Oxford University has slipped in the ­international league table of the world's top universities - in a study which shows the advance of academia in Asia that will soon pose a challenge to the Ivy League and Oxbridge.

The study, from Times Higher Education and QS Top Universities shows that overall the UK still punches above its weight, second only to the US. The UK has four out of the top 10 slots and 18 in the top 100. But there has been a significant fall in the number of North American universities in the top 100, from 42 in 2008 to 36 in 2009.

However, the number of Asian universities in the top 100 increased from 14 to 16. The University of Tokyo, at 22, is the highest ranked Asian university, ahead of the University of Hong Kong at 24.

He will succeed Alison Richard, the current vice-chancellor, when her seven-year term comes to an end next autumn.

Borysiewicz, a Welsh-Polish doctor by training, was instrumental in the development of the HPV vaccine, which is now offered to all girls to reduce the risk of cervical cancer. He is head of the Medical Research Council, the main funding body for medical academia in the UK.

The vice-chancellor is the full-time resident head of the university and its principal academic officer. Borysiewicz ascended the academic ranks rapidly, rising from professor of medicine to deputy rector of Imperial College and then to the MRC.

Borysiewicz said: "I am delighted to be nominated for the position of vice-chancellor and excited by the opportunity to build on Cambridge's strong tradition of academic excellence in both teaching and research."

Borysiewicz was born in Cardiff in 1951, the son of Polish parents who were captured in eastern Poland at the outbreak of the second world war and spent two years in Siberia.

When Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, they trekked across Central Asia to Egypt, where they joined the British Eighth Army in its operations up to and including the invasion of Italy. In 1947, they chose to settle in the UK rather than return to their native Poland.

Borysiewicz grew up on an estate in Cardiff in a small, Polish-speaking community. He attended a grammar school, and trained at the Welsh National School of Medicine before embarking on an academic career.

Richard, the only female Cambridge vice-chancellor, has had a steadying influence, having arrived in the job amid considerable turmoil over the university's governance reforms.

She launched a strong defence of elite universities against "government meddling" last year, saying that universities were not "engines for promoting social justice".

Her stand followed repeated calls from ministers to do more to attract students from poor backgrounds. Richard said the role of Cambridge was to educate and to lead research, not to "fix problems of social mobility".

Source: Guardian education

Students who miss the top grades should not be automatically excluded from prestigious universities, under plans set out by Lord Mandelson for a major modernisation of England's degree system.

All universities should consider accepting lower grades from students who show potential despite a poor home life or unambitious schooling, the business secretary, who is also responsible for universities, said.

"What we are saying is that nobody should be disadvantaged or penalised on the basis of the families they come from, of school they attended and the way in which simple assessment based on A-level results might exclude them," Mandelson said.

The government cannot order universities to change their admissions procedures but yesterday's plan will put new pressure on them to do so. The move is part of a major overhaul of the university system that will see a fundamental shift in degree teaching away from 18-year-olds doing three-year courses when they leave school, towards more mature students undertaking part-time degrees while working.

Universities should focus more on practical training and science and engineering courses with links to industry, the document says.

Mandelson was immediately accused of commercialising higher education amid fears that the tradition of liberal arts degrees could be sidelined in favour of more "utilitarian" industry-focused degrees.

The framework, Higher Ambitions – the Future of Universities in a Knowledge Economy, forms a 10-year strategy for universities and has been prepared ahead of a review of top-up fees that will consider whether to increase the cost to students.

It includes:

• A new inquiry, conducted by the head of the Office for Fair Access for universities, Sir Martin Harris, into what more can be done at the elite universities to improve social diversity.

• There will be closer links between industry and universities with employers invited to get more involved in course design and the funding of degrees in their specialist areas.

• As public funding becomes more scarce, universities will be encouraged to focus on what they do best. Research funding is expected to concentrate on the elite older universities, while newer universities will do more training and work with local communities.

• There will be a consumer revolution for students with each course labelled with key facts about their drop-out rates, students' future earnings and contact hours with senior tutors. The move will force universities to improve what they offer students.

• The document describes how universities have enjoyed a "benign financial climate" in recent years and warns this high level of public funding cannot continue. "That is why the development of a diverse set of funding streams is important if the quality of higher education is to be maintained and improved," it says. That is widely expected to include higher tuition fees from students after the review of top-up fees.

• All universities should use "contextual data" about students' backgrounds to spot potential in applicants who haven't necessarily got the top results. The report cites one case of a student who applied to Leeds university to study English which usually demands two As and a B at A-level was but offered her a place based on an A and B at A-level and an A at AS level after considering her circumstances. She was the first generation in her family to go to university and had attended a school where fewer that 60% of pupils got five A*-C GCSE grades.

"We hope that all universities will look at the examples of those institutions that already make use of contextual data, and consider incorporating it in their admissions processes," Mandelson told the House of Lords, as he published the plan.

"The challenge for the next decade is to offer a wider range of new study opportunities – part-time, work-based, foundation degrees and studying whilst at home – to a greater range of people."

Wendy Piatt, director general of the Russell Group of Universities, said that many elite universities are already using complex schemes to identify candidates' potential beyond their academic results. "Last year Russell Group universities spent £45m of income from student fees on outreach and bursaries to help students from less advantaged backgrounds access their institutions. However academic achievement continues to be the key factor in determining whether a student will go on to university."

Wes Streeting, president of the National Union of Students, said: "There's no one headline-grabbing proposal in this document. But no one should underestimate that this is a fundamental shift towards consumer elbow power, particularly from students and business.

"It's worrying if we send a message to students that the only courses that are worth pursuing are the ones that give financial rewards later on or have an economic utility. The recommendations on social mobility are fantastic. For too long universities have dragged their heels on widening participation. This could have a transformative impact."

Sally Hunt, general secretary of the University and College Union, said: "The government and the opposition are in danger of creating a worrying agenda that is focused purely on trying to justify the cost of a degree."

Source: Guardian Education

Weak college courses and up to 30 education quangos will be culled to pay for skills training

Lord Mandelson today announced plans to cull thousands of the worst college courses and up to 30 training quangos to pay for 35,000 new apprenticeships and create a new class of trained technicians.

Schools, colleges and universities are all included in the plan to refocus adult education towards practical skills training. "We need engineers to lay the cables to expand access to high-speed internet, skilled people to build the electric vehicles of the future, and technicians to develop the medicines that will save lives," Mandelson said.

Every adult is to receive an online personal skills account when they turn 19, documenting their qualifications so far and setting out their options for further training. At most, for people with no basic GCSEs, the account will have £5,000 worth of credits to spend on going back into education.

The plans are contained in a document called Skills for Growth, produced by Mandelson's department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Bis) today. Presenting it in the Lords, Mandelson said: "We will create a new, modern class of technicians, something that has long been identified as a gap in our labour market."

Every course will be rated under a new "traffic light" system, mirroring plans set out last week to label university courses with vital statistics about pass rates and future employability. The move is designed to give students better information, and expose low-quality courses to the pressures of the market, forcing colleges to rethink what they do.

The government will encourage the expansion of university technical colleges, to cater for 14- to 19-year-olds who want to train to become technicians.

Colleges will be forced to improve and expand courses in areas where there is demand for trained technicians – such as green technologies and the biosciences – and close low-quality courses.

There will be 35,000 more apprenticeships funded by the government, and a new £1,000 scholarship for people who have completed apprenticeships and want to extend their skills at university. Apprenticeships programmes will be given new tariffs by Ucas equivalent to A-levels to allow them to qualify students for a place at university.

"There is a strong feeling that they [apprenticeships] were withering over the last 20 years, that government commitment was half-hearted and, almost, that apprenticeships were old-fashioned. Well they are not, they are back and being expanded," Mandelson said.

The UK Commission for Employment and Skills will work with Bis to reduce the number of quangos by 30, as it recommended last month. It has already suggested that there should be a cull, reduction or merger of bodies including the Qualification and Curriculum Development Agency, Lifelong Learning UK and the regional development agencies.