Pupils will find it harder to gain a top grade GCSE pass under a radical change to the grading system being planned by Education Secretary Michael Gove today.

    

• Sir Michael Stoute-trained filly now 4-1 for fillies' Classic
• Victorious Society Rock back on course for Royal Ascot

The best Classic trials are those which inform and intrigue in equal measure, and the Musidora Stakes was just that here on Wednesday as it added another name to the crowd at the top of the Oaks market. Liber Nauticus, the one-and-a-half-length winner, is now a 4-1 chance to win at Epsom on 31 May, yet it is possible that her price owes as much to her colours and connections as it does to the bare form of her performance.

Liber Nauticus runs in the pale blue silks of the Weinstock family's Ballymacoll Stud, which were successful aboard Islington in the 2002 Musidora and have had Classic winners including Troy, Sun Princess, Golan and North Light. Her dam Serres, meanwhile, is a near-relative of the St Leger winner Conduit, and there was more grit than electricity about the way Liber Nauticus worked her way into the lead two furlongs out and then defended her advantage over Romantic Settings.

In her favour, this was only her second race, following a maiden win last September, and she is bred to appreciate another furlong and a half at Epsom. The runner-up, though, won a lowly handicap earlier this month, while Woodland Aria, in third, did not see out the trip.

There was nothing in the form to set Liber Nauticus apart from either Secret Gesture, the Lingfield Oaks Trial winner and 7-2 Oaks favourite, or Aidan O'Brien's Moth, third home in the 1,000 Guineas and 4-1 for Epsom. It is quite possible the Classic market will still be 7-2 the field on the day of the race.

"It's difficult, the ground changed earlier on and it was a muddling pace," Peter Reynolds, Ballymacoll's general manager, said, "so I don't think we saw quite what she's capable of today. She's a filly that's bred to stay, she probably hit the front a little sooner than Ryan [Moore] wanted and she seemed to idle when she hit the front, which can happen. It's up to [Sir] Michael [Stoute, her trainer] where she goes next. She's entered in the Irish Oaks and the Ribblesdale [at Royal Ascot], we'll see what Michael says. It's not cast in stone [that she will run in the Oaks]."

Society Rock, one of the mainstays of James Fanshawe's yard for the past four years, won his seasonal debut for the first time in his career when he took the Duke Of York Stakes by a head under a strong ride from Kieren Fallon. The six-year-old will now head to the Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot, a race he won in 2011 before finishing a close fifth behind Black Caviar after a slow start last season.

"He normally takes a bit of warming up in the spring," Fanshawe said. "We've been working away at the stalls, and if he gets a smooth start, that's half the battle with him.

"He's an exciting horse to have for the season, and he loves it as Ascot. He missed the break completely last season, and hopefully that won't happen again this year. Kieren gets on very well with him, they're both characters and they suit each other. He's maintained his appetite for racing and he's got better and stronger."

Frankie Dettori, who will return from a six-month suspension for a drugs offence at Leicester racecourse on Monday, will admit to taking cocaine for the first time in public in an interview with Clare Balding to be screened on Channel 4 News on Thursday evening. Dettori will say in the interview that he took the drug in "a moment of madness", and that he is "very ashamed and embarrassed" by his actions.Society Rock is now top-priced at 9-1 for the Diamond Jubilee Stakes behind Shea Shea, from Mike de Kock's stable in South Africa, who looks a less formidable opponent than Black Caviar last time around.

"I was brought up in jumping and I've seen horses fall at the last when you think they're going to win, so a result's a result," Fanshawe says of last year's race. "He missed the break and that's what happened. Lots of people have said [that he might have beaten Black Caviar with a better start], but you'd drive yourself mad thinking that way."

• The Oaks
• Ryan Moore
• Sir Michael Stoute
• Horse racing

Greg Wood
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• Murray forced to retire in Rome against Marcel Granollers
• 'I will make a decision on Paris after the next five days'

Andy Murray, as disconsolate as he has been for some time after being struck down again by a chronic back injury, said on Wednesday, his 26th birthday, that he would be "surprised" if he were ready to play in the French Open, which starts a week this Sunday.

The world No2 retired from his match against Marcel Granollers after fighting back from a set and 1-4 down to force and win a tie-break and level their match in the second round of the Rome Open. He informed the umpire he could not continue and hurried from the Campo Centrale for treatment, leaving behind a puzzled crowd, who had cheered one of his most impressive comebacks.

This was only the second time in 529 singles matches that Murray has quit a match injured. Six years ago, he retired in Hamburg with a wrist injury that would keep him out of the game for several months. It quite ruined his 20th birthday celebrations that night, and here he looked equally despondent, so close to the second grand slam of the season.

"I've pulled out because there was a good chance I wouldn't be playing [in the third round on Thursday], even if I was to get through," he said. "I'll have to wait and see on Paris but I would be very surprised I were playing there. I will speak with the guys, chat with the physio, come up with a plan, then make a decision on Paris after the next five days. [At the moment], it's unlikely "I was in a bit of pain, the same sort of thing as in Madrid [last week, where he lost in the quarter-finals to Tomas Berdych], when I took a few days off. I hit yesterday, was feeling a little bit better, but it's still sore today.

"It's not been perfect for a long period and obviously I want to try to start feeling very good again, because you always go into matches with little niggles and whatnot, but it is frustrating when for long periods you're hurting."

The injury is the same one that struck him down in the first set of the third round of the French Open last year against Jarkko Nieminin. He got through with a cocktail of pain-killers and reached the quarter-finals then but said on Wednesday that he does not want to go through that experience again. "You can have the injections, they can help a bit with pain and they can take some of the inflammation away, but that also didn't make me feel 100%, and I want to feel 100%."

Murray said the injury has been with him, on and off, since late 2011.

The only player in the top 10 never to retire due to injury during a match is Roger Federer, who, approaching his 32nd birthday, this year took the precaution of taking seven weeks off before returning to the Tour.

Asked if he thought it might require surgery — an option he considered last year — Murray said, "I don't know."

• Andy Murray
• French Open
• French Open 2013
• Tennis

Kevin Mitchell
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Pace attack must be back at its best in the first Test after a tepid performance in New Zealand

There could be quite a ding-dong over the course of the next two Test matches. On the one hand we have an England side who underperformed on the recent tour of New Zealand and were fortunate, or at least had to battle their socks off, to emerge on equal terms. Then we have the Black Caps, who excelled in their own country, gave England a real fright, but must realise that when push came to shove on the last day of the series they dropped catches when it mattered most – so that a golden chance went begging.

So England will be double-determined to show what they believe to be their true qualities while the Kiwis want to emphasise they were no flash-in-the-pan playing above themselves at home, but rather a team to be reckoned with, whatever the ICC rankings say. There is much kudos to play for at Lord's and Headingley.

Since taking over as captain from Andrew Strauss, Alastair Cook has lost only the first of his seven Tests, which may seem commendable. But in reality England have come off the boil after their series win in India. The final Test in Nagpur, before Christmas, was a proper means to an end; those in Dunedin, Wellington and Auckland were far from it, although the first two did suffer from bad weather. Both sides felt deprived of a winning opportunity in these two.

It is four years since England last drew four matches in a row, following the ambush in Jamaica that kickstarted the alliance of Strauss and Andy Flower. It is 14 years before that, though, when last they drew five on the bounce, and even six as it transpired.

To reinstate his team's winning way, Cook, not to mention the bowling coach David Saker, will want to see a significantly improved performance from the pace-bowling group. The New Zealand tour was instructive in that, generally, England were outbowled in an area in which they were expected to dominate.

Using the Kookaburra ball, the New Zealand seamers managed to find movement in the air that eluded those of England, most pertinently Jimmy Anderson, two wickets away from 300 in Tests now, and regarded as the premier, genuine swing bowler in the world.

From that series it was the New Zealand left-arm pair – the indefatigable Neil Wagner and a very skilled operator in Trent Boult – who emerged with the most wickets and best average respectively, while in the final Test in Auckland, Tim Southee gave a fine demonstration of how to set up batsmen. For Lord's they might even add a fourth seamer in Doug Bracewell, whose untimely cut foot kept him out of the home series, and hope for an overcast sky and a result with the toss.

This represents an excellent quartet, more than capable of dismissing England twice, especially if there is cloud about. Their diligence has extended to them practising with the Duke ball at home in the month before their arrival.

England still have not fathomed what it was that the New Zealand bowlers were doing that they were not. There has been talk of Anderson's seam angle and his thumb position beneath the ball (although freeze-frames of this may just coincide with him using a special grip for his wobble-seam ball) but it remains a mystery. Anderson does not sound unduly concerned anyway, and says that the ball is "coming out nicely", as bowlers like to put it.

England will need this to be the case for it is important that Anderson has an immense year. Alongside this the rehabilitation of Stuart Broad, England's leading wicket-taker in New Zealand, seems to be going to plan.

He is hitting the crease hard again, and has picked up wickets for Nottinghamshire. The crucial thing for him is to discover the right length to bowl: his natural length, from the point at which the arc of his arm reaches maximum velocity, is splice-hitting.

But he does take wickets with fuller deliveries although there is a danger of the ball floating in when he is trying to pitch it up, rather as Andy Caddick, very similar in method, did. A proper balance between the two lengths is paramount.

The worry has been the form of Steve Finn for Middlesex this season. Having tried a shortened run during the winter, something Saker has been advocating in the three years he has worked with him, Finn has now reverted to something longer again.

This is fine as long as he accelerates and neither cruises nor actually decelerates as once he did.

A bigger problem at the moment is his wrist position. He is said to be trying if not to swing the ball, then to "shape" it away, which is no bad skill to have but requires considerable practice to make sure that the wrist still remains behind the ball on delivery.

Finn appears to be having trouble with this and his direction is awry. England are keen to have him as part of the attack, for his pace alone, but they need to feel that he can be trusted not to release the pressure that is likely to be exerted by Anderson and Broad.

If they feel that Finn is still short of where they hope he should be then on a pitch that is unlikely, given the weather during its preparation, to have any real pace, they could turn to the recalled Yorkshireman Tim Bresnan instead. Getting Finn back on track, shape or no shape, is a priority.

• England cricket team
• New Zealand cricket team
• England v New Zealand 2013
• Cricket
• Alastair Cook

Mike Selvey
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Almost one in three first year students at UK universities say their courses are not good value, suggests a study.

Universities are making "unreliable" checks on teenagers' family background and postcodes to hit controversial admissions targets, a head teachers' leader has warned.    

A crisis over marking standards threatens this summer’s GCSE and A-level exams, says a leading independent school headmaster.

    

Students at newer universities spend significantly longer in lectures and seminars while those at traditional institutions are left to their own devices, new figures suggest.    

Universities in England are to receive a £50m cash injection to help create high-tech industries and boost economic recovery.

School in Wimbledon called in gay rights group to give staff lessons in how to stop homophobic bullying.    

Young children reject storybook characters who are overweight, research reveals.

The amount of lecture and tutorial time in universities has barely changed over the last six years despite a nine-fold hike in fees.    

Thousands of pupils are being consigned to the educational scrapheap after being sent to specialist "sin bins" for unruly children, a leading MP has warned.    

Almost one in three first year students at UK universities say their courses are not good value, a study suggests.

The green skills gap in the UK must surely be made a thing of the past

First came the news that scientists in Cambridge had developed a new kind of wheat that could increase productivity by as much as 30%. Then came the next item.

A survey of 200 horticultural businesses conducted by the Royal Horticultural Society found that 70% cannot fill skilled vacancies, 20% are forced to recruit overseas and almost 70% claim that entrants are inadequately prepared for work.

Put the two together and you have a depressingly familiar story: whereas Britain is capable of conducting cutting-edge research with huge implications for the wheat crop, its education system, banking system and entrepreneurs are unmoved.

Gardening is for people who don't quite make it elsewhere. It is not a career in itself, or so most teenagers believe.

This green skills gap must surely be made a thing of the past. Whether it is in plant pathology or conducting research into plant breeding, this is a business that just has to grow.

• Plants
• Biology
• Agriculture
• Careers

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Joe Biden, Michelle Obama and Bill Clinton were just some of the heavy-hitters speaking at college graduations this week

Every year around this time, clusters of newly minted "adults" in caps and gowns sit like sponges, soaking up the wisdom that booms from the front of the auditorium:

"Parents, friends, distinguished guests, graduates of the class of 2013 …"

So begins the commencement speech, a tradition at college and university graduations around the US. They can be boring, they can be painfully sincere, and they can also be the stuff of legend. Nearly 10 years after David Foster Wallace presented This is Water at Kenyon College, the speech was transformed into a short film and went viral.

Last year had some pretty powerful speeches, and 2013 is off to a pretty good start. Here's a look at who's taken the podium so far:

Vice-president Joe Biden, University of Pennsylvania, 13 May: 'I'm not making this up'

Say what? "There will be no U-Haul truck behind my casket."
Quotes: Steve Jobs.
Theme: Hard to pin down. The veep's speech touched on pretty much everything: immigration, gay rights, climate change, the economy, technological innovation, women's rights, Vietnam, China's expansion and the war in Iraq.
Humor: Five-star. By far the funniest of the recent commencement addresses.
Advice: "I have gained too much wisdom to offer any advice."
Best line: "Don't listen to the cynics. They were wrong about my generation and they were wrong about yours."

Michelle Obama, Eastern Kentucky University, 11 May: 'We're all called to serve'

In her first of three commencement speeches this year, Flotus urged graduates to go out and find students with different systems of belief. "If you're a Democrat, spend some time talking to a Republican," Obama told about 600 education, business and technology graduates last weekend. "And if you're a Republican, have a chat with a Democrat. We know what happens when we only talk to people who think like we do. We just get stuck in our ways."

Julie Andrews, University of Colorado, 10 May: 'When adversity hits, go out and learn something'

Say what? "When I was driving in from the airport, I wanted to get out of the car, go over to a grassy knoll and do my signature turn from the Sound of Music."
Quotes: TH White
Theme: The importance and power of the arts.
Humor: 2/5.
We learned: Andrews never finished high school and she also never went to college.
Applause: Loud.
Surprise: Many more sound of music references than we had anticipated.
Best line: "So congratulations, dear students. These hills are truly alive with the graduating class of 2013."

Nate Silver, Ripon College, 12 May: 'You're entering a world awash with data and statistics'

Say what?: "By election day last year, more people were Googling my name than the vice-president's".
Quotes: Various articles written about himself.
Theme: "The theme of this presentation is data and decisions."
Humor: 2/5.
Advice: "Accountability doesn't mean apologizing. It means learning from your mistakes and changing your behavior next time around."
We learned: "The trees are just the right size at Ripon".
In a word: Literal.
Applause: He doesn't stop talking for long enough to hear any.
Most similar to: One of his columns read aloud.

Neil deGrasse Tyson, Rice University, 11 May: 'America has lost its exploratory compass'

The popular astrophysicist's powerful speech focused on space funding. He spoke of the current state of space exploration and told the new graduates that the future of the industry is in their hands.

"You know why [private enterprise] can't lead it? Because space is expensive, it's dangerous and it has unquantified risks. You put all three of those under one umbrella – it cannot establish a capital market valuation of that exercise."

Bill Clinton, Howard University, 11 May: 'You must feel empowered'

Say what? "I am well aware that the commencement speech is the least important part of this day."
Quotes: The Quran, The Bible, The Dhammapada.
Theme: What we have in common is more important than our difference.
Humor: 3/5.
We learned: At Clinton's Georgetown graduation, a hard rain cut the mayor's commencement speech short. "Congratulations. If we don't get out of here we're all going to drown", he said.
Applause: The man can work a crowd.
Surprise: Addressed the student debt crisis (briefly).
Best line: "Creative co-operation works better than constant conflict and we forget that at our peril."

Melinda Gates, Duke, 12 May: 'Reject the cynics'

Quotes: Martin Luther King Jr.
Theme: The possibilities of human connection.
Humor: 0.5/5
We learned: In the 1970s, Duke University used to "grow" mutant frogs in the science building.
In a word: Sincere.
Applause: Rare.
Best line:

I don't want you to connect, for connection's sake alone. I want you to connect because it will inspire you to do something. To take action. To make a difference in the world. Humanity in the abstract will never inspire you the way meeting another human being will. Poverty is not going to inspire you to do something, but meeting people – that will inspire you.

• Graduation
• Joe Biden
• Michelle Obama
• Nate Silver
• US education

Ruth Spencer
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Cooking has gone down the pan, according to Delia: Brits don't learn how to cook, and don't care any more. Does the data stand up, or is it all waffle?

• More data journalism and data visualisations from the Guardian

Delia Smith has criticised modern cooking shows such as MasterChef for intimidating aspiring cooks, and claims the country has lost its grip on home cooking.

In an interview in the latest issue of Radio Times, Smith let fly. Anyone might think she had a new cookery course to promote – but her strong words have divided opinion.

One Guardian commentator declared in the thread following the news article, that "current cooking programmes are simply food porn...basic cooking skills have been lost" whilst another replied with: "people don't watch Masterchef for cooking lessons, they watch it to see the potential that amateur chefs can fulfill when given the opportunity. Most cooking show viewers either already know the basics, or can pick them up by having a go."

So what did Delia really say, was she right and do you agree with the comments?

"Nobody teaches people how to cook any more … you can't just open a book, go into a kitchen; you've got to have some lessons"

After recently announcing her retirement from broadcasting, Smith launched an online cookery school but she is far from the first chef to take their skills to the internet in hope of teaching others how to cook.

Jamie Oliver launched his own YouTube channel, Food Tube, earlier this year and at the time of writing has 233,531 subscribers and has had over 11m views. His videos show how to make a range of foods from 'super quick pasta sauces' to 'how to cook perfect steak'.

But professional TV chefs are not the only ones providing online cooking lessons. SORTED Food, a YouTube venture from four university friends has been such a success that they now boast more than 27m views. Their video on how to to bake macaroons has so far been the most popular with more than 725,000 hits.

But if we are to look at book sales, we can see that sales of food and drink books fell slightly in 2012 for the first time in four years. The data from Nielsen Bookscan doesn't – we think, correct us if we're wrong – include e-book sales however.

Jamie Oliver's Jamie's 30 Minute Meals has sold more than 1.79m copies since its release in 2010 and remains the fasting-selling non-fiction title in UK book publishing history.

Whether or not a book can teach you how to cook, or as Delia believes, your future culinary success depends on having lessons, we can't statistically be certain. We'll leave that to you in the comments field below.

Of course, Delia herself has published more than 20 cookery books. Presumably hers are more educational...

What is however clear is that cookery is being taught - and has been for a long time. First introduced in the 1800s to prepare girls for domestic service, to the Department for Education's School Food Plan. In response to new recommendations (and plenty of criticism) the new national curriculum will see all secondary school students learning about food and technology from 2014.

"We've lost our grip on home cooking. I can see that by the way kitchen equipment shops are in decline"

Maybe not. The cooking and baking market was worth £1.057bn in 2012, up from £1.043bn in 2011 according to retail analysts Conlumino, and it's expected to rise to £1.075bn this year.

If we're to turn our attention to baking, then there have been many shops reporting rises in equipment sales, no doubt boosted by the popularity of the Great British Bake Off. Sainsbury's announced their plans to launch a dedicated baking website last April after sales of its bakeware equipment and home baking items soared in the 12 months prior.

Since 2011 Sainsbury's sales of bakeware accessories have increased by 150% according to their press office. In turn the supermarket increased the number of their baking accessories from 25 to 90 (+260%) as "the baking trend going from strength to strength." They also noted that customers were buying into specialist cake baking lines as well as novelty baking items.

But supermarkets aren't the only place where people are getting their kitchen equipment. Debenhams announced a 207% increase (versus last year) in their sales of traditional bakeware such as mixing bowls, scales and other accessories.

But as Delia specifically spoke about kitchen equipment shops, we asked the Centre for Retail Research on data showing how many kitchen equipment shops had closed down in recent years. Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the centre, responded with the following statement:

The number of kitchen shops has declined, but these are mostly single-owner stores in cities, smart towns and tourist areas. Sales of kitchen products are also made through John Lewis and other department stores, supermarkets which have hovered up a lot of kitchenware sales, DIY (look at any Homebase), and online.

So the number of kitchen shops that exist is not the only measure of the strength or otherwise of people's interest in cooking.

"Food isn't theatre and to make it into theatre is wrong"

Delia doesn't dislike all TV cookery shows. Although she's not a fan of Masterchef, she does have a soft spot for Hairy Bikers. Smith admitted that the show made cooking funny but also made viewers think they would like to make the dishes they cooked.

Research by Conlumino found that in 2012:

• 60.2% of consumers watched TV cookery shows, up 15.4 percentage points
• 87.6% prepared a family meal at home, up 12.9 points
• 58% baked at home, up 31.2 points
• 26.7% bought a cook book, up 18.2 points
• 57.2% looked up a recipe online, up 20.4 points
• 4.5% took baking lessons, up 1.3 points

Global market research analysts, Mintel also found in a survey last year of 1,332 internet users aged 18+ who have purchased food and drink on occasions in home, that 71% chose the following statement: 'I tend to cook from scratch'.

Data summary

• Food & drink
• Food & drink industry
• Food and drink
• Delia Smith
• Jamie Oliver
• MasterChef

Ami Sedghi
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In fact home cookery has never been more popular among adults in Britain. What has changed, however, is our taste in food

Delia Smith may not have won any prizes for that tinned mince and frozen mash shepherd's pie recipe she published a few years back, or the infamous Waitrose fish risotto recipe that Anne Robinson branded "disgusting" on primetime television more recently, but she certainly deserves a medal for self-promotion.

The woman who taught the nation how to boil an egg has given an interview to the Radio Times complaining that we've "lost our grip on home cooking". The problem is, apparently, that no one learns how to cook any more – turns out "you can't just open a book, go into a kitchen; you have to have some lessons". (Try telling that to Heston Blumenthal, or Ferran Adrià – many of the world's most exciting chefs happen to be self-taught, but I suppose there are exceptions to every rule.)

Before you burn your Delia collection in despair however, take heart, because the patron saint of Norwich has recently launched an online cookery school to help remedy the problem. The first term's syllabus appears to focus entirely on cakes, slightly bizarrely. A simple tomato sauce, or roast chicken, or even how to boil an egg would seem a more practical option, but perhaps you only graduate to such complexities after you've mastered the lemon drizzle.

Whatever our skills in the icing department, however, I find the idea the nation has gone off the culinary rails slightly offensive. While I'm delighted the coalition has reintroduced cookery to the national curriculum (from September 2014, children will learn how to make "healthy, wholesome dishes" for themselves from the age of eight), where adults are concerned, home cookery has never been more popular.

And I do mean popular – of course, before the days of ready meals, most people did have to cook for themselves every day (though even the Victorians complained about the pernicious effects of fast food), but I suspect few of them were enthusiastic about it.

Nowadays, 1.79 million people rush out to buy the latest Jamie Oliver book, andnothing can convince me that, in this cash-strapped age, most people then leave the thing to gather dust under a pile of take-away menus. Because we no longer have to cook every single night, we've begun to enjoy it – and our food culture is finally blossoming.

In fact, I know this from personal experience, because every week I sift through 50-odd reader recipes for my column for the Saturday Guardian's Cook supplement. These are personal creations which people are so excited about, and proud of, that they want to share them with the world – and I doubt many of the contributors have had a single cookery lesson in their life.

The offerings vary from the simple mushy peas to laborious Malaysian pot-sticker dumplings, and every single one of them, so far, has worked perfectly. The variety constantly astounds me, and I think this is something Delia, for all her patient good work in the past, will never understand. Many people no longer care about turning out a perfect soufflé, or baking a fruit cake, but they do get excited about learning how to cook their own Vietnamese pho, or Mexican mole. They may not float her boat, but the world has changed.

It would be disingenuous of me to claim that there's no room for improvement: you only have to look at the buoyant sales of fast food to realise that not everyone in Britain is cooking up a storm on a regular basis. Some families don't cook – not because they don't know how to, but because they can't afford it, or simply don't have the time.

But a lesson on how to make fairy cakes is hardly going to have much of an impact on sales of fried chicken. Far better to take the Jamie Oliver approach: put your money where your mouth is, and offer practical help to those sectors of society who need it most. And they aren't the kind of people who'll log on to an online cookery course, however well-meaning.

Love him or hate him, Jamie's Ministry of Food cookery schools teach people who've never even heard of Delia to make their own, healthier, cheaper versions of the kind of stuff they like to eat anyway. "Cracking" burgers, chicken chow mein, vegetable jalfrezi – this is the sort of education we need to get everyone cooking, not a masterclass in marmalade muffins.

Admittedly, you have to know your knife from your frying pan before you can make your first burger, but the idea that your average Brit is so stupid they can't read simple instructions is patronising, to say the least. It's really not that hard. In fact I taught myself to cook, almost accidentally, simply by opening a Nigel Slater book and realising I wanted to eat every single thing in it. Greed, it turns out, is the best teacher.

• Delia Smith
• Food & drink
• Chefs
• Schools
• Children

Felicity Cloake
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UK universities are setting up campuses overseas to meet international demand, but studying on a foreign campus also has many benefits for UK students

Studying management with Chinese studies at the University of Nottingham's campus in China was an eye-opener for Adrian Fu, 21.

He spent the second year of his degree course at Ningbo near Shanghai and really enjoyed the opportunity of seeing things from a Chinese perspective: "I studied Chinese business law, saw a fast-moving economy at first hand and discovered that the Chinese are not as quiet and as reserved as you think. Like most of the students who came out with me I'd now like to go back to live and work in China."

Opened in 2004, the campus teaches about 4,500 students – mainly Chinese – and replicates the degree syllabus, teaching standards and quality control of the Nottingham campus.

Overseas branch campuses are part of the growing internationalisation of higher education. Besides fulfilling a growing international demand for degrees validated by UK universities, UK students benefit from the experience of learning in a foreign country, being exposed to a different culture, moving outside their comfort zone and mixing with international students.

The rationale for each branch campus is different. But what all do is provide a niche education whether it is University College London's (UCL) master's in Arab and Islamic archaeology in Qatar, London Business School's MBA taught in Dubai or the suite of accounting and business degrees offered by the University of Central Lancashire's campus in Cyprus. Study abroad is often seen as a career enhancer and the experience of meeting and working with overseas students can lay the foundations for future business networks.

Most UK universities with overseas campuses offer students a year abroad as an opportunity to specialise in a geographical area or region. The advantage is that being part of the same institution, students are able to seamlessly combine modules studied overseas with those studied in the UK.

The 2012 report from The Observatory on Borderless Higher Education lists 200 degree-awarding international branch campuses. Of these, 25 UK universities have branches overseas, putting the UK in third place behind France and the US. A further 10 UK universities are set to open overseas branch campuses over the next two years.

UK branch campuses often fulfil a major role in the countries where they are based. UCL's postgraduate branch campus in Education City, Qatar provides a suite of cultural heritage degrees few international universities can match. Established two years ago on the back of huge financial support from the Qatar Foundation, UCL in Qatar functions both as a department of UCL and as a partner to Qatar's Hamad bin Khalifa University (HBKU).

Specialist master's programmes in Arab and Islamic archaeology, conservation and museum and gallery practice attract an international student body. "UK students gain a high-quality degree in a subject specific topic that they cannot get anywhere else in the world," says Prof Thilo Rehren, director of UCL in Qatar.

The University of Nottingham launched its Malaysia campus in 2000. "In Malaysia there are a lot of research opportunities and funding streams that are unavailable in the UK," says Prof Hai-Sui Yu pro vice chancellor (international). For example, the foreign campus conducts research on crops which in the UK could only be done in the lab, but in Malaysia "you can work in the field", says Yu. Last year 120 students went out to Nottingham's Malaysia campus at Semenyih studying a range of degrees from international business and economics to psychology and international relations.

One of the newest and most enthusiastic entrants to the overseas branch campus movement is the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan). Based in Preston, UCLan aims to open a campus in Sri Lanka in 2014 with more campuses in Thailand and Bangladesh also planned.

"We're seeing a definite trend in trans-national education," says Lee Chatfield, rector of UCLan Cyprus, the university's first venture. The €53m (£44.8m) state-of the-art campus, which opened its doors to Cyprus students in October 2012, aims to attract UK students wanting to spend a year overseas with accommodation and a return flight to Britain included within the £9,000 tuition fee. Chatfield explains that despite the banking crisis earlier in the year, Cyprus is strategically placed to service eastern European and the Middle East as well as a burgeoning domestic market.

First-year accountancy degree student Henry Boocock returned from a taster session in Cyprus earlier this year. "The Cypriot students really made us feel welcome and the climate is a break from England's rain and snow," Boocock says. "Spending part of the academic year abroad is a useful life experience – and it gets you thinking about career opportunities in Europe."

• Students
• Studying abroad
• University of Nottingham
• University of Central Lancashire
• UCL (University College London)
• London Business School

Stephen Hoare
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