Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac - Our crisis today is part of a pattern that has happened before

In 1288, a great civilization was building cathedrals like Chartres. Great Universities were founded like Paris and Oxford. Great Kings ruled like Henry II of England, Frederick Barbarossa of Germany. The invaders of Europe, the Magyars, Saracens had been stopped. Europe was expanding - the first crusade and the establishment of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The economy of Europe was taking off.
After the pall of the Dark Ages, energy was returning. With this new energy and confidence, the population began to expand.
But in 1348 Europe tipped over starting a crash that unfolded as one of the most terrible socio/economic adjustments ever experienced.
By 1348, the entire financial system was in ruins, war and banditry of the most awful type had become normal. Wages had lagged, the states had become bankrupt. But the wealth had concentrated into a few privates hands. The price of goods had fallen but the price of food and of energy had exploded. In this weakened state, 3 years of cold and rainy summers pushed the people to the limit and in 1348, the plague appear. By 1400 the population of Europe had fallen from 80 to 60 million.
shows us that this crash was not unique and that it is one of a series of several "waves" of growth and collapse that occur in human history. What is happening to us today can be understood in this context. (I summarize his thesis here)
So what is the pattern?
Like all systems, there are long periods of equilibrium. The growing good times of the medieval world gave people confidence. With confidence, the birth rate increased and the population began to rise.
With a rise in population strains app

HEFCE: University finances 'are healthy'

, and five other universities, have been in the top 10 since league tables began
The tables then give an overall rating to universities and the Higher Education
Funding Council for England found the same six have been consistently ranked in the top ten.
The HEFCE report said students will increasingly look to university league tables if tuition fees rise higher than the current £3,000-a-year.
But it also voiced concerns over the quality and usefulness of the tables.
It said the rankings largely reflected "reputational factors" such as levels of entry qualifications and standards of degree obtained.
There were "possible tensions between league table performance and academic standards", fuelling concern that universities faced pressure to award more firsts and 2:1s to boost their rankings.
The analysis, conducted by the Open University and Hobsons Research, covered league tables in the Times, Sunday Times and the Guardian, which were first drawn up in 1992, 1998 and 1999 respectively.
The report warned the influence of league tables will increase if the cap on tuition fees for full-time undergraduate courses is raised or lifted altogether.
It added: "It is possible that ranking position will affect an institution's ability to charge the highest fees across all its courses."
An international league table last Read more:

University College London

UCL was founded in 1826 to educate Catholics, Jews, and others barred from Britain's two other universities at the time, Oxford and Cambridge, which accepted only members of the Church of England. The largest of more than 50 colleges and institutes that comprise the University of London, it specializes in biomedical and physical science research. Alumni include Mahatma Gandhi, Alexander Graham Bell—and all four members of the band Coldplay.

British Universities

We have carefully selected these Universities and colleges and therefore our network spreads across the whole of Britain - from London to the Midlands and even to Wales. Apart from location we have also taken into account the courses you may want to study - and our network can cater for virtually any course that you would like to study. Please to find out some of the most popular courses that we can offer you.Our network is at present still expanding, so if you do not find the institution you are looking for please contact your in-country BCIE representative or the main UK office directly to find out whether the university you are interested in is going to be available within our network. If it is not - do not despair - we will still be able to point you in the right direction.

RAE: Cambridge is UK's top research university

Cambridge has beaten Oxford in a seven-year race to become the UK's top university, an evaluation of British research that will decide how £1.5bn funding is spent in England has found.
The research-intensive universities of Oxford, Cambridge, London School of Economics, Imperial and University College London will take the lion's share of government funding for academic research under the system for rating academic research published today.
But the findings also revealed for the first time that some of the best universities have large numbers of low-performing researchers.
The Research Assessment Exercise sees every university in the UK submit a dossier of their best researchers' work in 67 disciplines on which they are graded and then ranked. The assessment is carried out by panels led by the top academics in the country. The number of star researchers each department and university has at the end dictates their research funding for the next five years.
The publication of those rankings today reveals that the ex-polytechnics have failed to wrest a significant number of the stars awarded for research away from the research giants of the Russell Group of universities including Oxford and Cambridge.
One senior university official described the process as "bitchier than backstage at a beauty pageant" and one vice-chancellor admitted he felt as if he had "staked the family savings on Lucky Lady in the 3.15 at Wincanton".
Cambridge is top of the tables, followed by Oxford and LSE. York and Essex are the only non-Russell Group institutions in the top ten. York rose to 8th place (from 16th seven years ago) and Edinburgh from 14th to tenth. Queen Mary, University of London, shot up the rankings to 11th place. In 2001 it ranked at 43.
A spokeswoman said: "Queen Mary is delighted to have its position as one of the country's top research-led institutions confirmed by the RAE results.
"This outstanding performance has been achieved by imaginative and careful investment in world-leading staff in our various subject areas sustained over the past few years."
The results show that a large amount of researchers are conducting low-ranking work in some of the top universities. Close to a third of research by the top six universities was rated two star or one star. The grade four star is considered world-leading. Some 28% of Cambridge's researchers scored one and two stars, as did 34% of UCL's researchers.
Individual departments are also ranked according to their subject. Economists were scored among the most highly of all subjects. The LSE's economics submission was the highest rated of any major subject in the country. Some 60% of their academic staff were rated world-leading.
Cambridge has the highest proportion of outstanding research in the UK. The university submitted 2,040 staff, 71% of whose work was deemed to be world-leading or internationally excellent, compared with 70% of 2,246 Oxford staff's research. Both universities submitted work in 48 disciplines.
The University of Manchester, which hoped to contend for Oxbridge's crown when it merged after the last RAE in 2001 at huge public cost, came in sixth place in the Guardian's rankings. It was beaten by the London School of Economics (LSE), Imperial College and University College London.
The RAE results are eagerly awaited by universities who are particularly concerned about their financial fortunes this year because of predictions that the government is poised to cut back on spending. Wealthier institutions have also lost money from their endowments in the economic downturn.
Some vice-chancellors suggested that the process had been manipulated by universities refusing to submit staff who they thought might score lower – and that the government agency for university funding had allowed it to happen. Last month a mistake by the Higher Education Funding Council for England forced the Higher Education Statistics Agency to abandon collecting data that would have highlighted universities' attempts to conceal staff in the RAE.
Critics accused the funding council of deliberately abandoning the collection of the data after complaints from universities opposing their use. The data would also have identified whether universities had been discriminatory in which researchers they submitted.
David Eastwood, Hefce's chief executive, said universities which had submitted fewer staff to get a higher rating would lose out in the final allocation of cash anyway because it is partly dependent on the number of researchers.
He said: "This represents an outstanding achievement, confirming that the UK is among the top rank of research powers in the world. This outcome shows more clearly than ever that there is excellent research to be found across the higher education sector.
"A total of 150 of the 159 institutions have some work of world-leading quality, while 49 have research of the highest quality in all of their submissions."
Universities will find out what funding they will get on the back of the results on 4 March next year.

England netball team selects two students

Elizabeth George, 19, and Liz Bundy, 20, were selected for the twelve player squad from a group of sixty students from England at the trials in Nottingham on the 28th January. They will compete against the Scotland universities netball team and the Scotland National netball team in the first week of April in Edinburgh.
The players were assessed on their basic skills, warm-up, group ball drills and overall play in a game situation.
Elizabeth George, who is her second year of a Sport and Exercise Science degree at the University and plays goal-attack for the netball team, said: “I was stunned and amazed that I was chosen, especially as I have not played at such a high level of netball for a while. I am really proud and am looking forward to wearing the England Universities kit.”
Liz Bundy, who is captain of the University’s netball first team and is in her third year of a Film, Radio and Television Studies Degree, said: “I am still pinching myself and being selected probably will not sink in until I put the kit on and play. It is a great achievement for me and it will raise the profile of sport at Canterbury Christ Church University.”
Students, teachers, parents and players inspired by Elizabeth and Liz’s achievements can further their coaching and umpiring skills in the England Netball Combined Course held at Canterbury Christ Church University.
The one day course will provide participants with an understanding of the essential skills required to coach and umpire netball and is suitable for those interested in introducing netball to children aged 7 to 11. The course teaches basic skills, progressive practises and an introduction to High Five and First Step netball.
The course takes place on Sunday 18th March from 10am to 4pm in the University’s Gymnasium, North Holmes Campus, Canterbury. This event is open to the public and costs £22 for students and £25 for non-students

Reading University History

History
The first schools in England were created in the late 6th century at cathedrals and monasteries to train priests and monks to conduct church services. Because of the Viking invasions, it was not until the 13th century that universities developed. Students formed groups that eventually became the earliest colleges, founded by bishops and exclusively for wealthy males. Oxford was the first university established in England. At that time, university students decided when and what they would study and employed their own instructors. If they became bored with one professor, they just hired another one.The students used the professors' books and kept notes on parchment or wax tablets.
Function
Many scholars believe that Oxford University, the first secondary school, was established in 872 by King Alfred. However, it is more likely that Alfred established grammar schools to encourage education throughout his territory. Oxford did not actually become a university until the 2th century when students formed groups with popular scholars. There were no actual at that time. Oxford and the area townspeople did not get along. Thus, in 1209, the students moved to Cambridge. Five years later, the traders in Oxford persuaded some of the students to return. Robert Grosseteste was named the first chancellor.The first students lived with the townspeople or in halls, such as St. Edmundl, opened in 1238. About that time, the first colleges were also established. Each had its own buildings, land and self-governance. University College dates to 1249. When the printing press was invented, books no longer were a luxury and became much more common. Students learned grammar, rhetoric, mathematics, astronomy and music.
ConsiderationsSignificance
Oxford has a long list of prominent graduates. It has graduated four British kings and at least eight foreign kings and 28 presidents and prime ministers. There are over 45 Nobel prize-winners, 7 saints, 86 archbishops, 18 cardinals, and 1 pope. In addition, 7 of the last 11 British Prime Ministers were from this school. Students and faculty include numerous well-known scientists, artists and noteworthy individuals in almost all career areas. Other graduates consist of scientists Stephen Hawking, Anthony James Leggett, and Tim Berners Lee; actors Hugh Grant, Kate Beckinsale, Dudley Moore and Richard Burton; writers Evelyn Waugh, Lewis Carroll, Aldous Huxley, Oscar Wilde, Percy Shelley, John Donne, and Philip Larkin; adventurers Lawrence of Arabia and Walter Raleigh; and media magnate Rupert Murdoch.