For a cabinet minister at the heart of a storm, Ed Balls is in a calmly expansive mood. The Schools Secretary has faced scathing headlines about exams that have gone unmarked or in some cases marked erratically. But Balls breezes confidently into his large office overlooking Westminster Cathedral and for the next hour and a half reflects in more detail than before on the chaos, as well as his distinct approach to city academies and faith schools. He also gives his candid view on what has gone wrong for Gordon Brown with whom he worked so closely for more than a decade, warning his old friend that the febrile situation will get worse for him in the autumn.

Gordon Brown is today warned by one of his closest allies that life will get more difficult for the Government in the autumn.

Fifteen schools yesterday became the first state schools to ditch A-levels for a more traditional rival.

The American company at the centre of the controversy over national curriculum test blunders is also providing tests for would-be migrants to the UK in English skills, it emerged yesterday. David Cameron, the Conservatives' leader, said ETS should be sacked from its £156m contract to mark and deliver national curriculum test results.

More than 20,000 graduates were overcharged on their student loan repayments last year.

David Blunkett, the former education secretary, will this week reignite the row between the Labour Party and Oxford and Cambridge over whether the universities are doing enough to encourage state school pupils to apply.

More than half a million 11-year-olds will have to sit new tests in maths and English when they start secondary school next term.

The Government is failing millions of adults who are unable to read and write, according to a television documentary to be broadcast tomorrow.

The crisis over this year's national curriculum tests deepened yesterday with headteachers warning there would be record numbers of appeals over marking this year. Worries about the quality of marking of tests for pupils aged 11 and 14 threaten to cast a shadow over the results – which are due to be announced officially early next month.

The head of the Government's exams watchdog could not have put the dilemma more succinctly.

The university degree classification system is "descending into farce", the chairman of the Commons Select Committee on Universities has said.

Anxiety about what goes on in universities has surfaced again, this time over the quality of degrees being handed out. This kind of debate usually emerges in August, when A-level and GCSE results are published, and ministers say that the increase in top grades is due to better teaching and higher levels of achievement, and pundits wonder why, therefore, top universities are setting their own entrance exams and running remedial classes. Disquieting news has also come from employers, who suggest that they may trust a lower degree from a top university more than a high degree from a university less high in the league tables.

This year's Bosch Technology Horizons Award, in association with The Independent and the Royal Academy of Engineering, offered young people in two categories the chance to answer the question, "How is technology and engineering driving change in a country of your choice?"

The Golden Valley in Herefordshire, with its string of picturesque villages, has held many secrets over the years, not least how it got its name in the first place. Now it is holding a secret of a different kind: a tiny rural comprehensive that may have the key to solving indiscipline and underachievement in the inner cities.

One rarely associates Britain's elite universities with the sordid world of crime. But a bursar at Durham University has recently found herself in the dock, accused of pilfering the tidy sum of £519,583.95 from the coffers of St Chad's College. Last week, Christine Starkey, 59, appeared before magistrates in County Durham accused of taking the money from the college's bank account and transferring it to her own between 18 April 2002 and 5 December last year. Starkey is also charged with converting criminal property, namely money, into goods and other items.

Since it began market reforms in the early Nineties, India has rolled out the red carpet for many British corporations. Vodafone, British Telecom and Rolls-Royce all have operations here, helping to push foreign direct investment to nearly £8bn last year. But while Britain's phone companies, cars and expertise in higher education are welcomed, its universities are not.

This week's report by Sir Alan Steer, the Government's chief adviser on school behaviour, contains some common-sense advice about how schools should tackle disciplinary problems. Paradoxically, although teachers have the legal right to stop and search pupils for illegal weapons (granted as a result of an earlier report by Sir Alan), they do not have the legal power to search for alcohol, drugs or stolen property. Many people assumed that they did have the right to search their pupils for these items but, as has been demonstrated by Sir Alan, they do not. His earlier recommendation to give a legal carte blanche to search for weapons raised the question of what would happen if – during a search for them – teachers found alcohol or drugs. Surely they would not simply mutter, "Oh, drugs and alcohol are OK because they're beyond my powers"? So, Sir Alan's recommendation that the legal scope of searches should be extended is welcome and not surprisingly has been accepted by ministers.

A report out today from Universities UK serves to remind us of just how intransigent the universities are being on a post-qualification admissions system, which would enable students to apply once they had their A-level results, rather than before.

I welcome the support of the chief executive of UCAS for my concerns about the fragmentation of the university admissions system (Letters, EDUCATION & CAREERS, 10 July). It is clearly common sense that a system that becomes arbitrary cannot be satisfactory. While this common ground is very welcome, Anthony McLaren's belief that current UCAS practice resolves the difficulties is not tenable.

The shine has gone off school for Claire. Time was she'd have a hissy fit when term came to an end and cry every day of the holidays. "I want to be with Miss Perry, it's not fair."