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…
While delegates from the University and College Union (UCU) held their annual congress in Glasgow over the holiday weekend last week, few noticed the ‘full time’ students working hard at Glasgow’s SECC venue. Although the delegates gave up their bank…
It seems many universities have started to arrive late to the ‘party’ of students in part-time jobs. Last week, Tom Williams wrote in Times Higher Education that the ‘Rise in working students ‘should prompt a radical teaching rethink’. He observed…
Sure enough the much needed House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee inquiry into the workings of the Office for Students has moved on since the end of April. For the OfS, April may have seemed the cruellest month, but now its May…
The idea of a graduate tax and radical reform of how universities are funded has come to the fore yet again. The Labour leadership has been far too shy in accepting that they have painted themselves into a corner on…
