New research shows that there is a correlation between the amount of time you spend in front of the TV and how long you live.

A study by researchers at the University of Queensland in Australia has concluded that, for every hour of television watched after age 25, the average human lifespan drops by 22 minutes. A person who watch six hours of TV per day will, on average, live five years less than people who spent less time on the couch and in front of the television screen.

Every Hour of TV You Watch May Shorten Your Lifespan By 22 Minutes: Study

The study tracked data from 11,000 Australian participants over the age of 25. It was published earlier this month in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

This study doesn’t prove that TV is quietly killing us. It’s more likely that lack of exercise and bad eating habits are shortening the lifespans of TV couch potatoes. A person who spends six hours a day staying active is almost certainly going to live longer than a person who likes to lean back in a recliner watching countless episodes of Judge Judy or Law and Order: SVU.

It’s not just TV watching that’s bad for you, either. We recently learned that sitting in front of the computer for six hours a day increases your risk of death by 40%. And with Americans watching more video than ever, the health problem is growing. That’s why we’re fans of the stand-up desk.

Tim Kelsey, No 10′s director of transparency, said that schools and doctors should use the web to cut down paperwork and reduce their costs.

Mr Kelsey said: “We don’t want to have schools spending money on printing school reports nor do we want to have doctors sending out referral letters. That can be done online.”

He compared the shift to the move to online banking, saying the “sleight of hand” by the banks meant customers were “happy to be using the web because they had more control while also doing the banks’ clerical work for them”.

Speaking to think tank Demos, Mr Kelsey said that making more information available online was crucial to the Government’s open data strategy. He said that in future all companies doing work for public money could be forced to make their data public as well. “Transparency should follow the money. Wherever public money is being spent, there should be openness”.

The Government is to launch a new consultation on openness within the next few weeks. Mr Kelsey added that “there was a debate to be had” on whether advice given to ministers should be made public.

The ten years since 2001 have seen a 5.24 percent annual rate of increase in private university tuition. This is a full 60 percent higher than the annual 3.15 percent rate of increase in consumer prices over the same period.

Tuition at private universities follows an oligopolistic structure. In a society where academic attainment and cliques are necessary conditions for highly sought after jobs, private universities have been able to demand high tuition rates without any significant price regulations in place, and students and their parents have had to bite the bullet and pay exorbitant amounts to earn diplomas.

Citizens and opposition party lawmakers hold a press conference to urge “Tuition Down, Minimum Wage Up” at Exit 6 of Myeongdong Station, June 28

Based on their oligopoly, private universities have formed a kind of “cartel” when calculating tuition rates. An examination of 2011 tuition calculation standards at 28 Seoul-area private universities, aided by the university information site Academy Info, showed that twenty-two of them, or 80 percent, stated outright that they “consider the tuition levels at other universities” when deciding their own tuition rates.

Konkuk University, Dongguk University, and Sungkyunkwan University, among others, said they considered the “tuition levels or rate of increase at major private universities in Seoul.”

Some observers are saying that efforts to reduce tuition rate require improvements to the oligopolistic structure at private universities as well as increased government expenditures on higher education. Their argument is that democratic control systems should be put in place to improve the public nature of private universities that have thus far held monopolistic authority in deciding tuition rates and using the tuition paid.

Private universities have raised tuition rates even while amassing savings with the money left over from budget inflation, a practice where annual earnings are set low and annual expenditures are set high when allocating budget monies. Inflated budgets at 21 private universities in Seoul amounted to 238.3 billion won (220.9 million) in 2010 alone.

Thirteen of them amassed additional savings of some 291.8 billion won.

One problem has been the light punishments given. The Exception Rule for Private Education Institution Finance and Accounting Regulations stipulated that budgets should be put together based on the previous year’s settlement of accounts, allowing a picture of the actual revenues and expenditures. But private universities have not followed the rule, and no provisions exist for its compulsory enforcement.

School corporations also hold authority for appointment of internal and external auditors for budgeting and settlement of accounts. This has prompted observers to call for legislation of the exception rule as superior law and the establishment of means for punishing violations.

Another problem is the fact that in the absence of ceilings on savings or regulations on their use, universities have been able to build them up freely. As of the 2009 provisional settlement of accounts, total private university savings stood at 10 trillion won. While private school legislation placing some restrictions on savings passed the National Assembly’s Education, Science and Technology Committee on June 22, a way was opened up for universities to accumulate savings, which are still considered depreciation expenses. Observers are also highlighting the need to restrict the scale and use of savings.

There are also called to strengthen democratic controls through enhancing the standing of university councils and tuition review committees, which have seen diminishing effectiveness. Not only have university councils been confined to the status of “advisory” bodies rather than “review bodies,” but no basis exists for punishing a university that fails to establish one.

Membership in the tuition review committees, which take part in tuition calculation, is at the discretion of the university, making them unlikely to sufficiently reflect the opinions of students and their parents. A study by Democratic Party lawmaker An Min-suk found a student committee member representation of just 23 percent at the 65 universities with tuition review committees as of December 2010.

“The university councils, which are currently advisory bodies, need to be turned into review bodies and empowered to review the budget developed by the university president, and the authority of the tuition review committees need to be strengthened so that they can decide appropriate tuition levels based on this budget,” said Im Hui-seong, a researcher at the Korea Higher Education Research Institute.

Observers are also stressing the need for involvement by the central and local governments. Chonbuk National University education professor Ban Sang-jin cited the example of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. There, the state constitution sets the contributions of the state government and students in university budgets at 65 percent to 35 percent, respectively. The university board of regents holds authority for making the budget, but it must be approved by the governor and state legislature.

“You could view it as a kind of social compact based in the philosophy of sharing the burden for university finances,” said Ban.

The priority at the moment is getting private school foundations to fulfill their legal responsibilities. Democratic Labor Party lawmaker Kwon Young-ghil said that corporation transfers accounted for 3.2 percent of 2009 revenues at 290 private universities. A total of 754.9 billion won in legally required transfers remained unpaid by private school foundations in the five years beginning in 2005. This was the motivation for putting an exception provision in place so that the school can use its educational expenditure accounts to cover the shortfall in legally required transfers that should be covered by the foundation, including faculty pensions and health insurance premiums.

As of 2010, a full 115 of 151 private universities had secured fewer basic assets for school corporation returns than the legally prescribed standard.

Riyadh: The world’s largest women-only university was opened barely two weeks ago by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. Situated on the outskirts of the capital, Riyadh, the Princess Nora bint Abdulrahman University is ambitious – it has the capacity for 50,000 students and will improve women’s access to courses such as business and science. It has a teaching hospital, laboratories and libraries.

University has the capacity for 50,000 students and will improve women's access to courses such as business and science. It has a teaching hospital, laboratories and libraries

The World Economic Forum global gender gap report in 2010 ranked Saudi Arabia 129 out of 134 countries, and the only country to score a zero for female political empowerment; in March, it was announced that the ban on Saudi women voting would continue. Saudi women are forced to live under the control of a male guardian, usually a father or husband, without whose authority they cannot get a job, travel or open a bank account. They cannot leave the house alone or without wearing the niqab, and are banned from driving a car.

“Ensuring women’s rights in Saudi Arabia is not about opening larger universities, it’s really about ensuring that women are allowed to study all fields and to be able to find future employment in these fields,” says Khalife.

“The way in which Saudi Arabia segregates men and women in employment makes it very difficult for women to enter certain jobs. The Saudi government made promises, for instance, about ensuring that female lawyers, who are allowed to work only in administrative jobs, take up court cases, but there still has been no decision. While the opening of a large university is an indication of Saudi’s interest in educating women, it has to do much more to lift restriction on women’s employment.”

Scientists have shown that offering a financial reward for doing well can increase their score by up to 20 points on the scale where the average is 100 and Mensa membership is around 150.

Parents if you want to improve your child's chances of getting into Mensa then bribe them during their IQ test, a new study suggests

The team at the University of Pennsylvania made the findings after setting out to prove that scores in the test were not just related to intelligence but also to motivation.

They looked at 46 previous studies of more than 2,000 children to see if monetary incentives had any bearing on the result.

They found that on average a financial reward improved the score by 10 points but that higher values – above $10 (about £7) – could be rewarded with a 20 point increase.

The size of the increase seemed to be proportional to the amount of reward offered.

A second study of 500 boys found that those who showed signs of boredom and lack of motivation – for example yawning or looking around during the test – scored lower test marks.

Angela Lee Duckworth, a psychologist who led the study, said: “IQ scores may predict various outcomes in life, but in part for reasons that intelligence tests weren’t designed for.

“I hope that social scientists, educators, and policy-makers turn a more critical eye to any kind of measure, intelligence or otherwise as how hard people try could be as important to success in life as intellectual ability itself.”

The findings were reported in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“Let me be clear: you need to speak English to learn at our education establishments. If you can’t, we won’t give you a visa.”

New visa rules to block bogus students make language tests compulsory and jeopardise language schools' accreditation

This was the stark warning issued by UK home secretary Theresa May in parliament last month as she unveiled tough new rules for student visas aimed at cutting the numbers of migrants using education as a back door into Britain.

May said the changes to the current Tier 4 student visa rules will target private education providers suspected of bending visa rules, reposition the UK as a destination for only the “best and brightest” scholars, and cut visa numbers by 80,000.

The rules, which come into effect from on 21 April, will require private education providers to gain Highly Trusted Sponsor (HTS) status before they can enrol adult students from outside the EU on long-term courses. To do that they must be vetted by one of five approved accrediting bodies.

Students must provide more secure proof that they have sufficient funds to support themselves before they are allowed to enter the country and they must be able to prove that their English meets minimum standards.

The measures have less direct impact on state-funded further education colleges and universities, which have won approval from ministers for their existing controls as well as tacit acknowledgement that revenue from foreign students cannot be jeopardised when other funding is being cut.

A major blow to private-sector colleges will be the withdrawal of their students’ eligibility to work part-time while studying. Students at universities will continue to be able to work 20 hours a week, and those at state FE colleges for 10 hours, but those studying elsewhere will be barred from getting a job to ease living expenses.

For Britain’s long-established English language schools sector, which is estimated to contribute $3bn to the UK economy, the rule changes will have immediate impact.

Nick Bray, managing director of the London Study Centre, said that it was unfair to discriminate against his students, many of whom were taking a year out of their university studies in their own countries to learn English in Britain. “While some will be able to study without having to work, the fact is that many of them want to work part-time, not just to earn some pocket money, but also to improve their English. Just because these students don’t typically go on to university doesn’t mean they aren’t the ‘best and brightest’,” he said.

The UK Border Agency, which enforces visa policies, is withdrawing its recognition of Accreditation UK, the English language schools inspection scheme run by the British Council and the Association of British Language Schools (ABLS), which together provide assurance of standards for much of the sector.

The new list of UKBA-approved accreditation bodies includes Ofsted, better known for inspecting state schools, and QAA, the standards agency for higher education. In a statement QAA said it is “not anticipating any involvement with English language colleges unless they also offer higher education – or a recognised access route to higher education.” Ofsted said that any expansion of its remit would require “legislative change”. Those schools that have already achieved HTS status from UKBA are waiting to learn when they must switch to an approved accreditation body, but those schools seeking HTS are also in the dark.

The director of a language school in north-west London, which currently has up to 250 students, and who asked to remain anonymous, said that confusion over accreditation status is now critical for his business. “We’ve been operating since 2008 and I want to apply for accreditation, but what is the point in spending $3,000 preparing for Accreditation UK if I am not going to be able to bring in foreign students? I contacted Ofsted last year, but they told me they didn’t accredit language schools,” he said.

The British Council said in a statement: “We will be working with the UKBA and the relevant education authorities to look at how we can continue to give quality assurance to students and their representatives.”

According to Tony Millns, chief executive of English UK, the association that represents over 450 accredited English language teaching providers, only 20 of his members are without HTS status. More concerning is a limit on the number of Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS) letters, crucial for a student visa application, that schools will be allowed to issue before they achieve the new accreditation status. Millns says not all CAS letters result in students taking up courses, so the cap could constrain schools’ revenues.

Millns rejects the claim that the government has lost trust in accredited English language providers. He points to a change in rules introduced in January that will allow EFL schools to enrol students for up to 11 months on the more easily obtained student visitor visa, which is otherwise valid for only six months.

But he does have concerns about further action if cuts in Tier 4 student numbers are not achieved. “The government is already talking about reviewing the criteria for HTS status. If they make it virtually impossible for schools to maintain HTS status, that really will be an attack on the sector.”

But students who obtain the proof of funds and language ability under the new rules face another, final obstacle. Either on arrival or at visa-issuing offices, UKBA officers will have the power to bar students entry if they judge that their spoken English does not meet the minimum standards.

Even if the student has valid English language test certificates at B1 or B2 levels on the Common European Framework of Reference, depending on whether they want to pursue below- or above-degree level studies, an officer without training in assessing spoken English holds the key to their future.

Although mothers and fathers want their children to have a mobile phone for safety and social reasons, they now realise it leaves them powerless to stop access to inappropriate internet sites, including pornography, the research has found.

Efforts by parents to monitor their children's use of the internet are being undermined by new "smart phones" which offer speedier online access than some home computers, an official report has said

Parents also worry that internet-ready mobile phones leave their offspring open to direct and inappropriate advertising.

The review is due out next month, It suggests that nine out of 10 parents think that their children are growing up too quickly because of increasing sexualisation and commercial pressures, mainly from the internet.

The review has found that direct advertising through mobile phones was the marketing tool that most angered parents, with more than a third — 35 per cent — believing it wrong. Products linked to social networking websites which invite children to click on them were second on the list of features to upset parents.

“Parents are telling us in no uncertain terms that they are worried about the pressures on children to grow up too quickly,” he said. “It is clear that their concerns have not been created out of a moral panic but from their everyday experience.

“Parents are disappointed that some of the existing regulation and self-regulation is starting to let them down.

“They are also uneasy about marketing to children through new digital media.

“They are particularly frustrated when sophisticated marketing techniques are used which they are unaware of and therefore unable to manage the pressure it creates.”

A comprehensive analysis of 33 studies finds that teaching kids social and emotional skills leads to an average 11 percentile-point gain in their academic performance over six months compared to students who didn’t receive the same instruction.

Teaching kids social skills pays off in grades

That’s a big jump, equivalent to a student at the middle of a class’s performance curve moving into the top 40 percent of his or her peers, Sarah Sparks at EdWeek notes. The study’s authors, led by Joseph Durlak, suggest the dramatic gain could be rooted in the physiology of the brain; social-skill instruction “may affect central executive cognitive functions,” he notes—and improvement there helps kids to gain greater control over their impulses and actions.

The classes emphasize self control, responsible decision-making, and how to form and keep positive relationships with friends and authority figures. One lesson plan from the “Caring School Community” program asks kids to think about “some things you can do if you’re not included in a game”—or if you see someone else on the playground who is left out. Many of the programs have an anti-bullying focus.

The study found the programs help kids form bonds with their teachers and may make students feel more attached to their school—factors that correlate positively with student achievement. Teacher-led programs that encouraged student involvement and role-playing were most successful in these aims, the study found.

About 60 percent of public schools addressed their students’ emotional and mental health with special programming. The study was published in the scientific journal Child Development.

The use of “textisms” can improve literacy among pupils by giving them extra exposure to word composition outside the school day, it was claimed.

Text messaging 'improves children's spelling skills'

The conclusions come despite fears that the use of abbreviations such as “CU L8R”, “Gr8” and “innit” can undermine children’s reading and writing.

Critics have suggested that text messaging can blur the boundaries between colloquialisms and standard English, with some teachers claiming that slang is now creeping into children’s school work.

But academics from Coventry University said there was “no evidence” that access to mobile phones harmed children’s literacy skills and could even have a positive impact on spelling.

In the latest study, researchers recruited 114 children aged nine and 10 from primary schools in the Midlands.

The pupils, who did not already use a mobile phone, were split into two groups.

Half were given a handset to use for texting over weekends and during the school holidays over a 10-week period. The remaining pupils formed a control group.

Academics then gave pupils a series of reading, spelling and phonological awareness tests before and after the study. Pupils’ reading and spelling was also monitored week-on-week.

The research, to be published in the Journal of Computer Assisted Learning next month, found evidence of a “significant contribution of textism use to the children’s spelling development during the study”.

This study, which took account of individual differences in IQ, found higher results in test scores recorded by children using mobile phones after 10 weeks compared with the start of the study.

According to the report, the association between spelling and text messaging may be explained by the “highly phonetic nature” of the abbreviations used by children and the alphabetic awareness required for successfully decoding the words.

“It is also possible that textism use adds value because of the indirect way in which mobile phone use may be increasing children’s exposure to print outside of school,” said the report, funded by Becta, the Government’s education technology agency.

Prof Clare Wood, senior lecturer in the university’s psychology department, said: “We are now starting to see consistent evidence that children’s use of text message abbreviations has a positive impact on their spelling skills.

“There is no evidence that children’s language play when using mobile phones is damaging literacy development.”

A third of graduate vacancies this year will be filled by applicants who have already worked for their new employer as an undergraduate, according to a poll of 100 recruiters which underlines the increasing value of internships.

A third of all graduate jobs will go to those who have had work experience there as undergraduates, a new poll shows

The majority of employers said it was unlikely that an undergraduate without any work experience would get a job.

Half of those who will be employed this year by law firms will already have done work experience for that firm, and the proportion is 53% in investment banking, according to a survey of sought-after employers including Merrill Lynch, Cadbury, the NHS and Siemens.

Martin Birchall, managing director of High Fliers Research, which conducted the survey, said: “It’s not enough just to have a good degree. They need to have business skills. Employers want them to be able to hit the ground running.

“Increasingly, especially in areas like investment banking, employers offer summer internships and if things go well they make a job offer at the end of that summer holiday.”

More than three-fifths of graduate employers provide placements, typically organised as part of degree courses. A similar proportion offer internships during summer holidays, the research found.

The survey suggests that after two years of sharp recruitment cuts in 2008 and 2009, the graduate market began to recover last autumn. The outlook for this year is upbeat, with employers expecting to hire 9.4% more graduates than in 2010. Banks are hiring again with at least 500 new roles in the financial sector, and there will be more jobs in consulting and IT.

The prospects in the public sector are bleaker, with the expansion of the Teach First programme, which recruits graduates to teach in inner-city schools, disguising cuts elsewhere.

“Internships are an important way of young people getting into the professional jobs market. This is a route being followed by increasing numbers of graduates and – as part of our programme to get Britain working – we continue to encourage employers to offer work experience and internships to help graduates develop valuable skills and boost their employment chances.”