Move follows reports overseas students face lower entry requirements, a claim universities reject
The Department for Education is to investigate allegations of bad practice by agents who recruit international students to study at British universities.
It follows reports over the weekend claiming that overseas students are being admitted to prestigious institutions while subject to lower entry requirements than domestic students.
Continue reading...Some UK applicants forced to quit Turing scheme when places not confirmed or they failed to receive funds in time
Students taking part in the government’s post-Brexit replacement for the EU’s Erasmus+ student exchange scheme were forced to drop out because places were confirmed too late, while others failed to receive funding until after their return, according to analysis.
The first official analysis of the Turing scheme, which was announced by the then prime minister Boris Johnson and launched in 2021, found that four out of five universities (79%) had difficulties with the application process, which was overly complex, repetitive and “tedious”.
Continue reading...Darryl George has already spent more than 80% of his junior year outside of his regular classroom, and was first cited in August
A Texas high school sent a Black student back to in-school suspension Tuesday for refusing to change his hairstyle, renewing a months-long standoff over a dress code policy the teen’s family calls discriminatory.
The student, Darryl George, was suspended for 13 days because his hair is out of compliance when let down, according to a disciplinary notice issued by Barbers Hill high school in Mont Belvieu, Texas. It was his first day back at the school after spending a month at an off-site disciplinary program.
Continue reading...More than £3,000 raised to keep the Student – founded in 1886 by Robert Louis Stevenson at Edinburgh University – going
The oldest student newspaper in Europe has been saved from closure after its volunteer staff raised more than £3,000 in emergency crowdfunding.
A free newspaper, the Student was founded at the University of Edinburgh in 1887 by the novelist Robert Louis Stevenson, the author of Treasure Island and Kidnapped, who served as its first arts editor.
Continue reading...Arif Ahmed pledges to remain politically neutral in his role and to ensure academic freedoms are maintained
England’s newly appointed university free speech tsar says his role is not to conduct “culture wars” and has pledged to be politically neutral in his efforts to combat threats to academic freedom.
Arif Ahmed, a former philosophy professor at Cambridge University, said he would measure his success or failure by surveys of students and by the number of complaints made under procedures being created by the Office for Students (OfS), England’s higher education regulator.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Alfie Meadows underwent brain surgery after being struck by officer at tuition fees demonstration
The Metropolitan police have apologised and agreed to pay a six-figure settlement to a man who needed emergency brain surgery after being hit by an officer’s baton during the 2010 university tuition fees protests.
Alfie Meadows, then a 20-year-old philosophy student at Middlesex University, sustained a brain injury after he was struck on the head during demonstrations against the tripling of tuition fees. He needed more than 100 staples in his head and was left with a large scar.
Continue reading...Compact teaching timetables will allow cash-strapped undergraduates to dovetail jobs with studies
Universities are reducing the number of days students are required to be on campus to enable them to work part-time as they struggle to survive the cost of living crisis.
Compact teaching timetables, where lectures and seminars are scheduled over two or three days rather than dotted throughout the week, are being introduced by a number of institutions. The move makes it easier for the growing number of undergraduates who have to take on part-time jobs to make ends meet. More than half of students now work alongside their studies, up from 45% in 2022 and 34% in 2021.
Continue reading...Article says Commons could bypass the parliamentary standards machinery after Labour leader says MP should be forced out. This live blog is closed
Starmer says there is a massive mismatch between what the government is saying about how things are going well with the economy, and the lived experience of people.
O’Brien suggests the two teenagers Starmer met today would have been happier if Starmer was still committed to getting rid of tuition fees.
I do think the current scheme is unfair and ineffective and that is why we will change it, so the current scheme will be changed by the incoming Labour government and we will set out our plans.
I am not going to pretend that there isn’t huge damage to the economy and that has meant that some of the things that an incoming Labour government would want to do we are not going to be able to do in the way we would want in the way that we would want.
We are working up our proposals on that and I will fully come back and talk them through when we got them.
Continue reading...Many institutions have become increasingly reliant on higher fees from international students to help cover costs
Britain should warmly welcome international students joining universities across the country or risk losing out to the US, Canada and Australia, the higher education admissions chief has said.
The intervention came amid concerns that domestic students hoping to begin undergraduate courses this autumn could lose out to international applicants. Some courses in clearing in the run-up to A-level results day this week are available only to overseas students.
Continue reading...Ucas tells applicants to act quickly to avoid disappointment, with A-level results due in England, Wales and Northern Ireland next week
Students who miss out on their expected exam grades face fierce competition for university places this summer, with fewer vacancies on courses than in previous years.
A week before A-level results are published in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, several popular universities are reported to be full. This means applicants who fail to meet their grade offers will need to act quickly to secure a place elsewhere, the head of the Ucas admissions service said.
Continue reading...Study shows cost of living influencing students’ choice, with fears of limiting effect on career options
One in three students starting university this year may opt to live at home, according to new research that found rising costs and family needs are affecting the “Covid generation” of school-leavers.
Before the pandemic about 20% of first year undergraduates in England lived at home while studying, including older mature students. But a new survey of current sixth formers by University College London found that as many as 34% of 18-year-old school-leavers could stay at home if accepted by their first-choice university when exam results are published next week.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Move penalises courses with a high proportion of working-class or minority ethnic students, critics say
Rishi Sunak will force universities to limit the number of students taking “low-value” degrees in England, a measure which is most likely to hit working class and black, Asian and minority ethnic applicants.
Courses will be capped that do not have a high proportion of graduates getting a professional job, going into postgraduate study or starting a business, the prime minister will announce on Monday.
Continue reading...University says about 20% of final year students will be unable to graduate if industrial action continues
More than 1,000 final year students at Durham University could be left without a degree this summer because of the marking boycott disrupting universities across the UK.
Durham, one of 145 universities affected by the industrial action over pay and working conditions called by the University and College Union (UCU), said about 20% of its 5,300 final year students would be unable to graduate.
Continue reading...Photos shared on social media show students draping themselves over park benches or stairs in poses of dejection
As millions of young people in China graduate from university this month, the traditional pictures of joyful students throwing their hats and gowns into the air have been replaced by photos of them lying on the ground or throwing their degree certificates into the bin.
Some photos show students draping themselves over bridges or park benches in poses of dejection. In others, students lie face down on stairs or in grassy fields.
Continue reading...Former professor who argues trans people cannot expect all rights afforded by biological sex is due to speak at Oxford Union
Kathleen Stock, the gender-critical feminist whose forthcoming address to Oxford university students on Tuesday has prompted planned protests, has insisted that she is a “moderate” and has a right to upset people.
Before her contested appearance at the Oxford Union, Stock said it was her trans activist opponents, who want the event cancelled, who were extreme.
Continue reading...A Colorado student defied officials with a Mexican flag, the vice-president visited West Point and a service animal lent a paw
A Colorado high school student defied a federal judge’s ruling and wore a Mexican flag sash to her high school graduation after fending off repeated resistance from the school.
The event was just one of a clutch of unusual graduations and commencements across the country in the last week, with some firsts – and one furry companion.
Continue reading...Sanda Dia died in hospital in December 2018 after enduring a degrading two-day initiation ritual
Eighteen former members of an elite university fraternity have been found guilty for their role in the death of a student during a brutal and degrading initiation ritual in 2018.
Sanda Dia was 20 when he died in hospital in December 2018 after he and two other first-year students endured two days of vicious hazing to enter the student fraternity, Reuzegom.
Continue reading...Only students on courses designated as research programmes will be able to bring dependants under home secretary’s policy
Suella Braverman has rushed out stringent curbs on international students who come to study in the UK amid growing pressure on the home secretary over her conduct in office.
Under proposals released in parliament on Tuesday, overseas students will no longer be able to bring family with them except under specific circumstances as the government seeks to reduce immigration numbers.
Continue reading...Angela Rayner tables question about criteria for launching investigation into potential breach of ministerial code
And here are some of the lines from what Rishi Sunak has been saying at the London defence conference.
Sunak said the challenge posed by China should not lead to a “blanket descent into protectionism”. He said that China’s rise represented an “epoch-defining challenge”. He explained:
It is a country that has both the means and the intent to reshape the global order.
Its behaviour is increasingly authoritarian at home and assertive abroad and in light of that we do need to take the steps to protect ourselves.
There are a limited number of very sensitive sectors of our economy, or types of technology, where we want to take a particularly robust approach: semiconductors, for example, dual-use technologies, quantum, etc.
But this is not an excuse for a blanket descent into protectionism.
He said that G7 countries should not be engaged in subsidy competition. Asked whether the UK needed an industrial strategy, he replied:
That means different things to different people. If that means we should just be focusing on who can subsidise industries the most, then my answer is no.
We discussed that at the G7 and actually you will see in the G7 communique very specific language acknowledging that subsidy races that essentially just shift industrial capacity between allies in some kind of zero-sum competition are not appropriate.
Continue reading...Twenty-two institutions have been shut down as part of proposed month-long campaign
A wave of student occupations has shut down schools and universities across Europe as part of a renewed youth protest campaign against inaction on climate breakdown. Twenty-two schools and universities across the continent have been occupied as part of a proposed month-long campaign.
In Germany, universities were occupied in Wolfenbüttel, Magdeburg, Münster, Bielefeld, Regensburg, Bremen and Berlin. In Spain, students in occupation at the Autonomous University of Barcelona organised teach-outs on the climate crisis. In Belgium, 40 students occupied the University of Ghent. In the Czech Republic, about 100 students camped outside the ministry of trade and industry. In the UK occupations were under way at the universities of Leeds, Exeter and Falmouth.
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