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E-learning in health and social care study day

Disillusioned bankers quit the City for the rewards of teaching science

The thrill of City life appears to be fading for hundreds of investment bankers who are preparing to turn their back on the financial sector and opt for a career in science teaching.

The Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) has revealed that inquiries about science teaching posts rose by a third last September compared with the same month in 2007. The agency will reveal this week that formal applications for science teaching posts have reached record levels and that further significant rises are expected next year in the wake of the world financial crisis. Many of those applicants are coming from the City, it says.

Among those swapping the trading floor for the school laboratory is Elizabeth Baldwin. The 44-year-old worked for almost 20 years for major banks, including Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers, until she found, a few months ago, that the excitement of the job was disappearing.

'I had just had my second child, Thomas, and the thought of going back to the City became less and less palatable,' she said. 'The high pay no longer compensated for the long hours and lack of social life.'

So the business analyst - who has a degree in chemistry and biology from King's College London - quit and is now applying to join a training course to become a science teacher. The City is a major employer of science graduates. As it cuts back on jobs, and as more individuals like Baldwin become disillusioned with the financial sector, the numbers of science teachers are set to soar as stockbrokers and analysts quit their Ferraris and stock options for test tubes and Bunsen burners, according to experts.

'There is no doubt that the credit crunch has a huge silver lining in terms of science education in Britain,' said Graham Holley, the agency's chief executive. 'It is going to do a great deal of good for the teaching of chemistry, physics and biology.'

Science teaching has been a cause of considerable concern for education experts for decades. The City has attracted large numbers who are employed, often with lucrative salaries, as business analysts and IT experts. As a result, fewer graduates with top degrees have become teachers. Physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics classes have suffered and fewer children have been inspired to take up science.

In turn, fewer graduates has meant fewer scientifically trained individuals available to work for British industry - and not enough good graduates available to become teachers, who are needed to inspire future generations of sixth-form students and undergraduates to study science subjects.

The government pledged years ago to halt this trend and has introduced a number of measures, including increased salaries for science teachers compared with those in other subjects.

The TDA also launched its Transition to Teaching programme this year to increase numbers. Encouraging results are emerging. This week the agency - which is responsible for boosting teacher recruitment in Britain - will reveal that for the first time the country has exceeded the target set for numbers of new science teachers.

A total of 3,114 science trainees entered colleges during the academic year 2008-09, a rise of 2.5 per cent on the previous year. 'That is the highest number of science teachers we have recruited since the TDA began 13 years ago,' said Holley.

Most of these new recruits have been encouraged by schemes that ensure that salaries start at around £24,000 for science teachers, and can eventually rise to £50,000 for more mature candidates, according to the TDA.

It is a reasonable reward, but it certainly does not match what a science graduate can earn in the City, a point stressed by Baldwin.

'I will be earning a third of what I would have got had I stayed in the City,' she said. 'But money is not everything. Instead of going to work early and leaving very late, I will get a chance to come home and be with my boys, Matthew and Thomas.

'My father was a teacher, so I know what to expect and what I will get out of the job. I know teaching won't be easy, but I know as well that it can be very rewarding.'

'I wanted more time with my boys'

For two decades, Elizabeth Baldwin worked for major banks including Lehman Brothers and Bank of America - a job that took her to Australia, Hong Kong and London.

'The City was part of my life. I would work long hours and then drink with friends. It was in my blood, though it did mean that I never saw my house in daylight.

'But after the birth of my sons - Matthew, who is two-and-a-half, and Thomas, who is 15 months - I found the place was no longer my natural habitat.

'Each time I went back after maternity leave, it no longer felt familiar or safe. So I decided to find a job that would give me some time with my boys.

'My father was a teacher and my sister is a teacher, so it was natural that I would think of education. I am not jumping into it, however. My salary will be about a third of its previous level, although my partner still has his job in the City.

'I will miss the cut and thrust, and the gossip. On the other hand, it will be good to get home by 5.30 and see my children.'

Authors fight to preserve school library

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Ofsted's child abuse report was misleading

A 'misleading' figure included in a major government watchdog report has led to a false and vastly inflated picture of the numbers of children who die from abuse in England.

The revelation comes as an Observer investigation today reveals there has been a huge surge in applications to place children into care since the furore over the Baby P case erupted earlier this month. Amid a public clamour for tougher child protection measures, nervous social workers are pressing for the removal of any child suspected of being at risk of abuse.

Last night the figures used to estimate the scale of child abuse in Britain were themselves under scrutiny. The annual report of education and children's service inspectors Ofsted, published last Wednesday, stated that 282 child deaths had been reported by local authorities across England over the 17-month period ending in August 2008.

According to government sources, Ofsted has now privately admitted this figure is 'misleading' and should have been explained or broken down. The figure of 282 is made up of all children who died while receiving any kind of local authority help - including terminally ill children receiving social care and accidental deaths of nursery age children.

In fact, it is likely that the deaths of fewer than 100 children could be attributed to neglect or abuse.

A spokesman for the Department of Children, Schools and Families said its records would suggest about one child dies through neglect or abuse in England each week, in line with previous estimates.

'Since 1 April 2007, the department has had a database of the serious case reviews following the death or serious injury of a child, so we can confirm that, as of July 2008, serious case reviews were initiated following the deaths of 81 children who died during 2007,' the spokesman said.

The NSPCC said the confusion over the Ofsted report was 'not helpful'. 'We keep statistics because it is important to monitor any changes,' a spokesman said. 'We were confused when we first read the report because it was so much higher than our statistics, which come from the government homicide statistics. But it seems they have put all child deaths together, not just ones that are linked to abuse, so it isn't really helpful.'

An Ofsted spokesman said that the report may have been confusing for a lay person, but, while the figure was not wrong, the context 'wasn't made clear enough'.

In the wake of the Baby P case, staff working in the family courts report there has been as much as a three-fold increase in applications to place a child into care in the past fortnight. The Inner London Court would normally expect to receive between two and three applications a day for children to be placed in care. However, last week, staff said they were receiving between eight and 10 applications a day.

In Leicestershire, there were nine applications for child protection orders over the past week, compared with an average two to three in a normal week. On Thursday, staff working at the family court in Colchester said they received three applications in just 24 hours, while staff in Leeds said they had nine cases in the last week, an 'unprecedented number', according to an insider.

Figures collected by Cafcass, which looks after the interests of children involved in family proceedings and is responsible to the government, confirm there has been a significant spike in the orders as the police and local authorities rush through cases to remove 'at risk' children.

The Cafcass figures reveal that, across England, there was a 26 per cent increase in applications for all forms of child protection orders made between 10 November and 20 November this year, compared with the same period in 2007.

In an article published on observer.co.uk today, Anthony Douglas, chief executive of Cafcass, acknowledges that the Baby P case appears to be having an effect on child protection policy. 'This is hardly surprising,' he writes. 'Negative publicity usually leads to institutional risk aversion.'

Unions warned a rise in child protection orders would impact on the child protection system. 'A dramatic increase will put additional pressure on Cafcass,' said Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of Napo, the family court union. 'Each report leads to the court appointing a Cafcass guardian to represent the child. Doubtless the agency will struggle to meet demand.'

Ofsted concern at pupil safeguards in some private schools

Ofsted has raised "major concerns" about the safety of thousands of pupils in private schools that have failed to abide by rules designed to protect children in their care from abuse.

Inspections of independent schools in the past year revealed that a high proportion of fee-charging schools are failing on safeguarding procedures and many are providing inadequate levels of education. State schools outperformed private schools on several educational measures, according to inspectors. "It is a major concern that about a third of non-association independent schools do not fully meet the requirements for safeguarding pupils," the Ofsted annual report says. Failure to comply with safeguarding procedures means the schools are not properly vetting staff who are in contact with children or training staff to identify signs of abuse and deal with vulnerable children.

Despite the fact that fee-paying pupils dominate the top GCSE results, A-levels and applications to prestigious universities, there are many in poorer quality schools which are less closely regulated by Ofsted.

Ofsted reported on inspections of 433 independent schools as part of its annual report, published this week. The majority of fee-charging schools, those which are members of the Independent Schools Council (ISC) and its member associations, are inspected under a separate inspection regime to Ofsted. The ISC represents 80% of pupils and 60% of the schools in the independent sector; the overwhelming majority of the rest are inspected by Ofsted. They include some faith schools, stage schools, boarding schools, Montessori schools and schools dedicated to children with special educational needs.

"The quality of education [teaching] is good in 52% of non-association independent schools inspected, but outstanding in only 5%," the report says.

In private schools inspected by Ofsted, 6% were rated inadequate, 37% satisfactory, 52% good and only 5% outstanding on the measure of "overall quality of education". Of state schools 5% were inadequate, 32% satisfactory, 49% good and 15% outstanding on overall effectiveness.

The Ofsted report rates the schools very highly on pupil behaviour - 37% were outstanding.

However, in four in 10 schools pupils were failing to make enough progress. "Although much of the teaching is competent and effective, little of it is inspirational," Ofsted says. One in five of the schools were failing to meet all of their basic regulatory duties.

Miriam Rosen, head of education at Ofsted, said some schools were routinely failing to follow child protection procedures to properly vet staff.

"Children are not necessarily at risk, but they are not demonstrating on paper the safeguards are in place. That's not good enough," she said.

So you want to work in ... Television

Working in television still holds huge appeal as a glamorous career, in spite of long hours, hard work and tough competition for jobs. Television post-production polishes programmes before they are broadcast and requires creative people with a good grasp of how the technology works.

To succeed you need bags of energy, drive, perseverance, as well as the ability to get on with anyone and turn your hand to every aspect of television production. Don't expect to have a permanent job in television but a challenging career that will constantly change. TV production companies are inundated with people looking for work experience and work. How can you make yourself stand out?

An employer says

Becci Morgan, facilities manager, Flix Facilities (flixfacilities.com)

We look for people who are prepared to start by making tea before they move up. A lot of graduates expect to come in as junior editors but it doesn't work like that - you need to learn from other people and work your way up.

The managing director of Flix started as a runner at 16. I started my TV career in the machine room as a graduate and didn't know anything about it when I started, but you learn from people as you go along.

Graduates learn a lot, but not the technical side of things. It would be good to have graduates who are prepared for post-production but universities tend not to allow students to get on the equipment because it's expensive. If you have digitising skills then you would get on quicker as it's a key skill that people want to see. It's a good idea to get as much work experience as you possibly can.

It's still worth going to university though as it gives you a better cultural background and helps you to grow as a person. It's not just about your career.

It's also worth sending companies speculative CVs. Persevere.

Spelling and grammar are very important. We get so many CVs sent in and you wouldn't believe how many had misspelled words in them. That's one thing that really puts me off. It shows that you haven't double-checked everything, which we like our technical operators to do.

A teacher says

Sam Green, head of film and TV production, Futureworks (futureworks.co.uk)

To do well in this profession you have to have a huge passion for it because it's quite a difficult job. Don't expect it to be easy, fun and full of parties.

The way people get hired has changed over the last 10 years. No one has a steady job any more. It's pretty much all freelance. You have to be pretty fantastic at what you do, have the personal skills to match and be multiskilled these days. Employers don't just want someone who can edit but write the script, do camera work or special effects as well.

You often hear that people coming through university can't keep up with the fast-paced changes happening in TV, such as the BBC going "tapeless" by 2010 and the change from digital to high definition, which will impact on the technologies we use.

We offer industry-spec training in film and TV, music, digital arts and games and try to give students ideas and technical skills for a career that's ever-changing and that will need constantly updating. We also try to teach them to do less-desirable corporate work until they bring to fruition their difficult dream of working in the film industry.

There aren't people there to pass on their skills and mentor people any more - what makes you special is knowing a little bit more information than the next person, which can make it quite a selfish profession.

A graduate says

Tom Bohan, post-production assistant, Sumners (sumners.co.uk)

I'm working in post-production at Sumners, which is the biggest post-production facility outside London with clients including Mastermind, Dragon's Den and Songs of Praise.

My role is varied and involves a mixture of client hospitality and helping the day-to-day running of the facility, as well as more technical post-production work such as digitising tapes and transferring DVD.

I graduated with a degree in film and cultural studies from Lancaster University and then secured a month's work experience at the BBC before getting my job at Sumners six months ago.

You definitely need an understanding of TV production to be any good at the job and I would highly recommend doing work experience. I also did a two-year Avid industry-standard editing programme at Futureworks, which was a lot more relevant than my degree.

Post-production involves mixing and dubbing and voice-over work. It's very hard work without a doubt.

I do very long hours, including night shifts. Programmes have an allotted time when they need to go out so if something needs to be done you have just got to do it.

You have to be dedicated, organised, outgoing and friendly as it's quite client-facing.

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Nasa veteran offers tips to British students on how to walk in space

Britain may be scorned for refusing to send humans into space, but from next week it will have the next best thing: its own university course on how to be an astronaut.

Staff at Leicester University have called in a former Nasa astronaut, Jeff Hoffman, a veteran of five space shuttles, to teach the course which will offer instruction on how to survive in space, coping with the psychological demands of long-term space travel and how to conduct a spacewalk without dropping your toolbox.

Hoffman, who took part in crucial spacewalks to fix cameras aboard the Hubble space telescope in 1993, will join Leicester as a visiting professor but will maintain his position in the astronautics department at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The government is reviewing its long-held opposition to human spaceflight and an announcement is expected weeks before the European Space Agency reveals at least four new recruits to its astronaut team. Britain has never had an astronaut train through ESA because its funding covers only robotic missions and ground-based astronomy.

"There's a strong student interest," Hoffman said. "If Britain continues with that policy, these students will still be able to work in other capacities at the European Space Agency."

Hoffman will draw attention to the future exploration of the solar system, which is likely to see humans working alongside robotic rovers that could be sent out from a moonbase to conduct experiments at remote sites.

The Leicester course begins as the UK prepares for a high-level meeting of European science ministers, at which human space exploration will be discussed.

Martin Barstow, head of physics and astronomy at Leicester, said: "I'm fed up with the way the UK keeps dodging the issue of being involved in human spaceflight. Our students don't need to be loaded with that baggage.

"They still have aspirations to be astronauts and they still want to get involved in the space industry, so why should the UK government's attitude be a handicap?"

UK university launches astronaut course

Britain may be scorned by other nations for steadfastly refusing to send humans into space, but from next week it will have its own university course on how to be an astronaut.

Staff at the University of Leicester have called in former Nasa astronaut Jeff Hoffman – a veteran of five space shuttle missions – to teach the course, which will offer instruction on how to survive in space, coping with the psychological demands of long-term space travel and how to conduct a spacewalk without dropping your toolbag.

Hoffman, who took part in crucial spacewalks to fix cameras aboard the Hubble Space Telescope in 1993, will join Leicester as a visiting professor but will maintain his position in the astronautics department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The UK government is reviewing its long-held opposition to human spaceflight and is due to announce its conclusions by the end of the year. The announcement is expected weeks before the European Space Agency reveals at least four new recruits to its astronaut corps.

A British astronaut has never trained through Esa because the UK's funding of space only runs to robotic missions and ground-based astronomy.

"There's a strong student interest in this despite the fact that the British government has not supported human participation in spaceflight," Hoffman told the Guardian. "If Britain continues with that policy, these students will still be able to work in other capacities at the European Space Agency."

Hoffman will draw particular attention to the future exploration of the solar system, which is likely to see humans working alongside robotic rovers, which could be sent out from a manned moonbase to conduct experiments at remote sites.

The Leicester course begins as the UK prepares for a high-level meeting of European science ministers at which human space exploration will be discussed.

Martin Barstow, head of physics and astronomy at Leicester, said: "I'm fed up with the way the UK keeps dodging the issue of being involved in human spaceflight. Our students don't need to be loaded with that baggage. They still have aspirations to be astronauts and they still want to get involved in the space industry, so why should the UK government's attitude be a handicap?

"Only a very few people are ever going to become astronauts, even if the UK was fully signed up to human space flight. Most people won't get to do it, but they will become highly qualified physicists and engineers and will get involved in the space industry in different roles. What we want them to come out with is a real grasp of practicalities of living and working in space and what we need to do in the future."

Baby P review to be seen by opposition MPs

The government has agreed to release a detailed review into the Baby P case to opposition MPs, a day after claiming it had been told to keep the document confidential.

The children's secretary, Ed Balls, told the Commons yesterday that lawyers had advised him not to make the full serious case review available.

He cited a 2006 ruling by the Information Commissioner in a separate case and voiced concerns that identifying the professionals involved in the case could jeopardise future investigations.

But today Ball's department said five MPs would be allowed to study the full report.

Baby P died in Haringey, north London, in August last year after suffering more than 50 injuries at the hands of his abusive mother, her boyfriend and a lodger - despite repeated visits by the authorities.

A 15-page summary of the serious case review was published at the end of an Old Bailey trial last week.

Now the full report will be made available to the Conservative and Liberal-Democrat children's spokesmen, Michael Gove and David Laws, the Children, Schools and Families select committee chairman, Barry Sheerman, and local MPs Lynne Featherstone and David Lammy.

The MPs will be allowed to read the document on "privy council terms", meaning they must keep its contents secret.

The case was the subject of angry exchanges between David Cameron and Gordon Brown at prime minister questions last week. Since then the government has been keen to establish cross-party consensus on how to tackle the failings highlighted by the tragedy.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said: "As Ed Balls said in the House of Commons yesterday and in his letter to the opposition children, schools and families spokesmen, he has been keen to find a way to enable them to study the serious case review report but remaining consistent with the principle that these documents remain unpublished and confidential.

"In order to ensure that future serious case reviews are not undermined and achieve their purpose, it remains vital to keep the serious case review confidential."

The shadow children's secretary, Michael Gove, welcomed the move.

"It's important that bureaucracy doesn't get in the way of proper scrutiny," he said.

The three people convicted of involvement in the killing of Baby P are facing "substantial" terms in prison, a judge has warned.
Baby's P's mother, 27, her boyfriend, 32, and their lodger, Jason Owen, 36, will be sentenced at the Old Bailey on December 15 for causing or allowing his death.

Yesterday there was confusion among officials about the bearing the Data Protection Act had on releasing the report.

The House of Commons was told the information commissioner had ruled that the full report could not be released to opposition MPs because of the risk of identifying professionals involved.

But the Information Commissioner's Office said later that it had not been consulted over the case.

Sotheby's launch course in art business management

In the eye of an economic storm, buying art has so far remained a safe haven.

But even the art world is beginning to feel economically challenged, and bemused business managers are keen to gain a competitive edge.

Or so hopes Sotheby's – the auction house partly responsible for perpetuating the unprecedented prices of artists' oeuvres.

It is leaping to the aid of antsy art managers with a new six-day course at its Institute of Art that promises to address management issues including strategy, marketing and leadership.

The course will include lectures, panel discussions, case studies, interviews and receptions at various galleries and venues in London.

Sessions will be led by business school lecturers, consultants, financial analysts and invited practitioners from the art world.

Students will explore the issues that companies and institutions face today to increase revenue and focus on long-term growth.

According to Iain Robertson, head of art business at Sotheby's Institute of Art, the fortunes of the contemporary art market are the most closely correlated to property prices.

"People with bonuses tend to buy contemporary art so there's a sound reason for that as well. They don't have the background or time to invest in old masters so they have gone for a straightforward commodity and the bucket loads of money put into contemporary art inflated the price."

So the bankers are to blame for the art world's impending crash too, it seems, as well as those who pandered to their tastes.

Younger and just established artists will face the toughest time, Robertson says. "Damien Hirst is so protected by vested interests from dealers to collectors his prices will be sustained. If he goes the whole contemporary market goes."

Even as the economic crisis loomed, art lovers shelled out millions of pounds to buy Damien Hirst's work.

But Sotheby's is keen to target those fearful the bottom is about to fall out of the – up until now ludicrously lucrative – art market.

Many will be concerned, and rightly so. The contemporary art market bubble, after years of inflating, is now, if not bursting, certainly deflating.

Sotheby's own share price has dropped 75% of its value in the past year and reports suggest it is now close to its 1980s low of $8.

"We felt the time was right to introduce just such a course to offer art business professionals the preparation needed to reach new levels of business management within the challenging economic times of today," said Prof Jos Hackforth-Jones, director of Sotheby's Institute of Art.

"Drawing on the Institute's hands-on teaching philosophy, participants will gain a practical as well as theoretical knowledge for developing business strategies within their own art businesses."

The course, as Robertson says, is about managing that risky market.

"A cracking piece will still sell but contemporary art in general is a lot harder to sell in a downturn and people do tend to run for "hard stuff" – pictures, paintings and sculptures – rather than the rarefied end of the market," he says.

Buying under-valued stock in the buyer's market is a good idea and emerging markets have lots to offer to bring something fresh to the market when it picks up, as it must – eventually.

The course - Business Management in the Art World – will run from January 5 to 10 next year at the London Institute in Bedford Square, London.

The news comes as the Royal College of Art appointed Dr Paul Thompson as its new rector and vice-provost.

The director of the US national design museum, who is the Design Museum's former director, will take over from Sir Christopher Frayling in September next year.

Thompson said he felt honoured and privileged to lead the RCA.
"As the world's leading university of art and design, the college boasts an incredible heritage, outstanding staff and graduates who have gone on to make their names as leaders in their fields all over the world.

"I look forward very much to taking up the post in September," he said.

Nobel prize winners call for education in war zones

Thirty-one Nobel peace prize winners have called for urgent action to provide good education and build peace in war zones.

The Dalai Lama, the former US president Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi are among the signatories of the first-ever joint statement.

They want world leaders to pay more attention to the educational needs of more than 37 million children who live in countries affected by conflict who cannot go to school.

In a joint letter, initiated by the charity Save the Children, they say: "War and conflict are perpetrated by adults. But every adult was once a child and grew up with experiences and guidance that shaped their lives.

"At the heart of this lies education. But if more than 70 million children do not even have the chance to go to school, and more than half of these children live in countries affected by armed conflict - what are these children learning?"

Millions of children continue to be denied an education because of war, despite world leaders' target to make sure every child has a primary education by 2015.

Even before the fighting escalated in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 5 million of the 9.6 million school-age children were unable to go to school.

More children have been forced to flee their schools in recent weeks and some schools have been targeted to recruit child soldiers, the charity said.

An analysis of civil wars of the past 50 years showed that each year of formal schooling attended by boys reduces the risk of their becoming involved in conflict by 20% - yet children in trapped in this spiral of conflict continue to be denied education.

Save the Children is campaigning to provide education for children living in conflict-affected fragile states and for more funding for education to help build peace and stability.

Carter said: "I have seen the beneficial impact of education in promoting peace.

"It would be a mistake to underestimate the influence that children can have in shaping the opinions and decisions of adults."

Charlotte Petri Gornitzka, secretary general of the International Save the Children Alliance, said: "We are delighted that these champions of peace have chosen to speak out with a united voice for the first time.

"Their support shows that if the international community is serious about ending conflict and building lasting peace in countries like Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo and Afghanistan, then education has to be a top priority."

The signatories come from 17 countries and have been involved in resolving 15 conflicts.

Straw condemns prisoners' stand-up comedy course

A comedy course for maximum security prisoners has been branded 'totally unacceptable' by justice secretary Jack Straw

History's missing pages: Iranian academic sliced out sections of priceless collection

To the untrained eye the damage is barely visible. Yet within the handbound pages of books charting how Europeans travelled to Mesopotamia, Persia and the Mogul empire from the 16th century onwards, the damage caused by one Iranian academic to a priceless British Library collection is irreversible.

Leading scholars at the library are at a loss to explain why Farhad Hakimzadeh, a Harvard-educated businessman, publisher and intellectual, took a scalpel to the leaves of 150 books that have been in the nation's collection for centuries. The monetary damage he caused over seven years is in the region of £400,000 but Dr Kristian Jensen, head of the British and early printed collections at the library, said no price could be placed upon the books and maps that he had defaced and stolen.

"These are historic objects which have been damaged forever," said Jensen. "You cannot undo what he has done and it has compromised a piece of historical evidence which charts the early engagement of Europeans with what we now know as the Middle East and China.

"It makes me extremely angry. This is someone who is extremely rich who has damaged and destroyed something that belongs to everybody."

Hakimzadeh, 60, faces a jail sentence today when he appears at Wood Green magistrates court in London. The Iranian-born academic fled his country after the fall of the Shah and holds a US passport. He has pleaded guilty to 14 specimen charges of stealing maps, pages and illustrations from 10 books at the British Library and four from the Bodleian Library in Oxford dating back to 1998.

When police searched his home in Knightsbridge, west London, last July they discovered some of the missing maps, pages and pictures inserted into less valuable editions of the same books he owned.

Academics at the library were forced to turn detective in June 2006 after a reader who had taken out a copy of Sir Thomas Herbert's book A Relation of Some Yeares Travaille, Begunne Anno 1626 suggested some of its pages had been removed.

Careful examination by experts at the library proved him to be correct and the staff mounted a delicate operation to find out who had been damaging the book and whether other items had suffered the same fate.

Using electronic records, they found all the British Library members who had taken out the book and then examined other works these people had had contact with. They discovered that other works detailing the same periods in history and covering European engagement to the area from modern-day Syria to Bangladesh were also damaged.

Pages had been sliced away close to the spine of the books and maps, one of them worth £32,000, had been removed from chapters, leaving barely noticeable indentations in the paper marking where they had been.

"It was only the books taken out by Hakimzadeh which showed a consistent pattern of damage," said Jensen.

They discovered that Hakimzadeh had taken out 842 books and of these at least 150 had been mutilated. Some of the stolen pages were discovered but many have been lost forever.

The library wrote to Hakimzadeh, who at the time was chief executive of the Iran Heritage Foundation, a charity he formed in 1995 to promote and perserve the history, languages and culture of Iran. He replied saying he had no idea that there was any damage to the books. It was at this point that the library went to the police with the details of the investigation.

Forensic scientists analysed the damaged books and police officers called at Hakimzadeh's Knightsbridge home, where he lived with his wife.

"Some pages were found loose and others had been inserted into books in his own collection," said Jensen, who acccompanied the officers. "Hakimzadeh is eminently characteristic of our traditional groups of readers: he has a profound knowledge of the field. From my point of view, that makes it worse because he actually knew the importance of what he was damaging. What he did was use the cover of serious scholarly purpose to steal historic pieces and abuse our trust."

The library has launched a civil action to sue Hakimzadeh for full compensation.

Defaced books

The rare books that were defaced by Hakimzadeh include:

Historia de la China From the writings of Father Matteo Ricci, an Italian Jesuit who travelled to China in 1582 and became the first western traveller to settle there. First published in Latin in 1615. This copy was printed in Spain in 1621. Ricci learned to speak and write Chinese and his work was the first important and reliable European description of the country.

Novus Orbis An anthology of works by Simon Grynaeus, professor of Greek at Basle. Hakimzadeh removed an engraving of a world map drawn by Hans Holbein the Younger, court painter to Henry VIII.

Mithridates By the English dramatist Nathaniel Lee. Published in 1693.

Ost-indian-und Persianische Reisen By Johann Gottlieb Worm, the German philosopher who accompanied an envoy of the Dutch East India Company sent to the Safavid court in Persia in 1717. He travelled to Isfahan from India via Bandar. Published in 1745.

Corby and Crawley hope to become university towns

Corby, Crawley and Croydon are bidding to join Cambridge as university towns, it was announced yesterday. Basildon, Basingstoke, Dudley and Stockport are also among 27 areas in England bidding for funding to launch new higher education (HE) centres, said the universities secretary John Denham. They are among the first places to apply to take part in the government's "university challenge" initiative, launched in March.

Denham said the project would help regions hit by the recession by providing education and regeneration in rural areas as well as cities. Opposition MPs accused the government of "knocking up" the idea to compensate areas which had been earmarked for casinos but missed out after the project was scaled back at the beginning of the year.

Partnerships of regional development agencies, local authorities and colleges have put together bids for the universities centres, which will teach a range of degrees but fall short of being standalone universities because they will not have their own degree-awarding powers or privy council approval.

Universities in neighbouring areas will be a crucial element in the partnerships accrediting the degrees. The government wants 20 new higher education centres planned within the next six years. The new centres could provide study places for up to 10,000 students.

Ministers want the centres to open up the chance to study for a degree for people who would not have given much thought to a degree previously. According to economists, every extra job a university creates is matched by another elsewhere in the economy, such as in restaurants and bars, to cater for the student population.

But Martin Freedman, head of pay, conditions and pensions at the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said: "Some of the 27 towns interested in setting up higher education centres already have successful further education colleges. We don't want these colleges and new universities to compete for students at each other's expense.

"In the light of the government's cap on the number of extra HE students, this proposed university expansion raises questions about how additional universities can function if limits are placed on the number of students?"

Universities are already struggling to fill their places after ministers were forced to cut the numbers funded to go to higher education next year. Last month, Denham froze additional student numbers after admitting the government had botched its estimates for student grants and could no longer afford its support package.

University hopefuls

Areas bidding to run universities: Accrington, Basildon, Basingstoke, Corby/Kettering, Crawley, Croydon, Doncaster, Dudley, Ebbsfleet, Halifax, Havering, Herefordshire, King's Lynn, Milton Keynes, Rochdale, Rotherham, Sandwell, Scarborough, Shropshire, Somerset, Stratford Island, Stockport, Swindon, Thurrock, Wakefield, Wallsend and Wirral

Type of buggy can affect baby development, study finds

From what their children eat to where they sleep and whether their favourite toy is educational enough, parents have never been short of things to agonise about.

But today researchers add "buggy worry" to the list, with a report suggesting front-facing strollers could deprive babies of their first lessons in life by discouraging their parents from talking to them.

The study suggests that old-fashioned buggies, which allow babies to lie down and look up at their parent, give babies the best start in life. A recent wave of hi-tech, adaptable, parent-facing buggies - such as the Bugaboo Cameleon and the Stokke Xplory - can help, but they are often expensive, the researchers say.

The research into the psychological effects of buggies reveals that life in a 21st-century baby buggy can be emotionally isolating. Children in front-facing varieties are significantly less likely to talk, laugh and interact with their parents than those in buggies that face the pusher, according to the research. The study is published by the National Literacy Trust for its Talk to Your Baby campaign and funded by the educational charity the Sutton Trust.

It includes an observational study of more than 2,722 parent-infant pairs across the country, carried out by Suzanne Zeedyk, of Dundee University's school of psychology. Some 62% of the babies were in away-facing pushchairs, as were 86% of toddlers. Parents using face-to-face buggies were more than twice as likely to be talking to their child.

A separate, small-scale study monitored 20 babies wheeled in pushchairs across a one-mile stretch in Dundee. Half the journey was spent in an away-facing buggy and half in a parent-facing one. The results suggested that babies' average heart rates fell slightly in a parent-facing buggy, and babies were also twice as likely to fall asleep in this orientation, suggesting they may be more stressed when in away-facing buggies.

Mothers and infants also laughed more often in face-to-face buggies. Only one baby in the group of 20 laughed during the away-facing journey, while half laughed during the face-to-face journey.

Zeedyk emphasised that the study was small and required further investigation, but said: "If babies are spending significant amounts of time in a baby buggy that undermines their ability to communicate with their parent, at an age when the brain is developing more than it will ever again, then this has to impact negatively on their development. Our experimental study showed that, simply by turning the buggy around, parents' rate of talking to their baby doubled."

Laura Barbour of the Sutton Trust said: "The Sutton Trust hopes that buggy manufacturers will look closely at this research, which suggests that face-to-face models improve communication at a very early stage. The problem is that at present these cost a minimum of £200."

Unlocking the door for youth

Jeffrey Burgin, 17, from north London, outlines the policies necessary to inspire more young people to break class boundaries

Cross-country comeback chills China's schoolchildren as winter looms

For years it was the bane of every British schoolchild's life. Now cross-country has made a comeback in China - and is proving equally unpopular.

The ministry of education has launched a winter running campaign that it hopes will boost both patriotism and health. Schools have been ordered to take their pupils for a jog every day until the end of April.

Primary schoolchildren must run a kilometre (0.621 miles), junior high school students 1.5km and senior high and college students 2km. But the People's Daily newspaper - the Communist Party's official mouthpiece - acknowledged today that the scheme has proved controversial, with parents and teachers as well as schoolchildren complaining about the order.

Critics argue that it will distract students from their studies and warn that urban schools often struggle to find space for sports, questioning whether they can map out a safe route for pupils. Others have loftier philosophical objections.

"It is the right of every school or even every student to choose. Asking the students of the whole country to run is a bad sign for education, whose nature is freedom," wrote one blogger.

But according to the state news agency Xinhua, the ministry has said that physical education plays an important role in carrying out ideological and moral education and stressed the need for such work in the run-up to the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic next year.

Commentator Ya Wei of the Da He newspaper said the only fault with the campaign was that it didn't go far enough. "Records show the physical condition of youth in China is dropping fast," he said. "I think for a student running 60km in a winter is not too much, but too little."

Diploma in engineering will be accepted at Oxbridge

The universities of Cambridge and Oxford will accept the advanced diploma in engineering for entry to its undergraduate engineering courses.

The move by the elite universities will give the government's flagship qualification a welcome boost after the numbers taking up diplomas this September were lower than expected.

Diploma students could apply next year to start courses at the universities in 2010 but the numbers are expected to be very small.

Students studying the diploma will need to include physics A-level and the A-level equivalent Level 3 certificate in mathematics for engineering as part of the additional specialist learning section.

They will also be expected to demonstrate the same level of academic aptitude and potential as other candidates and undertake the extended project and principal learning elements of the diploma.

University engineering departments have helped draw up the content of the new diploma to make sure it is robust enough to prepare students for degrees.

Dr Geoff Parks, Cambridge's admissions director, said he had been heavily involved and was pleased the qualification would now be acceptable as preparation for the university's engineering courses.

"The engineering diploma is an interesting new qualification combining practical and theoretical learning in innovative ways.

"I very much hope that its introduction will not only help address the skills shortage in a discipline that is vital to the country's economic wellbeing but also extend opportunities to talented young people from all backgrounds."

Mike Nicholson, head of undergraduate admissions at Oxford, said: "We already welcome engineering candidates with a wide range of qualifications and see the value in considering those studying the advanced diploma in this subject.

"We are keen to encourage appropriately qualified applicants to apply regardless of their school or college background."

Dr John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the move was critical.

"To succeed the diploma needs strong support from industry and universities but specifically support from the top universities," he said.

"This support is extremely important for schools and colleges who are encouraging their students to do the diplomas.

"This announcement is critically important in ensuring greater parity of esteem between with A-levels and ensuring that diplomas don't become second-class qualifications."

Malcolm Carr-West, academic advisor at the Higher Education Academy Engineering Subject Centre, said: "A number of universities are looking at it very favourably provided the maths element is okay for them."

A number of universities helped develop the maths for engineering element of the diploma based on a pre-entry course at Loughborough University.

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Open University appoints Microsoft boss

The Open University has appointed a Microsoft boss to be its fifth vice-chancellor.

Martin Bean is currently general manager of product management, marketing and business development for Microsoft's worldwide education products group.

He will take over from Prof Brenda Gourley, who has held the post since 2002, in September next year.

Bean has held senior executive positions in North America, Asia Pacific and Europe and will bring more than 20 years' experience in global business training and education.

He has held executive management roles in leading organisations, including Novell, Sylvan Learning, Thomson Learning and New Horizons Computer Learning Centres.

He has helped develop and reform education policy, as well establishing and managing complex, multi-stakeholder partnerships in public, private and not-for-profit organisations and has a track record of growing or reinventing complex enterprises.

The chair of the appointment committee, Lord Haskins of Skidby, said Bean was an "extraordinary person" and would lead the university through a critical point in the development of web-driven higher education.

Bean said it was an honour to be selected.

"[The OU] is a unique and amazing institution that has changed the lives of millions through its commitment to furthering social justice and to making higher education and educational opportunity accessible to all," he said.

"I look forward to combining my passion for education and technology to lead the university over the coming years, as we continue to provide innovative and high quality distance education solutions to meet the needs of the 21st century."

Bean holds a bachelor's degree in adult education from the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia, and currently lives in Washington with his wife and three daughters.

More than two million people have studied with the OU since it began in 1969 and it has more than 200,000 students in over 40 countries.

The university has more than 4,000 full-time and 7,000 part-time staff with a turnover of £420m and is highly ranked for teaching and student experience.