UFO Info Week-End

There is a long history in this country of scholarly research in education

There is a long history in this country of scholarly research in education and we should be proud of our excellent international standing in this respect.Where educational research has a problem is in trying to communicate its findings to teachers and policy-makers But there have been recent breakthroughs. Likewise, studies carried out by local education authority researchers are concerned with their policies and action; researches by hundreds of teachers are relevant to their classrooms.Secondly, education, like health, employment and leisure, is an entirely legitimate field for research into social phenomena – ie social science. First, in a recent survey of 10,439 research paper titles submitted by higher education lecturers for the research assessment exercise in 1996, it was found that over half were concerned with curriculum issues and aspects of teaching and learning.Studies carried out by the National Foundation for Educational Research and the Scottish Council for Research in Education are all relevant to educational practice. They may be queueing up to share the technology behind sophisticated CD-Rom-based learning materials and virtual lecture halls.The BBC, which now draws hundreds of thousands of casual viewers with up-to-date OU taster programmes without a kipper tie in sight, knows that the multimedia developments at its Milton Keynes centre are the most advanced in the corporation.For Alan Tuckett, the OU’s main problem in reaching non-traditional students will not be off-putting technology, but the financial struggle such students still face. He calls for more investment.”We have this world-class institution, and could do more to support the climate for its message to spread.”. He generalises from the titles of four research papers to castigate the thousands of educational research papers that are written each year as being mainly outside the reality of the classroom.
He is seriously misguided on two counts. research rejoinder

Professor Smithers should know better than to argue from selected instance (Education +, 19 September).

It makes technology an invisible tool.”If the vision of lifelong learning outlined in Sir Ron Dearing’s report and loudly endorsed by the Government is to come into being, traditional universities will increasingly have to follow the OU’s model of part- time and distance learning. But, he says, “there has always been a tension within the OU between `open’ and `university’, but the idea of openness to all and the idea of anyone being capable of learning is very much enshrined.”The OU is about using technology but gradually building it around human interaction, which is critically important. They enthuse over the chance to discuss course troubles and successes with fellow students by e-mail and delve into advanced scholarly study more quickly with the aid of sophisticated CD-Roms. Early problems, such as tutors disappearing under mountains of e-mailed questions, are beginning to be sorted out. Scotia’s recent licensing deal for Foscan, its cancer laser treatment, looks good, but that should not blinker investors to the fact that, after eight years at the bench, the biotechnology group has still not proved the worth of its controversial oil-based technology. The agreement struck with Boerhinger Ingelheim of Germany and the Japanese group Kyowa Hakko is welcome. It boosts the group’s fast-depleting cash pile and gives Scotia a generous 25 per cent royalties on future sales.

Though the deal breathed new life into Scotia’s shares, which picked up a further 18.5p to 436p on yesterday’s interim results, the price has still not recovered from the news in March that Tarabetic, Scotia’s lead drug for diabetic nerve damage, which has been under development since 1991, failed to win UK approval. That announcement lopped almost a quarter off the group’s value in a day.
Scotia must prove that it can turn evening primrose oil into real prescription drugs, not just food supplements and treatments for ailments such as eczema. Most other drug groups have already dismissed oil-based technology in favour of proteins. The question is whether Scotia knows something that the others do not.The company believes that Tarabetic will eventually get approval. It is equally confident about its treatment for cancer, codenamed EF13, and EF5 for arthritis. However recent news that EF5 does not work in one group of trial patients is hardly reassuring.The technology needs to work if Scotia is to justify the money it is ploughing into research and marketing. Increases in these costs in the half-year to June meant operating losses deepened by almost three-quarters to pounds 13m.

Even its pounds 60m of available cash is only enough to last two years. That Scotia is already scrabbling for new ways to raise funds – like a Nasdaq listing or spinning off its fast-growing nutrients business – sits uncomfortably with the view of David Horrobin, chief executive, that Scotia will be cash-positive by 2000. Until Scotia scores a drug success, the shares are high enough.. Regent is one of the many go-go pub stocks which have been able to achieve both booming profits and a soaring share price That was until six months ago Since then, Regent’s shares have slumped.

From a high of 373.5p, they have dropped to 324p, down another 12.5p yesterday despite the announcement of a 57 per cent rise in pre-tax profits to pounds 12.6m for the year to July. The fall has been caused by fears that Regent will be hard pushed to sustain this growth rate. It is true that the rate of expansion is bound to slow.
Like-for-like sales growth is running at 7 per cent, which compares with the double-digit growth the group has achieved over the past few years.Even so, Regent should still be able to increase profits by at least 30 per cent both this year and next. It plans to open 30 pubs in the next 12 months, close to double last year’s total of 17.Given that most of the group’s estate still lies within the M25, there is plenty of scope to expand across the country.