This study examines the growth in term-time employment and its impact upon academic attainment among full-time undergraduates at Northumbria University. The study utilises data from three large-scale surveys carried out in each Spring Term between 1999 and2001. The growth in term-time employment coincides with change in the funding arrangements for students in higher education. This study shows that students in employment are drawn disproportionately from less well-off backgrounds. Many students see employment in term time as a means of keeping borrowing down; they also indicate employment as having a negative impact on their studies. The study investigates the impact on the attainment of students by broad subject group. For three of the seven subject groups investigated (including the largest) the adverse impact of employment on attainment was found to be substantial and statistically significant (the difference in performance between employed and non-employed students in the three groups most affected was more than three percentage points). In contemplating new funding arrangements for students in higher education, the Government should be concerned about the efficiency (loss of attainment) as well as the equity/fairness consequences of the arrangements

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In this paper we review arguments that have been well rehearsed in the economic literature in the past twenty years and which are relevant to the present debate over student loans and the funding of the higher education sector. The body of the paper assesses four finding proposals: (1) The Government's mortgage‐type loan scheme, (2) The Barr, National Insurance repayment scheme, (3) The Graduate Tax and (4) A Loan scheme based on the individual higher education institution. Each proposal is assessed in terms of its efficiency impact in six dimensions, (i) set up costs and flexibility, (ii) administrative costs (iii) incentives (iv) information (v) the balance of public and private involvement, and (vi) equity. We conclude that, overall, we would not recommend any of the alternatives as unambiguously superior on all counts. Insofar as a radical approach is to be implemented we argue that a scheme based on the individual higher education institution, with repayment via the National Insurance system, is probably the best option.

In Poland’s largest mining district, the Upper Silesian Coal Basin, there is a growing interest in resource development by small operators. Some concession areas are not yet directly affected by the mining industry. The objects of this research are two such areas and the goal is to determine a load of heavy metals (HM) in soils prior to mining projects and to assess the extent of their contamination at this stage. The metals studied were Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Zn, while HM contamination was assessed using the Contamination Factor (CF), Contamination Degree (CD), Pollution Load Index (PLI), and Geoaccumulation Index (Igeo). The Ecological Risk Potential Index (ER) and Comprehensive Potential Ecological Risk Index (PERI) were also employed. The pre-mining areas are close to an area where mining was terminated before 2000. For this area, we performed the same set of analyses as for the pre-mining areas studied. HM concentration levels and pollution indices in post-mining areas are significantly higher than in pre-mining areas. The results obtained in the post-mining area give an idea of the expected type and scale of potential threat to soils from mining and can form the basis for monitoring environmental contamination in subsequent investment and operation phases, as well as help develop and implement timely methods to prevent the increase in heavy metal immission to soils during mining activities. We believe that the presented approach of assessing the condition of soils starting at the pre-mining stage can support the sustainable management of energy resources in the cases studied and elsewhere.