Yes, rising tuition costs are making traditional education a less egalitarian prospect.

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But the idea of students cobbling together an entire degree from free Web courses, a prospect touted by some online-education evangelists, remains "kind of a silly nightmare, " said Edward Rock, director of open course initiatives at University of Pennsylvania.

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And Ms Maguire believes that the prospect of losing her school from the city's education statistics will concentrate the minds of Serco.

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And the prospect of emigration and prosperity abroad may be an inducement for many more to get an education.

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In Britain the clamour for higher education is such that almost half of young people now enroll, and the prospect of having to pay more for the privilege from 2012 is provoking a headlong dash for the ivory towers.

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The step forward of putting women on the Shura Council, and King Abdullah's promise that women can vote in the 2015 municipal elections, raises the prospect of women holding ministerial posts (Currently, one woman is the deputy minister of education, unlike many other Arab Gulf countries where women now hold ministerial positions).

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There is little prospect of improvement for him, unless the government embarks on long-term efforts in peasant education and micro-technologies, to strengthen cottage output, such as flowers.

ECONOMIST: Chile