Israeli student filed lawsuit after suspension for spraying pro-Palestinian protesters with foul-smelling substance
Columbia University has reached a $395,000 settlement with a student who was suspended in January after spraying student protesters with a foul-smelling substance at one of several campus demonstrations in support of Palestine.
The Israeli student who received the payout had been suspended until May.
Continue reading...Rachel Reeves made funding the NHS a priority but people working in other areas said they were disappointed
Rachel Reeves’s first budget emphasised raising taxes to help the NHS, as the health service tries to cope with huge waiting lists and an ageing population. Funding the NHS was a top priority but people in other sectors – from universities to social care – feel the budget was a missed opportunity to tackle impending crises or introduce desperately needed reforms in their areas.
Continue reading...Home Office failed to show presence of Dana Abu Qamar ‘not conducive to public good’, according to tribunal ruling
A Palestinian student who was stripped of her student visa after remarks she made about the Israel-Gaza war has won a human rights appeal against the Home Office’s decision.
The Home Office failed to demonstrate that the presence of Dana Abu Qamar, 20, was “not conducive to public good” after the law student’s visa was revoked in December 2023, according to a tribunal ruling.
Continue reading...Proportion of students eligible for free school meals at 15 who progress to higher education falls from 29.2% to 29%
The proportion of disadvantaged teenagers in England going on to study at university has fallen for the first time on record, leading to accusations that the country is moving backwards in terms of social mobility.
Figures released by the Department for Education show that 29% of students eligible for free school meals at 15 had progressed to university by the age of 19 in 2022-23, compared with 29.2% the previous year – the first time the rate has fallen since it was first measured in 2005-06.
Continue reading...Officials warn repeat of Tory rejection could dent new government’s hopes of pacts on defence and agriculture
Fresh proposals to allow young people to move between the UK and the EU will be presented to the British government within weeks, in what is seen as a key early test of Labour’s “reset” in relations with Brussels.
Informed sources say the first draft of a new version of Ursula von der Leyen’s April proposal has already been discussed by member states and will be put to a working group in Brussels next week.
Continue reading...Admissions officers report rise in number of inquiries from international students since general election
Applications by international students to UK universities have been revitalised in a welcome boost for the sector’s ailing financial health by the Labour government’s “change of tone” on immigration since the general election.
Vice-chancellors and admissions officers said a rise in the number of inquiries about courses and feedback from overseas recruitment agents suggested that the change in the government’s stance since the 4 July election had been widely noticed by potential international students and their families.
Continue reading...Former home secretary finishes behind Mel Stride after only securing 14 votes
PMQs is starting soon. Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.
Kemi Badenoch is the clear favourite of Conservative members for next leader, and will be very hard to beat if she makes it into the final ballot of two, according to a survey by ConservativeHome.
Continue reading...Court documents show then immigration minister wrote to Home Office after Dana Abu Qamar spoke at university demonstration
The former immigration minister and Conservative leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick inquired into revoking a Palestinian student’s visa, court documents have revealed.
Dana Abu Qamar, 20, a law student who led the Friends of Palestine society at the University of Manchester, was stripped of her visa in 2023 after speaking at a university demonstration on Gaza’s historical resistance to Israel’s “oppressive regime” and a subsequent interview with Sky News.
Continue reading...Teaching events being relocated while urgent repairs carried out on 1970s structures with degraded concrete
The University of Leicester is dealing with a “major incident” over crumbling buildings on campus that will be closed for years and require a major relocation of classes while they undergo repairs.
Two large buildings on the university’s main campus, where students attend hundreds of lectures and seminars each academic year, will be closed owing to concrete degradation and the corrosion of steel reinforcements that support the structures.
Continue reading...Researchers have found the competitiveness of men living in mixed flats on UK campuses significantly decreased
Living with female flatmates at university makes male students less “macho”, new research from Essex University and Australia’s University of Technology Sydney has found.
The study, which followed a cohort of students at a UK university living in campus halls of residence over a one-year period, revealed that men living in mixed flats with female flatmates exhibited a significant decrease in competitiveness. There was no effect on women.
Continue reading...Number of pupils accepted by ‘high tariff’ providers passes 100,000, after better than expected A-level results and fewer international students
Sixth-formers are rushing to take up places at the most selective universities, with figures showing a substantial increase in the numbers enrolling compared with last year after receiving their A-level results.
Experts said that “high tariff” universities, including those in the Russell Group of research intensive universities, were allocating more places to UK school-leavers this year after recruiting fewer international students.
Continue reading...Louise Haigh says she hopes three-year pay deal offered to train drivers will resolve strikes
Chief secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones has said the pay deal offered to train drivers was “good deal for the taxpayer”, because it was “resetting the relationship between government and public sector workers” and preventing strikes.
PA Media reports he said:
There is a direct cost to the economy if the strikes continue and we need to work together in partnership with workers and trade unions and business in order to get sustainable growth back into the economy. So this is a good deal for the taxpayer, it’s a good deal for the economy.
Making pensioners freeze, slashing services, cutting defence projects, increasing rail fares and raising tax all to fund inflation busting pay deals for trade union donors are political choices made by Labour. They are choosing to placate their union donors over everyone else.
Continue reading...This live blog is now closed, you can read about this year’s A-level results here
Private schools which could close as a result of the government’s plans to impose 20% VAT are already facing “big budget shortfalls”, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has said.
She told Sky News:
Private schools are businesses that can make choices about how they manage their budgets, the level of fees that they charge, and ultimately, it’s about how attractive they are to families in terms of the numbers of students that are sent there.
We have seen private schools in recent years whack up their fees year on year, way beyond inflation, and that has priced out lots of people.
Overall, 425,680 applicants (all ages, all domiciles) have been accepted into university or college – an increase on 414,940 (+3%) in 2023.
In total, 376,470 students (all ages, all domiciles) have been accepted at their first (UCAS ‘firm’) choice, a 4% increase on last year. This represents 82% of those holding an offer who received their decision this morning up from 79% in 2023.
The overall number of accepted international students stands at 51,170, in line with 51,210 in 2023. However, accepted applicants from China are slightly down compared to last year – 10,950 (-6%).
The top three subjects with the largest increase in total placed applicants are engineering and technology (+11% on last year), architecture, building and planning (+9%) and law (+9%).
Acceptances for UK students (all ages) to nursing have risen slightly compared to 2023, with 18,450 applicants securing a place (up 1%). This still represents a decline from the peak seen during the pandemic.
I’m particularly thrilled to see free school meals students securing a place at university or college in record numbers. I know how important it is to everyone working in education that every student, no matter their background, has the opportunity to reach their full potential. Widening access and participation is not just about numbers; it’s about opening up doors and transforming the lives of students through higher education so they can pursue their passions and career aspirations.
Ucas is here to help all applicants take their next step, including students who received different results than expected, or those who are looking to change their mind.
Continue reading...As international intake dwindles, leading institutions become less cautious about offers post-Covid
School leavers collecting their A-level results on Thursday will have an easier time getting into their chosen university than their predecessors in the past two years, experts are predicting.
A record number of 18-year-olds are competing for university places this year, but experts said that many universities hope to fill accommodation and lecture theatres with more UK students, due to anxiety about falling numbers of lucrative international students.
Continue reading...Experts say the next head of the Office for Students must oversee a programme that will protect higher education
The new head of the Office for Students (OfS) will have to oversee rescue plans to avoid a “domino effect” with a number of universities going under, experts have warned.
The new government’s Department for Education (DfE) announced on Tuesday that it had accepted the resignation of the OfS’s controversial chair, James Wharton, a former Tory MP who ran Boris Johnson’s leadership campaign. Lord Wharton, who was given the job of running the independent regulator in 2021 despite having no experience of higher education, did not give up the Tory whip in the Lords and was widely criticised for being too close to the Conservative government.
Continue reading...University is taking legal action to shut down pro-Palestine encampment on Edgbaston campus
The University of Birmingham is censoring students’ beliefs about Gaza by seeking to shut down a pro-Palestine encampment on its grounds, the high court has heard.
Birmingham is one of several universities taking legal action to try to evict student protesters, with a case brought by the University of Nottingham due to be heard before the same judge on Friday.
Continue reading...University confirms police operation under way with 22-year-old man taken to Royal Prince Alfred hospital
A 14-year-old boy has been arrested and a 22-year-old man has been taken to hospital after an alleged stabbing at the University of Sydney.
A New South Wales ambulance spokesperson said paramedics had been called to the university about 8.30am on Tuesday and had taken one patient to Royal Prince Alfred hospital.
Continue reading...Leading experts have described Labor’s controversial migration policy as a ‘recipe for chaos’ set to hit campuses
University staff have been threatened with deep job cuts because of the federal government’s proposed international student cap, raising concerns the controversial policy is being weaponised as an “excuse” to slash jobs.
The draft bill, introduced to parliament last month, would give the education minister powers to set a maximum number of new international student enrolments. Leading policy experts have described it as a “recipe for chaos”.
Continue reading...Ministers left with unpalatable options of raising tuition fees, making grants or capping student numbers, says IFS
The next government faces “unpalatable” choices between raising tuition fees, making direct grants or capping student numbers to rescue universities in England from their financial black hole, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has warned.
The thinktank said universities that relied on teaching UK students for the bulk of their income were most vulnerable, calculating that undergraduate tuition fees would now be £12,000 if they had kept pace with inflation, rather than the £9,250 rate frozen since 2016.
Continue reading...King’s College London poll finds people rank universities behind only the NHS, armed forces and royal family
The British public values the UK’s universities more highly than the legal system or the BBC, according to a survey of attitudes towards higher education by King’s College London.
Prof Bobby Duffy, the director of King’s College London’s policy institute, said universities came behind only the NHS, the armed forces and the royal family in a league table of UK institutions considered to be among the best in the world by the public.
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