Category Archives: Universities

UK government suspends engagement with NUS over antisemitism allegations

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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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Too many first-class degrees awarded in England, regulator says

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Minister calls for universities to restore pre-pandemic award levels by next year

Universities in England have been for rebuked for awarding “excessive” numbers of first-class degrees during the pandemic, with ministers and regulators accusing the sector of undermining its own reputation.

The Office for Students (OfS) published analysis claiming that more than half of first-class degrees awarded in 2021 could not be explained by “observable factors” such as prior results or social background of students.

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Degrees underfunded by £1,750 per student, Russell Group says

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Group says deficit would widen to £4,000 under plan to freeze tuition fees in England until 2024-25

Each undergraduate costs England’s leading universities nearly £2,000 as tuition fees and teaching grants fail to fully fund a degree, and that amount is likely to double soon unless the government acts to fill the gap.

A submission by the Russell Group of research-intensive universities – including the University of Manchester and University College London – to a consultation on higher education funding revealed that the average cost per student was £1,750 more than they receive in tuition fees and teaching grants.

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UK universities brace for impact of sanctions against Russia

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Most academics back research boycott but ‘there is a case for maintaining ties’, says Oxford professor

Researchers at UK universities are bracing themselves for sanctions affecting science partnerships with Russia, including in climate science and space research, as the government seeks to isolate Vladimir Putin over the invasion of Ukraine.

Simon Marginson, a professor of higher education at the University of Oxford, said most academics would support a research boycott with heavy hearts and concerns for Russian colleagues.

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UK university dispute escalates over plan to dock staff pay

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Bosses advised to dock 100% of pay for staff who work to rule as UCU members prepare strike action

A bitter dispute between university staff and their employers looks set to escalate after it emerged that university bosses have been advised to dock 100% of pay for staff who work to rule as part of industrial action which begins next week.

More than 1 million students at 68 UK universities are to be hit by further strike action by members of the University and College Union (UCU), with up to 10 days of campus walkouts starting on Monday as part of a long-running dispute over pensions, pay and conditions.

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‘A vortex of thinking’ – inside the LSE’s brawny, brainy new building

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A game of squash, a quick Rachmaninov concert, a brew with a view and then back to studying … the £145m Marshall Building has got the lot, says our writer, even its own Old Curiosity Shop

One minute, it’s a shish kebab. The next, it’s a washing machine. A second later, it’s a casserole. Speaking to Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara about their new building, the metaphors come tumbling out in a passionate torrent. The two Irish architects, whose practice Grafton won worldwide recognition in 2020 when it won the prestigious Pritzker prize, can’t contain their excitement about their £145m facility for the London School of Economics, partly because they haven’t had a chance to visit it yet. “The pandemic has really made us understand the meaning of longing,” says Farrell. “Site visits on FaceTime just aren’t the same.”

The longing is over for students and academics, though, who return to face-to-face teaching this term, in a place that truly brings home the benefits of meeting in the real world. The new Marshall Building, which looks out over Lincoln’s Inn Fields like a gleaming white palazzo, houses some of the finest spaces that any London university has to offer.

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‘Our culture has changed’: young Thais boycott graduation ceremonies

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Students who speak out against royal family’s role in universities face jail but can also be pressured by pro-monarchy parents

When 24-year-old Krai Saidee returned to his alma mater Chiang Mai University on 14 January, nearly two years after his graduation, he came not just to support his friends but to make a political statement.

Painted gold, he held up a sign attached to a graduation gown: “You took my dream, and gave me this,” the message read.

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Dutch university gives up Chinese funding due to impartiality concerns

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Vrije Universiteit will also return €250,000-plus it received in 2021 for rights centre that denied forced labour camps exist in Xinjiang

A decision by a leading Dutch university to refuse all further Chinese funding for a controversial study centre has sparked fresh concern about Beijing’s apparent attempts to influence debate at European educational institutions.

Amsterdam’s Vrije Universiteit (VU), the fourth largest university in the Netherlands, has said it will accept no further money from the Southwest University of Political Science and Law in Chongqing and repay sums it recently received.

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Trinity College Dublin begins €90m project to relocate vulnerable books

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Restoring and moving 750,000 volumes and ancient manuscripts expected to take five years

It is known as Ireland’s “front room”, where esteemed visitors including the Queen, Joe Biden, Emmanuel Macron and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been taken to get a sense of the “land of saints and scholars”.

Biden, vice-president at the time, was so moved by the atmospherics in the dimly lit, barrel-vaulted hall when he visited Trinity College Dublin (TCD) in 2016 that he came back a year later to contemplate the history of its old library, known as the Long Room.

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‘We can transition to a better country’: a trans Colombian on diversity in ecology and society

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Brigitte Baptiste has a high profile as a transgender Colombian woman and an ecologist – in a country where both are targeted

When Brigitte Baptiste walks on to the 10th floor of Bogotá’s Ean University at 9.45am in a plunging dress, knee-high cheetah-print boots and a silvery wig, the office comes to life. She examines some flowers sent by the Colombian radio station Caracol to thank her for taking part in a forum, her co-worker compliments her on her lipstick, and she settles in for a day of back-to-back meetings, followed by a private virtual conversation with the UN secretary general, António Guterres. Later that evening, she flies to Cartagena for a conference on natural gas.

The 58-year-old ecologist is one of Colombia’s foremost environmental experts, and one of its most visible transgender people, challenging scientific and social conventions alike. An ecology professor at the Jesuit-run Javeriana University for 20 years, she has written 15 books, countless newspaper columns, and won international prizes for her work. Most recently, she was appointed chancellor of Ean University, a business school, as part of its push for greater sustainability.

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Outcry as memorial to Tiananmen Square victims removed from Hong Kong University

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Site of the Pillar of Shame at city’s oldest university under guard after workmen cut up statue

Hong Kong’s oldest university and the territory’s authorities have been accused of rewriting history after cutting up and removing a statue mourning those killed in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.

The erasure of the memorial from where it had stood for nearly 25 years came as Beijing has intensified its targeting of political dissent in Hong Kong since the Covid pandemic.

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Covid cases rise sharply at some UK universities as students head home

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Fears mass exodus before Christmas break could fuel spread of Omicron variant

The number of Covid cases has risen sharply at some universities as about a million students begin to head home for the Christmas break, prompting fears that the mass migration could fuel the spread of the virus.

Students have been urged to take Covid tests before they leave their university to travel to see their families – the vast majority on public transport – and again before they return in the new year, as well as getting their booster vaccinations.

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Nine in 10 university students in England have had at least one Covid jab

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More than 90% also say they would test if they had symptoms, but poll finds mental health has deteriorated

Far from being irresponsible Covid spreaders, the vast majority of students at English universities have been vaccinated at least once and would request a test if they had symptoms, according to a survey.

Students’ wellbeing has suffered this autumn, however, with a third of those surveyed reporting that their mental health had deteriorated since the start of term, the report by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) says.

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Afghanistan: former Chevening scholars accuse UK of abandoning them

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Government has prioritised rescue of current scholars but estimated 70 alumni are still in country

A group of former Chevening scholars have accused the British government of abandoning them in Afghanistan, where they say their lives are at grave risk from the Taliban.

The UK government has prioritised the rescue of 35 current Chevening scholars who were due to embark on their studies in the UK before the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, but an estimated 70 former scholars are also thought to still be in the country.

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The Guardian University Guide 2022 – the rankings

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Find a course at one of the top universities in the country. Our league tables rank them all subject-by-subject, as well as by student satisfaction, staff numbers, spending and career prospects

• This table was amended on 11 September 2021. An earlier version showed the overall scores out of 100 from last year for each institution, rather than the most recent figures. This has been corrected.

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Thousands of British students in limbo with post-Brexit visa chaos

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Students delay studying abroad and some even switch continents because of visa delays

Thousands of British students have been hit by post-Brexit visa hurdles, leaving many struggling to complete their language courses or take up internships in the EU.

While some have delayed studying abroad or even switched continents because of visa delays, hundreds of undergraduates taking modern foreign language courses may miss out on a vital part of their degree.

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Berlin’s university canteens go almost meat-free as students prioritise climate

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The 34 outlets catering to students at four universities will offer only a single meat option four days a week

Students at universities in Berlin will from this winter swap currywurst and schnitzel for seeds and pulses, as campus canteens in the German capital make heavy cuts to their meat and fish options.

The 34 canteens and cafes catering to Berlin’s sizeable student population at four different universities will offer from October a menu that is 68% vegan, 28% vegetarian, and 2% fish-based, with a single meat option offered four days a week.

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Concerns over plan to disinfect classrooms in Wales with ozone

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Machines to be used to clean up after Covid outbreaks part of £5.9m initiative to improve air quality

A £3.3m scheme to provide schools in Wales with machines that disinfect classrooms after a Covid outbreak has prompted calls for reassurance over their safety.

The Welsh education ministry said on Monday that all schools, universities and colleges in Wales would be supplied with ozone disinfecting machines for cleaning up Covid-hit classrooms.

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Covid cases in England are 26 times higher than a year ago

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Pressure grows to begin booster jabs for the vulnerable and extend vaccinations to younger teenagers

Coronavirus infections in England are now 26 times the levels that were experienced this time last year, according to the Office for National Statistics. Scientists described the figures as “sobering”.

They warned that the reopening of schools in England this week was likely to trigger further rises in Covid cases – with more to follow when students return to universities and colleges. A fresh wave of infections could, in turn, lead to new social restrictions being imposed as winter approaches.

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The abandonment of Afghanistan is shameful | Letters

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Jane Ghosh thinks we have left behind devastation and despair, Trevor Curnow looks at parallels with Vietnam, while Daniel Peacock expresses concern for a generation of women and girls. Plus letters from Martin Harris and Caroline Willcocks

The history of western interference after the second world war in countries throughout the world has been one of unmitigated failure for which we all bear a share of shame (UK and US send troops to aid evacuation from Afghanistan as Taliban advance, 13 August).

Western powers have invaded countries thousands of miles away in the name of “democracy” and achieved a vacuum of power that has swiftly been filled by the very forces they went to evict. Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan. We have left behind devastation and despair while never learning the lessons of each disaster. If people want a one-party state, why does the US and its poodles think it has a duty or right to impose a very flawed system of democracy on other nations? Hubris followed inevitably by nemesis.
Jane Ghosh
Bristol

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