Category Archives: Higher education

Vice-chancellor calls for review into student loans for those without A-levels

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Adam Tickell, of University of Birmingham, says money is loaned to people who ‘are not really capable of graduating’

A leading vice-chancellor has questioned whether students without A-levels should be eligible for government-backed student loans, as part of an effort to solve England’s university funding crisis.

Adam Tickell, vice-chancellor of the University of Birmingham, said universities face an “almost existential challenge” and falling public support that requires a radical review of higher education funding.

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It’s been decreed: something must be done about student loans in England

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The education secretary wants a fairer system and the Tories have leapt in with their own plan – but why now?

For anyone who attended university in England in the last 15 or so years, the idea of student loans feeling like some sort of debt trap is hardly news. But three weeks ago, when the journalist Oli Dugmore discussed this on the BBC’s Question Time, it felt like a moment.

It was less the size of the initial debt, he explained, than the way above-inflation interest rates meant the interest charged alone was now almost as much as the original sum. “So was it mis-sold to me?” he asked, rhetorically. “Yes, I’d say so.”

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UK ministers explore ways of easing burden of student loans

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Government reviews options for plan 2 loans, such as increasing repayment thresholds, amid growing pressure

Ministers are examining ways to ease the burden of student loans after weeks of pressure over a policy pulling more people into repayments, the Guardian understands.

The Treasury and the Department for Education are reviewing different options to offer relief to graduates with Plan 2 student loans, often paying tens of thousands more than their original loan amount.

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Martin Lewis ambushes Badenoch on Good Morning Britain over student loans plan

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Finance campaigner marches on to set and tells Tory leader her policy to cut interest rates will only help top earners

Kemi Badenoch has faced what could be described as the stuff of nightmares for a UK politician being interviewed about a personal finance policy: being ambushed and contradicted live on air by Martin Lewis.

As the Conservative leader was being interviewed on ITV about her party’s plans to cut interest rates for some student loans, Lewis, a campaigner and finance expert, marched on to the set to announce that he completely disagreed.

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Amid Trump crackdown on Chinese students, one US university appears to block them altogether

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Purdue says no ban on Chinese students exists, but reportedly rescinded dozens of offers after warnings from legislators

Several universities have scrapped partnerships with Chinese institutions in recent months as a direct result of pressure from US legislators. But no university appears to have gone as far as Purdue University in Indiana.

Students and faculty at the public university say that an unofficial policy is in effect to automatically reject students from China and a number of other countries altogether.

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Britons living in Europe face repayment hikes amid Reeves student loans row

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Exclusive: UK graduates in Germany, Belgium and possibly other countries informed of rises as salary threshold is cut

Britons living in some European countries face a huge rise in their student loan repayments later this year, the Guardian can reveal, in a move that threatens to trigger a fresh backlash for Rachel Reeves.

UK graduates working in Germany and Belgium – and possibly other countries – have been told that their monthly repayments will increase from April, the Guardian can reveal.

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Shells found in Spain could be among oldest known musical instruments

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Conch-shell trumpets discovered in Neolithic settlements and mines in Catalonia make tone similar to french horn, says lead researcher

As a child, Miquel López García was fascinated by the conch shell, kept in the bathroom, that his father’s family in the southern Spanish region of Almería had blown to warn their fellow villagers of rising rivers and approaching flood waters.

The hours he spent getting that “characteristically potent sound out of it” paid off last year when the archaeologist, musicologist and professional trumpet player pressed his lips to eight conch-shell trumpets. Their tones, he says, could carry insights into the lives of the people who lived in north-east Spain 6,000 years ago.

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Northwestern University agrees to pay US government $75m to restore research funding

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Agreement will also end series of investigations of university over school’s alleged failure to fight antisemitism

Northwestern University has agreed to pay $75m to the US government in a deal with the Trump administration to end a series of investigations and restore hundreds of millions of dollars in federal research funding.

Donald Trump’s administration had cut off $790m in grants in a standoff that contributed to university layoffs and the resignation in September of Northwestern’s president, Michael Schill. The administration argued the school had not done enough to fight antisemitism.

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University students in England get two-thirds of funding of a decade ago, analysis finds

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University leaders says planned levy on international student fees will leave many institutions even worse off

University students in England get just two-thirds of the funding they would have received a decade ago, after inflation and government cuts have reduced the resources available for teaching, according to vice-chancellors.

University leaders said the situation was likely to get worse if the government went ahead with a new levy on international student fees in Wednesday’s budget.

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New international student enrollments in US plunge this year, data shows

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Enrollment fell 17%, the largest drop in a decade aside from the pandemic, amid Trump’s immigration crackdown

The number of international students enrolling in US colleges and universities plunged this year as the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown on higher education began to bite, data released on Monday reveals.

New international student enrollment fell 17% in the current academic year, the largest drop in more than a decade aside from the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a fall snapshot published by the Institute of International Education (IIE).

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Tenured professor sues University of Kentucky for banning him from law school over comments on Israel

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Exclusive: Ramsi Woodcock, who calls for an ‘end’ to Israel and military intervention against it, says the university violated his first amendment rights

A tenured law professor sued the University of Kentucky on Thursday after he was banned from teaching and from the law school for comments he made about Israel, including characterizations of the state as a “colonization project” and calls for the world to wage war against it.

In a lawsuit filed in federal court, Ramsi Woodcock, an antitrust law scholar, argued that the public university violated his first amendment and due process rights when it abruptly placed him under investigation in July, just days after he was promoted to full professor, over allegations that he violated university policy – including anti-discrimination rules that incorporate a widely disputed definition of antisemitism.

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Royal College of Psychiatrists faces member backlash over Qatar partnership

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More than 150 psychiatrists sign letter condemning contract to host exams in country with well-documented human rights abuses

The Royal College of Psychiatrists is facing a backlash from members over a controversial partnership with Qatar’s state healthcare provider.

The college has signed a contract with the state-owned Hamad Medical Corporation to host international exams in Doha, enabling psychiatrists from across the Middle East and beyond to apply for membership.

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China-critical UK academics describe ‘extremely heavy’ pressure from Beijing

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Reliance on overseas students’ tuition fees under scrutiny as scholars describe chilling effect of being targeted

UK academics whose research is critical of China say they have been targeted and their universities subjected to “extremely heavy” pressure from Beijing, prompting calls for a fresh look at the sector’s dependence on tuition fee income from Chinese students.

The academics spoke out after the Guardian revealed this week that Sheffield Hallam University had complied with a demand from Beijing to halt research about human rights abuses in China, which had led to a big project being dropped.

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Counter-terror police investigate claim UK university halted research after Chinese pressure

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Sheffield Hallam University ordered professor to cease human rights study into Uyghurs forced labour in China

An investigation into allegations that a British university was subjected to pressure from Beijing authorities to halt research about human rights abuses in China has been referred to counter-terrorism police.

The Guardian reported on Monday morning that Sheffield Hallam University, home to the Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice (HKC) research institution, had ordered professor Laura Murphy to cease research on supply chains and forced labour in the country in February.

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UK university halted human rights research after pressure from China

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Exclusive: Leading professor at Sheffield Hallam was told to cease research on supply chains and forced labour in China after demands from authorities

A British university complied with a demand from Beijing to halt research about human rights abuses in China, leading to a major project being dropped, the Guardian can reveal.

In February, Sheffield Hallam University, home to the Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice (HKC), a leading research institution focused on human rights, ordered one of its best-known professors, Laura Murphy, to cease research on supply chains and forced labour in China.

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UK rule change allows some Palestinian scholars to bring families from Gaza

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Previous visa policy had forced the students ‘to choose between their education and their family’

Some Palestinian students taking up scholarships at UK universities will be allowed to bring their families with them from Gaza after the government announced it would consider case-by-case exemptions to its evacuation policy.

After lobbying by MPs and supporters, the UK government has said partners and children could be allowed to accompany students on government-backed Chevening scholarships or studying for longer research degrees, such as PhDs.

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University of Arizona becomes seventh US college to reject Trump’s ‘compact’

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Administration has pushed nine universities to sign a deal that seeks to make changes in line with conservative ideas

The University of Arizona has become the seventh US university to reject a Trump administration proposal that would grant schools funding priority if they agreed to support the administration’s conservative agenda.

The decision follows the administration’s push for nine universities to sign a “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” which seeks to make sweeping changes to campus culture, hiring and admissions practices and foreign student enrollment. Demands from the Trump administration’s 10-point compact include reforms to the way race or ethnicity are used in admission and hiring practices, as well as a commitment to strict definitions of gender, among others.

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Students owe nearly £500m of ‘hidden debts’ to UK universities, figures reveal

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FoI data shows 180,000 students and graduates weighed down by private debt amid cost of living crisis

Students have accrued nearly £500m in “hidden debts” to their universities, including library fines, unpaid accommodation and support loans, according to figures that highlight the cost of living crisis on UK campuses.

The figures from freedom of information requests sent to 148 UK universities showed that 180,000 students and graduates owe private debts totalling £486m to universities, averaging about £2,650 each.

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Indiana University orders school paper to cease print edition and fires director of student media

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Editors at the Indiana Daily Student say administration’s move to control news content amounts to censorship

Indiana University has ordered its student-run newspaper, the Indiana Daily Student (IDS), to cease printing new editions and fired the school’s director of student media, who also served as the paper’s adviser, according to multiple reports. Students at the school are criticizing these moves as censorship.

The university’s directive to halt print editions came just hours after Jim Rodenbush, the school’s director of student media, was terminated, according to a letter from IDS editors.

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Happy, stressed, overwhelmed: Palestinians evacuated from Gaza start their studies in UK

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Abdallah, 27, and Soha, 31, describe adjusting to their new lives after leaving their war-torn home

The young man emerging from a backstreet accommodation block in a bustling corner of east London looks much like any other student, getting to grips with his studies at the start of a new term. But 27-year-old Abdallah carries more of a burden than most. A qualified doctor, he has recently been evacuated from Gaza to begin his studies at Queen Mary University of London on a fully funded, government-backed Chevening scholarship.

As well as his work in hospitals, he has been striving for months on behalf of the dozens of Palestinian scholars like himself who have been stranded in war-torn Gaza awaiting evacuation by the British government to take up places in UK universities.

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