas students.

While research by the Economic and Social Research Council in 2004 showed only a tiny proportion of spin-out companies created by universities managed to succeed, those that were successful stood to make millions of pounds and millionaires of academics.

Ernie Richardson, the chief executive of venture capitalist firm MTI Partners, said it was time to "make hay". He has just sealed a £32m fund to invest in technology coming out of the University of Manchester – one of the biggest deals of its kind in the world.

"It's an ugly truth but downturns often act as a generator of innovation because you have to. We saw this in the 1990s and again in the aftermath of the dotcom crash where people had to rapidly adjust what they were doing," he said.

"Sometimes people go to a spin-out as a last resort but find a wonderful proposition on their hands. It's almost as if recession is the mother of invention."

The Google of 2020 could be funded in the next three years from university spin-outs, he suggests.

Richardson said technology transfer operations in UK universities were much more professional and high quality now and therefore a more appealing prospect for investors.

"They don't now have to take something from the laboratory bench and start from square one – basic intellectual property is sorted and business plans written," he said.

"Lord Paul Drayson, the science minister, is a technology entrepreneur so you have a champion for universities there – we really have to make hay with this kind of confluence of events."

Guardian Student Media awards: Imperial leads the field in a quality year

Imperial College London repeated their successful haul of 2006, taking two top honours at the Guardian Student Media awards last week. Imperial's paper, Felix, won newspaper of the year for its "fantastic mix of good stories, pungent comment, natural consumer journalism and humour", while editor-in-chief Tom Roberts took the prestigious title of journalist of the year. Matt Wells, the Guardian's head of audio, and a judge, said Roberts "displayed the most potential overall".

In another rerun of 2006, Imperial College missed out on magazine of the year, again coming second to Cardiff University's Quench. "Of all the magazines, it felt like the one that was going to be picked up a lot and used," the judges said. Its editor, Ben Bryant, said the feedback had matched his aims: "We made lots of effort to make it relevant to students' lives in Cardiff."

The website of the year, Oxford University's Cherwell.org, was commended by Emily Bell, the Guardian's director of digital content. "It had the whole package, it was polished, professional, the functionality was great," she said. Cherwell's editor, Henry Clarke Price, said his print and online teams had integrated: "It meant we could focus on breaking news sooner."

Hannah Küchler, another Oxford success, took reporter of the year for stories the judges thought "were very well written and meticulously researched". She was credited for her work on Nick Griffin and David Irving being invited to the Oxford Union, which was then widely reported in the national press. "That was something I first picked up at a party, then worked on for a while," said Küchler. "I like to write big, serious stories - not just the usual stuff about rugby drunks."

A documentary about travellers earned Danielle Couchman from Nottingham Trent the title of broadcaster of the year, while a piece about education in prison, which appeared in York's Nouse, secured Nicholas Woolf feature writer of the year.

Other winners included the critic of the year, Leo Robson from Warwick Boar, for work that Ekow Eshun, artistic director of the ICA, said "showed real ambition and imagination". Daniel Calder of Manchester's Student Direct took diversity writer of the year, Stuart Powell from LSE won travel writer of the year, while the photography award went to Edinburgh's James Robertson for a photo that the Guardian photographer Eamonn McCabe said he wished he had taken himself.

Bristol's Epigram had winners in sports writer of the year, Luke Dylan Benedict, and the columnist of the year, Harry Byford. Less Common, More Sense, from the University of the Arts London, received the publication design award for making the most of a talented pool of contributors.

This is the 30th year of the Guardian Student Media awards and, before the winners were revealed, the Guardian's editor Alan Rusbridger spoke about changes in student journalism. "The professionalism of newspaper and websites is unrecognisable from 30 years ago. They have grown better and better," he said.

Judges included Rusbridger, Grazia's editor, Jane Bruton, Andrew Neil and Conor McNicholas, editor of the NME.

A year on...
One year ago I collected a Guardian Student Media award with placements at the Guardian and Sky as part of the prize. That work experience helped me to get some shifts at Sky News as a "guest getter", finding experts, commentators and eyewitnesses to talk on air, which led to me being offered the position of guest producer at Five News, a five-days-a-week real job. Had it not been for the placement, I could have easily currently been jobless, or only getting a few freelance shifts a month and wondering if it's really worth it, like many other journalism graduates. Without the kick-start the placement and the award gave my career, I doubt I would have had much to set me apart from the competition.
Natalie Whelan

The winners
Journalist of the year
Tom Roberts Imperial College London

Newspaper of the year
Winner Felix, Imperial College London
Runner-up Nouse, University of York

Magazine of the year
Winner Quench, Cardiff University
Runner-up I, Science, Imperial College London

Reporter of the year
Winner Hannah Küchler, University of Oxford
Runner-up Adam Thorn, University of York

Features writer of the year
Winner Nicholas Woolf, University of York
Runner-up Chris Watt, University of Glasgow

Photographer of the year
Winner James Robertson, University of Edinburgh
Runner-up Michael Carroll, London College of Communication

Publication design of the year
Winner Less Common More Sense, University of the Arts London
Runner-up Pulp, Newcastle University

Website of the year
Winner cherwell.org, University of Oxford
Runner-up nouse.co.uk, University of York

Critic of the year in association with NME
Winner Leo Robson, University of Warwick
Runner-up Fern Brady, University of Edinburgh

Broadcaster of the year in association with Sky News
Winner Danielle Couchman, Nottingham Trent University
Runner-up Christine Gallop, University of Gloucestershire

Sports writer of the year
Winner Luke Benedict, University of Bristol
Runner-up Alex Richman, York University

Diversity writer of the year
Winner Daniel Calder, University of Manchester
Runner-up Hani Mer-Si, University of Leeds

Travel writer of the year
Winner Stuart Powell, LSE
Runner-up Will Joce, LSE

Columnist of the year
Winner Harry Byford, University of Bristol
Runner-up Angry Geek, Imperial College London

Blow to vitamins as antidote to ageing

The notion that antioxidant supplements such as vitamins C and E could slow ageing has been dealt a blow by a scientific study showing that the theory behind the advice is wrong.

Beloved of health food shops and glossy magazines alike, antioxidants have long been peddled as preventative pills that have the ability to slow ageing and protect against diseases such as cancer. But the research has shown that the molecular mechanism proposed to explain how they work is mistaken.

David Gems, at University College London, who led the study, said: "It really demonstrates finally that trying to boost your antioxidant levels is very unlikely to have any effect on ageing."

The dominant theory for ageing has been around since the 1950s; it blames glitches in cells caused by the damaging byproducts of our metabolism. As cells break down sugars to release energy, they also unleash reactive forms of oxygen such as superoxide. These supposedly cause the damage which is the hallmark of ageing.

Gems' team set about testing the theory that raising or lowering the body's natural defences against superoxide could affect an individual's lifespan: make the defences stronger, and lifespan should increase; make them weaker, and it should decrease.

As it would be unethical to experiment on humans, his team used the nematode worm, Caenorhabditis elegans. By tweaking its genes, the scientists were able to "tune" the worms' natural defences - enzymes it produces to tackle superoxide. However, this made no difference to the worms' lifespan.

"You can drastically change the natural defence levels and there's just no effect on ageing," said Gems, who published his results yesterday in the journal Genes and Development. He added that molecular damage was probably caused by numerous different chemicals within the cell."With increasing lifespan comes greater exposure and vulnerability to the ageing process," said Alan Schafer, head of molecular and physiological sciences at the Wellcome Trust. "Research such as this points to how much we have to learn about ageing, and the importance of understanding the mechanisms behind this process. This new study will encourage researchers to explore new avenues in ageing research."

Gems's findings coincide with a recent US study on the effectiveness of antioxidants against cancer. The clinical trial on nearly 15,000 men tested whether vitamin C and E supplements were effective against the disease. After following the subjects for several years, researchers found no statistical difference in the number of cancers between the groups taking the vitamins and those on a placebo.

Schools design scheme comes under attack

A £45bn programme to improve the design of secondary schools has been branded a wasted opportunity by British architects. A survey by Building Design magazine has revealed that 92 per cent of surveyed architects involved in Building Schools for the Future (BSF) still believed design was not given enough weight in the bidding process. Many of the 25 questioned also complained that badly conceived schools were given the go-head on the basis of financial deals.

Eighty per cent said the programme had had a negative effect on their morale and claimed the buildings would end up unsuitable for pupils and teachers. One architect said: 'We are throwing away the opportunity to have an intelligent dialogue about the future of schools.'

News of their dissatisfaction follows a design awards ceremony last week, organised by Partnerships for Schools, to highlight the programme's success. As a result of previous criticism, the government design watchdog Cabe and PfS are to introduce a minimum design standard for new schools. So far, 42 schools have opened under 24 deals between local authorities and private-sector partners.

Martin Parker: If only business schools wouldn't teach business

Martin Parker: Their expansion in the UK over the past few decades has provided a great deal of income through selling degrees in local and global markets

Teachers demand HIV guidelines

Unions demand direct guidance for head teachers on how to treat pupils with HIV

Author despairs of 'lazy' teachers and students

Has the internet emasculated students?

Letters: New passion for Shakespeare as once again the play's the thing

Letters: Your report (Shakespeare is shunned by schools, November 25) suggests the abolition of the key stage 3 Sats tests may tempt schools to marginalise the teaching of Shakespeare

Editorial: In praise of ... Claude Lévi-Strauss

Editorial: An icon of French intellectualism celebrates his 100th birthday, a man whose books are more honoured than read

Games for the very young

With the Festive season approaching, even if you don't have young children of your own, you are likely to be thrust into a situation where you are required to entertain a three-year-old. Whether it's a family get-together, an afternoon office do or just your neighbours mischeiviously sending their kids around during the Xmas Bond film, an unexpected toddler experience can be traumatic. So can videogames help?

More teachers facing discipline for bad behaviour outside school

Increasing numbers of teachers are facing disciplinary tribunals for misdemeanours outside of school, new research has found.

The number of outside-school offences being examined by the professional and regulatory body, the General Teaching Council for England (GTC), has shot up from seven to 55 in the past four years.

The most common incidents involve teachers being disciplined for drink driving, drug taking and fraud.

A total of 632 incidents of misconduct have been heard at GTC tribunals in Birmingham since 2002, with almost a fifth occurring outside work hours, according to research by the Times Educational Supplement.

Teachers have been disciplined for possessing drugs and guns, as well as violent offences such as assault and manslaughter.

The survey suggests teachers' behaviour is not getting worse but there are now more referrals to the GTC.

Teaching unions agree the GTC has a role to play in safeguarding the reputation of the profession but critics fear teachers will be punished for offences unrelated to their careers.

Mick Brookes, the general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, told TES: "If we ask our heads and teachers to be saints, we will have difficulty recruiting anybody.

"Clearly anyone found guilty of offences against children is unfit for teaching, but where do you draw the line with other offences?"

The GTC launched a consultation today on a draft new code of conduct for teachers, which covers behaviour in and outside of school.

The code will set out the expected standards of behaviour, practice and values demonstrated and shared by teachers across the profession, regardless of their role or where they work.

The GTC has consulted teachers, parents, pupils, school governors and employers to draft the document over the past nine months.

Those taking part were asked about their expectations of teachers, how they perceive the profession in and out of the classroom, and their views on teachers' role and responsibilities regarding pupils, parents, their school and the profession as a whole.

The code also takes into account the much closer work teachers now do with other professionals, such as social workers, and includes research into what constitutes good teaching practice.

The GTC's chief executive, Keith Bartley, said: "Having a professional code, developed with and shared by members, is a hallmark of a profession.

"Teaching, and the expectations on teachers, has changed enormously in recent years.

"A key part of the GTC's role is to support teacher professionalism and to support the raising of standards in the public interest.

"The development of a new code, reflecting teachers' enormous commitment and unique skills, will help us to support the profession to articulate clearly its shared values and expectations about behaviour and practice."

Academy schools: the verdict by Jim Knight and John Bangs

Jim Knight and John Bangs deliver contrasting opinions on the PricewaterhouseCoopers evaluation of academy schools

Quiz: Universities trivia

Test yourself on what you didn't know you didn't know about British universities

Government launches inquiry into academy funds allegations

The government has ordered an inquiry into a sponsor of academy schools which is accused of mismanaging contracts worth millions of pounds of taxpayers' money.

Edutrust, a multi-faith charity chaired by the businessman Lord Bhatia, faces an allegation that it mishandled money awarded to open a string of academies across England.

The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) is investigating concerns raised by the charity's former chief executive, whose contract was ended days after he complained of "governance and financing" irregularities at the organisation.

In a separate blow to the government's academies scheme, a five-year independent report today suggests some academies have used government funds to establish subsidiary companies and that the government is failing to account for the money private sponsors are allocated. The wide-ranging report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) says that while results in academies have improved overall, the picture school by school is "mixed".

Edutrust Academies Charitable Trust is due to open eight of the 80 academies being launched next September. Sponsors receive up to £500,000 in public money for each school in start-up costs.

Last week, at a tribunal fast-tracked under rules prioritising whistleblowers, Edutrust agreed to pay a £200,000-a-year salary to Ian Comfort until his case goes to a public employment tribunal scheduled for July. He claims he was unfairly dismissed days before a six-month probationary period ended, after he raised his concerns with Bhatia and then with the schools department. Edutrust told him he was being laid off for "poor performance".

In the run-up to the interim hearing, Comfort told the Guardian: "I am alleging serious concerns with the financing and governance of Edutrust Academies Charitable Trust. I am extremely concerned about how it is being governed. The concern is about how funds are being used in the organisation and how they are putting forward sponsorship of academies."

However, under the terms of last week's deal, he is now prevented from discussing the details before the July tribunal. The DCSF said: "Some issues have been raised with us. We are looking into them with the full cooperation of Edutrust and will not comment further until that work is done."

Lord Bhatia is a Tanzanian-born businessman who came to the UK in 1972 and is involved in an extensive network of charities. He was made one of the first people's peers, in 2001.

Two days after Comfort's contract was terminated, Edutrust announced that its new director general would be Sir Bruce Liddington, formerly the schools commissioner, the most senior role responsible for academies in the DCSF.

Questions were yesterday raised as to why Edutrust was given special status as a trusted sponsor to manage the start-up programme for the schools when it has only one school up and running. Trent Valley Academy was fast-tracked to academy status this year within five months - the fastest an academy has ever been set up. Christine Blower, acting general secretary of the NUT said: "Why are sponsors being given a number of schools to run with no track record? It says a lot about the government's desperation to get the academy programme going. It carries with it big risks for the sponsors concerned, the government and the schools."

The Guardian put a series of questions about Comfort's allegations to Edutrust. In a statement, Edutrust said it would not comment on its confidential relationship with its employees. "We are not aware of any serious concerns that Mr Comfort raised during his employment with us," it said. Asked to comment on the DCSF's investigation, Edutrust said: "You should ask the DCSF about this. They are currently reviewing our work as their standard process at the end of the first six months."

The PWC report is the last in a five-year series commissioned by ministers to track the progress of academies. It commends a series of benefits of academies, but says there are a number of challenges, including ensuring the schools remain dedicated to teaching disadvantaged pupils as their popularity grows.

On funding it says: "There is a missing link ... between what academies are reporting in their own accounts and the reconciliation of these with the department's resource and accounts and against their funding agreement (in areas such as the use by some academies of general funding to establish subsidiary companies). This missing link creates a potential risk in respect of the department's parliamentary accountability."

Oxford University historian traces first credit crunch back to Roman republic

Politicians searching for historical precedents for the current financial turmoil should start looking a bit further back after an Oxford University historian discovered what he believes is the world's first credit crunch in 88BC.

The good news is that Philip Kay knows how the Romans got themselves into financial bother. The bad news is no one knows how they got themselves out of it.

"The essential similarity between what happened 21 centuries ago and what is happening in today's UK economy is that a massive increase in monetary liquidity culminated with problems in another country causing a credit crisis at home. In both cases distance and over-optimism obscured the risk," said Kay, a supernumerary fellow at Wolfson College.

The monetary historian is giving a lecture today in which he will reveal how Cicero, the Roman orator, gave a speech in 66BC in which he alluded to the credit crunch. Cicero was arguing that Pompey the Great should be given military command against Mithridates VI, king of Pontus on the Black sea coast of what is now Turkey. He reminded his audience of events in 88BC, when the same Mithridates invaded the Roman province of Asia, on the western coast of Turkey. Cicero claimed the invasion caused the loss of so much Roman money that credit was destroyed in Rome itself.

The orator told his audience: "Defend the republic from this danger and believe me when I tell you - what you see for yourselves - that this system of monies, which operates at Rome in the Forum, is bound up in, and is linked with, those Asian monies; the loss of one inevitably undermines the other and causes its collapse."

Kay said the words were "remarkable" for their contemporary tone. "Substitute US sub-prime for 'the Asian monies' and the UK banking system for 'the system of monies which operates in the Roman Forum' and it could have been written about the current credit crisis," said Kay.

"In second-century and early first-century BC Rome, increased inflows of bullion combined with an expansion in the availability of credit to produce a massive growth in Rome's money supply. This increase in the supply and availability of money in turn resulted both in a major increase in Roman economic activity and, eventually, in the credit crisis which Cicero describes."

So how did they get themselves out of such a pickle? "There's very little information about what happened over the next 20 years I'm afraid," said Kay. "We just don't know."

Certainly historians know that Sulla became dictator of the Roman republic after the credit crunch, but Kay said the two events were unrelated.

Kay, who has a background in investment banking and fund management, will deliver his lecture in Oxford. The lecture is organised by the Oxford Roman Economy Project.

Adam Rutherford: Today's children may know less chemistry, but they do learn the scientific method

Adam Rutherford: A report on children's poor science knowledge may, in fact, be unscientific, but our future depends on evidence-based methods

Despite sponsors and high pay for teachers, there is no 'academy effect'

A five-year inquiry into the government's academies programme has concluded that there is no "academy effect" and while results in the schools have improved overall, GCSE marks reveal a mixed picture.

The 130 academy schools are benefiting from expert sponsors, state of the art buildings, and being able to pay teachers above the odds. But there are now questions about whether they are beginning to select high-achieving pupils and whether the high premium ministers place on the scheme is detracting from other schools.

"Rather than a simple uniform 'academy effect', there has been a more complex and varied process of change," the report, by consultants at PriceWaterhouseCoopers and commissioned by ministers, concludes.

It says that some academies have used vocational courses to "secure higher and faster improvements" in results and when the schools are measured on GCSEs including English and maths the process is "less substantial".

There has been an "important policy shift" with academies losing some of their independence, and being made to teach the national curriculum and work much more closely with local authorities, the report shows.

It reveals how the academy programme of independently managed but publicly funded schools has changed radically since its inception.

Initially sponsors were mostly white, male businessmen and now sponsors are more likely to be groups of universities, local authorities and educational trusts and charities.

The schools are increasingly teaching the national curriculum and abiding by teacher pay conditions. Though some started off introducing radical teaching techniques, they have gone "back to basics" focusing on rigorous teaching and testing pupils to identify those lagging behind.

The shifting nature of the programme means it is impossible to identify an "academy effect", the report says. Many schools are adopting the techniques and management processes which are common to all improving schools, whether academies or not.

It clears academies of a key allegation made against them: they have not disadvantaged local community schools. The researchers compared the 24 first academies with the national average and other schools in similar circumstances. There is no evidence that as they have improved in status they have caused neighbouring schools to sink, they found.

Academies are employing more teachers without qualified teaching status – 12% are not qualified compared with 5% in the state sector, the report said. By doing so, some are breaking their funding agreements which require all teachers to be qualified.

The report raises new concerns about the accountability of the funding of academies. It says that the accounts provided by academy sponsors for the running of their school don't always match up to the accounts of the department for children, schools and families. "This missing link creates a potential risk in respect of the department's parliamentary accountability," it says.

The proportion of pupils from the poorest homes has dropped significantly in academies, the report says. It also highlights the high rate of exclusions in academies.

Benefits of academies were noted – including sponsorship, ability to recruit top teachers and their state of the art buildings. But the reports says there are also challenges with the schools, including: "ensuring fair and equitable access for all pupils, and particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds for whom the programme was originally intended".

Jim Knight, the schools minister responsible for academies, said: "This PwC report shows academies are improving results at a faster rate than the national average and that sponsors bring added value thanks to strong leadership and drive. The report says that governance in academies is generally good and the quality of leadership is generally very good.

"This is significant as PwC have done an independent study on school leadership that shows good leadership and management leads to good teaching and learning in the classroom. The report also points out that academies are popular with parents – there are three applications for every academy place."