Category Archives: Universities

Students should be told of university course job prospects, says commission

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Social Mobility Commission says students should be informed of ‘earnings implications’ of course choices

Students should be given more details about how the courses they study after leaving school might affect their employment prospects, it has been suggested, as figures show near-record numbers of 18-year-olds applying to university.

A review of research into the employment effects of higher and further education by the government’s Social Mobility Commission showed wide variations in earnings, with some courses failing to boost salaries, while the most lucrative courses for graduates often admitted few students in England from disadvantaged backgrounds.

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Ministers and unions dig in amid widespread strike action across UK

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Little prospect of breakthrough as strikes hit schools, trains, universities and border checks across country

Unions and the government appeared as far apart as ever, after Wednesday’s widespread strike action closed thousands of schools across England and Wales.

Striking workers from participating unions held rallies in cities including Bristol, Brighton, Birmingham and London, as teachers, university staff, rail workers and civil servants stopped work to demand better pay.

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Disruption across UK as strikes hit schools, trains, universities and border checks – as it happened

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UK public warned of ‘significant disruption’ from strikes involving teachers, civil servants, Border Force staff and train drivers

Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, speaking from a teachers’ picket line in Warwick, said:

I think Gillian Keegan [the education secretary] is hoping our strike is ineffective and people won’t do it again.

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Number of EU students enrolling in UK universities halves post-Brexit

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Data shows sharp decline in students from Italy, Germany and France with Brexit seen as primary deterrent

The number of EU students enrolling in British universities has more than halved since Brexit – with sharp declines in scholars from Italy, Germany and France, figures reveal.

Brexit is seen as the primary deterrent, with home fees and student finance no longer available to EU students who do not already live in the UK with settled or pre-settled status.

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Impromptu takedown of painting in Netherlands ignites cancel culture row

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Controversial image of male Leiden University board members smoking cigars had long been topic of discussion

A spur-of-the-moment decision by academic staff to take down a 1970s painting depicting male Leiden University board members smoking cigars has sparked a debate in the Netherlands over cancel culture.

The artwork on the wall of a university meeting room had been a topic of discussion for years, with some students claiming that it both endorsed patriarchy and the act of smoking.

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UK student housing reaching ‘crisis point’ as bad as 1970s, charity warns

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Growing numbers of students are experiencing hidden homelessness or accepting poor accommodation

Student housing is reaching a “crisis point” not seen since the 1970s, when students slept in sports halls and their cars, and is set to worsen in the new year, a charity has warned.

Since the start of the academic year, students at universities across the UK have complained of fierce competition for rooms in flatshares for the 2022 and 2023 academic years.

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Higher education regulator to make freedom of speech priority next year

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OfS expected to gain new powers to regulate freedom of speech issues in England

The Office for Students will make freedom of speech and “off-limits” subjects on university campuses one of its top priorities for next year, despite the regulator receiving only around 60 complaints over the last four years.

Susan Lapworth, the OfS’s chief regulator, said students’ experience of higher education in England was “not just measured through statistics,” and could be affected by the attitudes towards issues such as freedom of speech at the institutions they attend.

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Trinity College Dublin considers returning Inishbofin skulls

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Skulls’ removal from island in 1890s was colonial-era violation, say campaigners

Under cover of darkness in 1890, two headhunters climbed over a gate and crept into a graveyard on Inishbofin, a remote County Galway island on Ireland’s Atlantic coast. In the ruins of a medieval monastery they found dozens of skulls. They selected 13.

“When the coast was clear we put our spoils in the sack and cautiously made our way back to the road,” Alfred Haddon later wrote in his diary. He and his accomplice, Andrew Dixon, smuggled the skulls on to a boat and sailed away.

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Who are the female union leaders overseeing UK strike action?

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Four women at some of the biggest unions are on the frontline of the fight for better pay and conditions

Christina McAnea is the general secretary of Unison, the UK’s biggest union. Brought up on Glasgow’s Drumchapel estate, McAnea left school at 16 to join the civil service, before going to university at the age of 22 and earning a degree in English and history.

A longtime union official, the no-nonsense McAnea has couched Unison’s demands for better pay and conditions for NHS workers, who include paramedics and ambulance staff, as a battle for the future of the health service.

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Minister becomes eighth Tory MP to announce they are stepping down at next election – UK politics live

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Dehenna Davison, seen as one of the rising stars of the Conservative party, has announced she is standing down at the next election

Downing Street has confirmed that the inquiry into bullying allegations about Dominic Raab, the justice secretary and deputy prime minister, is being expanded to cover claims relating to his period as Brexit secretary, my colleague Pippa Crerar reports.

The inquiry was originally set up to consider two complaints, relating to his time as justice secretary and foreign secretary. But at the Downing Street lobby briefing a No 10 spokesperson said:

I can confirm that the prime minister has now asked the investigator to add a further formal complaint relating to conduct at the Department for Exiting the European Union and to establish the facts in line with the existing terms of reference.

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Cap on foreign student numbers could send UK universities ‘over the edge’

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Chair of Migration Advisory Committee warns that some institutions would struggle to survive financially

Universities could go bankrupt if the government limits the number of foreign students in a bid to bring down net migration, an adviser on immigration policy has warned.

Rishi Sunak’s potential plan to clamp down on international students taking “low-quality” degrees could “send many universities over the edge”, particularly in poorer regions, the chair of the government’s Migration Advisory Committee said.

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Nurses to strike for two days as December disruption deepens

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Royal College of Nursing announces unprecedented action, likely to to be first in a series of strikes by NHS staff over winter

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has announced its members will stage national strikes – the first in its 106-year history – on 15 and 20 December, with action expected to last for 12 hours on both days.

The unprecedented industrial action will seriously disrupt care and is likely to be the first in a series of strikes over the winter and into the spring by NHS staff, including junior doctors and ambulance workers.

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Barcelona students to take mandatory climate crisis module from 2024

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Course thought to be world first agreed after university bowed to pressure from seven-day End Fossil protest

All students at the University of Barcelona will have to take a mandatory course on the climate crisis after the establishment agreed to meet the demands of activists conducting a sit-in occupation.

In a move thought to be a world first, all 14,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students will have to take the course from the 2024 academic year. It will also devise a training programme on climate issues for its 6,000 academic staff.

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NUS president plans to fight dismissal over antisemitism claims

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Shaima Dallali ‘considering all available legal remedies’ after ousting from national student body

Shaima Dallali, the president of the National Union of Students, plans to fight the organisation’s move to oust her, as supporters expressed alarm at the handling of the antisemitism allegations that led to her dismissal.

The NUS said Dallali was dismissed as president this week after an independent investigation into the allegations found “significant breaches of NUS policies” – but that it would not reveal further details because of employee confidentiality.

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Richard Harris archive donated to Cork University

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Late Irish actor’s poems, photos, plaques and even his wedding list among items handed over by family

Richard Harris blazed through life as an actor, singer, boozer and womaniser but few knew he was also a hoarder.

Poems, photos, letters, script notes, artefacts, documents, rugby plaques, his wedding guest list – he kept it all. After his death in 2002, the trove spanning 50 years of cinema and theatre gathered dust in a lock-up in Oxford, known only to his family.

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Most students think UK universities protect free speech, survey finds

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King’s College London finds 65% believe campuses places of ‘robust debate’ – but growing number disagrees

Most UK students say their universities are places of free speech and debate – although a growing number are aware of free speech being restricted on campus, a study published by King’s College London has found.

The analysis, by KCL’s Policy Institute, found that 65% of students agreed that “free speech and robust debate are well protected in my university”, a higher proportion than the 63% who felt that way in a survey three years ago.

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Forget Oxbridge: St Andrews knocks top universities off perch

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Latest Guardian University Guide shows leading trio are in league of their own for undergraduate courses

Oxbridge is being replaced at the apex of UK universities by “Stoxbridge” after St Andrews overtook Oxford and Cambridge at the top of the latest Guardian University Guide.

It is the first time the Fife university has been ranked highest in the Guardian’s annual guide to undergraduate courses, pushing Oxford into second and Cambridge into third.

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

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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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BTec exam board Pearson apologises over results delay

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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

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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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