Today’s physics news: The case for green open access, teacher recruitment crisis

Physics news for Tuesday 4 September 2012.

There’s no justifying Research Council UK’s support for gold open access

In this article, Stevan Harnad, professor of web and internet science at University of Southampton, makes the case for green open access.  If and when globally mandated, green OA will empower institutions to cancel their journal holdings. This will not only force journals to cut costs and downsize to providing the service of peer review alone – at a much more reasonable price – but it will also release the institutional subscription money to pay for it, he writes.

The Guardian

Recruitment crisis looms in core subjects

A report published today warns that ministers are presiding over an impending teacher shortage in English, maths and science. A recruitment crisis could hit schools because of a fall in the number of graduates applying for teacher training places, according to a report commissioned by the Pearson Think Tank. Other subjects – including geography, art and economics – are also in danger of having insufficient numbers of new teachers, the report warns.

Times Education Supplement

Michael Gove confirms GCSEs will be replaced by more rigorous O-level style qualifications

Pupils who sat GCSEs this summer were all treated ‘unfairly’ and the examination will be replaced with a more rigorous qualification similar to O-Levels, Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, has confirmed. The new exam, which could come into force as soon as 2014, would be sat by pupils of all abilities, unlike O-Levels which were taken by only the most academically able while other pupils were awarded CSEs.

The Telegraph