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Constituencies, wards and local councils

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Constituencies (a.k.a. parliamentary constituencies): each electing one Member of Parliament (MP) every 5 years to the House of Commons (Parliament). There are 650 constituencies in the UK.Wards (a.k.a. electoral divisions or electoral wards) is the primary unit of English electoral geography for borough and district councils, county councils or city councils. Each ward elects either one or two councillors to be members of the local council. There were 9,456 electoral wards/divisions in the UK and each ward has an average electorate of about 5,500 people, but ward population can vary substantially.Local council is made up of a number of Councillors (Cllr) who meet regularly to make decisions about the direction of the council and the work it does for the community. As elected bodies local councils are responsible to their local community. Attending a council meeting is the best way to find out what they do and how they make decisions. Members of public can attend public council meetin…
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Country ranking of higher education systems on effectiveness

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Finnish universities are the most effective in the world when taking into account national income levels, according to a ranking of higher education systems.

Top 10 countries, adjusted for economic development, are
  1. Finland
  2. South Africa
  3. United Kingdom
  4. Denmark
  5. Canada
  6. Sweden
  7. Australia
  8. New Zealand
  9. Switzerland
  10. Netherlands
The rankings are judged against metrics related to resources, environment, connectivity and output, based on 24 separate variables, including the number and impact of research articles produced, university enrolment and graduate unemployment, a qualitative assessment of a country’s policy environment, and spending on tertiary education as a proportion of gross domestic product. The development-adjusted ranking is measured by adjusting GDP in purchasing-power parity terms to compensate for different prices across countries.

 It shows that there is a strong relationship between levels of research funding and performance but the mix between public and private funding is of little importance. It notes that there is a trade-off between the amount of government control and the level of government funding, and the worst systems combine tight government control with limited government funding.

Countries with small populations benefit from the ease with which strong informal links between universities, business and government can be developed. These nations also tend to perform more strongly on measures of connectivity, such as share of international students or internationally co-authored articles, according to the report. It has also demonstrated that international connectivity increases the impact of research.
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coat-of-arms

By Jim Sheng
Heraldry probably began with the knights in armour. When wearing a helmet in battle or in tournaments a knight could not be recognised; so he used symbols to decorate his shield and surcoat. The surcoat was the loose garment worn over the armour to protect it from rain or hot sun and actually was the "coat-of-arms"; it was decorated on the front and back with the same device as on the shield.
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The helmet denotes the ran…
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The Meaning of Derby City Council Logo

By Jim Sheng
The logo of Derby City Council looks quite abstract and modern. I wonder what's the meaning of it? The lower-left part of the logo looks like a snail (or the initial letter D in Derby?), the upper-right part seems a river, (Derwent river?) these two parts are connected by a straight line at the bottom.

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Is Aladdin a Chinese?

By Jim Sheng
Aladdin is an Arabic name, but he lived in China.  Is he a Chinese?
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