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British children’s biggest fear is becoming a victim of crime, according The Children’s Society’s annual report. Among 10 to 17-year-olds, almost 40% worry about crime and are particularly fearful of theft, being followed by a stranger or being assaulted. The Children’s Society’s annual report, which surveyed 3,000 children and their parents, found that overall, levels of happiness continue to fall each year. It wants the government to increase funding for vulnerable children. After their safety, parental debt and money

Pass marks for GCSEs in England need to be pushed upwards to catch up with high performing education systems in Asia, say researchers from the Education Policy Institute. GCSE results are being changed to grades 9 to 1, with the first such grades to be published this week. But there will be two different pass marks – grade 4 as a “standard” pass and grade 5 as a “strong” pass. Researchers say pupils need to be at grade 5 to match

There are warnings of a lack of “ethnic mixing” in the UK’s universities, in a study from the Institute for Policy Research at the University of Bath. Ethnic minority students are more likely to be concentrated in new universities in London and big cities. But white students are more likely to attend predominantly white institutions, says the study. The report warns of “segregation” as a result of students’ choices of university. There are also ethnic divisions within subjects, with only 25 black

Older people who voted for Brexit have “comprehensively shafted the young”, Sir Vince Cable has said. Writing in the Mail on Sunday, the Lib Dem leader accused the over-65s of being “self-declared martyrs” who claim leaving the EU is worth the cost. “The martyrdom of the old comes cheap,” he said, as fewer have jobs to lose and living standards are protected by the triple lock on pensions. “For the Brexit martyrs, paradise beckons,” he added. Quoting statistics