“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” The inscription on the Statue of Liberty might have some resonance for UK universities about to enter another academic year. Too many students will have to endure…
The problems that arose concerning Reinforced Aerated Autoclaved Concrete (RAAC) last week are alarming as more schools and many more buildings may be implicated. Alarming though this is, it is also a serious symptom of a fundamental malaise in how…
The words in the image resonate from twenty years ago. They are by the prolific and controversial talent, Marshall Mathers. Seamus Heaney, the 1995 Nobel prize for literature recipient praised his work with, “He has created a sense of what…
The GSCE results emerge tomorrow to a very nervous cohort of sixteen-year-old students. They have endured a difficult time with their education interrupted by lockdowns and sometimes patchy online learning. The examinations earlier this summer came as a big shock…
The hotly anticipated examination results emerged yesterday in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland amidst a flurry of media reports. Predictions had been circulating for weeks that there would be a major drop in higher grades. First thoughts must go to…
Updated Monday 14th August 2023. Lower grades needed to weed out students earlier to lower drop-out rates This astounding assertion was made by the Sunday Times yesterday with, ‘Tougher A-level grades ‘vital’ as unprepared students quit university’. While Education Secretary,…
The headline ’Crackdown on rip-off university degrees’ that came directly from the UK government today was more about directing public opinion than it was about new policy. The powers to act on universities already exist and they may simply be…
The National Education Opportunities Network (NEON) held its latest annual summer symposium at Exeter University last week. It was a chance to shed more light on the challenges of widening access and participation in UK universities. Attended by several hundred…
Hot on the heels of the release of survey data on the hardship impact of the cost-of-living crisis on university students (TEFS 29th June 2023 ‘More students in jobs as fewer travel first class on the university experience train’ comes…
Last week saw a watershed moment in student stress with the release of the latest ‘Student Academic Experience Survey 2023’ report from AdvanceHE and the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI). For the first time, since the surveys began over ten…
