The purpose of this paper is to clarify the process of the introduction of flexibility to education maintenance allowance in Scotland for vulnerable young people such as young carers. The paper examined parliamentary materials such as conference minutes and written questions and answers that were related to the process to revise the guidance documents of Education Maintenance Allowance in Scotland. The paper also compares the guidance documents for Education Maintenance Allowance and clarify the points of revision. Education Maintenance Allowance was started in 1999 in England and in 2004 in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Although it was abolished in England, other three countries continue its provision. Education maintenance allowance reflects the “Third Way” philosophy, which advocates for equality as inclusion. Voluntary youth organization pointed out the challenges faced by young carers in accessing the Education Maintenance Allowance particularly regarding the requirement for attendance rates. The issue has been discussed the Scottish Parliament, and then greater flexibility has been introduced in addressing the difficulties faced by young carers and other vulnerable young people in accessing and continuing the Education Maintenance Allowance. The point of revision for the guidance is the rule of entitlement and attendance recording for Education Maintenance Allowance. Vulnerable young people is supposed to be given appropriate flexibility and discretion when assessing attendance. “Absences, for example caring responsibilities, that relate to a vulnerable young person’s circumstance” has been added to the examples for authorized absence. In the guidance document, Accordingly, the phrase of “flexibility may be given” has replaced with that of “flexibility should be given”. The study pointed out the establishment of more flexible management for Education Maintenance Allowance. Vulnerable young people such as young carers are one of the important targets for Education Maintenance Allowance, but for them the requirement of full attendance has become a barrier for accessing. The findings of the paper reveals the difficulties for the policies for tackling early school leaving. How requirements for support can be set and to what extent flexibilities should be introduced in order not to exclude vulnerable young people is a significant challenges for the policies tackling early school leaving.

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The purpose of this paper is to examine the trends and limitations in the restructuring of vocational education at upper secondary level in England, focusing on the vocational qualification ‘T levels’, which were introduced in 2020. In England, the reform of post-16 vocational education at the upper-secondary stage (level 3) has been proceeded since the 2010s, with the main aims of streamlining the complex vocational education system, providing high-quality vocational routes which lead to stable employment and higher education, and responding to a rapidly changing economy. The introduction of the new vocational qualification, T levels, is positioned as a significant milestone in the series of reforms. T levels are two-year vocational education programmes for 16–19-year-old students, which consist of 12 occupational areas. They began to be phased in from 2020, and all T levels are expected to be implemented by 2025. Simultaneously, the introduction of T levels is part of the comprehensive restructuring scheme for level 3 qualifications. The government intends to reduce existing vocational qualifications and applied general qualifications（AGQs）that overlap in purpose and content with T levels and A levels and make T levels the ‘gold standard’ for technical education. However, the feasibility of this reform vision depends on how teachers and learners perceive T levels. Particular attention should be paid to the relationship to academic education, as vocational qualifications have historically been viewed as the second-rate option to academic qualifications. Therefore, this study firstly provides an overview of the context of the introduction on T levels and their specific features. Next, it is examined how T levels are perceived and implemented by teachers based on exploratory interviews at further education colleges. T levels are mainly composed of classroom-based learning and industry placement for a minimum of 315 hours. The total learning time is expected to be approximately 1,800 hours over 2 years, which is equivalent to three A levels. The main difference between T levels and existing vocational qualifications lies in their assessment structures. Existing vocational qualifications are essentially formative assessments with a continuous marking of unit-based tasks, whereas T levels are assessed by written examinations and project assignments, which　are externally set by the awarding organisations, at the end of each year. Although the government claims that T levels were developed in collaboration with employers, this assessment structure has a common form with A levels. Thus, teachers tend to perceive T levels to be ‘theory-based’ and ‘exam-driven’ and attempt to adopt academic practices. Moreover, these features of T levels cause scepticism among teachers about the relevance of the content of programme to occupational purposes. These results suggest the paradoxical consequence that the intention to set up high-quality vocational routes with equivalence to academic routes can lead to academic drift within vocational education, making the primary purpose unclear. The findings of this study illustrate the limitation that the restructuring initiative of qualification systems involves by proceeding within the framework of the academic/vocational dichotomy.

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In the UK, municipal finances have been under pressure since the Thatcher administration initiated a policy of fiscal cuts. Public services such as libraries have been cut one after another. This study analyses an intensified residents’ campaign against cuts in public library services（library campaign）in Lincolnshire. Furthermore, it clarifies the roles of the people and organisations involved in the campaign and the characteristics and limitations of the movement. This study’s methodology was as follows: First, newspaper articles, administrative documents such as Lincolnshire County Council（LCC）council minutes, judicial review decisions, and the websites of campaigning organisations were examined. The examination focused on the residents’ campaign group Save Lincolnshire Libraries（SLL）activities. The series of campaigns and processes were examined in detail. Additionally, interviews were conducted with two key SLL members on 11 February 2015, following the 2014 Judicial Review ruling. Using Tarrow’s perspective on the political opportunity structure of social movements, the analysis revealed three features. First, the campaign was led by two types of organisations: the SLL, which campaigned across Lincolnshire, and local groups, which campaigned for the survival of libraries in individual areas, both of which received support from UNISON（public sector trade union）, the Library Campaign, central government politicians, and prominent figures. Second, demonstrations, lobbying, the internet, public opinion, petitions, and judicial reviews were used to lobby the policy-making process. Third, the environment was politically unstable due to the rise of the nascent Independence Party and the intense conflict between the ruling and opposition parties, which made it difficult for the two sides to reach a compromise.

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The purpose of this paper is to examine the position of the media in the training of science communicators in the UK by clarifying how science communicators involved in public engagement are expected to interact with the media and how science communication is taught. In an increasingly digital society, the relationship of trust between scientific information transmitted by the media and the public receiving that information is complex, so examining the relationships between science, media and society is an important issue for the future. The UK is a leading country in science communication, and has more postgraduate science communicator courses than any other country which also leads to science communicators having roles in various parts of UK society. This paper focuses on the University of Sheffield, which has a media-centred science communicator training course, to identify how science communicators involved in public engagement are expected to engage with the media, which are also the main actors in science communication. Section 1 reviews previous research on science communicator training while Section 2 provides an overview of UK science communication curricula and their characteristics. Section 3 presents the research subjects and the analytical framework. Section 4 identifies the characteristics of the curricula at the University of Sheffield, by examining in terms of （i） the provision of correct information and technology, （ii） approaches to promote social discussion, and （iii） knowledge sharing and interactivity to specify how educational activities are carried out with specific classes related to media and public engagement. As a result of this discussion, the following three points can be noted from the University of Sheffield’s curriculum. First, the course offers many subjects in common with the Department of Journalism, enabling students to acquire theories and skills related to the media in general. Second, ‘practical skills in media’ are positioned as a key element of the science communicator’s role in relation to public engagement. At the University of Sheffield, the curriculum is based on the principle of building skills through practical training to disseminate, educate and identify scientific information to diverse audiences. Third, in the shift in UK science communication policy from ‘public understanding of science’ to ‘science and society’, society expects science communicators to be the people responsible for interactive science communication activities. However, in this respect, the University of Sheffield shows there is a room for improvement. In this regard, there is a new educational trend in recent science communication curricula in that science communicators are being trained under educational activities that emphasise a humanities and social science perspective. Analysis of these emerging trends is a topic for future work. In addition, this paper, which is based on a literature review, was unable to clarify the aims of the education and how the educational modules are actually implemented. These points will be discussed in a separate paper.

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The purpose of this study is to find out how the British Government evaluated modern Japanese army officer education through an analysis of the “General Report on the Japanese System of Military Education and Training 1906”. The General Report is a report on army education and training in Japan, prepared in 1906 after the Russo-Japanese War. This report remained a classified document of the British Government until 1972 and has not, to the best of my knowledge, been the subject of any research into the history of modern Japanese education or comparative studies of modern Japanese and British education. During the Meiji period, the type of person sought in Japan’s education policy was important. In Meiji era Japan, where the slogan was ‘wealthy nation, strong army’, it is not surprising that the character required by the military would also influence the character aimed for in Japanese general education. As you know, Japan was a latecomer to the modern world and used education as a ‘lever’ to achieve modernisation. In this sense, Japan’s victory in the Russo-Japanese War in September 1905 demonstrated to Japan and to the rest of the world that Japan’s modernisation policy had succeeded in a short time. The British Government took note of the educational training in the Japanese Army as a factor in this success, and organised a survey in Japan in 1906. The General Report is unique in that it refers not only to army education and training at Japanese military academies and army infant schools, but also to general education, i.e. primary and secondary education. The General Report, prepared in 1906 after the Russo-Japanese War, summarised the British Government’s investigation into why Japan had won the Russo-Japanese War and why it had been able to triumph over the great power of Russia, focusing on the army officer education system. The British had clearly realised between 1899 and 1902 that the Second Boer War had ushered in a period of ‘Crisis of the British Empire’. It then began to explore whether this crisis of empire could be overcome through the power of education. The fact that Japan had defeated Russia was of great interest to the British, who wanted to overcome the crisis of empire through the power of education. It is against this background that the report was produced. It is worth noting that in 1906, Japanese education was attracting attention from Britain, which was an advanced country at the time. The following two points became clear from this study: (1) The British authorities were interested in the education at Japanese army elementary schools modelled on the German model. (2) The British authorities were interested in the education policy that had a consistent moral education as its core in the education at ordinary high schools and junior high schools that were connected to the army elementary schools to compensate for the wartime shortage of officers.

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