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73-560: Harris Federation is a multi-academy trust of 52 primary and secondary academies in and around London . They are sponsored by Philip Harris (Lord Harris of Peckham) . With 52 academies in London and Essex, the Harris Federation educates around 40,000 children, which is about 1 in 40 London children, and employs 5,000 staff. Through its "Train to Teach Programme", it provides initial teacher training and inset for teachers from London and

146-780: A charitable trust and individual contracts were signed with the Department for Education (DfE). These were all schools that had been failed the Ofsted criteria. By 2010 there were 203 such schools, out of a total 3333. The Academies Act 2010 was passed by the incoming Conservative Government, It provided a bespoke statutory mechanism for maintained schools, both primary and secondary, to be forced or allowed to ‘convert’ to academy status. The DfE adopted various ‘model funding agreements’ for new academies. New academies called ‘free schools’ could be built. A local authority needing to build new school in its area had to seek proposals to establish an academy, in

219-482: A forum in which its member institutions can discuss issues of common concern; and identify opportunities for them to work together. The Russell Group is led by Chief Executive Tim Bradshaw and chaired by Chris Day , Vice-Chancellor of the University of Newcastle. The Russell Group currently has twenty-four members, of which twenty are from England, two from Scotland, and one from each of Wales and Northern Ireland. Of

292-481: A full list of active academy sponsors. In September 2017, the Wakefield City Academies Trust announced it was winding down and ceasing to trade as it hadn't the capacity to manage its 21 schools and asked the government to make an alternative arrangement. The Sutton Trust has verbalised the concerns that academies and particularly academy chains (MAT)s were not always delivering the results that

365-400: A job interview or college application and beyond. They have no networks, no contacts, no professional people in their family to help them on in life. Their GCSEs are crucial. Ofsted is valuing curriculum over qualifications." Ofsted denies that they have produced a middle class framework for middle class kids, or that it has a view on two year key-stage three but it is the mileage travelled not

438-496: A national system of primary and secondary education, with schools under the overall supervision of ‘local education authorities’ who were responsible for funding all such schools. This legal called maintaining then in 1988 schools gained legal autonomy. Sponsored academies were introduced from the early 2000s by the Labour government. The sponsor paid the capital cost and the revenue costs were paid by central government. A sponsor set up

511-496: A rise in actual funding levels due to an overall increase in funding. The top 19 English institutions in terms of funding continued to all be from the Russell Group, with the top 20 being rounded off, as before, by Lancaster . The LSE was, as in previous REF rounds, the exception, ranking 31st in terms of funding (down from 23rd in 2021/11) and seeing a nine per cent fall (£1.7 million) in its allocation. In 2015/16, following

584-530: A statement made in 2014 to the Higher Education Policy Institute, David Watson of the University of Oxford suggested that the Russell Group's claim to represent 24 'leading universities' was "a real stretch". In the context of the Russell Group's reputation in the sector, he continued: "particularly dangerous, I think, is the bottom half of the Russell Group...The problem with the Russell Group

657-776: A third" of pupils "cannot afford to pay for school meals, but they achieved 12% A* grades and 42% A* to A grades". In 2015 it was reported that Harris Academies had some of the highest turnover of staff amongst schools in the UK, with The Guardian reporting that over a third of Harris teachers leave after just one year, with 1,000 teachers leaving the Federation in three academic years, underlined by 34 leaving Harris Falconwood in 2015 alone. The Anti-Academies Alliance put this high turnover down to poor working conditions, excessive workload and unreasonable pressure on teachers from senior leadership. In 2019 numerous Harris Academies were accused of "gaming"

730-789: A university degree, despite being only 17% of all higher education graduates. The Russell Group is named after the location of the first informal meetings of the Group, which took place at the Hotel Russell in Russell Square , London. The Russell Group of universities was formed in 1994 by 17 British research universities – Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Imperial College London, Leeds, Liverpool, London School of Economics, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Oxford, Sheffield, Southampton, University College London and Warwick, who originally met at Hotel Russell shortly before meetings of

803-405: Is Schoolsworks Academy Trust , West Sussex where the median hourly pay gap in favour of men is 62% – meaning that a woman is paid 38 pence for every £1 earned by a man. The Wakefield City Academies Trust , which managed 21 schools before its collapse, had a median hourly gender pay gap of 52%. The Kent Catholic Schools Partnership staff face a gender pay gap of almost 50%. In December 2018,

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876-549: Is synonymous with 'best ' " is "persistent, but unverified". He also notes that this may lead to less scrutiny of the performance of non-Russell Group selective universities with respect to widening participation and improving access. The Institute of Economic Affairs has argued that the Russell Group acts out of protectionist interests. It is claimed that this will "restrict competition, discourage innovation and encourage inefficiency, thereby depriving students of lower prices and/or greater choice". The twenty-four universities in

949-420: Is that it represents neither the sector as a whole [nor], in many cases, the best of the sector". Performance in research intensity showed that there were dozens of other UK universities "above the bottom Russellers". A Durham University academic, Vikki Boliver, published a report in 2015 claiming that the prestigious position of the Russell Group was not based on evidence, but rather successful marketing. Only

1022-491: The Education Policy Institute found that English MATs had significantly higher annual turnover of secondary classroom teachers (19.5%) than local authorities schools (14.4%). Large MATs, with 10 or more schools, also had higher rates of pupil absence, suspension and unexplained departures than smaller MATs and local authority schools. Following mounting ongoing concern a league table was produced to name and shame

1095-622: The Royal Opera House and Christie's . In summer 2018, the musician Stormzy , who attended a Harris Academy, returned to his old school to launch a scholarship scheme for black students at Cambridge university. In 2014, the Harris Federation and Westminster School opened the Harris Westminster Sixth Form . The aim of the sixth form, which received 1,000 applications for 250 places, is to help students from London's state schools access top universities. In 2021, 36 students from

1168-484: The Standards and Testing Agency (STA). Thus, pupils’ scores in those papers have been expunged and they will receive scores only for their spelling, punctuation and grammar tests. In a letter sent to parents on Monday, 6 August 2018, the academy's chair of governors, described the investigation findings as “deeply regrettable and disappointing”. However, the school was inspected by Ofsted after this and rated Outstanding, with

1241-731: The Sutton 30 (the absent members being Queen Mary University of London and Queen's University Belfast). The Sutton 13 group of the 13 most highly selective universities only includes one non-Russell Group member, the University of St Andrews . The top 10 by average UCAS points of new undergraduate students in 2021–22 included three non-Russell Group universities: St Andrews (1st: 212 points), Strathclyde (2nd: 210 points), and Aberdeen (joint 10th with Durham: 185 points). The top 10 by lowest offer rate to new undergraduate students in 2023-24 included three non-Russell Group universities: St Andrews (4th; 26.6%), St George's (9th; 41.4%) and University of

1314-591: The Sutton Trust published a report, Chain Effects 2018, building on work they had done in previous reports on the effectiveness of MATs in improving the performance of disadvantaged children. Poorer pupils in 12 out of 58 chains analysed by Professor Merryn Hutchings and Professor Becky Francis, performed above the national average on key measures of 2017 attainment for disadvantaged pupils. Three chains – City of London, Diocese of London, and Harris – were significantly above

1387-635: The 20 UK universities with the highest income from research grants and contracts were members of the Russell Group. In terms of total research funding allocations from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) in 2007/8, the top 15 universities were all Russell Group institutions. LSE was 21st, due to its focus on less costly social sciences research. Queen's University Belfast , Cardiff , Glasgow and Edinburgh , were not included in this table, as they are not English institutions. The Russell Group institutions received 82% of

1460-531: The 2014 REF, the 19 English universities with HEFCE research funding allocations (excluding transitional funding) in excess of £20 million were all members of the Russell Group. The only English Russell Group institution to receive an allocation below £20 million was the LSE (£18.6 million), which ranked 22nd behind the Universities of Leicester and Lancaster (both on £19 million). In 2010/11, 19 of

1533-614: The ARWU top 100, seventeen of the eighteen in the QS top 100 (the other place being occupied by the University of St Andrews ), and all ten in the THE top 100 are members of the Russell Group. The Russell Group provides seven of the top ten in the Complete, Guardian, and Times/Sunday Times. All but two of the universities in the Russell Group are part of the Sutton Trust 's group of 30 highly selective universities,

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1606-712: The Arts London (10th; 44.8%). The average offer rate, including conditional and unconditional offers, across 'higher tariff' UK institutions (as defined by UCAS ) was 59.7% in 2023. Notes: The average UCAS tariff achieved by new undergraduate students entering the university in 2021–22. This is based on qualifications achieved, for example A-levels : A* = 56, A = 48, B = 40 UCAS points; IBO Certificate in Higher Level : H7 = 56, H6 = 48, H5 = 32. The average offer rate for June deadline undergraduate applicants (all ages) in 2023. The Russell Group accounted for 49.1% of

1679-540: The Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals (now Universities UK ) in nearby Tavistock Square , close to the University of London buildings and, particularly, Senate House . With the exception of Warwick (established in the 1960s), the founder members of the group were all universities or university colleges prior to World War I, including most of Britain's ancient universities and " redbrick universities ". In 1998, Cardiff University and King's College London joined

1752-664: The English members, five are from Greater London ; three from the Yorkshire and the Humber region; two from each of the North East , North West , West Midlands , South West and South East regions; and one from each of the East Midlands and East regions. Four Russell Group members are constituent colleges of the University of London and a fifth London institution, Imperial College London,

1825-744: The Federation's involvement. Having been in special measures before becoming a Harris academy, its first inspection report after opening found that it was now good with outstanding features. Reacting to the news that the Harris Primary Academy Philip Lane in the heart of Tottenham, had been unduly helping their pupils in their Key Stage 2 Sats tests, anti-academies campaigner Fiona Millar said "I’ve scrutinised their data and wondered how they get these results with similar cohorts of pupils. Increasingly we see they do it by this unethical behaviour. " Year 6 pupils were given too much help in their English reading and maths reasoning Sats, according to

1898-561: The Harris Federation against the wishes of 94% of the parents and boards of governors. There was national media coverage over Downhills Primary School (now Harris Primary Academy Philip Lane), where it was reported that 94% of parents opposed the change to academy status. At the time, the government said it had decided to close Downhills Primary School and re-open it as a Harris Academy because of "chronic underperformance" at Downhills. According to national news reports, standards of education at Harris Primary Academy Philip Lane quickly improved with

1971-486: The Harris Federation as a "top performer" in primary and secondary education, when comparing the performance of different multi-academy trusts. In July 2016, researchers at the Education Policy Institute found that "at primary level the Harris Federation is the highest performing school group in England – the improvement it has made is equivalent to pupils making around one and a half times more progress than average". In 2017,

2044-508: The Harris Federation was recognised by government league tables as being the top performing multi-academy trust (MAT) in England. Commenting on the new performance data, Schools Standards Minister, Nick Gibb , said that the Harris Federation is "leading the way" in delivering excellent results for its pupils. In 2018, the Department for Education published a league table comparing the performance of all multi-academy trusts. The Harris Federation

2117-536: The Labour Party in 2018 found that the number of students from disadvantaged areas has only increased by one percentage point since 2010. In 2015, Durham academic Vikki Bolívar published a paper, Lies, damned lies, and statistics on widening access to Russell Group universities , criticising the statistical analysis in the Russell Group publication Opening Doors . This had said that "real progress has been made over

2190-536: The Russell Group are responsible for around half of the Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions of the UK university sector. The Group as a whole has been criticised for an inconsistent and inadequate response to the need to identify emissions and take reduction measures. An Environmental Sustainability Network was announced by the Russell Group in December 2019; as of November 2021 no outcomes from this had been announced. Analysis by

2263-611: The South East. The sponsor is Philip Harris (Lord Harris of Peckham) who was the former chairman and chief executive of Carpetright . The federation is a not-for-profit charitable organisation. The chief executive officer is Sir Daniel Moynihan, a former principal of the Harris City Academy Crystal Palace. The Harris Federation headquarters are in East Croydon. In 2016, the Department for Education recognised

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2336-478: The UK, and 91% of the Russell Group's research was judged to be world-leading (4*) or internationally excellent (3*). In the 2023 Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework (TEF), of the 20 English Russell Group universities which were assessed, 7 hold gold awards (35%) and 13 silver (65%). This compares to proportions across 128 higher education institutions of which 29% hold gold, 62% silver, and 9% bronze. Their graduates hold 61% of all UK jobs that require

2409-729: The academy was nominated as a 'Croydon Hero' because of the improvements that took place. The Harris Westminster Sixth Form , which was scheduled to open in 2014, has been criticised for costing £45 million of public money to establish. Before it opened, the former chair of the Public Accounts Committee , Margaret Hodge , called it a "vanity project". However, Ofsted inspected the Sixth Form in autumn 2016, rated it "outstanding" in all areas and praised it for creating "a community of scholars". Its first set of A Levels were described as "outstanding" by The Times , which reported that "almost

2482-411: The assessment Achieved overall 'Silver' rating with one category rated 'Bronze' In 2022/23, following the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF), the English universities of the Russell Group saw their share of recurring research funding from Research England drop by 2.71 percentage points from the 2021/22 funding (based on the previous 2014 REF) to 68.21 per cent, although most institutions saw

2555-579: The average. However, in 38 of the 58 chains analysed, disadvantaged pupils performed below the state school national average. The Sutton Trust recommends that: Russell Group The Russell Group is a self-selected association of twenty-four public research universities in the United Kingdom. The group is headquartered in Cambridge and was established in 1994 to represent its members' interests, principally to government and Parliament . It

2628-569: The central board. The board of directors originally were responsible to the Secretary of State for Education , through the National Schools Commissioner. In September 2014 eight Regional Schools Commissioners (RSCs) were formally appointed as civil servants within the Department for Education (DfE); were given responsibility for intervening in under-performing academies in their region and approving new free schools . Their role

2701-484: The country for pupil progress and EBACC qualifications for disadvantaged students. In 2018, Harris Academy Battersea received an "Outstanding" rating from Ofsted . Previously known as Battersea Park School and Battersea Technology College, the school became a Harris Academy in 2014 after it was branded inadequate. In one year at the previous school, no pupils gained five or more GCSE passes. In 2003 three percent of children left with five A*-C GCSEs and in 2017 this figure

2774-467: The defunct 1994 Group (shown by asterisks). Another 13 "old" universities and 54 "new" universities made up a third tier, with a fourth tier of 19 "new" universities. Within each tier, the differences between the institutions were less significant than the differences between the tiers. This reflected an earlier result from 2010 that, when the "Golden Triangle" universities (defined in the study as Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial, LSE, and UCL) were omitted,

2847-400: The existing rules on free nursery places." Harris Federation academies are the top school for progress in five of the nine boroughs in which the Federation operates and three Harris academies – Harris Academy Battersea , Harris Academy Morden and Harris Academy Bromley – are in the top 1% of schools in the country for pupil progress. The Harris Federation is the highest performing MAT in

2920-519: The federation was attacked by the ransomware gang REvil , which published multiple financial documents of the federation to its blog. As a result, the IT systems of the federation were shut down for some weeks, which had been compromised in the attack, thus disabling 37,000 students' email. This lasted for about 4 months. Some of the schools within the federation were formerly run by local authorities, and forced by central government to become academies as part of

2993-426: The form of a ‘free school’. They were no longer allowed to construct it themselves. In 2014, eight Regional Schools Commissioners (RSCs) were appointed as DfE civil servants. with the responsibility for approving new academies and intervening to address performance issues in academies. They have significant powers to influence to academies and local authority maintained schools. The academy trust model of governance

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3066-433: The government had hoped for. They sponsored and published research challenging aspects of policy; the programme is called Chain Effects. Other, independent research has examined the impact of MATs. Bernardinelli et al (2018) found no positive impact from MAT status overall, but that pupils in small and mid-sized MATs tend to perform better, on average, than their peers in comparable maintained schools in both phases and, in

3139-533: The group. In March 2001, the Russell Group decided against selecting a preferred option for the future funding of higher education, stating that endowments, a graduate contribution, increased public funding and top-up fees should all remain options. In December 2005, it was announced that the Russell Group would be appointing its first full-time director-general as a result of a planned expansion of its operations, including commissioning and conducting its own policy research. In November 2006, Queen's University Belfast

3212-477: The income of the higher education sector in the UK in 2013–14, having risen from 44.7% of the total in 2001–02. Over the same period the total income of Russell Group universities rose by 69.9% in real terms, compared to a sector average of 54.4%. Russell Group universities are also seen as "particularly creditworthy" due to their membership of the group, allowing them to borrow money at low interest rates. The total annual income for Russell Group members for 2020–21

3285-538: The last few years" in widening access, but Bolívar highlighted four areas where the statistics used to justify this claim were misleading. She also pointed out that there was "a growing body of statistical research evidence which indicates that one important barrier to widening access at Russell Group universities is that applicants from less advantaged social backgrounds are less likely to be offered places at these universities than comparably qualified applicants from more advantaged social groups" that had not been mentioned in

3358-455: The length of the course that was being judged. In 2017–18, the salary of the CEO of the Harris Federation was in the £440-450,000 bracket which is higher than any other multi-academy trust. The salary has been at the centre of a warning of a "super league" of academy CEO salaries. The trust has three sponsors, that, as of 21 March 2021 are Lord Harris, his wife and his son. In April 2021, a petition

3431-457: The new members had previously been members of the 1994 Group of British universities. In January 2013, it was announced that the Russell Group would establish an academic board to advise the English exams watchdog Ofqual on the content of A-Levels . In 2019, the group launched the website "Informed Choices" to advise school children on which A-level subject choices were useful for various degree courses, replacing an earlier teachers' guide of

3504-578: The primary phase, than comparable standalone academies. Conversely, secondary school pupils in larger MATs (with 16+ schools) tend to do worse compared to those in both standalone academies and maintained schools. Other studies have focussed on the wider impact of MATs. This includes Greany and Higham 's (2018) study of academisation and the Government's wider 'school-led self-improving system' reforms, which showed that MATs were contributing to fragmentation and reduced democratic oversight of schools. In 2024,

3577-457: The remaining (then) members of the Russell Group were outperformed by the (then) members of the 1994 Group. Ant Bagshaw from the Wonkhe think-tank has criticised the use of Russell Group membership as a proxy for selectivity in official Department for Education reports and statistics, as better measures of selectivity are available from UCAS data. He states that the idea that "Russell Group membership

3650-466: The results of former year six pupils at Harris Primary Academy Kent House over fears of “maladministration”. In 2013 Roke Primary School joined the Harris Federation, against the wishes of some parents and governors who did not want to have academy status. Now known as Harris Primary Academy Kenley , the academy has since been judged "outstanding" by Ofsted. As part of a local awards scheme, the Principal of

3723-509: The role assigned to them by the MAT board itself There is one central board of directors, who may call themselves the board of governors. The majority are appointed by the sponsor. They appoint the executive head teacher, and run the back-office services such as building, human resources and allocation of special fund. They may govern all the schools centrally or appoint local governing bodies with defined delegated powers which act as subcommittees to

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3796-437: The same name from 2011 that had identified a list of "facilitating subjects'. The Russell Group states that "its aim is to help ensure that our universities have the optimum conditions in which to flourish and continue to make social, economic and cultural impacts through their world-leading research and teaching". It works towards this by lobbying the UK government and parliament; commissioning reports and research; creating

3869-409: The school as a “a place of black excellence”, he made a donation in order to fund new opportunities for students to study robotics. In 2016, concerned that teachers were being priced out of London because of the cost of accommodation, the Harris Federation launched a campaign for academy trusts to be able to turn unused land on their school sites into affordable housing for teachers. On 27 March 2021,

3942-440: The schools inspectorate judging that "The academy trust worked swiftly to investigate the maladministration of standardised tests and took appropriate disciplinary action. They have ably managed the school by brokering highly skilled leaders to provide the school with renewed focus and direction." In 2018, the second primary school run by this academy chain had SATs results annulled. The Standards and Testing Agency cancelled some of

4015-401: The sixth form won places at Oxford and Cambridge universities. In 2019, the Harris Federation opened the first completely free nursery in England. With 55 hours of free childcare per week for 51 weeks of the year for children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, the Federation said it "had been compelled to provide early years places to the most needy children because they miss out under

4088-560: The social mobility of children of low income families. It has identified that these children do better with shorter Key Stage 3, and a three-year exam orientated Key stage 4. more colloquially this is spoken of as "three years to do their GCSE". Ofsted recognises that their GCSE results are outstanding but believes that the students are losing out on the wider Keystage 3 experience. The UK Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills ( Ofsted ) warned Harris, that schools that used

4161-987: The strength of these, they informed headteachers that their schools were failing and must apply to become academies and join an academy chain. In effect there were two inspection regimes: the education minister Damian Hinds told the 2018 NAHT this must change: “Ofsted inspectors should be the only people who should be inspecting schools…which means no more RSC-initiated visits that can feel like inspections with those extra demands for data, adding to bureaucracy.” Regional School commissioners do not stay in post for long, and often leave to become CEOs of multi-academy trusts. A number of private and charitable organisations run groups of academies. These major operators include ARK Schools , Academies Enterprise Trust , E-ACT (formerly Edutrust Academies Charitable Trust), Emmanuel Schools Foundation , Harris Federation , Oasis Trust , Ormiston Academies Trust , Tauheedul Education Trust and United Learning Trust . The Department for Education publishes

4234-485: The system through the practice of entering entire cohorts for the ESOL qualification, which is aimed at students who have English as an additional language (EAL), Harris Falconwood entered the whole of their Year 11 cohort (177 students) despite only having 15 EAL students. This was shown to be common practice across the Federation. Harris educates about 2.5% of London school children, and considers itself experienced in increasing

4307-518: The test are taking a far too simplistic a view on when GCSE teaching should begin. Many of the children in Outwood Grange Academies Trust schools need a three-year run up. They don't have books at home and space for homework. All that has to happen in school time and disproportionately their life chances come from qualifications." Moynihan backed him up, saying: "For many of our children qualifications are all they have in their hands at

4380-406: The top 20 were QUB (21st) and the LSE (27th), while the other two universities to have since joined were York (22nd) and Exeter (25th). In the equivalent table for the 2014 Research Excellence Framework , the 24 Russell Group members occupied the top 24 positions, with the University of Lancaster in 25th being the highest-ranked non-Russell Group university. In 2023, all eight UK universities in

4453-622: The total HEFCE research funding allocation. The research funding figures depend on factors other than the quality of research, in particular there are variations due to institutional size and subject spread (e.g. science, technology and medicine tend to attract more money). In 2008, 18 of the then 20 members were positioned in the top 20 of Research Fortnight 's Research Assessment Exercise 'Power' Table. The other two places were occupied by Durham University and Queen Mary University of London , which were not then Russell Group members but have since joined. The two Russell Group institutions outside

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4526-557: The two plus thee method would lose their "Outstanding status". Harris instructed its 27 secondary academies to switch back to the three plus two model in July 2019. In many schools, this will have accommodation and staffing cost and they may not transition until September 2020. In January 2020, Martyn Oliver , the then chief executive of Outwood Grange Academies Trust , told The Times that: "New Ofsted inspections favour middle-class kids. Inspectors, fighting against schools who just teach to

4599-654: The universities of Oxford and Cambridge were significantly more elite than the majority of "old" universities when a grouping analysis was performed using data on academic selectivity, research activity, teaching quality, socio-economic exclusivity and economic resources. The other 22 members of the Russell Group sit in a second tier of universities along with 17 other "old" universities ( Aberdeen , Bath *, Dundee , East Anglia *, Goldsmiths *, Heriot-Watt , Kent , Lancaster *, Leicester *, Loughborough *, Reading *, Royal Holloway *, St Andrews *, SOAS *, Strathclyde , Surrey * and Sussex *), mostly comprising former members of

4672-505: The worst performers using the Progress 8 benchmark , which measures GCSE results after compensating for each pupil's performance at the end of Key Stage 2 . A summary of the league table for 2017 is: Trusts are exempt from all Teacher Pay and Conditions agreements. In March 2018, The Guardian revealed that they fail in gender equality. The study reveals several trusts where women face hourly pay deficit of more than 50%. The worst offender

4745-445: Was 83%. The school is now oversubscribed and the percentage of students applying to Russell Group universities has greatly increased. Ofsted said that teachers were proud to work at the academy, that morale was high and pupils of all abilities make "very strong progress". In 2021, Will.i.am visited Harris City Academy Crystal Palace to film The Blackprint a TV documentary exploring what it means to be black and British. Describing

4818-523: Was admitted as the twentieth member of the group. In the same month Wendy Piatt , the then deputy director in the Prime Minister's strategy unit, was announced as the group's new Director General and chief executive. In March 2012, it was announced that four universities – Durham, Exeter, Queen Mary University of London; and York – would become members of the Russell Group in August of the same year. All of

4891-566: Was expanded in July 2015 to approve converter academies and assign sponsors. It remained unclear exactly what the limits to the role of Regional School Commissioner were and how they related to the elected Headteachers Board (HTB), to the Local Authorities , to Ofsted and the local community. Ofsted is a separate government department not answerable to the DfE. The regional commissioners ran shadow inspections of schools and trust, bypassing Ofsted. On

4964-485: Was incorporated in 2007. Its members are often perceived as being the UK's best universities, but this has been disputed. As of 2017, Russell Group members receive over three-quarters of all university research grant and contract income in the United Kingdom. Russell Group members award 60% of all doctorates gained in the United Kingdom. In the 2021 Research Excellence Framework , Russell Group universities accounted for 65% of all world-leading (4*) research conducted in

5037-413: Was part of the University of London until 2007. The table below gives the members of the group, along with when they joined, their student and staff numbers, and their latest Teaching Excellence Framework overall rating (non-English universities were not assessed). Notes: Member institution of the University of London , awarding its own degrees Achieved 'Gold' rating in all three categories of

5110-510: Was ranked the top performing large trust for the progress made by its pupils and for the progress made by its disadvantaged pupils. In 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 research by the Sutton Trust found that the Harris Federation was among "The best academy chains (for) having a transformational impact on pupils’ life chances". The Harris Federation runs a cultural enrichment programme that aims to improve outcomes for their brightest students, with activities run with organisations such as LAMDA ,

5183-757: Was started against the head of academy to resign, which reached 6000 signatures within two weeks of its creation. The petition alleged racism and staff bullying. 51°24′01″N 0°04′32″W  /  51.4003°N 0.0755°W  / 51.4003; -0.0755 Multi-academy trust BESA, the British Educational Suppliers Association states that in November 2019 there are 1,170 Multi Academy Trusts in England that manage at least two schools: 598 have five or fewer schools, 259 have 6-11 schools, 85 have between 12-25 schools and 29 have 26 or more schools. The Education Act 1944 established

5256-467: Was the one imposed on all: By 2017, the concept of academy chain was in retreat, the multi-academy trust was the predominant model of governance. The MAT contracts with the Secretary of State directly and schools run by a MAT have no separate legal identity. Each school is, in law, simply the local site through which the MAT delivers the central contract. Local staff and any local ‘governing body’ have only

5329-407: Was £20.30 billion of which £4.77 billion was from research grants and contracts, with an operating surplus of £1.15 billion. Russell Group universities hold a total endowment value of £6.18 billion (exclusive of colleges) and net assets of £31.52 billion. The table below is a record of each Russell Group member's financial data for the 2020–21 financial year. Notes: exclusive of colleges In

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