“So has John Denham done enough to recover from his retro moment with a Sunday Times journalist who reported that the universities secretary might have a yearning to resurrect polytechnics in his future framework for higher education? The answer has to be yes, judging by his speech to a Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) consultative conference yesterday. This is probably just as well. NUS presidents are too young these days to remember polytechnics, but are unlikely to thank ministers for consigning future generations of students to a gulf of resources and reputation that such a recreation of the binary divide would undoubtedly create. But one has to wonder what half-baked ideas about former polytechnics are swirling around DIUS for such an idea even to see the light of day …” (more)
[Pam Tatlow, Guardian, 25 February]