Gov't Pushes UK Universities Out Of Teacher Training Over Marxist Profs

Leaders in higher education said this week they believed the government was trying to push universities out of teacher training for political reasons because ministers thought their education departments were “hotbeds of leftwing intellectualism” and full of “Marxists.”

Photo Insert: The University of Nottingham, a member of the elite group, said it was “very disappointed and perplexed” to have been failed only two months after it was rated as outstanding.

Under changes announced last summer, all initial teacher training providers in England must be re-accredited by the Department for Education to continue educating teachers from 2024. However, two-thirds of providers, including some top universities, were told this month that they had failed the first round of the new accreditation process.

The department said last week that just 80 providers, out of 216 who are understood to have applied, had made the cut, Anna Fazackerley reported for The Guardian.

Those currently out in the cold include some from the prestigious Russell Group. The University of Nottingham, a member of the elite group, said it was “very disappointed and perplexed” to have been failed only two months after it was rated as outstanding, with inspectors praising the “exceptional curriculum taught by experts.”

The University of Birmingham, which the department has chosen as one of the specialist partners for its new school-based National Institute of Teaching, also failed the first round of accreditation.

Mary Bousted, the general secretary of the National Education Union, said: “This was the brainchild of (former schools minister) Nick Gibb, who was obsessed with the idea that university departments of teacher education were hotbeds of leftwing intellectualism. I told him I didn’t know how to convey my frustration that he was coming out with this rubbish.”

Prof. David Spendlove, associate dean of Manchester University’s faculty of humanities and former head of initial teacher education, said: “As education secretary, Michael Gove talked about fighting ‘the Blob’ (the education establishment). He and Nick Gibb had this idea that universities and teacher education departments were all Marxists. Their influence hasn’t gone away.”

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