Less women applying to universities, Britain one of the worst places for ageism, composition of the England rioters – and more in the Weekly E&D News.

The Independent reports a big drop in the number of women’s applications to universities after the tuition fees increase. While there has been an overall drop of 11.9% in the total number of UK university applications, the drop in women candidates is twice as high as among men candidates. There has also been a significant drop of 27.8% in the number of applications by post-40 students.

To add to that, it has emerged that Britain is one of Europe’s worst countries for ageism. Nearly two out of five people claim to have been shown a lack of respect because of how old they are. The UK is also riven by intergenerational splits, with half of British people admitting they do not have a single friend over 70. This portrait of UK comes from the European Social Survey which is conducted every two years and takes into account the attitudes of 55,000 people across 28 countries.

Figures on the England rioters have started to come in too and the general picture is that the riots were not largely the work of gangs, with gang members constituting only 13% of rioters. 90% of those brought before the court were male and only 5% were over the age of 40. According to the ethnicity data available, 46% of the rioters were black, 42% white and 7% Asian. Two-thirds of the young people in court were classed as having some form of special educational need and more than a third had been excluded from school during 2009-10. In the words of BBC, England rioters ‘poorer, younger, less educated’.

Nabil Ahmed, President of the Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS) writing for New Statesman, argues for the need for the government to engage with Muslim students. FOSIS has been seeking to establish British civic responsibility among British Muslim students and worked earlier this summer with the Civil Service in Cardiff. However, just days ahead of another joint FOSIS-Civil Service careers engagement in London, the event was cancelled apparently because Theresa May was not pleased with FOSIS’ ‘insufficient willingness to tackle extremism’. “The government continues to up its rhetoric on integration and extremism…yet its deeds in policy formation and in cancelling events such as the above are counterproductive to any notion of integration”, writes Nabil..…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
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