‘Campaigning to keep the lights on’: the desperate plight of England’s schools and universities

Despite their costs going ‘through the roof’, education leaders fear they will be a low priority for the next occupant of No 10

Education leaders in England fear one thing: that schools, colleges and universities will be hammered by the cost of living crisis but will not be enough of a priority to get the help they need from government. And they see little hope from a change in leadership at No 10.

“Our costs are going through the roof, our staff badly need pay rises and are going to strike, our students are suffering, but our income is stuck,” said one vice-chancellor, echoing their peers in schools and colleges around the country.

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‘Fit of pique’: lost vorticist masterpiece found under portrait by contemporary

Atlantic City by Helen Saunders discovered under Praxitella by Wyndham Lewis, who may have painted over it on purpose

A lost masterpiece by a leading abstract artist of the early 20th century has been discovered beneath a portrait by a contemporary who may have painted over the original in a “fit of pique”.

Atlantic City by Helen Saunders, a member of the radical and short-lived vorticist movement, depicts a fragmented modern metropolis, almost certainly in the vibrant colours associated with the group. A black and white image of the painting appeared in Blast, the avant garde journal of the vorticists produced shortly before the outbreak of the first world war.

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BTec exam board Pearson apologises over results delay

Some grades not issued two days after they were due, leaving students unable to confirm university places

A BTec exam board has said it is “very sorry” that some students are still waiting for their results two days after they were due, leaving them unable to confirm university places.

Hundreds of thousands of students received A-level, BTec and T-level exam results on Thursday, but some in England and Wales who have taken BTec qualifications with exam board Pearson have had no news of their grades.

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53,000 UK students enter university clearing, the most in over 10 years

Strong competition for places means many of those who dropped grades in their A-levels are missing out on preferred institutions

More than 53,510 UK-based students were scrambling for places on university courses on Friday, the day after receiving lower grades in their A-level results, with many missing out on their offers in the most competitive year for university places in a decade.

This year’s number of applicants marked as “free to be placed in clearing” on the Ucas website is the highest in more than a decade, and compares with 39,230 at the same point last year. Some of these students missed their grades while others declined their offers, and some may decide not to go to university.

By Friday, 6,640 UK school-leavers had found places through clearing, a 33% increase on last year. A third more students – 23,640 – accepted their insurance choices after missing the grades for their top choice.

University admissions directors reported unprecedented levels of demand in clearing, with phone lines busier than ever, including from students with top grades.

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Student loan interest rates cut again as inflation and cost of living soar

DfE says maximum rate will be fixed at 6.3% from September having previously reduced it to 7.3%

Ministers have intervened to cut student loan interest rates for the second time this summer as inflation and the cost of living continue to soar.

The Department for Education announced on Wednesday that the maximum rate will now be fixed at 6.3% from September. It was already due to be capped at 7.3%, after an intervention by ministers in June to bring it down from the 12% it would have reached by September, based on earlier inflation figures plus 3%.

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Universities will adjust to lower exam results in England, says minister

Government seeks to reassure pupils taking GCSEs and A-levels after sharp rises in grades during pandemic

The government has sought to allay pupils’ fears over GCSE and A-level results, which are expected to be lower in England this summer after two years of record increases, reassuring them that universities will “adjust accordingly”.

The schools minister Will Quince said it was important to “move back to a position where qualifications maintain their value” and reassured students that grades will still be higher than in 2019, before the pandemic.

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Record numbers of disadvantaged UK students apply for university

Ucas data also shows surge in applications from Nigeria, India and China but fall in nursing applications

Record numbers of disadvantaged students in the UK have applied to go to university this year, according to official figures that also show international recruitment has held up with a surge in applications from Nigeria, India and China.

According to data published by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas), overall applications for UK 18-year-olds have exceeded all previous records, raising concerns about competition for places on the most popular courses as some universities try to rein in numbers after over recruiting during the pandemic.

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50 Chinese students leave UK in three years after spy chiefs’ warning

MI5 chief says Chinese communist party targeting intellectual property across west

Fifty Chinese students have left the UK in the past three years after Britain tightened its procedures to prevent the theft of sensitive academic research, the head of MI5 said in a speech about the espionage threat posed by Beijing.

Ken McCallum, the director general of the spy agency, also said that MI5 had “more than doubled” its effort against Chinese activity over the same timeframe, as part of an unprecedented joint warning with his counterpart at the FBI.

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Human traffickers ‘using UK universities as cover’

Overseas students have vanished from courses and then been found working in exploitative conditions

Universities have been urged to be on high alert for human trafficking after suspected victims brought to Britain on student visas vanished from their courses and were found working in exploitative conditions hundreds of miles away.

In a recent case, Indian students at Greenwich, Chester and Teesside universities stopped attending lectures shortly after arriving in the UK, according to a report by the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) seen by the Observer.

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Warnings of mental health crisis among ‘Covid generation’ of students

Pandemic has had lasting impact on students’ wellbeing and problem is getting worse, say UK experts

The pandemic has had a lasting legacy on the mental health of the “Covid generation” of students, exacerbating rates of anxiety, depression and self-harm and resulting in a “significant rise” in young people struggling at university, experts have said.

UK universities have reported that more students are experiencing mental health problems in the aftermath of the pandemic, and that this is expected to continue with the cohort arriving in September, whose school experience was heavily disrupted by the pandemic.

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Student loan interest rate to be capped at 7.3% in autumn, says DfE

Ministers intervene to stop interest rate in England and Wales reaching 12% with inflation by September

Ministers have intervened to reduce a sharp rise in interest rates charged on student loans, after the recent increase in inflation which meant rates would treble for many graduates by the autumn.

The Department for Education said the maximum rate from September is to be fixed at 7.3% rather than the 12% it would have reached by September, based on earlier inflation figures plus 3%.

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First post-Covid school leavers face fight for fewer university places

Parents and teachers say some students predicted to gain A* grades are being rejected after a surge in applications

The first post-Covid cohort of school leavers face a summer of uncertainty that “threatens to hold back a generation”, as students compete for fewer places on popular university courses.

After A-level grade inflation during the pandemic forced universities to take on more students, institutions are now retrenching in popular subjects despite a surge in applications.

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QC to examine NUS president election in antisemitism inquiry

Rebecca Tuck says internal investigation into president-elect Shaima Dallali will take priority

The QC leading an independent investigation into alleged antisemitism within the National Union of Students has announced she will examine the election of the organisation’s incoming president as well as wider concerns.

Rebecca Tuck, who was appointed to head the inquiry after consultations between the NUS and the Union of Jewish Students (UJS), said an internal investigation into Shaima Dallali, the president-elect, under the NUS’s code of conduct would take first priority, with her findings to be announced within weeks.

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Visa scheme for graduates from top 50 non-UK universities is launched

‘High potential individual’ route will allow eligible individuals to come to Britain without a prior job offer

Graduates from the world’s top 50 non-UK universities can apply to come to Britain through a new visa scheme.

Ministers hope the “high potential individual” route, which launches on Monday, will attract the “brightest and best” at the beginning of their careers to work in the UK.

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Longer work visa could tempt more foreign students to UK, survey finds

Chancellors urge review of two-year visas as overseas graduates say three-year offer would be more attractive

International students would be more likely to consider studying in the UK if they were allowed to stay and work for three years instead of two, a survey suggests.

Foreign students have been able to stay on and work in the UK for two years after completing their course since 2019, when the government reinstated the two-year post-study work visa after years of pressure from universities.

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Loss of EU funding clips wings of vital crow study in Cambridge

Laboratory chief blames Brexit for closure as money for corvid brain power research dries up

One of Britain’s most important, and unusual, centres for studying cognition is facing imminent closure as a result of Brexit. Set up 22 years ago to study the minds of crows, rooks and other birds noted for their intelligence, the Cambridge Comparative Cognition Laboratory is set to cease operations in July.

Its director, Professor Nicola Clayton, told the Observer she was devastated by the prospect of ending her research there. Nor was she in any doubt about the prime reason for the centre’s closure.

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Government ‘pushing universities out of teacher training’ over leftwing politics

Higher education leaders say ministers think departments are full of ‘Marxists’, as top universities fail accreditation process

Leaders in higher education said this week they believed the government was trying to push universities out of teacher training for political reasons because ministers thought their education departments were “hotbeds of leftwing intellectualism” and full of “Marxists”.

Under changes announced last summer, all initial teacher training providers in England must be re-accredited by the Department for Education to continue educating teachers from 2024. However, two-thirds of providers, including some top universities, were told this month that they had failed the first round of the new accreditation process. The DfE said last week that just 80 providers, out of 216 who are understood to have applied, had made the cut.

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Office for Students chair didn’t know he was sharing platform with far-right journalist

James Wharton says he didn’t know Hungarian talkshow host Zsolt Bayer was speaking at rightwing event

The chair of England’s university regulator, who was criticised for participating in a conference in Hungary on the same platform as a notorious far-right journalist accused of antisemitism, has said he did not know who he was appearing alongside.

James Wharton, chair of the Office for Students (OfS), addressed the Conservative Political Action Conference (Cpac) via a video message last Friday, on the same day as Zsolt Bayer, a talkshow host who has called Jews “stinking excrement”, referred to Roma as “animals”, and used racial epithets to describe Black people.

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Bristol University found guilty of failings over death of student

Parents of Natasha Abrahart argued Bristol failed to make allowances for their daughter’s severe anxiety

A leading university has been ordered to pay £50,000 in damages to the parents of a vulnerable student who took her own life, after a senior judge ruled it had discriminated against her.

In a landmark case that has deep implications for other higher education institutions, the parents of Natasha Abrahart successfully sued the University of Bristol under the Equality Act.

In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. Other international suicide helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org

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UK government suspends engagement with NUS over antisemitism allegations

The education secretary, Nadhim Zahawi, said he was ‘seriously concerned’ by reports of alleged antisemitism within the organisation

Ministers have banned official contact with the National Union of Students over long-running allegations of antisemitism within the organisation, despite the NUS’s pledge to work with Jewish students in an internal investigation.

The allegations have become a focus for the government since the election of Shaima Dallali as the next NUS president, with groups including the Union of Jewish Students (UJS) raising concerns after alleged historic comments resurfaced.

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