The A-Level pass rate has risen for the 28th successive year. Debasing the coinage. It's what governments do....

The Times reports on "essay factories" offering 2.1 degrees or your money back. Bahram Bekhradnia, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, a think tank, is reported as saying: “It is potentially very serious and undermines the whole fabric of higher education.” No amount of legislation or plagiarism analysis will prevent these operations. In any case, plagiarism analysis is ...

Word reaches me that entries are being sought for the Electoral Reform Society's annual Thomas Hare Essay Competition, which is open to anyone in full-time education and carries a prize of £1,000 for the winner, whose essay will be published by the ERS.Full details of how to enter are available online, but essentially you need to write a 3,000-word essay on one of four topics, all o...

That's the title of a must read essay by Zombie over at Pajamas Media. Here's a slice, accompanied as always by Zombie's amazing photos: I write this essay with a heavy heart. I’ve always considered myself an ardent advocate for education. But a recent rally staged by teachers and students in favor of school funding forced me to reluctantly acknowledge an awful truth: We have ...

Word reaches me that entries are being sought for the Electoral Reform Society's annual Thomas Hare Essay Competition, which is open to anyone in full-time education and carries a prize of £1,000 for the winner, whose essay will be published...

Okay guys, here is the deal. I have an essay to write. But this is not a normal essay, this is an essay that might earn me a reasonable amount of money. So I need your help. Do any of you know anything much about US - Russian relations? And how the Obama-Medevedev relationship will change things? How about any specific issues of interest between the two countries? So, anything you know about moder...

We're introducing a new feature to Coffee House - the Sunday Essay. Each Sunday, we'll post an essay by one of our readers, on any political topic. The first essay will appear on Sunday, 10 August. If you'd like your writing to be considered, just e-mail an article of between 500 and 1500 words to me at phoskin @ spectator.co.uk - the Coffee House team will pick out the best submission each week, ...

Many thanks to Matthew Sinclair, of the Taxpayers' Alliance, for the Sunday Essay below.  We accept Sunday Essay submissions from any of our readers - be they MPs, policy wonks or nothing to do with politics at all.  For more information on how to submit an essay, please click here - Pete Hoskin With the public finances deep in the red many are arguing that there simply isn’t ...

We're introducing a new feature to Coffee House - the Sunday Essay. Each Sunday, we'll post an essay by one of our readers, on any political, cultural or sporting topic. The first essay will appear on Sunday, 10 August. If you'd like your writing to be considered, just e-mail an article of between 500 and 1500 words to me at phoskin @ spectator.co.uk - the Coffee House team will pick out the best ...

The song about the wonderful giants of old is a Harrow school song and one of Churchill's favourites. I pinched the lyrics from this fine essay on Churchill's education.