The government has announced a new review that will see the quality of teacher training courses go under the microscope.

With the introduction of Schools Direct, there has been a shift away from university teacher training departments and education secretary Michael Gove stated he wanted to "ensure all courses are providing the best possible training".

Head teacher Andrew Carter has been selected as the review chairman and he is set to deliver his findings by the end of the year.

Education secretary Michael Gove said he wants to "ensure all courses are providing the best possible training".

The remit of the independent review is to define what is "effective" teacher training and once this has been identified, examine how all courses in the current system are working towards this.

As the most recent government reform saw the promotion of the School Direct system with an emphasis on teacher training at schools, universities are concerned the report will just act as a "smokescreen" to shift more resources away from them and allocate more teacher training places to schools.

"Mr Gove continues to think that university education departments are the problem, rather than a solution to ensuring that schools throughout the country have highly qualified teachers in the classroom," said Pam Tatlow, chief executive of the Million+ group of new universities.

Mr Carter is head teacher at South Farnham School in Surrey, which has teaching-school status, so universities will be looking for assurances the review will be using a balanced approach, with many higher education institutions already announcing they will stop postgraduate teacher-training courses.

The education secretary stresses that despite the confusion surrounding training, there has never been a better time to look for a Darryl Mydat