Public debate is focused on what might happen after the General Election. Change is in the air, and everyone wants a piece of it. Will higher education be high up the list for reform? Unlikely, with health, the economy, and global security in the top spots. The Office for Students’…
Recently, I visited a Chinese restaurant in The Netherlands. As usual, we ordered a 7-dish smorgasbord of carbs and protein alongside a guiltily ordered vegetable dish. Upon ordering, the waiter explained that we had ordered way too much and recommended that we minimise our order to only 3 dishes. We…
The arrival of the ‘alternative provider’ In 1997 the Dearing Report saw diversity in British higher education institutions as an advantage ‘especially in providing for student choice; in programme and pedagogic innovation’ and ‘in the ability of the sector as a whole to meet the wide range of expectations now…
The Higher Education and Research Act of 2017 (HERA) asserts that both the Secretary of State and the Office for Students ‘must have regard to the need to protect the institutional autonomy of English higher education providers’. HERA s. 8 defines this autonomy in terms which have been accepted since they…
On 30 January, the National Union of Students launched our Manifesto for our Future which represents the aspirations of the millions of students across the UK. We developed these ideas based on consultation with over 10,000 students. Regular polling has afforded us a clear picture of the big issues for…
As the student body in most universities becomes ever more heterogeneous, one of the greatest challenges has been to see and understand students beyond a single administrative demographic label or identity. As universities begin acknowledging students’ complex, intersecting social identities, staff approaches to engaging and supporting students become much more…
The HE sector is in danger of letting a major opportunity pass by due to its tendency to focus on what it does do, not what it could do. Whatever colour of Government we have over the next five years, surely the Levelling Up agenda is here to stay. This…
Higher education has come a long way in recognising and being aware of mental health issues that students enter their studies with. This includes better data collected through UCAS, work undertaken via AdvanceHE with their Education for Mental Health Toolkit, TASO’s Student Mental Health Evidence Hub and the development of…
Over the past few years there has been veritable blizzard of articles and reports about the rise in wellbeing and mental health issues, especially among young people in higher education. Mental health and wellbeing challenges are not new phenomena, yet Generation Z is being labelled as less resilient than previous…
Researchers from University College London and the University of Oxford have recently launched an ambitious new project aiming to provide an empirical portrait of current teaching and learning around the interconnected themes of the British Empire, migration and belonging in England’s secondary schools. On the 13th June 2020, a letter was…