London teacher training courses 'worst in Britain'

Three teacher training courses in London have been branded among the worst in Britain by research published today.

Their students are less likely to take up teaching jobs and more likely to have a lower class of degree, it said.

The courses - at London South Bank, London Metropolitan University and the University of Greenwich - all came in the bottom 10 in a national table of university courses. Cambridge and Oxford were rated as the best.

The research reignited the row over a proposal for students with lower-class degrees to be forced to pay for their teacher training.

Authors of today's Good Teacher Training Guide 2010 attacked the plan. They said it would cause a drastic reduction in maths, physics, chemistry and language trainees.

Professor Alan Smithers, of the Centre for Education and Employment Re- search at the University of Buckingham, who wrote the report, said: "Improving quality depends on attracting sufficient applicants to be able to choose those who can make subjects come alive for children." The guide ranks courses on the percentage of students who enter teaching, the university's Ofsted report and the standard of degree students have on entering the course.

A spokeswoman for London Metropolitan University said: "To use students' entry qualifications does not allow for a full appreciation of 'value added' by the university. We know there is no strong correlation between entry qualification and final degree results."