With today marking the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings by Allied troops and the start of the battle of Normandy, it’s time to reflect on the loss of young lives on all sides that were not to be fulfilled.…
With the election campaign now in full swing, the government seems to have painted itself into a corner about funding for universities and fair support for students. The situation is dire and in need of urgent action. Freezing funding and…
The Conservative party has conjured up 100,000 more apprenticeships as part of its election campaign. They will do this at the expense of many degrees and more than 13% of university students. Perhaps even triggering university closures. But in doing…
Many will view the announcement of mandatory national service for eighteen-year-olds as the election politics of the ‘wild west’. Two days into an election campaign, it certainly looks like that. It would take a significant conservative majority in parliament to…
With a general election looming in six weeks’ time, there is a danger that the impact of a university and student funding crisis will become lost in the smoke. Both main parties are so far sidelining the issue. But they…
In April, TEFS proposed that a graduate student levy would be a way to remove fees and loans currently imposed on university students across the UK with the exception of Scotland. This is an update of that proposal and the…
The end of April brought the final closure of the charity ‘Stand Alone’. Many fear it could turn out to be the cruellest month in the gathering wasteland of higher education in the UK. Devoted to promoting help for students…
UCAS has finally released the equalities data associated with the 2023 university entry in the UK. Usually released along with other data in January, for some reason it was delayed. The reason for this is unclear as the data did…
Back in March the WONKHE meeting ‘Secret Life of Students 2024: Surviving and thriving’ raised awareness of the plight of many students to a new level. As the implications of this sink in slowly, it appears this time is pivotal…
The publication last week of an excellent series of essays asking, ‘How should undergraduate degrees be funded?’ by the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) has opened up an important debate. It seeks answers to the question of the deteriorating higher…
