Top grade for a quarter of A-level pupils
The A-level pass rate has risen for the 24th year in succession and almost a quarter of entries were awarded A grades, the exam boards announced yesterday. Universities were able to confirm 294,576 offers of places, as a record number of candidates met their offer grades. The proportion of entries graded A was 24.1 per cent, 1.3 percentage points up on last year. In some subjects the proportion of A grades reached more than a third. The reduction in the amount of content candidates have to master for mathematics revived interest in the subject and led to an increase in entries of 5.8 percentage points. The proportion gaining an A grade went up from 40.7 per cent to 43.5 per cent.
Daily Telegraph , The Guardian , The Independent , The Times
Maths leads way as A grades rise
A steep rise in the number of pupils taking A-level maths this year was hailed by the Government as proof that controversial changes to the curriculum have begun to reverse years of decline. However, physics continued on its downward path while media studies, often dismissed as a soft subject, was the year's second-fastest riser, entering the top 10 of A-level subjects. Jim Knight, the school standards minister, said the improvement was due to the recruitment of more specialist maths teachers. "Five years ago, maths was thought to be in terminal decline. This year's figures show that we have bucked that trend," he said.
Financial Times , Daily Telegraph , The Guardian
Gap year student drowned in Thailand
A British law student who was working with orphaned children in Thailand during her gap year is missing feared drowned after a white water rafting accident. Shenaz Kapoor, 22, a member of one of Scotland's wealthiest families, disappeared after her boat capsized in Tone Pariwat wildlife sanctuary in Pha Ngan on Tuesday. Four other people were rescued while she was swept downriver. Her lifejacket was seen floating in the rapids shortly afterwards. Miss Kapoor was working with children affected by the Boxing Day tsunami during a break from her law degree at Dundee University.
Daily Telegraph
Hubble shines a light on dimmest stars in the universe
Astronomers have captured rare images of the faintest stars in the galaxy - the burnt-out relics of ancient celestial objects that formed many billions of years ago. The stars were photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope, which took the images by studying the same tiny patch of sky for more than 75 hours, gathering 378 overlapping images. They are the dimmest stars ever seen in a globular cluster - spherical concentrations of hundreds of thousands of stars - and they offer astronomers a valuable insight into the types of stars that existed in the early universe.
The Independent
Groucho or Jumbo, it adds up to a big leap for science
It's not quite up there with uncovering the theory of everything or discovering a panacea but answering whether elephants can run has huge potential for robotics. Researchers in Britain, after more than 100 years of scientific debate, observation and experiment, believe they have the answer and conclude: “Yes, because they bounce like Groucho Marx.” Until 40 years ago a creature was considered to be running if all of its limbs were off the ground at the same time while moving forward. But so many exceptions were discovered that the definition had to be reassessed. Running is now considered to be achieved if an animal’s legs exhibit bounce and spring. Walking is defined as stiff-legged forward motion. Dr Hutchinson, whose team was funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, said: “Studies of animal locomotion are key to the design of effective walking robots."
The Times