Note – Do you think Prof Paterson noticed this at the time? Professor John Robertson OBA, for nearly 40 years a schoolteacher, a teacher education lecturer, Associate Dean for Quality Assurance, research methods lecturer, PhD supervisor and Faculty Research Ethics Chair From Comparing inequality and outcomes across post-16 education in the UK, published in August 2025, utterly ignored at the time but worth revisiting in the light of the current witch-hunt of the First Minister in whose time these achievements were made: Since the formal introduction of devolution in the late 1990s, post-16 education and training (E&T)has looked increasingly different across the four nations of … Continue reading Major comparative study by respected Nuffield Foundation found higher educational achievement across the board in Scotland in the Sturgeon era than in other parts of the UK

By stewartb The interim report from the Milburn review examining the issues around NEETs gained a lot of MSM attention. See Milburn, A. (May 28, 2026) Independent report: Young people and work: interim report. Report for the Department for Work & Pensions. Its stated geographic scope is clear from the outset: it’s the whole of the UK. The report does acknowledge that certain germane policy areas are devolved: ‘Where policy areas discussed are devolved to Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, this is noted.’ However, whilst some of the statistics provided are for the UK, most are for England only. No disaggregated stats for … Continue reading The Milburn report on the ‘UK’s ‘lost generation’ does look north, does spot some of Scotland’s strengths but should have tried much harder