Open University To Go Global With Online Courses

The Open University (OU) has launched a campaign to take distance learning global - as it attempts to catch up with online course offered by US colleges.

The OU has teamed up with 10 British universities in a venture called FutureLearn.

The plan is to give free virtual lectures that are supplemented by digital learning tools to help promote UK institutions.

OU vice-chancellor Martin Bean told Sky News: "You won't be able to get a degree through FutureLearn but you will be able to get free access to some of the best higher education content on the planet.

"In a world of higher fees where people are taking on more of that responsibility for themselves I think they're going to demand better teaching ... and I'm sure it will help these universities really develop new, innovative and experimental teaching practices."

The decision to go global comes after leading US colleges, including Harvard, MIT, Texas and Georgetown, launched various learning partnerships.

One partnership involving Stanford already has two million users around the world.

Professor Bean admitted: "There's no doubt the Americans have got a little out in front of us on this one."

But he insisted the move would benefit Britain's universities.  

"It strengthens brand and competitiveness, it allows them to experiment and develop new teaching strategies for their students on campus and online," he said.

"And it also creates some revenue opportunities in being able to compete for all of those transnational students that are often in developing parts of the world."

The OU has been running courses since 1971, initially using late night television programmes to supplement course notes.

Supporters see FutureLearn as an important way to put students on a path that may lead to traditional tertiary education - a lucrative sector for colleges.

But there are doubts whether any money can be made from massive open online courses (Moocs), even though one in the US has 160,000 users.

Moocs do not carry degree credits and concerns have been raised about plagiarism and the manpower needed to check the work of tens of thousands of students that may be on a single course.

Money-making concepts have included offering free courses but charging for exams, certificates and tutoring.

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UBS Faces $1bn Fine Over Libor Manipulation

UBS is expected to be hit with a fine of around $1bn to settle Libor manipulation charges.

The total amount - worth around £620m - will be a combined penalty from US and UK regulators, and is expected to be confirmed early next week.

UBS declined to comment on the news.

It comes two days after the Serious Fraud Office made three arrests as part of its investigation into the fixing of the interbank lending rate.

Sky sources suggested that one of the people detained previously worked as a trader at UBS, which has a big presence in the City of London.

Last month, the Financial Services Authority fined the Swiss bank £29.7m for internal failings that allowed a London-based rogue trader to cause the biggest fraud in British history.

Unauthorised trading by Kweku Adoboli resulted in £1.4bn worth of losses for UBS.

To date, Barclays is the only UK bank to have been fined in connection with the rigging of Libor.  

It was fined £290m in June, and its chief executive, Bob Diamond, resigned the following month. 

Libor - or the London Interbank Offered Rate - is the rate used to fix the cost of borrowing on mortgages, loans and derivatives.

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S&P Puts AAA Rating On Negative Outlook

Britain's gold-plated triple AAA status came under pressure today after an influential credit ratings agency put it on negative watch.

Standard & Poor's (S&P) said there was a one in three chance it could lower Britain's rating within the next two years, if economic conditions weaken in the UK.

It said it expected government debt as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) to continue to rise in 2015, before declining again, with future employment or growth shocks putting further pressure on government finances.

The agency said: "In our opinion, many of the factors that have restrained growth in recent years will likely continue to do so in the near term."

A Treasury spokesman said the move brought S&P in line with rival agencies Fitch and Moody's, which both revised the UK to a negative outlook earlier this year.

A downgrade by one of the big three credit ratings agencies would drive up the UK's borrowing costs, potentially jeopardising the Government's deficit reduction plans.

The S&P report comes after Chancellor George Osborne said he will not be able to start bringing down national debt as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2015/16, in his Autumn Statement.

He said he must extend his fiscal consolidation period by a year to 2017/18 after the independent tax and spending watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), said it expected GDP to fall this year by 0.1%, compared to previous estimates of 0.8% growth.

Sky's economics editor Ed Conway said: "It brings Standard and Poor's into line with the other ratings agencies, they all now say that although the UK is officially a AAA rated sovereign debt issuer, they've put a negative outlook on it.

"Essentially that means that it's an official warning there's a chance that it could get downgraded within the next 18 months to two years.

"It'll be a concern for the Chancellor given that it has come just after the Autumn Statement.

"Standard and Poor's citing mainly the fact the UK's debt is continuing to rise to a level that it would see as being inconsistent with a AAA rated country.

"It does seem that within the Treasury there's a growing cognisance that it may be difficult to hang onto that AAA rating in the end."

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Queen Asks Bank Bosses About Financial Crisis

The Queen has finally had her question answered on why nobody saw the financial crisis coming during a visit to the Bank of England.

Four years ago, during the height of the global crisis, the Queen famously asked: "Why did nobody notice it?"

While on a tour of the Bank with the Duke of Edinburgh, she was given a thorough explanation of the 2008 downturn by Sujit Kapadia, who is on the bank's Financial Services Committee.

During the discussion, the Queen made her thoughts on the crisis clear, saying that the City regulator, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), "didn't have any teeth" and that there was complacency in the City.

She said to the workers: "People got a bit lax ... perhaps it is difficult to foresee (a financial crisis)."

The Queen also asked what authorities were doing now to prevent another global downturn.

When told by an employee that the men and women in the room were there to prevent another one, the Duke jokingly said: "Is there another one coming?"

Sujit Kapadia explained the crisis to the Queen

In the briefing, Mr Kapadia gave the Queen three reasons behind the crash of 2008 that brought banks around the world to their knees.

He told her that financial crises were like earthquakes and flu pandemics and, because they are rare events, they are difficult to predict.

He also said there was a new paradigm where people thought that markets were efficient and risks could be managed better than before.

"People thought markets were efficient, people thought regulation wasn't necessary," he told the Queen.

"Because the economy was stable there was this growing complacency.

"(Thirdly) people didn't realise just how interconnected the system had become."

Mr Kapadia said the Queen was very interested in what the Bank was trying to do to prevent another crisis.

"(She asked) what initiatives are in place, is the system less interconnected than it was before.

"The strongest thing I got (from the Queen) is what are we trying to do so it doesn't happen again.

It was the Queen's eighth visit to the Bank of England

"She actually agreed that it was very difficult to predict and she did latch on the idea that it is probably a bit like the flu pandemic."

Mr Kapadia said he then explained various reforms that had been put in place to keep economies stable.

The FSA has responded to the Queen's comments.

"We've widely acknowledged that the regulatory approach before the financial crisis in 2008 was flawed and has since been completely changed," a statement said.

"Parliament is now awaiting Royal Assent for the Financial Services Bill, which will determine the powers for the new regulators that will be created next year."

During the visit to the Bank, the Queen and the Duke also toured vaults full of thousands of slabs of gold worth billions of pounds and briefly inspected some of the gold.

The royal couple then signed a million pound note each for the bank's guest book.

The Queen was intrigued when she was shown the very first banknote she had signed for the guest book on November 29, 1937, as an 11-year-old.

The signature was a simple "Elizabeth" written in a neat young girl's script on a thousand pound note in the book.

On signing the note, the Queen said of her signature: "It hasn't improved much you know."

It was the Monarch's eighth visit to the Bank of England. As she walked out of the building towards a large crowd of people waiting outside, she said of her visit: "Very interesting, isn't it?"

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Exclusive: Cameron Advisers Furious Over Axe

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

Some of Britain's most senior executives have reacted furiously to David Cameron's shake-up of his coterie of business advisers, warning the "shabby" handling of the move risked deterring them from accepting future public service roles.

I disclosed earlier this week how the Prime Minister had decided to remove Justin King, chief executive of J Sainsbury and a vocal critic of the coalition Government, and Paul Walsh, Diageo chief executive, from his Business Advisory Group.

Sir Martin Sorrell, the boss of WPP Group, Sam Laidlaw, chief executive of Centrica, and Sir Mike Rake, chairman of BT and easyJet, are also relinquishing their roles on the group two years after it was established.

I have learned new details of the process through which Downing Street decided to part company with some of these captains of industry. Some of the individuals stepping down from the group say they only knew their roles were coming to an end when Sky News reported the shake-up on Wednesday.

"The whole process has been abysmally handled," one departing member said. "It has been shabby and has fomented a negative attitude to Cameron and suggests that he is totally unable to cope with dissenting voices."

None of the outgoing members would comment on the record, with some saying the discussions of the advisory group were private.

Nonetheless, the scale of unhappiness among these executives risks opening a wider rift between the Government and major private sector employers at a time when the economy can ill-afford it.

The committee was established to provide a forum for Mr Cameron to discuss economic, employment and long-term business challenges with executives responsible for employing more than one million people in Britain.

Chancellor George Osborne, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Business Secretary Vince Cable also attend the quarterly meetings, the most recent of which took place last month and examined the skills agenda.

People familiar with this week's overhaul said Tim Luke, a senior aide to Mr Cameron who previously worked as an investment banker at Barclays, called a number of the advisory group members about 10 days ago to inform them the Prime Minister was poised to make changes to the group.

Mr Luke did not tell those individuals that they faced being removed as members, according to insiders.

The telephone calls followed a discussion between Mr Cameron and several of the members - including Mr Laidlaw and Sir Mike - in which the Prime Minister was told of concerns that the group had become large and risked becoming less effective because of the unwieldy nature of discussions.

Letters from the Prime Minister's office are understood to have been received by the outgoing members on Thursday.

An adviser to one of the executives who had received a letter said it thanked the members for their service and their "very valuable contribution ... time and expertise".

"I am making the annual change of membership of the Advisory Group, but I am sure that you will, by now, appreciate my commitment to ensuring that ministers and officials across every part of Government are talking to, and listening to, business as we drive forward our work on reducing the deficit and transforming our economy," a person familiar with the letter's contents told me.

The slimmed-down group will include new members such as Philip Clarke, chief executive of Tesco, and existing members Tidjane Thiam, chief executive of Prudential, Dido Harding, chief executive of TalkTalk, and - more controversially, given the ongoing row about corporate taxes - Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google.

A spokesman for Number 10 said an updated list of the advisory group members would be published in the next week.

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Immigration: Labour Calls For Better Integration

Labour Leader Ed Miliband has set out his party's strategy for integration in Britain in a speech outlining his ambitions for dealing with the pressures of a multi-ethnic society.

Calling for a "comprehensive strategy for integration", the opposition leader admitted Labour made "mistakes" over eastern European immigration when in power, and failed to tackle the growing problem of segregation along racial and ethnic lines in Britain's cities.

He vowed not to sweep public anxieties over British cultural identity under the carpet, and will unveiled new 'One Nation' policies designed to promote integration in housing, work and use of the English language.

Labour would expect migrants to learn English, tackle landlords who pack newcomers to the UK into overcrowded houses and ban recruitment agencies from seeking workers only from particular countries or ethnic groups, he said.

But in a high-profile speech in London, Mr Miliband also insisted - far from being seen as a threat, as figures like Enoch Powell and BNP leader Nick Griffin have portrayed it - the multi-ethnic Britain revealed in this week's census and in the summer's Olympic and Paralympic Games is a cause for celebration.

Drawing on his own parents' experience as Jewish refugees from the Holocaust, Mr Miliband said: "We should celebrate multi-ethnic diverse Britain. We are stronger for it - and I love Britain for it."

He said: "Britain is at its best when it comes together as a nation, not when it stands divided.

"But at the same time we know there is anxiety about immigration and what it means for our culture. The answer is not to sweep it under the carpet or fail to talk about it, nor is it to make promises that can't be kept. It is to deal with all of the issues that concern people."

Mr Miliband accepted there are concerns about the "pace of change" in British life due to immigration, particularly in specific areas which have witnessed high numbers of new arrivals.

"The capacity of our economy to absorb new migrants has outrun the capacity of some of our communities to adapt," he said.

"The last Labour government made mistakes in this regard. We have said we will learn lessons from eastern European migration and ensure maximum transitional controls in future. And we will look at how the Government's immigration cap works in practice.

"But I believe we can all cope with these pressures if we recognise them and understand how to respond."

He admitted previous Labour administrations were "overly optimistic" in assuming integration would happen by itself and people from different racial backgrounds "would learn to get on together... automatically".

Labour did "too little to tackle the realities of segregation in communities that were struggling to cope", he said.

Under his new plans, Labour would put English language teaching for immigrants ahead of funding for translating non-essential information into their mother tongues, he said.

Parents of foreign-born children would be required to take responsibility in home-school agreements for them learning English, and the number of public sector jobs for which proficiency in English is mandatory would be increased.

The party would crack down on landlords who cram newcomers to the UK into overcrowded homes and would end the use of tied housing and forced indebtedness which lock migrant workers into atrocious housing conditions.

Mr Miliband promised to ban recruitment agencies from advertising only for workers from particular countries and be tougher in enforcing laws designed to eliminate shift patterns which leave people working only with others from the same ethnic background.

"If we work hard, and we work together, we can build One Nation," the Labour leader said. "So that we have a fair nation not an unjust one - a connected nation where everyone has a stake, not a segregated one; a confident nation, not an anxious one.

"A proper One Nation strategy for integration needs to revolve around issues that are central to people's lives including language, housing, and the workplace."

When questioned about Mr Miliband's speech at a press conference in Brussels, David Cameron said that Labour had "presided over a completely broken immigration system that over 10 years saw over two million people net come to the UK."

"What we inherited was a situation that was in a complete and utter meltdown and mess," the Prime Minister said.

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Broker Widens Probe Into Suspicious Trades

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

The City stockbroker WH Ireland has suspended one of its most senior executives as part of a broader inquiry that led to the departure on Thursday of its chief executive.

WH Ireland is understood to have placed Barrie Tyler, who runs its Cardiff office, on leave pending the outcome of an investigation into a string of personal share trades carried out by executives at the firm.

On Thursday, Paul Compton, WH Ireland's chief executive, left with immediate effect after just two years in the job.

People familiar with events at the firm said WH Ireland's compliance staff had raised concerns about a number of Mr Compton's share dealings through what are known as Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs).

I have learned these related to trading in shares in companies including Cape plc, a facilities management company, and Rockhopper Exploration, an AIM-listed oil and gas company with interests in the Falkland Islands.

Mr Compton is understood to have sold Cape shares shortly before one of several profit warnings earlier this year, and traded shares in Rockhopper on several occasions.

A friend of Mr Compton, a former executive at Collins Stewart, said he had disclosed his personal share dealings to WH Ireland's compliance staff himself.

The STRs were flagged to officials at the Financial Services Authority (FSA), which is now understood to be examining the information supplied to it by WH Ireland's compliance managers. It is unclear exactly how many STRs were raised in relation to the former chief executive's personal trading activities.

The firm of WH Ireland is chaired by Rupert Lowe

Mr Compton, a prominent City figure, sold a large chunk of his shareholding in WH Ireland following his sacking on Thursday

Neither Mr Tyler nor Mr Compton has been accused of any wrongdoing.

The FSA is believed to have raised concerns about Mr Compton's share dealings during his time with a previous employer. The regulator is also understood to have taken almost nine months to provide the necessary authorisation for him to take up his role at WH Ireland, a much more protracted process than would have been expected.

On Friday morning, the firm - one of the City's oldest stockbrokers - issued a trading update that was designed to reassure the City about its prospects following a 24% slump in its shares yesterday.

It insisted it was performing well and it had "achieved a good balance between investing in the business and a continued focus on the cost base, and further strengthened the balance sheet with an improved net cash position at the year end compared to the prior year. A capital reduction process has also just been completed that will enable the Group to return to the dividend list and initiate share buybacks, when deemed appropriate".

Rupert Lowe, the former Southampton FC chairman who chairs WH Ireland, added: "The Group has made good progress in 2012. While underlying markets remain challenging, momentum with corporate client wins, an increasing pipeline of corporate finance work and a reinvigorated strategy within the Private Wealth Management business, enable us to look to 2013 with cautious optimism."

WH Ireland's other shareholders include Lord Marland, the Government minister, David Ross, the co-founder of Carphone Warehouse, and Mr Lowe.

The FSA and WH Ireland declined to comment. Mr Compton could not be reached for comment, while WH Ireland's Cardiff office said that Mr Tyler was on holiday.

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UK Car Sales Defy Crash In European Demand

Demand for cars in Britain shot up by over 11% in November compared with the year before - in contrast with a 10% fall across the European Union.

The European Automobile Manufacturers' Association said that last month just 926,486 new cars were registered across the region - the market's first double-digit contraction in more than two years.

France's Renault and Peugeot Citroen led the drop, which was Europe's fourteenth consecutive monthly fall as economic uncertainty continued to spread.

Sales at General Motors, Fiat and Ford also tumbled across the region.

The UK was the only significant car market to expand with a total of 149,191 car registrations, compared with 134,027 in November last year.

All other major car markets declined, with Germany's sales down 3.5% and registrations in both Italy and Spain falling by over 20%.

in Greece - where the eurozone debt crisis began in 2009 - there was a fall of 47.2%.

The figures come as shares in Fiat were suspended on the Italian stock exchange after its share price fell.

An Italian newspaper reported the car maker is in talks with banks about raising capital to buy the 41.5% of Chrysler it does not already own.

Il Messaggero said Fiat was hoping to raise between one and two billions euros (£810m-£1.62bn).

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EU Summit: Cameron 'Committed To Saving Euro'

The Prime Minister has made it clear he wants favours in return for signing a deal aimed at increasing economic and monetary union in the European Union.

At the seventh and final EU summit of the year, David Cameron insisted the UK was not in an uncomfortable position, despite refusing to have its banks monitored by a centralised supervisor.

"We did not stand in the way of the eurozone having a banking union ...now there are opportunities for us to seek changes in our (EU) relationship, changes that the British people will be more comfortable with," he said.

"They (the eurozone countries) want to make changes, and we can ask for changes too."

His comments come a day after European finance ministers took a major step towards full banking union by agreeing to create a single supervisor for eurozone banks.

But although the UK will not be subject to the scrutiny - continuing to monitor its own institutions - Mr Cameron insisted that Britain "remains at the heart" of decision making in Europe.

The ECB will oversee all banks in the 17 EU countries that use the euro

"I don't think Britain is in an uncomfortable position at all," he said.

"I think we are in a position where we have opportunities to maximise what we want from our relationship with the European Union.

"The fact is we have a multi-faceted Europe, we have a Europe where countries like Britain are absolutely at the heart of decision making."

Earlier this year, Mr Cameron called for a "new settlement" between the UK and Brussels and on Thursday said his focus was now on getting a "better deal" for Britain.

The banking deal gives the European Central Bank (ECB) oversight for lenders in the 17 EU countries that use the euro - and any other country that wants to opt in.

It also paves the way for Europe's bailout fund to give direct aid to ailing banks - a measure seen as vital to helping the eurozone break free of its debt crisis.

The agreement, which follows months of negotiations, was described by the president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, as a "deep and genuine economic and monetary union", which requires "steps towards political union".

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Bayer Seeks Approval For Prostate Cancer Drug

Drug company Bayer has requested approval from US regulators for a new drug to treat prostate cancer.

The German pharmaceutical maker said the product could potentially reap annual sales of over 1bn euros (£810m).

Bayer applied for EU approval for the drug on Wednesday.

The drug, Radium-223 - formerly known as Alpharadin - targets bone metastases caused by prostate cancer which is untreatable through standard hormone therapy.

Calcium properties in the drug attach to the cancerous bone cells which are then targeted and destroyed with alpha rays.

The approach is more precise than traditional radiotherapy, and causes fewer side effects than some other types of treatment.

Last year, Bayer predicted the drug boost to its revenues and labelled the product as "blockbuster".

Cancer Research UK said initial results from a trial of Radium-223, which is administered by injection, this year were "very positive".

There are also trials using the drug for breast cancer that has spread to the bone, the charity added.

In 2009, more than 40,000 UK males were diagnosed with prostate cancer, the most common cancer found in men.

The charity movement Movember has raised awareness of prostate cancer and men's health through the growing of moustaches in November, with fundraising that supports charities.

This year's so-called Mo-Bros included Stoke City footballer, Michael Owen and England rugby's Toby Flood.

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