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HE policy update for the w/e 21st January 2021
Business Engagement, COVID-19, EU, HEIF, Industry collaboration, innovation, international, NHS, parliament, policy, Research news, Student Engagement jforster
After a long wait the sector received a landslide of HE policy interventions on Thursday. The FE Skills White paper, PQA consultation, the Government's take on Augar, publication of the Pearce TEF review with the DfE's response, and significant changes to the HE recurrent grant, alongside some far less exciting stuff! And it wasn't a quiet week before all that.
Some of it is good, some of it is very ominous indeed. Some of it is very high level and vague and so could go either way. There are a lot of new consultations to come and there will be lots to talk about in 2021. It will keep Sarah and I busy!
Boil that kettle, locate your reading glasses, and get comfy on the sofa ready to enjoy a bumper policy update!
Skills White Paper
This is the biggy because it's a White Paper, However, most of it is not about HE. The Government has published the Skills for jobs: lifelong learning for opportunity and growth white paper setting out their ambition for reform to the post-19 technical education and training landscape.
Gavin Williamson spoke in the House of Commons (see this link at 13:08 pm)
White paper on skills for job published today (see below)
Enormous challenges ahead to rebuild the economy. Support packages already announced (etc). Strong and independent trading nation (etc).
Lifetime skills guarantee, flexible digital skills bootcamps (etc).
April – kick start Higher Technical Education by making it easy to get a loan. Pilots on modular learning. Lifelong loan entitlement running from 2025.
Employers at the centre of technical education. Supporting local economy. German style local skills improvement plans led by Chambers of Commerce. Strategic development funding for FE.
New courses – trailblazer areas this year. Fund of £65m in 2021-22.
$1.5bn of capital funding for FE. Announced next phase for FE and T-levels.
Longer term – more coherent longer term funding model that will collaborate on with the sector. Principles of high value, greater flexibility and greater accountability. By 2030 nearly all technical courses will follow employer led requirements.
Continue with apprenticeships and T-levels.
Network of Institutes of Technology will expand across the country.
Top quality teaching staff in FE – recruitment campaign, more support etc, training and development and industry experience.
We've done a separate 6 page summary for BU readers, because it's long (and repetitive and full of the usual patting on the back about other good things already announced).
RP say (amongst many other things):
It's almost as if there is a good news story to be told about further education, while the government hopes its lack of decision-making on higher education falls off the news agenda…
It's actually called the Skills for Jobs white paper, which in fact takes the story away from underfunded further education and pivots towards post-Covid economic recovery. You will have seen much of the content before.
…So modular funding is on its way, but 2025 is a long way off—that takes us into the next parliament. Perhaps the Treasury has costed the commitment and decided to kick that particular can down the road.
The Skills for Jobs white paper… will seek to justify both disinvestment in higher education and funding of technical education on the cheap. It will play to the prejudices of the Conservative base and the idea that too many people are going to university and that decades of regional inequality can be resolved by more plumbing courses at local further education colleges.
From Dods: The Department says that the measures announced today "will put an end to the illusion that a degree is the only route to success and a good job, and that further and technical education is the second-class option."
The White Paper is being pitched as forming part of the Plan for Jobs
As expected, the Paper enshrines the Lifetime Skills Guarantee, providing a clearer idea of what the programme looks like in practice – adults without a full level 3 qualification (A-level equivalent) to gain one from April 2021 for free in a range of sectors including engineering, health and accountancy.
The long-touted Lifelong Loan Entitlement is also fleshed out in more detail, representing significant reforms to student finance. [Actually, there is very little detail and there is going to be a consultation on this "in early 2021".]
Measures include:
The Government is investing £1.5bn in further education colleges, to allow for high quality buildings and facilities
Employers will have a central role in designing "almost all" technical courses by 2030, to ensure education and training reflects the skills needed in the job market, supported by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education
Business groups, including Chambers of Commerce, will work alongside colleges to develop tailored skills plans"to meet local training needs"
This will be supported by a £65m Strategic Development Fund to put said plans into action, and establish new College Business Centre
New approved qualifications from September 2022, supported by a Government-backed brand and quality mark, to boost the quality and uptake of Higher Technical Qualifications(levels 4 and 5)
From 2025, people can access flexible student finance so they can train and retrain throughout their lives, supported by funding in 21/22 to test ways to boost access to more modular and flexible learning.
Nationwide recruitment campaign to get more teachers into further education and supporting professional development including a new Workforce Industry Exchange Programme
An "overhaul" of the funding and accountability rules, so funding is better targeted at supporting high-quality education and training that meets the needs of employers
An introduction of new powers to intervene when colleges are failing to deliver good outcomes for the communities they serve, and strengthening of Education Secretary's powers to intervene in corporations and local areas with persistent weaknesses. [The sales pitch on this is a good bit of spin, it is presented as an opportunity to have a strategic discussion with the department and pitch the strengths of the college, but….]
The next phase of the FE Capital Transformation Fund has also been launched today, and further education colleges across the country are invited to bid for funding to upgrade buildings and campuses.
The Augar report stressed the need for impartial and quality careers advice and guidance, so more people can be support to make the right education, training and career choices. There will be an expansion of Careers Hubs and other infrastructure in line with the Gatsby Benchmarks of Good Career Guidance. Furthermore, Dods tell us that, as part of the Skills White Paper reforms, Professor Sir John Holman has been appointed as Independent Strategic Advisor on Careers Guidance, and will oversee the local and national alignment between The Careers & Enterprise Company and the National Careers Service. Sir Holman is currently an Emeritus Professor in Science Education at the University of York, and is also Senior Adviser to both the Gatsby Foundation and the Wellcome Trust.
RP continue:
The Department for Education says: "The measures announced today will put an end to the illusion that a degree is the only route to success and a good job, and that further and technical education is the second-class option. Instead, they will supercharge further and technical education, realigning the whole system around the needs of employers, so that people are trained for the skills gaps that exist now, and in the future, in sectors the economy needs, including construction, digital, clean energy and manufacturing."
The government may be hoping that first sentence becomes true; it surely knows that the second sentence lacks credibility. The white paper proposals are accompanied by a £65 million Strategic Development Fund to put the plan into action and to "establish new College Business Centres to drive innovation and enhanced collaboration with employers".
To put that in context, the much-mocked Turing one-way exchange scheme has a budget of £100m, which is a reduction by nearly half of its Erasmus predecessor. The £65m fund is not going to reverse decades of underinvestment in skills, while College Business Centres sound like a classic ministerial vanity project doomed to irrelevance when their limited funding dries up.
There is going to be a lot of that sort of thing today, including the Workforce Industry Exchange Programme, aimed at coaxing talented individuals to teach in further education. It is not thought to involve basic incentives such as a competitive salary or security of employment.
RP also pick apart the percentage comparisons in the DfE's criticism of the sector.
Wonkhe did a special email update at lunchtime: Debbie McVitty runs through the highlights so that you don't have to.
On the proposals for funding lifelong learning, Debbie says: If the government can crack this policy Holy Grail, it will have a genuine claim to having radically transformed post-compulsory education. But this white paper marks an intention to start developing the answers rather than concrete proposals.
Commenting on the government's interim response to the post-18 review of education and funding, Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of the Office for Students, said:
'An increased focus on lifelong learning will help develop the highly skilled graduate workforce needed to support our economy, nationally, regionally and locally. The OfS plans to work with students, the sector and employers to explore how higher education can be made more attractive and responsive to mature learners, and ensure that mature students are aware of the breadth of options available to them in both further and higher education.
'The focus on quality and the need to tackle poor quality provision is a strategic priority for the OfS as we consult on new proposals to enable us to anticipate and respond to poor quality, while ensuring that our approach is proportionate and targeted where it is needed.'
Robert Halfon, chair of the Education Committee:
"The proposals from the prime minister and department for education mark a sea-change in government thinking on skills.
"It will help address our skills deficit by boosting the accessibility of technical qualifications alongside the lifetime skills guarantee. It meets the needs of businesses in building an employed-led system, working with FE, to design employer qualifications and ensure funding follows employer requirements. It will give those from disadvantaged backgrounds the chance to climb the skills ladder of opportunity, through the skills guarantee and easier access to finance. It is good that new funding will be made available in areas where colleges work with employers to transform their skills offering.
"'Build back better' clearly means building back a skills nation. I am really excited by these plans."
Policy Exchange blog – Alun Francis and Andy Westwood preview the forthcoming FE White Paper.
There are some relevant blogs on HEPI:
an interesting blog on HEPI here by Chris Husbands: Universities must be critical delivery agents of the Government's levelling up fund.
Unintended Consequences: How Level 3 reform could damage progression to higher education – looked at through the perspective of nursing
a report on the graduate contribution scheme.
The Research Excellence Framework team have announced some flexibility to support universities with their REF submissions now the country is back within lockdown. Prior to the announcement on an LSE's Impact of Social Sciences blog there is a call for REF2021 to be postponed until the end of the year.
Research Professional: Covid-19 has revealed flaws in the management of postgraduate research students.
Science Minister Amanda Solloway announced a UK-Japan robotics deal for fusion energy and nuclear decommissioning research
Research Professional analyse UKRI's Ottoline Leyser's statements to pick out future priorities for UKRI action.
Academic spinouts: Wonkhe review: The Royal Academy of Engineering's Enterprise Hub has published a report on academic spinouts. Just four universities – Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial and UCL – account for a third of UK spinout companies, with all such companies raising £1.30 billion in investment in 2018. While the impact of the pandemic is not yet fully known, indications point to increased investment in spinouts dealing with medical technology and pharmaceuticals. The Scotsman has the story.
Parliamentary Question: The potential merits of extending funding for all PhD students who have faced disruption as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.
Changes to HE Teaching Grant
So alongside all of this it is not surprising that we see some "rebalancing" in funding away from HE. And given that "low value" courses have been a focus for some time, it is not surprising to see how this has gone.
Proposed reform to teaching grant will allocate funding to deliver value for money for students and the taxpayer. Strategic priorities. Engineering and medicine. Will "slash" taxpayer funding for subjects such as media studies.
Will provide additional support for specialist arts institutions.
Will consult on introduction of minimum entry requirements and addressing the high cost of foundation years. We cover this in more detail with the rest of the Augar content below, the minimum entry requirements bit is a cost saving measure, of course.
Full response on Augar and post-18 review with next spending review (well maybe).
There's more (a lot more) in the response to Augar, which we cover below, but let's get down to brass tacks and immediate changes to 2021/22 funding first.
Gavin Williamson has written to the OfS to set out new guidance for the allocation of the £1.48 billion HE teaching grant for the 2021/22 financial year.
Strategic reprioritisation of high-cost funding towards the provision of high-cost, high-value subjects that support the NHS and wider healthcare policy, high-cost STEM subjects and/or specific labour market needs, reducing funding initially by 50% for high-cost subjects that do not support these priorities (with further decreases in subsequent years).
Remove weightings for London providers from across the T-Grant, including the students attending courses in London supplement, and weightings within the student premiums. (This saves the Government £64 million.)
Allocate £5m to providers in order to provide additional support for student hardship – This is to mitigate the rise in student hardship due to pandemic impacts on the labour market which particularly affect, for example, students relying on work to fund their studies, students whose parents have lost income and students who are parents and whose partner's income has been affected. The OfS should establish exactly how this is distributed but the funding should be clearly targeted towards disadvantaged students. The £5m will be a drop in the ocean across the national provider base but provide another support statistic for the Government to trot out when asked how they are addressing the issue.
Allocate £15m to help address the challenges to student mental health posed by the transition to university, given the increasing demand for mental health services. OfS to establish how to target those students in greatest need of such services, but likely through a Challenge Competition.
Protect the £256m allocation for the student premiums to support disadvantaged students and those that need additional help [yes, that £256m]
Reduce the allocation for Uni Connect to £40m (losing £20m). With the lost £20m redirected towards mental health and student hardship (as per the bullet points above) – so it's not really new money, more robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Back to Uni Connect – the letter says: Funding for Uni Connect was originally agreed until July 2021, and so this is an appropriate moment to consider the scope and objectives of the programme. We welcome the current [OFS] consultation on the future of the Uni Connect programme… we believe that future investment is best directed to support the core infrastructure of partnerships, and funding targeted activities to fulfil specific policy objectives.
Increase funding for specialist providers, particularly those who are world leading and specialise in the performing and creative arts, by approximately £10m to £53m. This will help to support and/or expand the provision at those providers best equipped to secure positive outcomes for graduates, boosting outcomes for the sector. Note the wording there – positive outcomes, boosting outcomes…so specialist providers without the right metrics might be disappointed! Again the OfS is to decide who is eligible.
Deliver capital funding to providers through a strategically targeted bidding process and target funds at specific projects and activities aligned with the high-quality, skills-based education agenda – not the old formula model (because: The extent to which we can assure ourselves that funding is adding value and investment is focussed on key government priorities is, therefore, limited.) Jisc and HESA's Data Futures Programme can still be supported too.
If you are willing to delve far enough you'll spot that Annex C allocates £28 million for Turing outward mobility in 2021/22 from the teaching grant.
The letter also instructs OfS to consult with the HE sector given the impact on the HE sector anticipated from the proposed changes. With all the other special allocations to iron out and their regular workload the OfS will be busy!
Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of the Office for Students, said about the Department for Education's statutory guidance for the OfS's approach to funding:
'Distributing funding is an important part of our regulatory work. Our annual grant funding for universities and colleges plays a critical role in ensuring the availability to students of high quality, cost-effective higher education across the country. We intend to consult on the government's proposed changes to how we distribute this funding, and have written today to universities outlining our proposals for consultations and a revised schedule for distributing next year's grant allocations.'
Wonkhe: Gavin Williamson has set out his strategic priorities again to OfS including changes to the teaching grant that will hit London universities the hardest.
HEPI also has a blog piece on the case for the Office for Students to be a strong regulator, working closely with universities and sector bodies.
Post-18 Review of Post-18 Education and Funding and interim response to the Augar report
The Augar report from 2019 has been gathering dust for a long time following the (2018) Post-18 Review of Education and Funding (one of Jo Johnson's legacies). The Augar Review made 53 recommendations for the reform of the FE & HE sectors including a more coherent unified post-18 system. You might want to look back at what Augar actually said (way back in May 2019).
The Government's response to Augar has been long promised and many times shifted further down the road due to elections, Brexit, the pandemic, and the further postponement of the comprehensive spending review.
While the sector may approach the Government's response to Augar with both anticipation and trepidation – alongside a healthy dose of just tell us! – it seems we'll still have to wait for the real decisions. The DfE's interim conclusion of Augar has been released, the main points are below. Much is inextricably tied in with the Skills white paper and FE decisions. The Government also plan to consult on further reforms to the system in spring 2021, before setting out their full response. The full conclusion of the review is promised to sit alongside the next Comprehensive Spending Review. Augar: the sequel, we can't wait!
The TEF will continue to play an important role in driving improvement in HE provision. The OfS will consult on a more, streamlined, improved, low-burden TEF exercise, and in an aim to reduce bureaucracy, the Government will not be introducing subject-level TEF. There is a lot more on the TEF below.
The Government are considering further reforms for tackling 'low quality provision' and will set out a response in due course.
The report highlighted the significant taxpayer subsidy in the HE student finance system. The Government intend to freeze the maximum tuition fee cap to deliver better value for students and to keep the cost of higher education under control, initially for one year, with consideration of further changes before the next Comprehensive Spending Review. It appear the reduction in the fee cap to £7,500 may still be on the table.
Wonkhe have a blog: editor in chief Mark Leach argues that the government's chronic failure to resolve the Augar recommendations on reducing home undergraduate fees is storing up serious problems for later this year – Holding the threat of reducing fees over the sector will not help universities or students.
Research Professional (writing before the response was officially released): What will be presented as an interim response to Philip Augar's review of post-18 education and funding will be little more than a holding position, with all the big financial decisions put on hold until the comprehensive spending review…It is also, no doubt, a way of putting pressure on universities so that the government gets its way on other policy priorities, such as low-value courses. Time will tell whether these interim findings will be a sword of Damocles held over universities or part of a process by which the Augar review is finally put out to pasture.
Autumn 2021 is the earliest the next CSR is likely to take place.
Some extracts from the response – but at 13 pages it is worth reading in full:
The Government's focus on the response to the coronavirus pandemic means that now is not the right time to conclude the review in full. However, we remain committed to introducing further reforms that will ensure a just and financially sustainable student finance system, drive up the quality of higher education provision and promote accessibility for students. This will include consideration of elements mentioned in the Augar Report, including student finance terms and conditions, minimum entry requirements to higher education institutions, the treatment of foundation years and other matters. [note the minimum entry requirement piece. You will recall the outrage about this proposal which was going to be in Augar – the discussion at the time about the impact of a 3Ds minimum level. Augar actually stopped short of recommending it but threatened it as a response to the sector not sorting out issues relating to "low value courses". See more detailed section below.]
We plan to consult on further reforms to the higher education system in spring 2021, before setting out a full response to the report and final conclusion to the Review of Post-18 Education and Funding alongside the next Comprehensive Spending Review. [and how many times have they said that – the last two spending reviews at which we were promised this were cancelled]
As a further part of our Lifetime Skills Guarantee, and informed by the recommendation of the Augar panel, we will move to a system where everyone has a Lifelong Loan Entitlement, giving them access to the equivalent of four years of post-18 education. This flexible entitlement will bring technical and academic education closer together and will help people to train, retrain and upskill throughout their lifetime. The Lifelong Loan Entitlement will provide fairness of opportunity by making the same funding system available regardless of the route you choose and when you choose to study. We will consult on the scope and detail of the entitlement in early 2021, including seeking views on objectives and coverage.
This is potentially huge: We will move towards modularisation of higher education in order to provide a truly flexible system that provides more opportunity for upskilling throughout people's careers, as recommended by the Augar Report. We will consult widely about the changes that are needed to enable universities and colleges to provide a modular offer.[doesn't say when they will consult on this]
Our vision is that the substantial majority of post-16 technical and Higher Technical Education will be aligned to employer-led standards by the end of this decade
We will set out how the higher education teaching grant will be used next year to ensure that more of taxpayers' money is spent on supporting provision which aligns with the priorities of the nation, such as healthcare, STEM and specific labour market needs. This gives reassurance to potential students that incentives are aligned to encourage courses with good job outcomes and reinforces the Government's commitment to safeguarding the UK's high-quality research base.
As recommended by the Augar Report, we will create a system that stimulates demand for technical education, improving the nation's skills and encouraging growth…..
…We need a better balance between academic and technical education – we are currently too skewed towards degrees above all else
.. We want every student with the aptitude and desire to go to university to be able to do so and we want technical, employer-centric training to be a viable option for many more people.
We will ask the OfS to consult on a more streamlined, improved, low-burden TEF exercise that will ensure that the drive to improve the quality of provision applies across all providers, not just those at the lower end. In line with the ambition to reduce bureaucracy, we will not be introducing a subject-level TEF. [that is a fascinating nuance – see the TEF section below]
We are considering what further reforms may be needed to tackle low-quality provision and will set out a full response on this issue in due course. [So what is that, then? More than what the OfS are already doing with their quality and standards work, presumably. Augar also looked at, in the same way as it looked at minimum grade requirements, (i.e. "we aren't recommending but you could look at"), targeted number caps on courses offering low value for money. Is that what the government response is hinting at?. We look at this in more detail below as well].
The Augar Report highlighted the significant, and growing, taxpayer subsidy in the higher education student finance system. It is important that the student finance funding systems remain sustainable and that those who benefit from their higher education should make a fair contribution. We intend to freeze the maximum tuition fee cap to deliver better value for students and to keep the cost of higher education under control. This will initially be for one year and further changes to the student finance system will be considered ahead of the next Comprehensive Spending Review. [There you are, postponed again to another spending review. Which is surely unlikely to happen this year, for the same reasons as it hasn't happened the last two years.]
HEPI has a blog "The Government's emerging vision for universities: labour-market need at the heart of the system."
The Government might be determined to put short-term labour-market need at the heart of our higher education system – determining the subjects that people are encouraged to or able to study… If enacted, these proposals will lead to (i) a weaker student voice, (ii) an un-benchmarked metric that equates professional-level employment fifteen months after graduation with success, and (iii) connecting university courses' conditions of registration to a pass/fail rule about successful outcomes that takes no account of the social backgrounds of different students. This would be a very significant change in how universities are held to account and, by implication, a philosophical shift on what the fundamental purpose of university is considered to be. Short-term labour-market need, not student choice, will be at the heart of the system. The Government is perfectly entitled to do all this but it will have ripple effects. The current funding model puts primary responsibility on the individual graduate to pay for their education. Young people might wonder whether they should pay in a system that steers their choices in a direction someone else has judged appropriate.
So what's coming next on Augar?
So, the response to Augar says there will be a consultation on minimum entry requirements and one on "further reforms" – and more work on low value courses. We remind you about the previous debates about minimum entry requirements, and what Augar said about them, as well as what it said about further action on capping student numbers for low value courses.
Minimum entry requirements: This suggestion was made in Augar the context of this:
Our preference is for the HE sector, through the OfS, to resolve the problem of students being inappropriately recruited onto low value courses.
We believe that the sector should have three years – until the start of academic year 2022/23 – to put its house in order
If not, Augar said, then the government should do two things – impose minimum entry requirements and cap numbers on low value courses.
To remind you about the arguments:
The story about 3Ds first broke in December 2018 in THE. We covered it in our policy update on 21st December 2018 and Wonkhe also covered it.
from March 2019: two blogs on HEPI, one by Iain Mansfield (architect of the TEF), and a response by Greg Walker of MillionPlus.
David Willetts wrote for the Times Higher in April 2019 and wasn't keen either.
Augar was published in May 2019 and actually said this on minimum entry requirements (see pages 99-101)
We have considered the introduction at some future date of a contextualised minimum entry threshold for access to Level 6 student finance for students under the age of 25, to be used if the measures outlined above did not deliver the scale and pace of change needed. Students under 25 with tariff points below a certain level would be ineligible for student loans for tuition at Level 6. To repeat, this policy would need to be implemented such that disadvantaged students were not unfairly penalised.
The choice of threshold would be critical. As Figure 3.14 shows, there is no clear drop-off point in graduate earnings by attainment. To be effective, a threshold would need to be both high enough to address the issues of drop-out and lower wage returns set out earlier; and low enough to ensure that the impact could be managed across the sector and would avoid disproportionate impact on disadvantaged groups.
Were a minimum entry requirement introduced, it should apply only to students under the age of 25, after which work experience, rather than Level 3 qualifications alone, would be the appropriate entry criterion. The policy should apply only to Level 6 courses: any young person with Level 3 attainment below the threshold would still be eligible for student finance to study at Levels 4/5, and could then use their qualification at those higher levels to progress on to, and therefore receive finance for, Level 6 in the future. Introducing high-quality alternatives to degree study will be crucial to addressing the problems of low-value degrees set out above. Students recognise the value of higher-level study but they must have these alternatives available to them or they will continue to enrol for poor-value degrees. We are aware that even with contextualisation the impact on some HEIs would be significant. Some of them might wish to focus on the new higher technical provision discussed in the previous chapter; if they chose to do so, this would be a positive outcome [ouch]
We consider a minimum entry threshold contextualised for socio-economic background to be feasible and that it could address the problems of low returns for graduates in a socially progressive way.
However, such a threshold would be a significant intervention into what has been designed as a competitive autonomous market. It could be seen as a reversal of the principle of allowing all who are able to benefit from HE to attend, a principle that has underpinned HE policy in recent years and was first pronounced in the 1963 Robbins Report.
It might be objected that the contextualisation process breaks the clear link between attainment and entry established by a minimum entry threshold. For example, it could result in a position where two students at the same school with the same grades holding the same offer from the same university would have different outcomes; one would be moderated over the threshold and attend university while the other would not. In so doing, it could be presented as an example of social engineering – and breach of concepts of fairness – that do not fit comfortably within a meritocratic education system.
There was a lot of debate about this idea before Augar was published – because it was leaked as a possible recommendation. Chris Skidmore, who was Universities Minister at the time, did not like the idea. In the end it was watered down as a threat if the sector did not sort out "low value courses" by 2022/23. The current government look to be a bit more impatient and have assumed that these issues will not be sorted out by then. And it may not be just this that they are considering – we look at the other Augar threat on targeted number caps below.
Targeted number caps on courses offering poor value for money
This was in the same context as the minimum entry requirements proposal:
..and if not then: Augar said this on capping numbers (see pages 101-102)
If recruitment practice has not improved by 2022/23, discussed further below, an alternative or complementary option for the government and OfS is the imposition of a cap on the numbers admitted to courses that persistently manifest poor value for money for students and the public. The existing regulations give OfS the power to implement such caps where that is justified in accordance with their regulatory aims, at institutional or subject level.
The government has made it clear that it will not re-impose a cap on student numbers at national level. It would be out of scope for us to propose this and we would not wish to do so, even if it were within our terms of reference. However, we are mindful that the government does exceptionally place a cap on numbers, notably on university places for Medicine, because of the very high cost of a medical degree and of the professional training that follows it, and have considered whether this practice could be extended.[this looks interesting now in the light of the attempt to apply student number caps in the pandemic which was abandoned so quickly when the extent of the 2020 A-level results mess-ups became apparent].
We therefore invite the government to consider the case for encouraging the OfS to stipulate in exceptional circumstances a limit to the numbers an HEI could enrol on a specific course, or group of courses.
Where there is persistent evidence of poor value for students in terms of employment and earnings and for the public in terms of loan repayments, the OfS would have the regulatory authority to place a limit, for a fixed period, on the numbers eligible for financial support who could be admitted to the course. The institution in question would remain free to recruit to all other courses without restriction. Such a cap system would clearly target the institutions that are offering poor value, rather than altering the entry criteria for individual students.
International and mobility
Wonkhe have new content: Ahead of the British Council's international education virtual festival this week, Director Education Maddalaine Ansell takes stock of the state of international recruitment.
Parliamentary Question: Ensuring the UK remains an attractive destination for education for international students
Wonkhe have a blog on what is needed for Turing to be a success. Here are some of the recommendations:
Monitor the graduate outcomes of Turing on a longitudinal basis so we can measure its benefit not just as a snapshot six or twelve months from graduation but over an individual's lifetime
Be global in principle but trade oriented in focus because the rise of the Asian Century means giving our students as much opportunity to travel to Asia and learn Asian languages/culture as engaging with Europe and North America.
Ensure more industry and employer engagement which will require universities to understand their international graduate destinations and form alliances and partnerships with international companies that can host students on work placements overseas. With robust country specific data on international graduate outcomes institutions can focus employer engagement where it will have the most impact.
Attribute value to soft power because global goodwill is essential for the UK's future economic success particularly during and following the global pandemic. Mapping the careers of those that take part in Turing will put the UK in the driving seat when it comes to having alumni with a wide network of contacts with the authority to invest and trade.
Demonstrate excellence through international employability by showing the value to an individual's future career if they take part in Turing. Evidencing the outcomes from the scheme must be part of the hearts and minds approach to ensuring that UK students are motivated to take part in outward mobility.
Meanwhile Wonkhe report: Welsh education minister Kirsty Williams is reported to be in discussions with her counterparts in Scotland and Northern Ireland about the possibility that the three nations could rejoin the Erasmus+ scheme. Nation Cymru has the story.
HEPI have a blog: Five questions to ask about the Turing scheme
Whether UK students will be liable for fees in their host countries under the Turing programme. Answer – students taking part will receive grants to help them with the costs of their international experience…On tuition fees, we expect these to be waived for Turing scheme participants consistent with the arrangements for Erasmus+.
Will Turing involve a competitive bidding element? Answer: We will be making further information available very shortly to enable providers across the UK to prepare to bid for funding when applications open in the coming weeks for placements to take place from September 2021. This will include information on how applications will be assessed, and funding allocated and we plan to have a call for bids much like Erasmus+. Successful applications will receive funding for administering the scheme and students taking part will receive grants to help them with the costs of their international experience.
This scheme will be demand-led and will be open to bids from providers across the UK. As such, there is no projection as to the number of students from each nation or specific limits for any specific region.
Whether the UK remains a partner country of the Erasmus Mundus+ masters degree scheme.
Turing admin costs; and another angle – proportion of £100m for admin costs
Plans to ensure that people from EU member states due to participate in the Erasmus+ scheme in the UK have access to the Turing scheme.
Turing – In terms of direct income to higher education providers, we expect tuition fees to be waived for Turing scheme participants consistent with the arrangements for Erasmus+.
The Independent (Pearce) Review of the Teaching and Student Outcomes Framework (i.e. the TEF Review) has been published. This was completed and submitted to government (in August 2019) but hibernated in the Ministerial in tray (election etc…) whilst Governmental focus and priorities shifted.
the subject-level Teaching Excellence Framework looks to be heading for the highest shelf in the cupboard of abandoned higher education policy initiatives. It seems as if the Office for Students is to be sent back to the drawing board to come up with something less burdensome and more in keeping with government priorities on low-value courses.
… As ever, higher education should be careful what it wishes for, as the replacement for the subject-level TEF might be even less rigorous and more intrusive. The absence of benchmarking in the Office for Students' consultation on quality has spooked some, who fear the imposition of a less sophisticated assessment process for universities.
Here are all the links:
Pearce review
Government response to the Pearce review
Consultation outcome on the Independent review of the TEF
Survey of HE applicants
Survey of HE careers advisers
OfS finally publish the findings from the 2018-19 subject level TEF pilot
ONS evaluation of the statistical elements of the TEF (for the people really keen on data).
Overall: Is it worth it?: Given the value of HE to the UK, we believe it is firmly in the public and student interest for TEF to have, as its primary purpose, the identification of excellence across all HE and to encourage enhancement of that provision.
We'll set out the Pearce recommendations and the government responses together so you can compare.
Statistical analysis:
Pearce: Improvements are needed in the management and communication of:
statistical uncertainty at all levels of the process, including multiple comparisons
small numbers ( small providers and/or small datasets ) and non-reportable metrics
relative versus absolute comparisons
These have a significant impact on flagging and generating the initial hypothesis.
Appendix B sets out the essential ONS recommendations that address these concerns.
Government: …we would like the OfS metrics group to take into account and address the concerns raised by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) when reviewing the robustness of its metrics and data.
Subject level exercise:
Pearce: The process and statistical risks become exacerbated at subject level where the impact of problems due to small numbers becomes greater. This, in addition to the problems with subject categorisation and risks of inconsistencies at scale, mean that ratings at subject level risk undermining the successful development of TEF as a whole.
There is evidence however, that a subject-level exercise has value for driving internal enhancement. For this reason, we recommend that while TEF should not progress to ratings at subject level at this stage, a subject-level exercise should be incorporated into the provider-level assessment and inform provider-level ratings.
Work is needed to develop the most effective way to do this. We propose that all providers receive a full set of subject-level metrics and that failure to sufficiently address variability in subject performance should act as a limiting factor on ratings of the aspects of assessment and the overall provider rating.
Government: …we do not want to move to subject-level TEF ratings, because we do not consider at this stage it can be achieved without significant burden
Pearce:
Teaching and Learning Environment: Institutionally determined evidence addressing 'how we create an excellent environment for teaching and learning and how we know we are doing this well'. Subject variability in teaching and learning environments should be addressed.
Student Satisfaction: Evidence to address 'what our students think of our educational provision'. National comparisons should use National Student Survey (NSS) metrics. In the submission, institutions should address their performance in the NSS metrics and may also add their own data. Subject variability in satisfaction should be addressed.
Educational Gains: Institutionally determined evidence addressing 'what our students gain from our educational experience and how we evidence that'. Educational gains might include knowledge, skills, experience, work readiness, personal development and resilience. This will be conceptualised differently in different institutions. Since there is no single nationally comparable metric of 'learning gain', each provider would be expected to demonstrate how, within their own particular mission, they articulate and measure ( quantify if possible ) the educational gains that they aim to provide for their students. Subject variability in those gains should also be addressed.
Graduate Outcomes: Evidence to address 'what our students do as graduates and how we have supported these outcomes'. In addition to the existing TEF employment metrics, measures beyond employment should be used and regional differences in labour markets should be controlled for. Continuation and differential degree attainment should also be part of this aspect. Institutions would use their submission to respond to the metrics and add their own data. Subject variability in graduate outcomes should also be addressed.
….the Government does not consider 'Student Satisfaction' to be an appropriate measure of excellence, as satisfaction can, potentially, be too easily obtained via a reduction in quality or academic rigour – we believe 'Student Academic Experience' to be a more appropriate aspect
…we would like the OfS to ensure that the TEF ratings are based on an assessment of high quality, nationally gathered metrics and data (e.g., Graduate Outcomes, Longitudinal Education Outcomes and non-continuation data) and contextual qualitative information.
It should use more than just earnings and should take account of regional variations
OfS will also need to consider if and how educational gain can be reliably measured
The outcomes of the NSS Review will be important in considering the role the survey plays in the TEF assessment. We recognise that there is a place for students' feedback on the quality of their teaching and learning experience and we will work with the OfS to develop how this aspect of quality could be included
Plus, new: For this reason, the Government considers it essential that student outcomes should act as Limiting Factors, such that a provider should not achieve a high TEF rating if it has poor student outcomes. We will work with the OfS to determine how the Limiting Factors should work. [so they will be a baseline in the quality framework and a limiting factor in the TEF -they are doing a lot of work here]
Pearce: …a standard structure should be developed which incorporates a subject level exercise. The student body should also be given the opportunity to provide direct input in an independent structured submission.
Government: We agree with the Independent Review's recommendation that provider-level ratings should be derived from robust data and structured submissions from providers and students.
Pearce: Greater granularity in the rating system would provide more information about excellence and reflect the complexity of educational provision. We therefore recommend providers are awarded both an institutional rating, and a rating for each of the four proposed aspects.
We also recommend that the names of the ratings should reflect the level of excellence identified. We propose the following names:
Meets UK Quality Requirements
Government: We agree with the Independent Review that there should, in future, be four TEF ratings overall, with the top three being signifiers of excellence to varying degrees.
The new bottom category will capture those providers failing to show sufficient evidence of excellence, and it will be made clear that these providers will need to improve the quality of their provision. We will work with the OfS to confirm the names for the four ratings in due course. [this is really interesting – the OFS quality consultation has a whole thing on using the bottom TEF rating as a reason to investigate a provider, which suddenly makes sense].
The name of the scheme
Pearce: We heard much frustration that the name 'Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework' does not adequately reflect what the TEF really measures. Teaching is only assessed via proxies and the student learning experience is dependent on more than just teaching. We recommend that the name should reflect more accurately what a revised TEF will measure and assess. Of the options we have considered, we propose the Educational Excellence Framework (EdEF).
Goverment: The Government would like the scheme to continue to be known as 'the Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework (TEF) This name has a well-established brand value, and is increasingly understood, in the UK and internationally, to mean a rating on teaching, learning and student outcomes.
And in terms of the practical question about what happens next, the government have said:
… we will end the current approach of TEF running each year and expect the TEF to be a periodic exercise, taking place every 4 or 5 years.
Its costs should also be kept proportionate and for each exercise the costs, for both providers or the OfS, should, at an absolute maximum, not exceed the costs per provider of the TEF exercise that has taken place to date
And the OfS have told us (Letter to universities):
We are developing proposals for the TEF to be an integral part of the overall quality system in England. The role of the TEF is to continue to incentivise excellence above our baseline requirements. In developing our proposals for the TEF, we will take into account the Independent Review recommendations and the government's response to these, and the evidence from the subject-level pilots. We expect to consult on these proposals in the spring, aligned to more detailed proposals on our approach to the regulation of quality and standards through the conditions of registration.
We do not expect a new TEF framework to be in place before the current TEF awards expire in summer 2021. We are considering the options for the interim period until a new TEF framework is in place and expect to consult about this soon.
Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of the Office for Students, said:
'Students invest a significant amount of time and money in higher education and should expect a high-quality academic experience. The Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework (TEF) plays an important role in driving up the quality of provision in universities and colleges – we welcome the publication of Dame Shirley Pearce's review and the recommendations she has identified for developing the scheme further.
'We are committed to raising the bar on quality and standards across the English higher education system. As we refine our overall approach to regulation, the TEF will continue to incentivise improvement in areas that students care deeply about: the quality of teaching and learning, and how well their courses set them up for success after their studies.
'We will develop proposals on how best to take forward the independent review recommendations and the government response to these, as well as evidence from our own subject-level pilots. We expect to consult on proposals for the future TEF in the spring, aligned to more detailed proposals on how we regulate quality and standards through conditions of registration.'
On Wonkhe: TEF – Big changes lie ahead and David Kernohan is here to walk you through them.
The DfE launched a consultation on their proposed changes for post-qualification admissions (PQA) in HE as part of Thursday's deluge. The consultation explores whether student's receiving and accepting university offers after they have achieved their A level grades would ensure a fairer higher education admissions system.
Brief overview of rationale from the documentation:
There is evidence that disadvantaged students 'undermatch' in relation to the grades they actually achieve
A PQA system might encourage disadvantaged students to be more aspiration in their choices and identify courses they are better matched to
Use of conditional unconditional offers and other undesirable admissions practices such as material inducements to persuade students to enter certain courses has increased in recent years, dramatically in the case of conditional unconditional offers
The current system is complex and difficult to navigate
Post-Qualification Admissions (PQA) has been proposed as a reform that could help alleviate some of these issues by a wide variety of groups and commentators across the political spectrum – including The Sutton Trust, The Universities and Colleges Union (UCU), The UCL Institute of Education and Policy Exchange
UCAS and Universities UK have concluded that now is the time for admissions reform to be considered, following months of engagement with students, schools, colleges and universities. This consultation will build on these findings, working across education sectors, to agree how reform could be delivered.
The consultation document states: We believe that it is time to explore whether a PQA system could address some of the challenges posed by the current HE admissions system: namely, that it is complex, lacks transparency, works against the interests of some students, and encourages undesirable admissions practices. Key delivery partners, as well as those across the education sector, have signalled that this is the right time to review the system. The experience of having completed full Level 3 qualifications, and knowledge of their actual results could put students in a better position to decide on their best options for further study. PQA could allow them to consider the full range of available qualifications, including higher technical qualifications as well as degree level study. Hence, it may lead to more students making better informed decisions, improve continuation rates in higher education and potentially lead to better career outcomes for students.
Prior to publication Research Professional said:
while a consensus seems to be gathering that post-qualification admissions are the right thing to do, a rearguard action is being mounted by vice-chancellors of low-tariff and medium-tariff universities who think that their institutions will be disadvantaged by the change.
The feeling is that there are some universities that need to spend more time building a relationship with applicants, and post-qualification admissions will see school leavers migrate towards established brand names. This, of course, may be what the government is hoping for.
Wonkhe have: A consultation from DfE on post-qualification admissions landed and Jim Dickinson has everything you need to know.
Exams in 2021:
Nick Gibb, the Minister of State for School Standards, issued a written ministerial statement on exams. There was no new content or updates, all remains as we outlined in last week's policy update, the consultation closes next week.
Meanwhile Sammy Wright, a Social Mobility Commissioner, has stated that:
fair A level results are impossible and calls for a fully funded foundation year at university to avoid "catastrophic unfairness" among this year's cohort.
Wright said disadvantaged students would not face "a level playing field" because they had missed out on more digital learning than their peers, and he warned that asking teachers to be objective in their grading could result in "a worse disaster than last year". He also stated that no matter how grades are awarded, many students will be embarking on courses in September 2021 at a lower level than they may have done in a normal year
Wright was in favour of the Government's proposal for clearing to take place after students have had time to appeal their grades. Wright states: At all costs we must avoid the chaos of clearing in 2020—and as such, we again call on UCAS and universities to ensure that clearing does not happen until all appeals have been responded to.
HEPI have a blog: How to be 'innovative' in school exam assessment – fewer grades
The Sutton Trust has published a report on how teachers and parents are responding to the second period of school closures.
During 2018 the debate over Free Speech in HE was a frequent topic in the policy update. While the HE sector agrees free speech is essential many were baffled by the Government's dogged pursuit of the topic and the lack of evidence of its prevalence. This week we were transported back to 2018 – but on steroids – gone are the Ministerial speeches and push for the HE sector to sign up to 'agreements', now some Parliamentarians want a law and the ability to fine universities if they fail to uphold free speech. Conspiracy theorists might hypothesise that it all feels like another step towards a different agenda of tighter Governmental control over these (pesky) semi-autonomous university organisations. But back to this week…
David Davis (Conservative MP, currently an under-secretary of state for Wales and assistant Government Whip) presented a Ten Minute Rule motion on Freedom of Speech (Universities). In essence the Bill aims to: place a duty on universities to promote freedom of speech and to make provision for fining universities that do not comply with that duty. Davis' introductory speech included:
Today, there is a corrosive trend in our universities that aims to prevent anybody from airing ideas that groups disagree with or would be offended by. Let us be clear: it is not about protecting delicate sensibilities from offence; it is about censorship. We can protect our own sensibilities by not going to the speech. After all, nobody is compelled to listen. But when people explicitly or indirectly no-platform Amber Rudd, Germaine Greer, Peter Tatchell, Peter Hitchens and others, they are not protecting themselves; they are denying others the right to hear those people and even, perhaps, challenge what they say.
…views expressed in a recent survey commissioned by Britain's biggest university academic union showed that Britain has the second-lowest level of academic freedom in all Europe. Just last month, a report by Civitas found that more than a third of our universities impose severe restrictions on freedom of speech—including, I am ashamed to say, Oxford, Cambridge and St Andrews. The fact is that a number of our international allies today protect freedom of speech much better than we do.
Although in the UK we theoretically have laws protecting freedom of speech, in practice they are buried in education Acts, resulting in the protections not being widely known and universities not always upholding their duties.
… speech that is illegal—incitement to violence, for example—would of course be forbidden, but speech that is merely unpopular with any sector of the university would not be proscribed. Controversial views and the challenging of established positions would not be proscribed.
Ten Minute Rule motions are an opportunity for backbencher MPs to float an idea for a new Bill to the House, a 'vote' at the end of the (roughly) 10 minutes decides whether the Bill passes to the next stage. Similar to Private Members Bills the Ten Minute Rule motions rarely pass into legislation. However, some are introduced as a plant for the Government (perhaps to judge sentiment and support within the house without Cabinet embarrassment). This Bill was supported by 11 other Conservative MPs and it passed the initial 'vote' meaning it can progress to the second reading stage.
In theory Davis' Bill should now stall – because time for all private bills has been paused due to Covid – but Davis knew this before he presented the Bill. Furthermore, if the Government wishes to back the Bill they can allocate it some of the time set aside for the Government's agenda to progress it through the legislative stages. It will be an interesting one to watch.
Wonkhe take issue with the content of Davis' speech: David Davis' speech in support of his Ten Minute Rule motion to introduce a Freedom of Speech (Universities) Bill was passed unopposed in the House of Commons. His speech took in the 1689 Bill of Rights, the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the "no-platforming" of Germaine Greer, Peter Tatchell, "professional iconoclast" Peter Hitchens, and Amber Rudd – none of which were actually denied a platform.
Free Speech was one of the landmarks within Sam Gyimah's tenure as Universities Minister in which he seems to have made several unsubstantiated claims that he later had to row back from. This BBC article stated the committee found little evidence that such censorship was "pervasive" – but instead found that a relatively small number of incidents were being widely shared. Research Professional dismissed another of Gyimah's claims about overegging a safe space culture – With the Department for Education unable to confirm this latest claim about safe-spaces in universities, there remains little documented evidence of a culture of censorship in UK higher education. And an Oxford Professor states the obvious elephant in the room about lack of evidence in this Guardian article – When it comes to Sam Gyimah and Jo Johnson's warnings that free speech is threatened, I've never seen either of them produce any evidence to support those statements. In education you're supposed to be able to back up what you say, and they just don't. The same article has Amatey Doku speaking within his 2018 role at NUS: There is vigorous debate every single day at universities. If there really were a censorship problem we'd hear about it. What we actually find are isolated instances blown out of proportion. There are a couple of reasons why ministers exaggerate: politically it plays well for their voter base.
iNews provide up to date coverage of the issue highlighting that Free Speech has continued as a hotspot for the Government, they state:
Concerns about freedom of speech on university campuses have grown in recent years, although some commentators have said the problem is exaggerated.
The 2019 Conservative manifestopledged to "strengthen academic freedom and free speech in universities".
Last summer the Government said that any university which gets into financial trouble because of the pandemic would have to "demonstrate their commitment" to freedom of speech in order to be eligible for bailout funds.
Michael Barber (outgoing Chair of the OfS) made a farewell speech on Wednesday evening in which he mentioned free speech. Research Professional pick it apart in their inimitable manner:
Referring to high-profile cases of "no-platforming", Barber said: "I am often told that the vast majority of such possibly controversial speaking engagements do in fact go ahead. I am willing to believe that this is the case, but I would love to see the data. It is hardly a job for a regulator but if I were a university administrator or an influence at Universities UK, I would be collecting the data."
England's higher education regulator-in-chief seems to be unaware that the organisation he has chaired for the past four years gathers precisely these data, asking universities to return figures on the number of speakers approved or rejected as part of the Prevent legislation. In 2017-18…53 speaker requests [were] rejected. Of those 53, how many were to do with extremist views and how many were to do with a failure to complete the onerous paperwork properly? We are willing to bet on the latter for quite a few.
The Prevent statistics do not capture the Amber Rudds and Germaine Greers, but they do capture the reality of free speech in UK universities, rather than the issue imagined by some who mistake inherited privilege for inalienable rights.
Barber said: "My critique of the current free speech debate is not that it is too extensive but that it is too limited. After all, the conceptual rule for such events is surely clear: a university should be a place that actively promotes and protects the widest possible freedom of speech within the law." At which point he should have sat down, or turned off his Zoom, because nobody ever, anywhere, has disagreed with that.
So will the Bill progress or fizzle…? I'm not sure even the Government know right now. Wonkhe's irreverent interpretation (written before the Bill was presented) made me smile: There's little chance of whatever's in it becoming law all on its own – so we'll have to wait and see to work out whether an extension of the culture war that the public looks increasingly bored with will take off this time around.
Education Oral Questions
Gavin Williamson took centre stage for Education Oral Questions and the Topicals on Monday breezing through content asking about:
the end of the Brexit transition period for HE,
Turing – Question: how will the Secretary of State ensure that the Turing scheme, a poor replacement for Erasmus, is as effective in encouraging inward student mobility? Answer: The Turing scheme is not a poor replacement…It is about us looking around the globe as to how we can expand opportunities for students. No comment on inward student mobility was made.
Research investment
Students paying rent for accommodation the Government have mandated they may not use (Answer: hardship funds)
Wonkhe covered the HE questions: Education Questions in the House of Commons saw Gavin Williamson once again reiterate that support for students remains under review – but apart from the £20m put towards hardship funds just before Christmas there has been no action.
Specific questions from Labour's Emma Hardy and the SNP's Stuart McDonald on support for rent where students are unable to use the property if following government guidelines saw no substantive answer.
Remote education (for pupils). Williamson states problems should be addressed with the school first before resorting to Ofsted complaints. Live lessons for SEN pupils was also covered as was laptops for disadvantaged pupils and internet access and free school meals.
Technical and vocational exams
During topicals:
Q – Bim Afolami: Many students have suffered as a result of inadequate teaching and pastoral care at their universities, in addition to unfair costs for accommodation that they are not even allowed to stay in. What action will my right hon. Friend take to ensure that the Government are a voice for students, that they stand up for students and that they allow them to be compensated in some way by their universities when those universities fail them and let them down?
A – Gavin Williamson: There can be no excuses when universities are not offering the type of remote teaching and educational support that is expected. That is why it is so critical that, where that remote teaching and support is not happening, students' rights are upheld. We saw at the tail end of last year that students' rights were upheld and universities had to redress that. That is the right approach. We recognise how important it is to support students, which is why we will continue to look at how best we can support them through programmes such as the hardship fund.
This week's Education Committee session focussed solely on the impact of COVID-19 on education and children's services. There was no HE content. Do get in touch if you would like to receive Dods' summary of the Committee session.
Case for Commons Reform
UCL's Department of Political Science have an interesting publication: Taking back control – Why the House of Commons should govern its own time. It highlights that much of the time within the Commons is directed by the Government ministerial agenda and that several of the reforms recommended 10 years ago have not been implemented – some of its central concerns about the management of time in the House of Commons went unheeded… whereby MPs [despite coming from the majority party] have inadequate say over the running of their own institution. The report makes recommendations for change such as allocating more regular opposition and backbench business days, that the weekly agenda be put to members in an amendable form for decision (as happens in other parliaments) which would make ministers more responsive to the Commons majority (particularly their own backbench MPs). Also: that there should be a wide-ranging formal review of the extent of government control of House of Commons business.
In conclusion: As the Wright committee pointed out more than a decade ago, the extent of government control of the House of Commons is both unusual in international terms, and problematic for the functioning of Westminster. This was already true under periods of single party majority government, but it became even more obvious under minority government, as applied between May 2017 and November 2019. At present, House of Commons rules too often explicitly privilege the government rather than privileging the parliamentary majority. But these two will not always be the same thing. The core principle guiding House of Commons functioning should be majority decision-making, not government control.
Strategic Education Recovery Plan
Previous universities minister, Chris Skidmore, writes Thinking, fast and slow. Why we need a long-term Education Recovery Plan for Conservative Home. The article begins with humble words acknowledging the reality of home schooling whilst working. He recognises the disruption to all children's learning and calls for an all through long term education plan from nursery to university. He states: We cannot afford to simply react to events, waiting to see what happens with the spread of the virus and its containment, before we decide the next stages of an entire generation's future. The impact of the pandemic will emerge like the widening ripples in a pond when a stone has been thrown: its impact, in particular its educational impact, will be with us for years, a fact which we must come to terms with and have a strategic plan to help counter.
Already the Chair of the Education Select Committee and educational leaders have called for a redesign of the examination system. What is needed foremost, however, is a definitive understanding of the outcomes that we wish to achieve, before moving onto the processes to deliver this.
He highlights with two years' worth of key stage assessments cancelled a system is needed to monitor individual pupil progress, so that pupils at risk of educational failure due to the pandemic can be rescued as quickly as possible, and given the individual support and tuition that they need to get back on track. This should be viewed as the critical mission. Identifying those pupils at risk of educational disadvantage means new forms of assessment, and data collection, will need to be considered. Above all, there must be transparency and a common approach to what is being measured. And this is the crux of his point. While schools will all be tracking and assessing the individual pupils without a national approach where is the policy push and additional funding. Remember the year 7 support funding – for pupils below year 6 SATs standards has been sucked into the coronavirus catch up fund – with different criteria for access.
He also talks about exams and HE admissions – I'm cautious about re-inventing the wheel at a time when stability and certainty is needed. Pupils deserve exam results to show for all their hard work, and existing systems that have held their own as a standard over time should not be thrown out for the sake of change. But we do need to address the issue of admissions to university, and how results and assessment are used to deliver this.
Post Qualification Admissions have been proposed as a way forward, yet with the qualifications themselves under review, we need greater long-term certainty of how we can achieve an equitable admissions system that encourages disadvantaged pupils to reach their potential.
Reforms to post-18 education to ensure lifelong learning and flexible qualification structures have taken on a fresh urgency in light of the pandemic, especially with the likely need for retraining and reskilling of a large number of people seeking new forms of employment.
Ultimately, a long-term education recovery plan must start not from what is convenient for existing systems and vested interests of the organisations that operate in this space. To do this would mean that those with the loudest voices, and greatest lobbying efforts, win out. What is needed instead is an approach that defines the "points of contact" at every stage of a child's educational journey — and defining how these have been adversely affected by the pandemic, and what can be done to resolve this.
Defining and delivering a long-term plan, with the investment needed to achieve this, will be hard work: easier, more tactical approaches, may seem more attractive. Yet to achieve an effective recovery, the longer term, strategic planning is now essential… With all the immediate talk of laptop provision as the instant solution to current learning problems, we must not forget that now is also the time to prepare all pupils for their educational recovery, encompassed in a long-term strategic approach.
HE Staff Statistics
HESA have released HE sector staff statistics and data for the (pre-Covid) period to 1 December 2019.
Much media content has focussed on the lack of improving diversity, particularly at professorial level (see BBC). Some headline points from the HESA analysis.
Staff ethnicity – 18% BMC – an increase of 1 since 216/17; 11% of professors are BME
Staff nationality – 17% EU (excluding British), 14% non-EU
Gender – Men are more likely to work full time (52%) and academics are more likely to be male (53%); Females make up the larger proportions of part time staff (66%) and work in a non-academic role (63%).
Age – 19% of academic staff are aged 56 or over; almost half of all professors are aged 56+ years.
78% of academics' salaries were paid in full by the institution. The other 22% were financed in part by research councils, UK branches of multinational companies, the NHS and/or UK and overseas charities.
44% of academic staff held teaching and research contracts. 32% held teaching only contracts. Teaching only contracts are increasing steadily each year, in 2015/16 teaching only contracts were held by 26% of staff.
Wonkhe have a good analysis delving into more detail (with understandable interpretations) here. Their blog specifically looks at Black underrepresentation too. The blog concludes by looking forward and reminding us that today's issues will all have an impact on future figures. The pandemic has resulted in redundancies without appointing replacements, Brexit and the new immigration system may affect the diversity of nationalities employed, and, Wonkhe: A lot of what happens depends on government decisions as well as those made by providers – in particular institutional managers will be watching the decisions made by the Office for the Independent Adjudicator that could have a wider impact on student fee refunds. Other decisions made about university funding, for example as part of the response to the Augar report, will have an impact on university liquidity too.
Welsh support for students
The Welsh Government announced an additional £40m for universities to support students facing financial hardship. The fund aims to help the students most affected by the pandemic with expenses such as accommodation costs and addressing digital poverty. The £40 million is in addition to the previous £40 the Welsh Government provided to support students and universities. Kirsty Williams, the Welsh Education Minister, said:
This year, due to reasons beyond their control, many thousands of students have not been able to return to campus yet. In some cases, this means some students might still be paying for their accommodation while they are unable to use it. We recognise how difficult this is, which is why we are announcing this additional funding.
Our universities have worked tremendously hard to support their students, ensuring learning has continued, while putting measures in place to protect their students, staff and their local communities. This funding will allow them to build on that good work.
The Welsh Minister's tone differs substantial from her English counterpart Michelle Donelan (who is still under fire on her Twitter feed). This week Research Professional dissect and comment on Donelan's 6 'student' Tweets, and they offer MP and leading HE sector figures censure on her simplistic slogans.
Access & Participation
HEPI have two blogs:
Reaching Beyond the School Gate: Making University Outreach More Meaningful asks if outreach teams are primarily working with students who are going to University anyway, and whether youth work embedded within the socio-cultural community and family context would be a fruitful new approach.
Rethinking fair admissions
Digital Poverty
At the end of last week Jisc, Universities UK, GuildHE and ucisa wrote to Gavin Williamson, Education Secretary, calling on the Government to lift higher education students out of digital poverty to avoid a lost generation of learners. By ignoring university students while helping other disadvantaged learners to study online, the government and telecommunications companies risk creating a 'lost generation' of young people who are missing out on their education. They state:
Half of higher education students are digitally disadvantaged
Many families are at risk of slipping into poverty and cannot afford the data costs required for online study
Digital and data poverty is the main issue that prevents effective delivery of online learning
Demand for hardship funding from universities has doubled
Indicating that around half of HE students are digitally disadvantaged, the letter cites the learning and teaching reimagined research project conducted by Jisc with sector partners, which found that digital and data poverty is the main issue that prevents delivering online learning effectively.
The letter goes on to highlight that, despite the welcome extra government funding to alleviate hardship for HE students, the demands on hardship funding have doubled, putting significant strain on university resources.
In conclusion, the letter, which calls for an urgent meeting with government and telecoms companies, states: Universities have moved mountains to provide learning and teaching online since the first lockdown and are now much better equipped to deliver a quality curriculum online. However, without urgent action to ensure students can get online affordably, the government is risking creating an even deeper and more long-term digital divide in education. We urge you to take action now on behalf of all higher education students experiencing digital poverty, or risk creating a lost generation of young people who are missing out on their education.
The Guardian cover the story here.
Disabled Students Commission: Wonkhe summarise the new report: The Disabled Students Commission has published its annual report, Enhancing the disabled student experience. The report outlines how the commission approached supporting disabled students during the Covid-19 pandemic. Going forward the Commission plans to adopt a student lifecycle model to inform its research and recommendations, with considerations including the intersection of disability with other characteristics such as race and gender, the diversity of disabled student experience, and greater consultation with disabled students.
Parliamentary Questions:
Access to post-16 education for asylum seekers is governed by funding rules in further and higher education.
What proportion of people (a) applying for and (b) securing places at higher education institutions were from (i) working class and (ii) disadvantaged backgrounds for the academic year 2019-20.
The effect of the covid-19 lockdown on the attainment gap (pupils). Answer: The Department has commissioned an independent research agency to analyse catch-up needs and monitor progress over this academic year. This research is based on a large sample of pupils and will identify whether particular groups of pupils have been more affected by time out of school – including the most disadvantaged, those with historically poor outcomes, and those in particular areas.
What assessment the Government has made of the report by the Social Mobility Commission Changing gears: understanding downward social mobility, published in November 2020; and what plans they have to address the Commission's finding that one in five people move into a lower occupational group than their parents.
Wonkhe have two student focussed blogs:
Isabella Enoizi sets out the case of a national student campaign calling for academic mitigation during Covid-19
Fleur Nielsen explains why an idea that looks good on paper – isn't the government's plan to move healthcare students onto paid placements is burdensome and inequitable.
Sharia compliant alternative student finance product (no update yet); but this one on potential barriers to Muslim students has been answered
Additional support for HE students who have caring responsibilities for children and who are engaged in university studies alongside home tutoring. Government response: it's up to the university but we expect them to be supporting student welfare
What support the Government plans to provide for undergraduate students whose university education has been disrupted by the covid-19 outbreak. Answer (as you'd expect): we are working with the sector to make sure that all reasonable efforts are being made to enable all students to continue their studies and provide the support required for them to do so. Our expectation, during these challenging times is that universities should maintain the quality and quantity of tuition and the Office for Students (OfS) will continue to actively monitor universities to ensure that quality of provision is maintained and accessible for all. And yes, Donelan also mentions the £256 OfS Student Premium funding which can go towards student hardship funds and the £20 million of additional hardship funding expected by providers soon
Student Finance – Illness/shielding: Students who suspend their studies for a variety of reasons, including shielding, can apply to Student Finance England for their living costs support to be continued while they are absent from their course. Students who suspend their studies due to illness automatically receive living costs support for the first 60 days of their illness.
Supporting students who have paid rent for accommodation at university but are unable to use it as a result of covid-19 restrictions. Answer: The government plays no direct role in the provision of student accommodation. However, the government encourages all providers of student accommodation to review their accommodation policies to ensure that they have students best interests at heart. We also urge them to communicate their policy clearly and be fair.
Emma Hardy, Shadow universities minister has been asking some emotive questions about students nurses such as whether they'll have to pay extra tuition fees because Covid has prevented them from completing their placement hours and similar on course extensions
Private rented student accommodation – no Government support for release from contracts, use of hardship funds mentioned
While the parliamentary question asked about the mental health taskforce the minister sidestepped to respond: it is for higher education providers as autonomous bodies to identify and address the needs of their student body and to decide what mental health and wellbeing support to put in place…the government has asked universities to prioritise mental health support, and continue to support their students, which has included making services accessible from a distance…Many providers have bolstered their existing mental health services, and adapted delivery mechanisms including reaching out to students who may be more vulnerable. You can read more on the Government's response here.
Inquiries and Consultations
Click here to view the updated inquiries and consultation tracker. Email us on policy@bournemouth.ac.uk if you'd like to contribute to any of the current consultations or inquiries.
Consultations to look forward to from today's pile of announcements:
OfS consultation on a new TEF (in the "Spring")
OfS consultation on interim arrangements for the TEF because the current awards expire in the summer ("soon")
DfE consultation on further reforms to the higher education system in spring 2021, before setting out a full response to the report and final conclusion to the Review of Post-18 Education and Funding alongside the next Comprehensive Spending Review.
DfE consultation on the Lifelong Loan Entitlement – "we will consult on the scope and detail of the entitlement in early 2021, including seeking views on objectives and coverage."
DfE consultation on the changes that are needed to enable universities and colleges to provide a modular offer – doesn't say when they will consult on this.
DfE: We will set out further plans to use the National Skills Fund in due course, consulting on the details in spring 2021 to ensure that the investment from the Fund helps to meet the needs of adults, employers and providers
DFE will consult on the proposals to reform FE funding and accountability
The OfS say: We are aware of the sustained pressure on providers as the impact of the pandemic continues to be felt and of the additional burden that may be caused by these proposed additional consultations. We have extended the deadline to our quality and standards consultation to 25 January 2021 and will continue to monitor the situation regarding current and future consultations.
Remote teaching: Wonkhe: Matt Jenner led a popular online course about teaching online – here's what he learned from the experience about how to support educators in adapting to remote teaching.
On Monday Boris Johnson launched a new business initiative – the Build Back Better Council. Details including the Council members are here.
Teach online this year: UCU (the University and Colleges Union) are calling for teaching to remain online for the rest of the academic year to protect the wellbeing of staff, students and their communities. UCU state they fear staff will be forced to return to work in unsafe and unpredictable working conditions. UCU have warned they are considering balloting members for action against an unsafe return to in-person teaching.
Student rent strikes: The BBC cover student rent strikes in Wales. Politics Home also have an article on rent strikes.
Asynchronous learning: From Wonkhe – Asynchronous learning gives students the chance to treat modules like box sets, bingeing or skipping as they see fit. Tom Lowe wonders what this might mean for learning.
Academic misconduct: Contract cheating is well known however this (short) Times article explores the perspective of the innocent who was wrongly accused of cheating. It is written by lawyers who represent students appealing against academic misconduct.
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HE Policy Update w/e 18th January 2021
COVID-19, EU, Industry collaboration, innovation, international, parliament, policy, Research assessment, Research news, Student Engagement jforster
The Minister for Universities and the OfS ended the week with the opposite of a charm offensive. Significant interest in student rent reached a head this week with MPs calling for action and supporting student concerns in Parliament. GCSE and Gavin Williamson announced his alternative plans for exams this summer (spoiler alert: the proposal centres on externally set exams, but they will be marked by teachers and other evidence can be taken into account). Perhaps not surprisingly the political gossip centred on whether Gavin Williamson has run out of road.
The Minister takes to Twitter
So perhaps rather late in the day taking a lead from other leaders who (used to) use Twitter to communicate with the masses, and continuing the pattern that both the DfE and the OfS have had since March of communicating with the sector late at night and at weekends, Michelle Donelan took to Twitter on Friday evening (at 7.16pm). With the "student message" headings left in, which were surely drafting notes, it looks like it was done in a hurry. It is safe to say that it hasn't been very well received, with attacks both from across the sector and also from the group it was probably aimed at – parents (ie voters).
It's a real issue that the Minister is taking this tone and approach, apart from perpetuating the myth of the £256 million.
And the tone is consistent with the tone the OfS are taking. They wrote to universities on Thursday.
They say that universities should do all they can to deliver the teaching they have promised to students and make alternative arrangements where this is not possible – this may include putting on extra lectures, repeating parts of the course, or offering fee refunds.
The OfS does not have legal powers to require refunds to be paid, but it has set out actions for universities and colleges to ensure they continue to meet regulatory requirements so that students can continue to benefit from their education.
The regulator has asked universities to assess the extent to which they have met the commitments they made to students in relation to teaching and alternative arrangements, and inform the OfS where there are risks that they may not be able to comply with its regulatory conditions.
Universities should assess:
whether they were sufficiently clear with new and continuing students about how teaching and assessment would be delivered in 2020-21, the circumstances in which changes might be made, and what those changes might entail
whether during the 2020 autumn term, students received the teaching and assessment they were promised and might reasonably have expected to receive based on information provided
whether current plans for the 2021 spring and summer term will ensure that students receive the teaching and assessment they were promised and might reasonably expect to receive based on the information provided.
The OfS will, where appropriate, take action as the result of notifications from students and others, and is likely to request further details of provider assessments where it has additional concerns.
Where students are not provided with clear information about how teaching and assessment will be delivered in 2020-21, or where teaching and assessment are not delivered as promised, universities are expected to actively consider refunds or other forms of redress.
The OfS expects each university to:
inform students of any further changes to teaching and assessment arrangements, such that these are broadly equivalent to those previously offered to students within the requirements of public health advice
inform students about their entitlement to seek refunds or other forms of redress – such as the opportunity to repeat parts of their course that were not delivered this year – if they have not received the teaching and assessment promised
provide students with clear information, advice and guidance about the implications of the changes and the options available to them. This must include clear signposting of the route to complain or seek redress.
The OfS intends to publish revised guidance by the end of January on protecting quality and standards during the pandemic. These changes will include guidance on the approach to exams and assessments and the appropriate measures universities should take when considering mitigating or exceptional circumstances.
"The pandemic is having a profound and ongoing impact on students who are still facing exceptional challenges. Universities and colleges have generally worked tirelessly under great pressure to ensure that students continue to receive good quality teaching, albeit now largely delivered remotely. We have consistently emphasised the importance of universities being clear to students about potential changes to course delivery where face-to-face teaching is not possible.
"Of course, we understand the tremendous pressures that the new lockdown imposes on universities and colleges, and some may no longer able to deliver the teaching and assessment arrangements that they said they would. This may not be in their direct control. However, in these circumstances they should do all they can to offer students alternatives – for instance by putting on extra lectures or course content later in the year – and where that is not possible, they should consider providing refunds where appropriate.
"Students will also be rightly concerned where they are being charged rent for properties they can't currently occupy. Some universities have decided not to charge full rent in these circumstances. We are encouraging all universities and colleges who are not already doing so to consider carefully what the appropriate response is to these unprecedented circumstances where students have been asked not to return to their accommodation this term. We are also asking universities to consider what discussions they can have in support of their students with private landlords."
Lots of commentary is available and will continue to emerge (apart from the responses to MD's tweets) but here are some:
David Kernohan on Wonkhe on options to compensate students
Jim Dickinson on Wonkhe on the OfS letter
Chris Parr on Research Professional on the twitter storm
Fiona McIntyre on Research Professional on the OfS letter
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson wrote to Ofqual Chief Regulator, Simon Lebus, setting out the 2021 exam grading contingency options for consultation (including vocational qualifications). The regulator responded the same day with his own letter (its almost as if he knew what Gavin's letter would say before he received it!).
And then the consultations came out on Friday and run for two weeks. The main proposal for GCSEs and A-levels as noted above is externally set exams, sat in school and marked by teachers, used as part of a package of evidence for teacher assessed grades, with moderation and quality controls but no forced ranking or overriding algorithm, and a massive appeals process for all students which must be managed by schools. On vocational exams it is hard to understand what they are proposing – they want assessments to go ahead and where these are practical and need in person attendance "the assessment will need to wait until it can practically be conducted, and the student is ready." The position is different because the relationship between Ofqual and the awarding organisations for vocational qualifications is different, so they are largely leaving it to Pearson and the rest to sort out.
Apart from anything else, this is perplexing for school and college students. The PM told them exams were cancelled – what he actually meant was that "normal" exams would not go ahead but that assessment would continue which might well (read almost certainly) include formal exams which will in many cases be sat in school. Lots of people and students welcome the opportunity to have exams. But those who were anxious about them will now be anxious again. If nothing else it would reduce anxiety levels to be accurate when making significant announcements. If the detail wasn't available (and it was, because they say have been working on it for months) then the PM could just have announced it was being looked at.
Consultation: GCSEs, AS and A Levels
The Secretary of State's letter says:
Based on teacher assessment
A teacher's final judgement on a student's grade ought to be as late as possible in the academic year to maximise remaining teaching time and ensure students are motivated to remain engaged in education
Consulting on what broader evidence teachers require in setting grades and whether the externally set tasks and papers are required or just recommended.
Pupils should be assessed based on what they have learnt, rather than against content they haven't had chance to study (balanced against good enough coverage of the curriculum)
Schools and colleges should undertake quality assurance of the teachers' assessments and grades and provide reassurance to the exam boards. There will be training and support for this and external checks in place for fairness and to ensure consistency between institutions.
Changes to the institutional grades awarded as a result of the external quality assurance are expected to be an exception – the process will not involve second-guessing the judgement of teachers but confirming that the process and evidence used to award a grade is reasonable. Changes should only be made if those grades cannot be justified, rather than as a result of marginal differences of opinion. Any changes should be based on human decisions, not by an automatic process or algorithm.
A clear and accessible route for private candidates to be assessed and receive a grade – consultation will consult on these options.
A clear route for review and appeal of grades (again ironed out in the consultation).
No algorithm will be used nor automatic standardisation of any individual's grades
Consultation detail:
It proposes externally set papers, possibly modular to allow teachers to choose which papers depending on what has been covered, to be marked by teachers and then included in the assessment along with other evidence. Exams to be sat in schools but with potential for online for students who can't attend. One of the consultation questions is whether these papers will be mandatory.
The main difference from last year is that there will be no forced ranking of students and while there will be moderation by the exam boards (which is surely going to be algorithm based although they can't use the A word) any decisions have to be made by people. There will be no formal grade boundaries for the exams.
The other thing to note is that all students can appeal and the schools have to manage the appeals – a further appeal to the exam board will be on procedural issues only. Also on timing – the assessment is to be made as late as possible but results will be published early……
Consultation: Vocational and Technical Qualifications (VQTs)
Students will be able to progress fairly, irrespective of whether they sat an exam in January
Assessments should continue, taking place remotely, as adapted by individual awarding organisations
Recognition that level of disruption may mean no all internal assessment can be completed by all students
Essential assessments will be held in February and March for some students – i.e. where they must demonstrate the proficiency required to enter directly into employment or are needed to complete an apprenticeship – these will continue with protective measures in place.
Written exams will not go ahead. Assessments to be held online where they can, where they can't alternatives will be consulted upon.
The proposed new alternative regulatory arrangements would:
permit awarding organisations to develop an approach to awarding qualifications in scope of the Department's proposed policy on the basis of incomplete assessment evidence. As part of their approach awarding organisations should consider their minimum evidential requirement for awarding these qualifications to ensure sufficient validity and reliability. They should also consider where they need additional assessment evidence from teachers and what form this should take. For qualifications most similar to GCSEs, AS and A levels we would expect awarding organisations to use similar approaches to assessment and awarding. These approaches are currently being consulted on in parallel with this consultation.
expect awarding organisations to be mindful of the burden their approach places on centres and learners, and to provide clear and timely advice and guidance
require awarding organisations to issue certificates (where appropriate) as normal and to not refer on the certificate to a result having been determined under the alternative regulatory arrangements
require awarding organisations to include private learners in their arrangements as far as possible
permit awarding organisations to take the same approach for qualifications taken in international markets, provided that this does not undermine the validity of the qualifications. We would also expect awarding organisations to consider and address the risks around malpractice and the particular needs of the international market
In Lebus' letter to Williamson a few points stand out:
we are fully committed to doing all that we can, including making sure teachers are equipped and making use of awarding organisations' quality assurance processes, so that students' results are as fair as possible
no assessment arrangements can take account of all the different ways that students have suffered from the pandemic.
we have been considering together the potential alternatives to exams and other formal assessments for some time and have learned a number of lessons from last summer. Our thinking is well advanced. It is, though, important that all affected by these arrangements have the opportunity to comment on them.
We both wish to ensure that accountability for decisions following the consultation is clear and transparent. We understand your final determinations will be reflected in a formal direction to us under the relevant legislation. We will publicly and formally record the decisions we take in light of your direction. [A 'don't blame us' this time warning?!]
we will want the consultation to consider the role of externally set short papers.
we also wish to support and incentivise students to engage with their education for the remainder of the academic year, including to continue with any non-exam assessment where possible. We propose that the final determination of a student's grade should take place as late in the academic year as possible. We believe this will give students a greater sense of agency, which is critical to securing widespread acceptance of the outcomes
It is important that the consultation makes clear to all, especially those who rely on the results to make selection decisions, that overall outcomes this year will likely look different from 2020 and previous years. This issue will be important for your work with the post-16 and higher education sectors to secure orderly progression and to protect the interests of disadvantaged students.
We are acutely aware that all who have a stake in the results this year, particularly students and their parents and carers and teachers, as well as higher and further education institutions and employers, need certainty about the arrangements to be put in place
A selection of this week's coverage:
Wonkhe: David Kernohan on the proposals
Research Professional – An education and teaching expert has warned that universities may need to give new students extra assessments in September to tackle the gaps in their learning at school during the pandemic, even if they have achieved top grades.
The Times – heads want GCSE and A-level grades to be given early to avoid a repeat of last year's chaos.
Research Professional – Williamson promises robust appeals process for A-levels
The BBC – GCSE and A-level pupils could sit mini exams to aid grading
TES – Schools may not fully reopen after half term, warns PM
The Petitions Committee agreed to schedule debates for the following e-petitions which reached over 100,000 signatures:
Cancel GCSE and A-levels in 2021 replace with Course Work and Teacher Assessment.
Allow teacher predicted grades for BTEC students.
However, as Westminster Hall debates have been suspended (as a Covid safety measure) neither will see a debate in the immediate future.
Admissions Reform: Research Professional have an article: There is an "appetite for reform" of the university admissions process, according to the Office for Students' director for access and participation—but changing the application timetable is not a "magic bullet".
Kwasi Kwarteng, who was previously minister for Business, Energy and Clean Growth, has taken over as Business Secretary as Alok Sharma has gone off to head COP26.
Research Professional (RP): One of the immediate issues that Kwarteng will be asked to consider is whether the Research Excellence Framework should be further delayed given the pressures put on university staff by the latest lockdown. No-one has yet been prepared to make the case that ensuring REF returns are made by 31 March is a priority for our newly designated critical workers. RP cover this here and here.
Also Research Professional: emails seen by Research Professional News have revealed the close ties between prime minister Boris Johnson's controversial former adviser Dominic Cummings and the UK's largest public research funding agency.
The Lords Science and Technology Committee held a session on The contribution of Innovation Catapults in delivering the R&D Roadmap you can read a summary of the session here. It included scrutiny of the catapults role in meeting the Government's 2.4% R&D target.
UKRI announced the winners of the second phase of the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund's (ISCF) decarbonisation of industrial clusters: cluster plan competition. The six winners sharing the £8 million come from consultancies, development companies, local authorities, partnerships, and consortiums. It is unclear if any have strong links with universities.
NERC appointed four new Science Committee members from the HE sector. And the Wellcome Trust's new Director of research programmes, Cheryl Moore, will take up the post in May 2021.
Research Fundermentals published their own horizon scan and predictions about what 2021 will mean for research matters.
Research Professional also published these articles:
Two of the UK's major national academies have called on the government to quickly finalise association to Horizon Europe, the European Union's next R&D programme, following the agreement of a post-Brexit trade deal. UK researchers' task is to make Horizon Europe participation value for money.
A former head of Innovate UK has called for UK Research and Innovation to have more independence from government,
Evidential basis for £1 of public R&D eventually stimulates between £1.96 and £2.34 of private R&D
Effect of the reduction in the Official Development Assistance budget on the UK's reputation as a partner of choice in international research and development projects
How much funding is allocated to the development and uptake of New Approach Methodologies; and which sources that funding comes from
What the regional distribution is of institutes receiving funding through Government sources for the development and application of New Approach Methodologies.
With reference to the 2020 Spending Review, when the £350 million of funding announced for UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) will be made available; and how that funding will be allocated among the seven research groups.
Despite parliamentary petitions and grass roots campaigning students made small progress with the calls to be refunded for tuition fees during online study and receive rent reductions or get out of their letting contracts. The lobbying quietened down for a while but gained momentum in the last week. Towards the end of last week several Labour MPs signed an early day motion (EDM) calling on the Government to scrap tuition fees and cancel student debt. As it was a manifesto pledge for Labour the EDM wasn't remarkable.
Next the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Students launched an inquiry into the impact of Covid-19 on university students and calls for compensation.
The number of parliamentary questions relating to student fees and accommodation costs has grown significantly again, including those relating to healthcare tuition fees and nurses working within the NHS as part of the Covid response. This week rent stories exploded across the media and HE specific sources, students initiated rent strikes, Unite Students (a major student accommodation provider announced partial refunds and concessions) and MPs came out in support of student rental concerns.
BBC – students have pledged a rent strike over unused rooms
Research Professional – universities have been warned that they could be breaking the law by refusing to allow students to return to halls; and:
The UCAS Knight Frank survey was released to a very receptive national audience. Wonkhe describe:
…a survey of more than 70,000 new and current students between February and November last year. The Student Accommodation Survey finds that between March and June, around 75 per cent of students surveyed reported that they had or were planning to move back home, though there were regional variations.
Seventy-two percent of last year's first year students were not paying rent after campuses closed – 71 per cent of students in other years were paying full rent.
The survey also offers an insight into who pays for accommodation – 41 per cent of first years, and 49 per cent of those in other years, reported that their parents or guardians were funding accommodation costs. On average, students living in private purpose built student accommodation (PBSAs) paid £7,200 per annum, compared to £6,650 in university accommodation and £5,900 for students in privately rented accommodation.
Sixty-nine per cent of students living in university-owned or PBSAs were happy with their landlord's approach to Covid-19, compared to just 25 per cent of students in houses of multiple occupancy.
Research Professional add: Unsurprisingly, the ability to terminate tenancy agreements and a degree of flexibility on rent were highlighted as factors behind greater contentment with purpose-built accommodation over other settings…Respondents renting in non-purpose-built housing said private landlords were not prepared to make "any allowances for the impacts of the virus" and had "poor communication or lack of understanding and sensitivity around students' financial situations and job losses".
On Wednesday a NUS survey highlights student rental concerns. Wonkhe summarise: The most recent iteration of an NUS survey finds that 69 per cent of students are worried about their ability to pay rent, and 22 per cent have been unable to pay their rent in full in past months. The survey of 4,193 students ran between 6 and 23 November.
An equally well timed YouGov poll surveyed the nation (so not just those with a vested interest as students or parents of students) on accommodation fees. They asked Do you think students who are unable to return to their student accommodation due to lockdown should still have to pay rent as normal or not? 54% of the public respondents felt that students shouldn't have to pay anything at all; 30% felt they should pay a reduced rate; 5% felt students should continue to pay their rent in full.
Several MPs and Lords have expressed support for students to be offered some form of package or reduction. David Davis MP tweeted his letter to the Government to support university students who are unable to return to their term-time accommodation. He also stated Unite Students are right to provide refunds to students for periods where they cannot return to their properties and calls on the Government to step up.
This cross-party parliamentary support for student rent forgiveness alongside Boris Johnson acknowledging that the issue needs addressing, and Unite Students' proactive refunds have been significant progress for this student concern. What remains to be seen is what position the Government will take however, no matter how sympathetic they are to the cause, it is still hard to imagine a Government scheme offering blanket refunds (including private landlords).
A selection of parliamentary questions on tuition fees…
Assessment made of the potential merits of reducing tuition fees for the 2020-21 year to compensate students for the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on their university studies and experience.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will bring forward proposals for a tuition fee rebate for students who have had to study remotely as a result of the covid-19 outbreak
And parliamentary questions on other student matters:
What discussions he has had with universities on providing extra support for (a) mature students and (b) students with children who may be facing additional pressure and responsibilities during the covid-19 outbreak.
Remote (HE) students access to adequate mental health support
What additional teaching support is available to university students during the January 2021 lockdown period while they do not have full access to their tutors; and what financial support students can access to compensate for lost income from part-time work.
Finally the Petitions Committee published their latest decisions on e-petitions which received over 100,000 signatures and agreed to schedule a debate for:
Reduce University student tuition fees from £9250 to £3000
However, Westminster Hall debates have been suspended (as a Covid safety measure) so the debate will not take place in the immediate future.
The Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) issued a press release stating they're in discussion with Universities Minister Michelle Donelan, alongside 17 professional, statutory and regulatory body representatives and Universities UK to address new challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic. The press release states they: discussed a range of barriers affecting progression and graduation in accredited programmes, in order to ensure students are able to complete their awards this summer and progress into the workplace with continued assurance of high standards and competencies.
QAA Chief Executive, Douglas Blackstock said:
Throughout the pandemic, QAA has engaged with PSRBs on behalf of our members and with a focus on ensuring students can progress towards the profession they have chosen. These bodies play an important role in protecting public safety and we are grateful that they have been able to adapt flexibly during the pandemic.
QAA has worked with professional bodies for many years and will continue to work collaboratively with them, and our members, so that students can achieve professional competencies and learning outcomes and so that standards are maintained.
Universities Minister, Michelle Donelan said: It is absolutely vital that students are able to graduate from their courses this year and achieve the meaningful qualifications that they need to kickstart their careers. Education has been our priority from the start of this pandemic, and we will continue to work closely with QAA, Universities UK and sector bodies, to identify and address any challenges they face during this difficult time.
Will he stay or will he go?
Speculation about Williamson's continued tenure as Education Minister continues. On Monday Research Professional reported Boris as stating that the education secretary is doing his job "to his utmost ability". One doesn't quite know if that is support or censure. The BBC have: Gavin Williamson: How has he survived? It is well worth a read, it begins: Gavin Williamson's political obituary has been written so many times he must sometimes feel like the walking dead. So how has England's under-pressure education secretary survived in his job? Or is there a counter-narrative that he's been unfairly blamed for decisions not really his own? For example, it has been well trailed that Boris went over Gavin's head in closing the schools during a meeting he didn't attend – meaning a U turn in one of Gavin's flagship policies (that schools would remain open). The question of a reshuffle or even just an ousting of Williamson may come down to the reluctance (stubbornness?) of Boris to sack key staff, despite their mistakes and public unpopularity. Or perhaps as the BBC put it Gavin knows where the bodies are buried.
Gavin Williamson was scrutinised by the Commons Education Committee on Wednesday. Prior to the session Research Professional speculated what he might be questioned on in this brilliant article. It mentions many of the major points and issues facing education and HE at present and with only a couple sentences on each it is a great catch up for anyone still stuck in the Christmas cheese or overcome by home schooling.
In the end the Committee had very little direct HE content. There was strong focus on schools and on matters surrounding the alternatives to the 2021 exams (including BTEC) Williamson's performance at Committee maintained the Government lines and yielded little new information. He appeared uninformed at times and employed famed political techniques such as not answering the question asked, answering a question that wasn't asked, avoiding apologising and blaming others (schools mostly). However, he was focussed in his answers and less aggressive in tone than in recent appearances. Dods provide a comprehensive summary of the session here.
If you want the short version, there was one question on HE:
Asked about financial sustainability for universities, including the challenge for the newer ones with no reserves, and about student accommodation costs. Rambles about universities giving additional support (?). Some institutions may be in financial difficulties, he says the restructuring regime is established and ready to go. Despite concerns there have been no collapses but contingency is ready. MP says her local university was offered a loan not a grant and some management consultants that they didn't want or need and they have had to have major staff cuts. GW says some will have to restructure what they offer and how they run. Zero empathy for the sector in these replies. He doesn't answer the questions either.
And he mentions us at the end when he thanks everyone working in education, including universities.
Graduate Wellbeing Analysis
The OfS have released data for key performance measure 17 – graduate wellbeing. It shows part timers scoring higher on life satisfaction and for feeling that things done in life are worthwhile.
Note – only the respondents who gave the strongest positive wellbeing response were included in the above analysis. For the data and more information start here. It may seem odd to you that the OfS data release only covers this aspect and limited data. It seems odd to us too. One hopes it isn't the regulator searching for a new stick to beat HE with or engaging in political point scoring.
Education Policy – research / curriculum development
The Education Policy Institute has published two reviews. Curriculum policy in England has been characterised by frequent change in recent decades. In order to identify lessons about how curriculum systems can be better formulated and revised in England, this evidence review outlines how five leading education nations around the world have developed their curriculum systems in recent years.
The first review aimed to understand how leading education nations around the world develop their education policies and examines the education systems of Finland, Japan, New Zealand, Scotland and South Korea – How Leading Education Nations Develop And Reform Their Curriculum Systems.
The second considers the role of research and evaluation in education policymaking in leading nations including Australia, Finland, Japan, Scotland and Singapore. It focuses on how leading countries organise, focus and fund their education research and evaluation, both in the context of major system change and in terms of how each country assesses the effectiveness of its education system.
The Education Committee continued hearing evidence into the inquiry on Left behind white pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. Dods have provided a summary of last week's session which covers several aspects relating to HE.
Fair Admissions: The Nuffield Foundation have published Fair Admission to Universities in England: Improving Policy and Practice. Neon describe the report: A new report from the Nuffield Foundation finds that highly selective universities in England are increasingly taking into account the socioeconomic and educational contexts in which applicants achieved their grades when making admissions decisions. However lead author, Professor Vikki Boliver of Durham University argues that universities should be bolder in their approach:
"Universities have taken some tentative steps in a positive direction when it comes to widening access to higher education for students from disadvantaged and under-represented backgrounds. This is encouraging but by being bolder we believe that they can further improve the chances of applicants from disadvantaged backgrounds."
The report recommends several steps that universities should take including:
Reducing entry requirements for contextually disadvantaged applicants by more than just one or two grades.
Contextualising all admissions criteria, including GCSE grades, personal statements and interview performances.
Ensuring that the new commitments to supporting contextually disadvantaged students to achieve their potential at university are fulfilled.
Overall the report recommends switching from the traditional admissions model, where places go to the highest qualified candidates, irrespective of social background, to a model where prospective students' qualifications are judged in light of their socioeconomic circumstances. The report also recommends that there is a move towards post qualification admissions and replace POLAR with individual measures of socioeconomic disadvantage which is made available to universities.
Barriers for care leavers in obtaining broadband contracts.
Assessment of the potential merits of a long-term approach to funding (a) Uni Connect and (b) other social mobility projects to enable them to establish themselves and demonstrate their effect.
What discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the effect (a) Uni Connect and (b) other outreach projects on people from disadvantaged young people during the covid-19 outbreak.
What assessment he has made of the effect of the timetable for a funding decision for Uni Connect on (a) staff delivering and (b) the continuity of that programme.
International & Mobility
Research Professional published: Drop in international first-years made up by other students
On Turing The Times has an opinion piece from Taiwo Owatemi, MP for Coventry North West, on the inadequacies of the new scheme.
School exchanges within new Turing system.
The Government are still refusing to allow international students who have been unable to complete their course in the UK access to the graduate immigration route.
Sir John Hayes supports the alternatives to HE agenda:
Steps to incentivise young people to enrol in non-university routes of higher education
Request for update on progress in (a) reducing the number of young people going to university, (b) increasing the number and quality of apprenticeships and (c) redirecting funding from Russel Group universities to providers of technical education.
What steps he is taking to improve the external oversight of universities in the handling of cases of sexual misconduct.
Click here to view the updated inquiries and consultation tracker. Email us on policy@bournemouth.ac.uk if you'd like to contribute to any of the current consultations.
Censoring 'Free Speech': Students and graduates recruited to work on a free speech campaign have resigned in protest stating their views were censored and they were pushed to conform. There was also anger that they had been signed up without understanding the links between Toby Young's controversial pressure group the Free Speech Union (FSU) and the project they had been recruited to. The Guardian has the story.
Poverty report: The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has published its annual report on the nature and scale of poverty across the UK. It covers investment in skills and the retraining agenda.
Mental health: The Government have announced they will reform mental health laws.
T levels: The Government announced a £135 million capital fund for T level providers to bid into. The Government press release states: the multi-million pound investment will ensure T Level students have access to the world class facilities and cutting-edge equipment they need to get ahead.
Tech access for disadvantaged pupils: Commenting on the Department for Education's supply of laptops and other equipment to enable disadvantaged students to access remote learning, Kevin Courtney, Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union, said: It is not credible for Boris Johnson or Gavin Williamson to claim that their priority under Covid is to protect the very same disadvantaged students they have so routinely let down. It is a stain on the Government's record that they have failed disadvantaged students so badly. The immense disruption in autumn half term, with so many absent from school due to self-isolation or close contact with those in their bubble who were having to self-isolate, was a clear warning that the education secretary needed to properly build the groundwork for a continuity and equity of education for all students. But the warning went unheeded, and in Gavin Williamson 's recent announcements on laptop and data roll-out it is abundantly clear he is still weeks away from anything like an adequate response. Schools have been kept waiting for equipment that has been promised to them throughout the pandemic, with last minute delays, changes or retractions of the kit they need becoming an alarmingly normalised response from the Department for Education. It is surely a no-brainer that schools should be compensated for having to plug the gaps, which are entirely due to governmental sloth. Every child must have access to the equipment they need to ensure they can learn safely from home. When will the government take their responsibility towards these children seriously? However, speaking at the Education Committee on Wednesday Gavin Williamson painted a very different picture stating the equipment had been sent to schools and some were in line to receive additional items.
Islamophobia: Research Professional published this article Universities fail to see 'insidious nature' of campus Islamophobia stating that the report finds improvements are needed by institutions.
EdTech Boom: FE News report that lockdown measures and mandatory school closures in 2020 led to a 71.5% growth of the UK educational technology (EdTech) sector – despite a -11% contraction in GDP overall. Over the course of the pandemic, schools, colleges and universities have had to move lessons online, and many educators, organisations and businesses have developed smarter ways to deliver remote learning. The growth puts the value of the UK EdTech market at almost £3.5bn – with EdTech exports pre-crisis bringing in £170m to the economy, now expected to have topped £292m.
Tags: A-levels academic quality access and participation accommodation admissions Business Secretary Catapult curriculum development Education Secretary educational standards free speech Graduate wellbeing Horizon Europe international mobility Islamophobia level 3 maintenance loans Minister for Universities Minister fr Office for Students Ofqual OFS professional bodies PSRBs QAA ref 2021 T levels technical education tuition fees Turing
HE policy update for the w/e 8th January 2021
COVID-19, EU, international, parliament, policy, Research news, Student Engagement jforster
We're back into busy times, to keep things manageable for colleagues we will try and keep our updates focussed on the main news and keep the wider interest elements short on commentary, with links that can be followed for more detail.
A New Year often sees predictions made about the shape of the year ahead. A lot was announced, not least by the OfS, in the last quarter of 2021 so it will be a busy year. BU staff can read our latest horizon scan here.
Research Professional offer EU 2021: eight areas to watch predicting what the next 12 months may mean for research policy.
Horizon Europe research programme access
Four years on and the UK and EU have agreed a post-Brexit trade deal with access to a number of programmes including participation in Horizon Europe through associate membership between 2021-2027. However, the UK has chosen not to participate in the Erasmus student exchange programme due to cost concerns.
While access to the EU programmes has been granted the details still have to be negotiated individually per programme (in part this is because the regulatory aspects of some programmes are still being developed). This Research Professional article has useful detail on the programmes the UK can associate with. And Wonkhe explain: as in everything else to do with the EU from now on the UK may participate in the governance of programmes as an observer, and in expert groups, but will not be included in any formal decision-making processes associated with each programme.
The Horizon Europe budget is valued at 95.5 billion Euros. The budget is bigger than the last round, however, the remit it must cover is bigger too. Research Professional write: Horizon Europe has a fully fledged European Innovation Council for the first time, which will support the growth of R&D-based businesses. The programme will also lead nations and organisations in funding R&D missions intended to achieve objectives in areas such as cancer and climate change.
On the 'other programmes' Research Professional report that Besides Horizon Europe and Erasmus+, the EU will launch or continue a variety of other programmes that will support research and innovation. Its regional funds will continue to provide tens of billions of euros for disbursement by local governments, while the launch of dedicated space, digital, defence and health programmes will provide targeted support for these fields in ways that, the bloc hopes, will chime with its main R&D programme.
Boris Johnson: The deal means certainty for our scientists who will be able to continue to work together on great collective projects…Because although we want the UK to be a science superpower, we also want to be a collaborative science superpower. We will be able to set our own standards, to innovate in the way that we want, to originate new frameworks for the sectors in which this country leads the world, from biosciences to financial services, artificial intelligence and beyond.
Research Professional (RP): Analysts will be poring over the texts as soon as they are released to see exactly what kind of access to EU collaboration the deal provides, and how much it will cost the UK. It has previously been suggested that the UK may be up to £3bn out of pocket by paying into the Horizon programme, and that the money to do so would come out of the domestic R&D budget. RP go on to say: even with the deal, there are bound to be setbacks for R&D and education ties.
Turing Mobility Scheme
It was widely trailed by media sources in late December that Erasmus was off the table. Nearly 10,000 UK students participated in Erasmus during 2018-19. The PM stated the Erasmus deal was extremely expensive (costing £2 billion more than we'd receive back) and instead the UK will launch its own Turing scheme supporting study and work placements abroad backed by £100 million.
It is intended to support 35,000 students in schools, colleges and universities for placements and overseas exchanges from September 2021. It has a social mobility aspect and will target students from disadvantaged areas to improve accessibility to the scheme and opportunities. The new scheme offers up a wider range of countries than could be accessed through Erasmus+. Applications will open early in 2021 and organisations are promised funding to administer the scheme as well as grants for the students' international experience. Providers are told to begin preparation with international partners as soon as possible. Wonkhe: it has already been noted that a standalone scheme that requires individual institutions to negotiate the terms of exchanges with their counterparts in other countries is a much less efficient way of facilitating study abroad than a continent-wide programme – an issue that may be addressed in the terms of reference for the scheme.
Universities Minister, Michelle Donelan, praises the new scheme highlighting the access to new countries and the disadvantaged element, and raising issue with aspects of Erasmus+: Erasmus's benefits went overwhelmingly to students who were already advantaged. The language barrier meant that it was very hard for students not already studying a modern foreign language to take part, to flourish at their chosen university and get the most out of the academic experience. A 2006 study found that of those taking part in Erasmus from the UK, 51 per cent were from families with a high or very high income. There are no details on proportions of Turing funding to be allocated to disadvantaged backgrounds yet, however, it is assumed there will be a balance. Donelan concludes: none of this is to decry Erasmus+… the fact is that it is simply too limiting for the global Britain that we aspire to. Of the hundred best universities in the world in the QS World Rankings, only twelve are in the EU. If we have stayed with Erasmus+ it would have cost several hundreds of millions of pounds to fund a similar number of exchanges, not have been global in nature and continued to deliver poor participation rates for young people from deprived backgrounds.
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said: We have designed a truly international scheme which is focused on our priorities, delivers real value for money and forms an important part of our promise to level up the United Kingdom. These opportunities will benefit both our students and our employers, as well as strengthening our ties with partners across the world.
Vivienne Stern, director of Universities UK International: While the announcement that the UK will now not be participating in Erasmus+ is disappointing, we are pleased that the prime minister has committed to a new UK programme to fund global mobility. We now ask the UK government to quickly provide clarity on this Erasmus+ domestic alternative, and that it be ambitious and fully funded. It must also deliver significant opportunities for future students to go global which the Erasmus programme has provided to date.
She also stated: Evidence shows that students who have international experience tend to do better academically and in employment, and the benefits are greatest for those who are least advantaged.
An independent blogger for Wonkhe is more sceptical: It is doubtful that the Turing Scheme could match the success of Erasmus, which is after all, a 33-year-old programme considered by many to be the most positive endeavour to come from the EU. The blog – Will Turing be a good enough exchange? – also disagrees with the cost figures – Offsetting these receipts [educational exports revenue] against the entry cost as a non-EU Erasmus Programme country, the UK receives a net return on far more than it contributes. The article states the £100 million won't go far – It…might just be sufficient for the first year of the scheme while Europe is still suffering the impact of Coronavirus, but in a post Covid world, this will be spread thin at best… this is largely in part to the growing appetite for UK students to study or train abroad… The overall number of mobilities throughout the wider education sector already stands near the 35,000 mark, only made possible through funding, greater than £100 million, that is already allocated to the UK through the Erasmus+ programme. DfE's allocation for the Turing in 2021 does not account for this.
The blog continues: Turing also does not account for the extra expenses involved in international travel… Expanded opportunities for international mobilities are welcomed in principle, but in practice, heavy promotion of international mobilities may result in astronomical travel expenses, visas fees and in the case of Anglophone destinations, steep cost of living – all which require a far greater investment than DfE's promised £100 million… What's also striking is that the total funding isn't a sufficient amount to fund the additional support mechanisms…needed to encourage students from non-traditional backgrounds… Institutions may be placed in the uncomfortable dilemma of offering fewer overall opportunities to students or targeted places for widening participation students, as a result of the restricted funding. If this is an area of interest do read the full blog as other barriers for both outgoing and incoming students are highlighted.
Finally, Wonkhe note that the UK has historically imported Erasmus+ students from the rest of the EU at twice the rate it exports UK students to other EU destinations.
These Lords Oral questions on Turing provide some additional clarification. Lord Parkinson stated: We are working directly with educational institutions to make sure that people are able to take up those opportunities and we will provide additional funding for disadvantaged students to cover, for instance, the cost of passports or visas, or for students with disabilities to undertake preparatory visits to make sure that all the necessary accommodations can be made for them. The side-stepping in response to questions on inbound students was notable. This PIE news article also highlights that Turing seems destined to fund outbound opportunities only.
Returning to the Lords oral questions, specifically on the HE sector:
Q – Lord Patel – what assessment have the Government made of the impact on universities of losing a significant amount of finance on inward-bound exchange schemes, because it will now cost money for them to set up exchanges?
A – Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay: We have been liaising with the higher education sector through groups such as the Russell Group and MillionPlus as the negotiations were ongoing and as we developed the Turing scheme, which is the back-up to it.
An Early Day Motion in Parliament championed by the Scottish National Party noted that the Turing scheme will not replicate many aspects of the Erasmus+ scheme such as youth work, adult education, sport, culture and vocational training.
There has been a flood of parliamentary question on the Turing scheme. Below is a small selection – all are due to be answered on Monday 11 January.
Comparative assessment of the cost to the public purse of Erasmus and Turing. Similarly: whether cost efficiency is the primary factor driving decision-making on the design of the Turing Scheme.
The cost of setting up Turing and whether the cost was included in the £100 million of funding recently announced for the scheme
Whether universities will need to apply
The effect of not funding incoming students
Regulatory – OfS Chair
Education Secretary of State Gavin Williamson has earmarked Baron James Wharton to be the next Chair of the Office for Students. If he is approved he'll commence the role in March 2021.
Wharton currently sits on the Conservative benches in the House of Lords (he was given a life peerage by the PM in September 2020). Previously he was a Conservative MP (2010-17) including roles as an Under-Secretary of State (local Government and international development). After his stint as an MP he was instrumental in Boris' leadership campaign acting as his Campaign Manager. Prior to his political career Wharton was a solicitor; there is little in his career which suggests an interest in Education. Here Research Professional highlight criticism of the Government that the interview panel was dominated by Conservative leaning. Wharton will appear before the House of Commons education committee who will consider his appointment and publish recommendations (if necessary). Williamson has the final say on the appointment.
The UCAS deadline has been pushed back to 29 January to account for Covid disruption and to support applicants with limited access to digital devices.
Most of the admissions related news this week relates to the cancellation of GCSE, A and AS level exams in England and Northern Ireland (Wales and Scotland had already abandoned exams). Teacher assessment will form the basis of final grades. The DfE and Ofqual have collaborated to plan the alternative arrangements and contingency options and the DfE have promised a consultation to fine-tuned the details with the sector. Dods have provided a summary of the main points in the Commons debate on the cancellation of exams here.
Vocational and technical qualification assessment will continue in January where it is safe to do so. The DfE and Ofqual will make arrangements for those unable to hold the January assessments and agree an approach to vocational and technical qualification final assessments moving forward.
During the Commons statement Education Select Committee Chair, Robert Halfon, asked Gavin Williamson to confirm that the centre-assessed grading (CAG) system would maintain standards and provide a level playing field for disadvantaged children, with a fair appeals process. He also asked if the Department would make sure independent assessors – perhaps retired teachers and Ofsted inspectors – were available to provide a check and balance on CAGs.
Dods have a podcast – Teacher's pet or Class Clown – on the school closure.
Williamson responded – he would be happy to work with Halfon and the Education Committee on any additional actions that can be taken to ensure fairness, and would certainly take on board his idea to bring in retirees as independent assessors
Robert Halfon (Chair, Education Committee) also made the news earlier in the week when he spoke frankly about the Government's performance during Radio 4's Woman's Hour on Tuesday. Asked why the sudden school closure one day after pupils returned he stated he didn't know – he'd received messages throughout the weekend on schools, mainly being assured that they would remain open, transmission rates were marginal and the risk to teachers was low. He went on to say that Government needed to have a consistent policy that didn't change every few days. When asked whether the Education Secretary Gavin Williamson was fit for the role, Halfon said he made a point of not getting drawn on particular personalities but commented that it's "the whole Government," and described it as "a shambles".
Some sources this week have noted that the Government's Skills White paper (one of Williamson's flagship ministerial pieces) still hasn't been published and suggested that the Government is biding its time as Williamson's competence is questioned from some quarters.
Finally, many students improved their A and AS level grades during the autumn 2020 exams.
Science, Research and Innovation Minister, Amanda Solloway, announced £213 million for UK science facilities upgrades, including microscopes, super computers and testing facilities for innovative technologies and blast labs for terror attacks. The fund aims to enable researchers to respond to global challenges such as COVID-19 and climate change. The funding is part of the Government's R&D Roadmap sources and allocated against specific projects with facilities with Scotland receiving a good proportion of the funding. Breakdown:
£29m to upgrade and replace UK scientific equipment
£25m to support the installation of highly sophisticated testing facilities at leading UK universities
£34m for data and digital research infrastructure relationships
£33.5m to upgrade facilities of UK scientific councils
£15m for the Capability for Collections Fund
Science Minister Amanda Solloway said: The response from UK scientists and researchers to coronavirus has been nothing short of phenomenal. We need to match this excellence by ensuring scientific facilities are truly world class, so scientists can continue carrying out life-changing research for years to come as we build back better from the pandemic.
From the world's most detailed microscopes tracking disease to airborne drones monitoring greenhouse gas emissions, our investment will enhance the tools available to our most ambitious innovators across the country. By doing so, scientists and researchers will be able to drive forward extraordinary research that will enable the UK to respond to global challenges such as achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Artificial Intelligence: The UK AI Council (an independent expert committee) published the AI Roadmap which makes recommendations to inform the Government's strategic direction on Artificial Intelligence, including a National AI Strategy. They call on Government to 'double down' on the AI recent investment and look to the horizon and be adaptable to disruption. The 16 recommendations are here.
Student Poll: A YouGov poll of students describes Coronavirus as negatively effecting motivation and self-discipline for some, alongside familiar messages for mental health and loneliness. Also:
Despite many news stories of universities imposing draconian measures on students, or failing to provide adequate nutrition to those forced to isolate, a majority of students (58%) say their university has handled student safety and wellbeing well during the coronavirus crisis. Just over a third (36%) say their university dealt with the issue badly.
By contrast, over four in five students (85%) say the UK government's response has been poor, while only one in nine (11%) say it has done a good job.
Full results here, with University/Government judgements starting from page 28.
Note – students were surveyed late December, before the current lockdown announcement.
Youth opportunity: The Learning and Work Institute's final Youth Commission Report (Number 6) – Unleashing Talent: Levelling up opportunity for young people was published. It examines how to improve education and employment opportunities for 16-24 year olds and calls for a 10 year strategy. Recommendations relevant to HE are:
three quarters of young people to gain A level equivalent qualifications by age 25 (currently two thirds do)
Reversing the decline in apprenticeships – aiming for one in three young people to take part in an apprenticeship and for this to galvanise action in the same way the 50% target for higher education did
Diversify HE routes – Focus on growing Higher Technical routes and HE access at all ages. Widen access by introducing maintenance grants of around £3,000 per year and evaluating access initiatives
Supporting young people to combine work and study through a new Youth Allowance in Universal Credit
The reforms would cost an extra £4.6bn per year, focusing on investing more in technical education and employment opportunities. Before the pandemic, half of the £20bn spent each year on education and employment went on higher education.
Non-continuation: HEPI published A short guide to non-continuation in UK universities. Summary here.
HE for the Future: Advance HE blog on reshaping HE for the future. The blog discusses how the fourth industrial revolution, growth of artificial intelligence and the pandemic are significantly changing the employment landscape.
Thought leaders have recognised that the emerging skills landscape cannot be supplied by a one-directional pipeline between secondary education and professional work.
The 'art of the possible' has been transformed over the last nine months. Engaging, participatory high quality higher education has been taking place across disciplinary, institutional and geographical boundaries, demonstrating that it is possible to motivate and engage students and develop the competencies for virtual working and the habits of mind required for life-long learning in an online environment. This has raised questions about whether the three-year on-campus residential degree is fit for purpose and provides value for money. The proliferation of alternative opportunities including degree apprenticeships and flexible modes of accredited delivery, as well as open access courses and certificated programmes from 'big-tech' companies, such as Google, Amazon and Apple is encouraging students to question the cost and the value of the predominant model of higher education.
The pandemic has highlighted that most higher education institutions need to enhance their capacity to deliver flexible and resilient education systems that would meet student expectations and the accelerating social and economic transformations that wider society anticipates. This requires a 'rethink' not only of what and how we teach but also what shape HEIs need to take to deliver on the changing demands of students, employers and society.
The blog goes on to promote Advance HE's work and online seminars on the topic.
Medical training expansion: The Royal College of Physicians call on the Government to expand the number of medical training opportunities. Our summary is here.
Significant appointments: This link details all the recent appointments to key bodies such as the Student Loans Company board, OfS, Ofqual, Children's Commissioner, social mobility, FE, and apprenticeships.
Online skills: The Government has launched the 'An Hour to Skill' campaign aiming to help more people boost their skills from home, support their mental wellbeing and help build a better working future. It urges people to set aside one hour a week for online learning by taking a free course from The Skills Toolkit. Demos research shows that one in three people have used online learning to help them get a better job, and that on average, online learning can boost annual pay by £3,640 too. The campaign builds on the Government's Plan for Jobs and initiatives aiming to shrink the skills gap across the UK, and allowing Brits to re-skill and up-skill for the future of work.
Tags: admissions Continuation erasmus Horizon Office for Students OFS R&D roadmap Turing
HE policy update for the w/e 17th December 2020
COVID-19, data management, EU, parliament, PG research, policy, Research news, Student Engagement jforster
HE finances, a tidal wave of regulatory consultations and information from the OfS, and the Minister responds to student questions. Wishing all our readers a lovely break and a happy new year!
Latest government COVID news and guidance
Of course we will have an update from Jim if there is local news that we need to know. The latest guidance from the government on Christmas rules, from Wednesday, is here.
You will recall that despite the focus on infection rates, the original tiers were set on the basis of 5 tests:
case detection rate (in all age groups and, in particular, among the over 60s)
how quickly case rates are rising or falling
positivity in the general population
pressure on the NHS – including current and projected (3 to 4 weeks out) NHS capacity – including admissions, general/acute/ICU bed occupancy, staff absences
local context and exceptional circumstances such as a local but contained outbreak.
What next for 2021
We have updated our horizon scan as there has been a rush of OfS regulatory announcements and consultations and also quite a lot of other news over the last 6 weeks or so. We don't recommend reading it when you are meant to be relaxing but you might want to bookmark it for your return.
There may well be more next week as the OfS seem to be clearing their desks before the end of the year – but it is already clear that 2021 is going to be an important year in terms of tougher rules and interventions from the OfS drive by the government agenda.
Meanwhile, the government have announced that the budget will be on 3rd March. Is that the date we will hear about the response to Augar and plans for the TEF?
And of course Brexit. Who knows what is going to happen there. MPs are starting their Christmas recess on Thursday – but they are likely to be recalled if a deal is achieved (from PoliticsHome).
The Institute for Government published a blog on the time needed to ratify a deal:
The UK government is planning to fast-track a new bill through parliament to ratify the deal. If the alternative was no deal on 1 January, it is unlikely either the Commons or the Lords would stand in the government's way.
But this is likely to mean MPs and peers approving a deal which they have hardly had a chance to look at, and in doing so would risk storing up problem. When the government introduced the controversial clauses relating to implementation of the Northern Ireland protocol in the UK Internal Market Bill, it claimed these were necessary to address new concerns about what it had signed up to in the Withdrawal Agreement last year. Although this may have been disingenuous, the debate in the Commons suggested many MPs really didn't know what they had agreed to in January when they rushed through the Withdrawal Agreement Bill.
…The process is more complicated on the EU side. First there would need to be a decision about who actually needs to be involved in ratification. Will the deal be a "mixed" agreement on which national parliaments have a vote, or can the process be limited to the Council and the European Parliament? And even if only the Council and European Parliament need to vote, there will be little time for the usual processes of consultations by member state governments with their own national parliaments and debates in the European Parliament.
Whether or not the deal is a mixed agreement, the Council does have the power to provisionally apply many aspects of it, including those dealing with tariffs. Legally speaking, it could even do so without the European Parliament voting on the deal until a later date. But this by-passing of MEPs could worsen tensions between the Council and the European Parliament at a time when member states need MEPs' votes on a number of key issues. Michel Barnier has suggested that there may be a period of 'no deal' in January while the European Parliament considers a deal, but this would be deeply damaging for traders. However, it would be a mistake to assume MEPs will definitely acquiesce.
Constituencies review
The Parliamentary Constituencies Act has become law meaning the 650 individual constituencies across the UK will be redefined to have a more equal number of voters in each. The Government's press release states: The updated constituencies will reflect significant changes in demographics, house building and migration – the current ones having been defined using outdated data from two decades ago.
Previously a 2018 review recommended reducing the number of MPs to 600; it was expected to have a big impact on our local constituencies (amongst other things, Mid-Dorset and North Poole was going to be radically changed and the separate constituency of Christchurch was expected to disappear). Instead a new review of the constituencies will commence in 2021, based on the number of registered voters at 1 December 2020.
Reviews of UK parliamentary constituencies are undertaken by four judge-led and independent bodies – the Boundary Commissions for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. This review will have to be completed by the Boundary Commissions by 1 July 2023. The Government have also committed to ensuring reviews take place every eight years and the subsequent proposals are implemented automatically. This will stop any potential for political interference or further delays to updating constituencies, protecting fair representation of the British people for the future. There will be three periods of consultation on the proposed new electoral maps. The updated constituencies will reflect significant changes in demographics, house building and migration – the current ones having been defined using outdated data from two decades ago.
It is fair to say that the last process was very delayed and very political, so in theory these look like positive changes, but local issues will still make this very controversial in practice when changes happen.
OfS Christmas Bonus
It seems it's not just us trying to clear the decks before Christmas. Happy Christmas HE, there's nothing quite like a bit of regulatory shenanigans to look forward to in the New Year!
The Office for Students have issued three new consultations on reportable events, information sharing, and a new take on the previously paused monetary penalties consultations.
At the time of publishing this week's policy update The Office for Students has not yet released the updated National Student Survey results. You can look out for updates on this here and on Twitter.
They've also issued two sets of new guidance on regulatory monitoring and intervention and on third party notifications (i.e. what counts as a notification for regulatory reasons). Finally there is a student guide for students to report on the progress their university or college has made in delivering its 2019-20 access and participation plan. The OfS press release is here: Regulator sets out how students can register concerns. Wonkhe have a blog on it all here.
On 16th the OfS published lots of data on access and continuation by ethnicity, provider tariff group and subject group. The report is only 10 pages and worth reading. Their press release says:
The report finds that, between 2013-14 and 2018-19:
There was an increase in the proportion of black, Asian and minority ethnic students entering higher tariff universities (those with higher entrance requirements). This is consistent with data from the Department for Education, which shows that these students have higher rates of entry to higher education than white students.
There was a higher proportion of Asian, white and mixed ethnicity students at higher tariff universities compared with other providers, but only 5.3 per cent of entrants to these universities were black, compared with 12.0 per cent at other providers.
Whatever their ethnicity, students at higher tariff universities were the most likely to continue with their studies. In 2017-18, the continuation rate for white students at higher tariff providers was 96.1 per cent, 7.0 percentage points higher than for white students at other providers (89.1 per cent). For other groups, this difference was even larger:
3 percentage points for black entrants (94.3 per cent per cent at higher tariff compared with 83.0 per cent at other providers)
7 percentage points for mixed ethnicity entrants (95.8 per cent at higher tariff providers compared with 86.1 per cent at other providers)
3 percentage points for students of other ethnicity (94.1 per cent at higher tariff providers compared with 85.8 per cent at other providers)
2 percentage points for Asian entrants (95.7 per cent at higher tariff providers compared with 87.5 per cent at other providers).
Black entrants to non-higher tariff providers had the lowest continuation rates of any ethnic group in 2017-18 (83.0 per cent).
In non-STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects across all providers, white students had the highest continuation rates (91.3 per cent in 2017-18), while Asian students were most likely to continue in STEM subjects (90.8 per cent).
For both STEM and non-STEM entrants across all providers, in every academic year from 2013-14 to 2017-18, black students were least likely to continue into a second year of study.
HE Financial Health
The OfS have also published Higher Education financial sustainability – an update. It reports strong cash balances, increased but sustainable borrowing including through government-backed loans, and the fall in income from international students' fees being less than feared, have combined to leave the sector in a reasonably stable financial position. Yet it recognises significant variation in the position of different providers across the sector.
The sector is expecting to report broadly similar levels of income of £35 billion across all three years, albeit with an expected decline in 2020/21 to below the levels achieved in 2018-19
Total HE course fees were reported at £18.5 billion in 2019/20, an increase of 7.2% compared with 2018-19 (£17.2 billion)
HE providers have forecast that fee income will fall by 1.7% in 2020/21, although this would still be above 2018/19 levels
Total Non-EU (overseas) tuition fee income was reported at £6bn in 2019/20, an increase of 16.4% compared with 2018/19 (£5.2 billion)
HE providers anticipate this to decrease by 10.4% in 2020/21 to £5.4bn, but this would also still be above 2018/19 levels
At the end of 2019/20, sector borrowing was £13.7bn (38.4% of income), a rise of £0.7bn compared to 2018/19
Forecasts show that the sector is projecting borrowing to continue to rise to £14.2bn by the end of 2020/21 (40.6% of income) – this is a slower increase in borrowing than in previous years
The analysis concludes that although there is currently a low chance of a significant number of unplanned closures of universities, colleges or other providers, there remain considerable uncertainties in the future.
Wonkhe: As the numbers start to come in we offer silent thanks that some of the worst-case scenarios about institutional collapse and sector-wide carnage have not come to pass. New analysis from the Office for Students offers the sector a decent bill of health, and throws light on the many adaptations and measures adopted by providers since the start of the pandemic…against many expectations, the quality of the sector shone through; recruitment largely held up, planning was proportionate, and mitigations were well managed. In such a complex and chaotic environment, not every call the sector or providers made was right, but a lot of them were. On aggregate – HE is in a good place.
It's good news, but, as we allude above, not for everyone – this Wonkhe blog speaks of the HE providers which are under closer monitoring due to a more precarious financial position, concluding: those providers under close monitoring will remain a worry – there's a lot of variables but it seems as if structural weaknesses remain. This next year will be less tolerant of these than any other time in recent history.
Commenting on the OfS report, Nicola Dandridge, Chief Executive OfS, said:
There are many reasons for this relatively positive picture. Universities entered the pandemic in reasonably robust shape. England continues to be a popular destination for international students. And universities have been able to access significant support from the government, including via access to government-backed loans. All of this means that English higher education finds itself in reasonable financial shape, and the grave predictions of dozens of university closures have not materialised.
There are a number of uncertainties which will continue to affect finances both now and into the future, not least the fact that it is still not clear what the overall impact of the pandemic will be. Where universities have immediate concerns about their finances, they must let us know straight away. The OfS will work constructively with any university in financial difficulties, with our overarching priority being to protect the interests of students. At this point in time, though, we believe that the likelihood of significant numbers of universities or other higher education providers failing is low.
Assessments – Additional Considerations
The Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA) has published a new section within the Good Practice Framework: Requests for additional consideration. It sets out some good practice guidance on requests for additional consideration (i.e. "mitigating", "extenuating" or "special circumstances" procedures, or "factors affecting performance"). OIA state that a quarter of recent complaints relate to the handling of students' requests for additional consideration when ill health or personal circumstances affected their exam/assessed performance.
The new guidance will apply from the 2021/22 academic year, however, providers are encouraged to consider the relevance it has to learning during Covid times. Providers are urged to consider flexibility and adaptations that they can implement in their approach (particularly evidence requests) for students requesting additional consideration now due to the pandemic.
Felicity Mitchell, Independent Adjudicator OIA, said: Students who need to submit a request for additional consideration may be experiencing significant difficulties and distress. It's important that the process for considering such requests is fair and proportionate, and that students have a proper opportunity to show that they can reach the necessary academic standards.
Ofqual – online assessments
Ofqual have published the report of their review into the barriers to online and on-screen assessment for high stakes qualifications such as GSCEs and A Levels. IT provision, security and staffing issues are some of the barriers to the adoption of online and on-screen assessments in England. The review was, in part, a response to suggestions from some stakeholders that these assessment methods could be used to mitigate risks around disruption to summer 2021 exams. Dods have summarised the key points here.
R&D Places Strategy: The transcript from the Science Minister's speech on the Government's ambition for research and innovation, and progress on developing the R&D Places Strategy is now available here.
Horizon Europe: Research Professional report: legislators have said financial contributions from non-European Union countries participating in Horizon Europe through association agreements will be channelled preferentially to the parts of the programme they won funding from, while EU negotiators have agreed a deal on Erasmus+, the bloc's 2021-27 education and training mobility programme, which they say could broaden and even triple participation in it.
UKRI Ethnicity Data: Wonkhe report: UK Research and Innovation has published ethnicity data for all funding applicants and awardees, highlighting disparities between different ethnic groups. While the proportion of ethnic minority fellowship awardees has risen from 12 to 18 per cent between 2014-15 and 2018-19, large gaps still exist between ethnic groups, with fewer than one per cent of fellows being black. In addition, the proportion of ethnic minority principal investigators is still lower than the general proportion of ethnic minorities in teaching or research roles. The data is aggregated for UKRI's seven research councils and is presented both by specific ethnicity and by broader ethnic group.
State of the Relationship: The National Centre for Universities and Business (NCUB) published their State of the Relationship report, which outlines the results of their Collaboration Progress Monitor, examining and tracking university-business collaboration over time. The analysis uses 2017/18 data, compared to a five-year average.
Headline findings for Research and Innovation:
85,218 interactions between universities and SMEs – a growth of 11.9% from the previous year
Almost 13,000 interactions between universities and businesses, increasing by 10.2% on the previous year
27,645 interactions with large businesses – a growth of 5.5%
Investment by UK businesses in university R&D grew by 8.7%, taking total investment to £389m
881 Innovate UK academic grants were awarded to universities – an increase of 41 and the highest number since the monitor began
Increase of 7.4% in foreign funds into HE, but growth is decelerating
£144m income from licencing, representing an increase of 39%
44 spinout companies were still active for at least three years – an increase of 4.8%
Licences granted by universities decreased by 16.9% down to 7,075 – the first drop in six years
1,770 patents were granted to UK universities, representing an increase of 27.7%
Headline findings for Skills and Talent collaboration:
Learner days delivered by universities to businesses was 1,313 days lower in 2017/18 than the five-year average of 25,027 days
72 universities offered higher of degree apprenticeships in 2017/18, whereas five years prior this number was only four
6,360 degree apprenticeships started, with 10,497 people participating in a higher of degree apprenticeship provided by a university
7,605 HE leavers ran their own business in 2017/18
69% of undergraduates and 78% of postgraduates were in full-time or part-time employment
Just over one quarter of undergraduates had enrolled on a sandwich course – an increase of 3.5% on 2014/15
69% of undergraduates agreed or strongly agreed that they were using what they learnt during their studies
80% of postgraduates agreed of strongly agreed that they were using what they learnt during their studies
Translational Research: UKRI and Zinc have launched a new programme researchers turn ideas into products and services that help people live longer, healthier lives. The programme is designed to support early career and other researchers with their applications for funding and will open with a series of workshops in January 2021. Researchers will be offered a nine-month package of support provided by Zinc including coaching and mentoring from an active network of experts and partner organisations and assistance in using design-led, impact-focused approaches to developing their ideas. It aims to help researchers with the most innovative ideas, who normally wouldn't consider this kind of grant, to apply for up to £62,500 per project
Parliamentary Questions & Blogs
The £15 billion for R&D – will it replace EU funds?
Wonkhe have a new blog – Knowledge exchange and the arts: Evelyn Wilson introduces a new centre focused on capturing and recording the many benefits of knowledge exchanges between universities and the cultural sector.
Research Professional have a good blog from ex-Universities Minister Chris Skidmore which argues that postgraduate research policy needs attention and recalls why he abandoned postgraduate study. Excerpts:
Salaries over study
As to the value of a PhD and a career as a researcher, we champion its international appeal and encourage visa applications to improve access to global talent, rightly seeking to bring researchers to this country to establish themselves in our brilliant universities. Yet when it comes to domestic students, we create algorithms called LEO that deliver the harsh message that UK students should not think about any subject that might have a long-term and uncertain outcome—that risk factor we praise start-ups for encouraging—so why not chase a salary instead? It's a message that makes postgraduate study a no-no.
If we want to become a global science superpower, we need to value research—all of it
Qualification reform
What would different look like? In an increasingly fast-paced economy and society, the idea of taking three to four years out of your life to research and write an 80,000-word thesis that 10 people might read seems a waste of a huge amount of potential and productivity. The Viva, too, belongs to an age that we might politely admit has passed.
Much has already been done to expand the potential crossover between academia and industry, but the greatest barrier of qualification reform for postgraduate study remains. The question is, who in Whitehall understands this? It is an essential prerequisite for an R&D strategy that the level 8 qualification route is expanded and opened up
UCAS have published their 2020 End of Cycle Report focusing on widening access and participation and student choice (data dashboard here). What happened to the COVID cohort? Lessons for levelling up in 2021 and beyond is the easy summary read of the end of cycle data.
Research Professional do a great job at interpreting the meaning behind the main points. Their (short) blog is well worth a read if this topic interests you.
Overall UCAS report progress on widening participation, although it remains slow meaning it would take 332 years to close the gap on the current trajectory. Highly selective universities were urged to admit 70 more disadvantaged students per year to close their admissions gap by 2030.
The recommendations are on page 4 and divide into short term 2021 recommendations, and medium-longer term 2022-2025. Here are just a few of interest:
Maintain the uplift in capacity in HE places and improved support for employers to take on apprentices or offer T Level placements
Adopt UCAS' MEM as the default mechanism for measuring participation, providing a true sense of progress
Promote sharing of information at the application stage, including that related to disability, learning difference and mental health, by building confidence in students to trust that UCAS and universities and colleges will use this information to arrange appropriate support and inform future improvements
Medium to long-term, 2022-25
Increase the number of HE places and apprenticeships to reflect the growing 18 year old population and ensure disadvantaged students do not miss out as a result of increased competition
Consider how a post-qualification admissions system might improve the application experience and outcomes for disadvantaged students. HE admissions reform should be used as an opportunity to explore how technical education and apprenticeships could be integrated into the UCAS application process
Explore the benefits of a UK shared apprenticeships admissions service to enable students to consider and connect to all post-secondary education options in a single location
Further insight into the 2020 cohort including the analysis of students' choices and motivations is due to be published end January 2021.
Chris Millward, Director for Fair Access and Participation at OfS, said:
Through the access and participation plans they have agreed with the Office for Students, universities have committed to ambitious targets to improve access over the next five years. This UCAS data shows universities taking the first steps towards meeting these commitments… It is crucial that universities follow through on these commitments to reduce barriers for students from the most disadvantaged parts of the country, and we will closely monitor their progress.
Access is, though, only one part of the picture. It's promising that a record number of applicants have been accepted from the most underrepresented groups, but these students also need good support once they get into university. That will be crucial for ensuring that they are able to continue with their studies, particularly through the disruption of the coronavirus pandemic, and have an equal opportunity to achieve the top grades. It will also equip them with the skills and knowledge they will need if they are to thrive in the industries and public services of the future.
Ethnic Disparities: Wonkhe tell us: A letter from the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities to equalities minister Kemi Badenoch seeking an extension to a reporting deadline highlights an approach to identifying disparities based on finer grained data. One section suggests that analysis has shown that white "working class" boys are the group least likely to go to university, and that many girls from a Bangladeshi background choose not to go to a university outside of London for family and cultural reasons.
Effectiveness of Opportunity Areas in improving educational outcomes for disadvantaged children
Making exams fair – assessing the potential merits of optionality in exams.
Barriers to education for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller pupils are expected to be tackled through institutional Access and Participation Plans.
Student Hardship funding: Following the announcement of £20 million to HE providers to contribute to student hardship for 2020-21 the DfE has begun distributing and monitoring the fund. Wonkhe: Michelle Donelan asks that funding split between full-time, part-time, and disabled student premiums is available to students as quickly as possible, and allocated by the end of the financial year. OfS will publish details of an allocation later this week.
During the APPG for students it was raised that £20m for hardship is approximately £13 per student. Minister Michelle Donelan Reiterates that this fund is not going to be accessed or required by every student, and it is there to support students who need support most.
The effect of changes to the immigration system on the UK's ability to attract overseas students.
Still no movement on this – first year university students from the EU, who have not yet moved to the UK, will not qualify for EU pre–settled status.
The Lords Economic Affairs Committee published Employment and Covid-19: time for a new deal it includes:
Expand the number of social care workers by increasing funding in the sector with stipulations that funding should be used to raise wages and improve training and conditions;
Prioritise green projects that can be delivered at scale, quickly, and take place across the country
Government should introduce a new job, skills and training guarantee, available to every young person not in full-time education or employment for one year
The Government's disparate skills and training policies, spread across many departments, should be joined up and be managed and coordinated at a regional local level
The Government should also consider incentives to help young people move towards jobs with opportunities to develop skills in digital and other growing sectors
The most significant barrier to hiring apprentices is cost – faced with falling numbers of apprenticeship starts and reduced recruitment, the Government should consider raising the level of hiring subsidies for apprentices
The DWP should include a greater emphasis on skills profiling in its employment support offer – it should examine successful examples of employment services in other countries, such as Sweden and Austria, which intervene early to support declining businesses and sectors and quickly transition and retrain workers into more viable employment
2020 Spending Review Priorities
Following the Chancellor's 2020 Spending Review announcements the Treasury has published the provisional priority outcomes and metric document. We have a summary of the aspects related to education here.
APPG for Students
The All Party Parliamentary Group for Students met this week questioning Universities Minister Michelle Donelan on HE student issues. As an interest based parliamentary group the meetings aren't recorded and transcribed like other parliamentary business. However, the APPG has done a fantastic job in capturing the Minister's statements on their Twitter feed (you have to keep clicking 'show replies' to view the full range of topics the Minister responded to.
Most of Donelan's responses are the standard Government HE policy stock, however a few stood out.
On Augar the APPG reports that: Minister states this remains a government priority for HE and FE sectors, claims the reports from Augar will be released shortly.
Also that the Government is actively working on how lifetime maintenance loans can work in practice for part-time distanced students.
And in response to student claims that isolation support is poor – Minister claims they will follow up on these issues, ensure students are getting access to food, wellbeing support, communications and check ins, 'not afraid to hold institutions to account'.
PQs
Asymptomatic Covid testing for student return in January and another on same topic and this one on the cost
Generous HE exam grades
The reform of the Higher Education admissions process to boost apprenticeships and Further Education (Robert Halfon).
There are three new consultations from the Office for Students this week:
Monetary penalties
Reportable events
Publication of information about individual providers
Nursing: Care Minister Helen Whately has made an announcement on the record numbers of students accepted places to study nursing and midwifery in England this year based on the UCAS data released this week. The press release begins:
The final figures from this year's admission cycle show there were 29,740 acceptances to nursing and midwifery courses in England, 6,110 more than last year and an increase of over a quarter (26%). This year, 23% (6,770) of acceptances were from students aged 35 years and older, a 43% increase on last year.
Net zero: The Government published the Energy white paper: Powering our net zero future this week.
Government Education Policy Commitments: In the traditional spirit of the end of year review Dods have published Boris Johnson: One Year On reviewing how the Government have fared in delivering their cornerstone policy commitments. There's a short section on Education and Skills on page 9 which is worth a quick skim. The key reminder in relation to HE is: The promised assessment of student loan interest rates has yet to materialise – though some in Whitehall might argue that it's a low priority on the list of problems facing the HE sector at the moment.
Tags: access and participation admissions Augar review Brexit Continuation data sharing erasmus ethnicity financial sustainability Graduate Outcomes HE regulation Horizon local news mitigating circumstances Office for Students OFS quality regulatory enforcement reportable events standards TEF widening access
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We're awash with experimental statistics this week! So far it looks as though Covid hasn't resulted in mass (early) drop outs. There's more detail on the Lifetime Skills Guarantee and the Education committee has been grilling the Minister on exams.
The Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) has published a report Beyond business as usual: Higher education in the era of climate change
The paper describes how four areas of activity for universities:
Redesigning the day-to-day operations of universities and colleges to reduce emissions, nurture biodiversity and adapt to the impacts of a changing climate;
Reinvigorating the civic role of institutions to build ecologically and socially resilient communities;
Reshaping the knowledge structures of the university to address the interdisciplinary complexity of climate change;
Refocusing the educational mission of the institution to support students to develop the emotional, intellectual and practical capacities to live well with each other and with the planet in the era of climate change
And the paper recommends that universities and colleges should:
reconfigure their day-to-day operations to achieve urgent, substantial and monitored climate change mitigation and biodiversity enhancement action in accordance with Paris climate commitments and the Aichi biodiversity targets.
develop a clear operational plan for implementing climate change adaptation measures developed in partnership with local communities.
develop an endowment, investment and procurement plan oriented towards ecological and economic sustainability.
develop a civic engagement strategy that identifies how to build stronger partnerships to create sustainable futures.
explore how they can rebalance their educational offerings to support older adults transitioning away from high-carbon forms of work.
examine the institutional barriers – historic, organisational, cultural – to building dialogue across disciplines and with knowledge traditions outside the university and establish the institutional structures and practices needed to address these barriers.
initiate an institution-wide process to bring together staff and students to develop programmes that are adequate to the emotional, intellectual and practical realities of living well with each other and with the planet in the era of climate change.
Three proposals are made for nationwide interventions that will actively support the proposals above:
The Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Research Roadmap (in partnership with devolved administrations) should establish a 'moonshot' research programme oriented to ensuring that all university and college operations in the UK (including academic and student travel) have zero carbon emissions by 2035, with a 75 per cent reduction by 2030; www.hepi.ac.uk 11
A £3 billion New Green Livelihoods programme should be established to support educational activities that will enable debt-free mass transition of older adults from carbon-intensive employment towards creative sustainable livelihoods;
The year 2022 should be designated a year of 'Sustainable Social Innovation' involving a programme of mass public education, in partnership between the BBC, universities and colleges and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy; this should engage over two million people in collective learning for the changing conditions of the climate change era.
Research Professional cover the story:
The Higher Education Statistics Agency publishes climate data and, as we covered earlier this year, there has been a steady reduction in university-created carbon emissions since 2017-18—although more than 20 higher education institutions have recorded an increase during that time (they are listed here, if you're curious).
The People and Planet campaign group, which somewhat glibly ranks universities by how green they are, has also put pressure on universities—particularly with its work on fossil fuel divestment and its criticism of the recently announced (and no doubt well-intentioned) Climate Commission for UK Higher and Further Education Leaders.
Innovation Catapults
The Lords Science and Technology Committee ran two sessions into their inquiry on The contribution of Innovation Catapults to delivering the R&D Roadmap. The second session also covered the performance of the Catapult network in the context of various performance reviews and how Catapults might evolve going forward. Dods have summarised the key discussions from the two sessions here.
Dods report that Jisc have launched
a new multi-content repository for storing research data and articles that will make it easier for university staff to manage the administration around open access publishing.
…it will allow institutions to meet all Plan S mandatory requirements and other funder and publisher mandates for open scholarship.
Developed with input from the research sector, the research repository allows institutions to manage open access articles, research data and theses in a single system.
The research repository is a fully managed 'software-as-a-service' provision, which is hosted on a secure cloud platform. Included in the service is an in-built 'FAIR checker' to make sure research data is 'findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable'.
Jisc also offers research systems connect, a preservation service and research repository plus: a single service to manage, store, preserve and share digital research outputs.
Net Zero: The Royal Society has a new report on the planet and digital technologies. It finds that digital technologies such as smart metres, supercomputers, weather modelling and artificial intelligence could deliver nearly one third of the carbon emission reductions required by 2030. The report makes recommendations to help secure a digital-led transition to net zero, including establishing national and international frameworks for collecting, sharing and using data for net zero applications, as well as setting up a taskforce for digitalisation of the net zero transition
Tech industry warns of impact of Covid-19 on R&D activity: techUK have attracted attention through the written evidence they submitted to the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee inquiry on the role of technology, research and innovation in the Covid-19 recovery. techUK stated that technology, research and innovation organisations had to find new ways of interacting, engaging and working with its staff, customers, and partners during the pandemic. They also:
identified barriers to the commercial application of research that have emerged from the crisis, particularly in sectors where firms have had problems accessing study participants for clinical trials or market research
outlined a number of short-term measures the government's R&D roadmap could take to support research and innovation, including long-term investment in key computing infrastructures and more adaptable and flexible funding support
Open Access Switchboard: Dods report that UKRI, Wellcome and Jisc are among the first organisations supporting the establishment of a new body called Open Access Switchboard. The switchboard will help the research community transition to full and immediate open access and simplify efforts to make open access (OA) the predominant model of publication of research.
PhD Students: UKRI have issued a response to the UCU open letter on treatment of UKRI funded PhD students. Full response letter here. UKRI state they tried to balance a range of factors in developing their policy of support but had to make difficult decisions in the circumstances. They reiterate the financial resources made available, and explain the rationale of their decisions.
Ageing: From Wonkhe: UK Research and Innovation has relaunched the Health Ageing Catalyst Awards, with help from venture capital firm Zinc, to help researchers commercialise work around the science of longevity and ageing. Researchers can apply for up to £62,500, as well as coaching and mentoring over a nine-month period, with a series of workshops beginning in January 2021.
REF Sub Panel: Research Professional write about the announcement of the REF sub-panel appointees.
More than 400 academics have been picked to sit on the Research Excellence Framework 2021 assessment sub-panels.
The sub-panels will assess submissions between May 2021 and February 2022, working under the four main panels that oversee the process and sign off the final recommendations from the sub-panels to be used in the REF.
The REF team said the new sub-panel members "include leading researchers from across a range of universities in the UK and beyond, and experts in the use and benefits of research who will play a key role in assessing the wider impact of research".
The new appointments bring the total number of panellists, including observers, on the main and sub-panels to 1087. Some further appointments are still to be made, filling remaining gaps in expertise.
The sub panel is expected to recognise the calls for more diversity among panel members
Lifetime Skills Guarantee
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has announced further detail on the Lifetime Skills Guarantee which will support adults aged 24+ to achieve their first full level 3 qualification (i.e. a technical certificate or diploma, or full A levels) from April 2021. The list of qualifications available under the Guarantee is here including engineering, healthcare and conservation and is expected to flex to meet labour market needs. Awarding organisations, Mayoral Combined Authorities and the Greater London Authority will be able to suggest additions to the list.
The Lifetime Skills Guarantee also includes the Lifelong Loan Entitlement which will provide set funding for people to take courses in both FE colleges and universities at their own pace across their lifetime. (I.e. if you use it all at once that was your bite of the cherry.) The Government say the funding will allow providers to increase the quality and provision of their own offer, as well as directly benefiting individual learners.
The Written Ministerial Statement on the Lifetime Skills Guarantee is here.
The Office for Students has updated advice on student visas for international students.
Admissions – Exams
Exams cancelled: Scotland have cancelled their 2021 Higher and Advanced Higher (A level equivalent) exams. Pupils will now receive grades based on teacher assessments of classroom work throughout the year. With Wales having cancelled their exams too renewed noise has erupted over the DfE's stance for England to continue with exams in the revised format. Questions are raised over whether, with some nations shunning and some taking exams, whether it creates a level playing field for universities admissions. However, the minister for school standards rejected this in Tuesday's Education Committee session stating that universities were experienced in managing different qualifications from across the world as well as the UK. And as such universities are well placed to ensure equitable decisions regarding places even with differing exam regimes across the UK.
During the first session of the Education Committee meetings on Tuesday Glenys Stacey (Ofqual) responded to the Committee's concerns of exam grade hyperinflation stating that universities would be able to manage the rise in higher grades through their admissions processes and that the OfS would monitor for fairness.
Exam petitions: If you have a particular interest in following the exams news there was a Westminster Hall debate covering the covid-19 impact on schools and exams and it also considered all four petitions on the matter:
Cancel all GCSEs and A levels in 2021
Reclose schools and colleges due to increase in COVID-19 cases
Keep schools closed until Covid 19 is no longer a threat
Implement a two week school lockdown before 24 December to save Christmas
Education Committee: The Education Committee has released 3 letters. The first two are from Gavin Williamson responding to Committee requests on the 2020 exams issues (or rather maintaining his original position and not supplying further information). The third from Committee Chair Robert Halfon trying to obtain the requested information.
Sticking to his guns
Not sharing too much info
And the follow up from the Education Committee stating they still hadn't received the requested paper
The issue of not sharing information was raised during Tuesday's Education Committee session too – the Civil Service got the blame. Robert Halfon (Committee Chair) stated the Secretary of State for Education, and the Minister for School Standards, had undertaken to provide the committee with departmental documents pertaining to the school examinations matter and questioned why those documents had not yet been provided.
Nick Gibb, Minister for School Standards, responded that the department intended to be as open and transparent as possible, and had offered to provide summaries of the various meetings that had taken place over the summer and were relevant to the committee's inquiry. The difficulty with providing further internal documentation, however, related to the privacy of civil servants and the principles of how the civil service operated.
Mearns (a Committee member) raised concerns that the department appeared to be hiding issues that they did not want the committee to know about – Gibb rejected this. He reiterated that the civil service operated on principles that had to be protected and that within those constraints the department would seek to meet the committee's requests.
Dods have provided a summary of the Education Committee session here.
Grades: Wonkhe have a new blog: We're used to arguments about how reliable predicted grades are, but how reliable are actual grades? Dennis Sherwood introduces the disturbing truth that in some A level subjects, grades are "correct" about half of the time.
Other Admissions methods: Wonkhe on A level exams:
The commonly cited idea that "everybody else does post-qualifications admissions" is a little misleading. What stands out for us is the absence of high stakes examinations in the years before university study. The dominant model is one that takes into account all of a person's performance in the final years at school – centre assessed grades, in other words. Couple this with a less stratified higher education sector, and a dominant regionality, and things look very different from what we know in the UK.
The existence of the A level as a totemic "gold standard", and the peculiarly British hang-up around comparative provider status, means that the UK will always be an outlier. But there is a lot we can take away from understanding how things work elsewhere, and there would be a case for lowering rather than raising the exam stakes in our existing system.
Last week the policy update showcased how Ireland and Australia do admissions. Here are the versions from Finland and Canada.
NSS Review
Wonkhe remind us that the OfS are due to report on the first phase of the review of the National Student Survey before January. Wonkhe say: The English regulator is hampered by the fact that the NSS is a UK-wide initiative, and the unique political pressures that drove the Department for Education to act do not apply in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. But the latter two nations are not represented on the NSS review group – neither are current students.
And they have a blog – Gwen van der Velden, who was on the group that reviewed the NSS in 2017, fears that this years' expedited and politicised review could do lasting damage to a sector that is well aware of the value of the survey: A shortened review, done in difficult times, and without proper representation on the review panel will not improve the National Student Survey, says Gwen van der Velden.
Graduate Outcomes
Prospects & Jisc published What do Graduates do? It draws on the HESA Graduate Outcomes 2017/18 data which surveys first-degree graduates 15 months post-graduation. There is a wealth of information in the report which there isn't the space to do justice to here, including individualised breakdowns for the major study groupings.
The majority of graduates were employed 15 months after graduating
5% were unemployed and looking for work
8% of employed graduates were in a professional-level job
66% went to work in their home region of the UK
12% of graduates were in further study
The average salary for graduates who went straight into full-time employment in the UK was £24,217
The report also includes insights from careers experts across a variety of sectors and subjects. And page 11 looks at understanding graduates feeling through data – and has some interesting insights at subject level. Below we cover OfS' interpretation of the data generalised to the whole student population below. The value for money section is worth a read too (page 12), here's a teaser:
The term 'value for money' hasn't so much crept into higher education discourse in the past few years as waded right in and sat itself at the top table.
… So, it would appear at first glance that the graduate voice does start a new narrative to what has been arguably an over-metricised scrutiny of graduate destinations. It demonstrates a real opportunity to draw a subjective narrative of value and success to our understanding of what our graduates progress into. The question remains to what extent such rich information will be utilised across the sector to reinvent how we project the value of higher education for our prospective students. Building a true graduate voice of value and success has to count for something – and why shouldn't it?
Wonkhe have a blog – Charlie Ball looks to the latest graduate outcome data to tell us whether graduates can expect improved prospects next year.
Graduate Wellbeing: OfS published a summary on the wellbeing of graduates 15-months post-graduation, as reported in the Graduate Outcomes survey, actual data available here. Here are some of the findings:
Graduates rated their life satisfaction and happiness less highly than the general population.
Graduates were more anxious than the general population, with those who had previously studied full-time reporting the most anxiety.
Out of all graduates, those who were unemployed were the least satisfied with their life, had the lowest level of feeling that the things they do in life are worthwhile, and were the least happy. Those who were unemployed were also the most anxious.
In general, older graduates were more likely to score highly for life satisfaction, the feeling that things done in life are worthwhile and happiness than younger ones.
Those graduates who had reported a mental health condition during their studies were more anxious than those who had not.
Female graduates reported higher life satisfaction, the feeling that things done in life areworthwhile and happiness than men, although women were more anxious.
Note – All findings are based on the proportion of graduates scoring 'very high' for life satisfaction, feeling the things done in life are worthwhile and happiness, and the proportion of graduates scoring 'very low' for anxiety.
Student Covid Insights Survey
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) published experimental statistics from a pilot of the Student Covid Insights Survey (conducted November 2020), which aimed to gather information on the behaviours, plans, opinions and wellbeing of HE students in the context of the pandemic. Key findings:
An estimated 56% of students, who live away from their home (usual non-term address), plan to return home for Christmas.
Of those who responded, more than half (57%) reported a worsening in their mental health and well-being between the beginning of the autumn term (September 2020) and being surveyed.
Students are significantly more anxious than the general population of Great Britain, with mean scores of 5.3 compared with 4.2 respectively, (where 0 is "not anxious at all" and 10 is "completely anxious").
Student experience has changed because of the coronavirus; considering academic experience, 29% of students reported being dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with their experience in the autumn term.
Over half (53%) of students reported being dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with their social experience in the autumn term.
Access to the data is from this webpage. On Wonkhe: Jim Dickinson says "they were promised blended. They're not getting it."
The OfS have released experimental statistics on student transfers (students transferring course or institution). When analysed by student characteristics some familiar themes emerge. You can read the full report here.
In 2017/18 full time first degree students:
5% transferred internally (same provider) with credit
5% transferred to a different provider with credit
Students tend to transfer (with credit) after their first year, less transfer at the end of year 2. However, of those that do 0.2% transfer externally, 0.1% internally.
Students who want to change course without credit may have to restart a course. For students studying at the same provider, there is more than triple the number of students who restart a different course without carrying credit (1.7%) than students who transfer to a different course with credit (0.5%).
Moreover, this gap has been increasing across time as the proportion of students who restart increases and the proportion of students who transfer decreases.
At a new provider 1% of students who studied the same subject did not carry credit, those with credit studying same subject area (0.4%).
Age group and underrepresented neighbourhoods (POLAR4): Students from the areas of lowest higher education participation (POLAR4 quintile 1) were the most likely to transfer without credit. The most underrepresented students studying at the same provider were more likely to restart their course (4.7 per cent) than more represented students (3.1 per cent of quintile 5 students).
Ethnicity: Black students are the ethnic group most likely to start again when studying the same course at the same provider or the same subject area at a different provider. 9.1 per cent of black students restart the same course, and 2.0 per cent repeat their year when moving to a different provider.
Entry qualifications: Students with BTECs as their main entry qualification are the group most likely to restart a course at the same provider (2.5 per cent on a different course and 7.2 per cent on the same course). They are also the least likely to transfer internally with credit (0.4 per cent).
Sex: Male students are more likely to transfer within a provider than female students. However, male students transferring to a different provider are more likely to carry credit in a different subject area, but less likely to do so in the same subject area.
Disability: Students with a reported disability studying at the same provider are more likely to change course than students with no reported disability. Similar proportions of students with and without a reported disability transfer to a different provider.
Sexual orientation: LGB students are more likely to restart in a different course without credit, and students with other sexual orientation are more likely to restart the same course without credit than heterosexual students.
Care experience: Students who have been in care are more likely to restart their original course or a different course at their provider than other students. For students studying at a different provider, a higher proportion of care experienced students have to start from the beginning, whether or not the subject area was different.
January return
iNews questions whether students will follow the guidelines to stay away from their accommodation until their later January return date without rent refunds. NUS president Larissa Kennedy said: If students are advised not to be in their accommodation from December – February, then the Government must put up more money to support student renters who will be paying hundreds or thousands of pounds for properties they are being told not to live in for months. Students are already struggling to make ends meet without having to line the pockets of landlords for properties they should not use on public health grounds.
Wales and Scotland have also announced the staggered return for students in January.
Student Withdrawals – no Covid effect…yet?
At the end of last week the Student Loans Company published ad hoc experimental statistics on early-in-year student withdrawal to meet the significant public interest in this data in order to contribute towards an understanding of how the COVID-19 pandemic may be impacting students. It covers withdrawals up to 29 November of each year.
SLC has not seen any increase in student withdrawal notifications for the purpose of student finance in this academic year, compared to the previous two years. SLC go on to note it was actually slightly lower in 2020 than in previous years.
However, a caveat:
The irregular start to AY 2020/21 caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has included a number of courses starting later than in previous years, some universities extending the 'cooling off' period before the student becomes liable for tuition fees and, more generally, an increase in the potential for administrative disruption. It is possible these irregularities may have resulted in HEPs providing withdrawal notifications to SLC later. Therefore, while the two previous years' data has been provided for comparison, any conclusions should be made with caution noting the irregularities of this academic year and the early in-year nature of the data sets.
SLC's analysis is available here. Wonkhe have two related blogs:
New data from SLC shows non-continuation for this term is in line with previous years. David Kernohan thinks there may be more.
In designing student engagement and retention strategies, don't overlook the role students can play. Gary Guadagnolo breaks down the common attributes of effective peer support schemes.
HEPI published a new blog – Widening participation for students with Speech, Language and Communication needs in higher education.
It is reasonable to ask why policy should fund widening participation for this group. One answer for this would be that there is a strong link between communication skills and social disadvantage. Factors such as being eligible for free school meals and living in a deprived neighbourhood mean children are 2.3 times more likely to be recognised as having an SLCN. In deprived areas 50 per cent of children start school with delayed language skills. Shockingly, the vocabulary level of children at age five is the best indicator of whether socially deprived children would be able to escape poverty in their later adult life.
Just 20 per cent of pupils with SLCN achieved 5+ GCSEs at grades A* to C including English and Mathematics. This compares to 70 per cent of pupils with no identified special educational needs (SEN) – an attainment gap of 50 per cent.
When asked about what higher education settings can do to widen participation, Nicole [a speech and language therapist] stated:
"When it comes to participation I would say that staff need to know their students' needs. If they know how students respond and how best they work (need for repetition, visual support, verbal support, 1;1 support) then they can make education more accessible.
Training is important and so is advocacy. Even if universities know how to support students, they also need to advocate and speak up for them! They can't always do that for themselves which often means that they don't get what they need and end up in challenging situations."
There is much that higher education institutions can do but they need to be properly supported by the Government to provide these early interventions that are necessary. Underfunding is a huge issue for those with SLCN and waiting lists 'are now almost exceeding 18 months'.
With specialised funding into primary level institutions, participation is likely to widen in universities as more students will have been diagnosed and received crucial interventions at an early age when these are most effective. Support post-secondary will help bridge the gap between compulsory education and higher education. This will assist students with SLCN to still receive support in a new environment when facing different scenarios. Finally, awareness and training of staff in higher education will help induce an inclusive atmosphere – one in which some students no longer need to bend to fit an archaic system.
DfE: Susan Aclan-Hood has been confirmed as the Permanent Secretary for the DfE, after a short stint as the "acting" head of the Department in Whitehall.
Environment: Dame Glenys Stacey has been selected as the Government's preferred candidate to become the Chair of the Office for Environmental Protection.
Nursing shortages: The Health Foundation has published a report on nursing shortages. Excerpts:
There has been some growth in the nursing workforce in recent months, in part as a result of rapid scaling up to meet COVID-19-related surge capacity, but concerns regarding shortages remain.
The current profile of the NHS nursing workforce is characterised by significant vacancies across the workforce. These vacancies are more noticeable in some specialties (eg learning disabilities and mental health) and some geographic regions (eg London).
The four domestic supply routes into UK nursing are markedly different in current volume, and in terms of scope for rapid scaling up.
The main route is the undergraduate entry to a university degree course. This inflow has grown significantly this year (by about 20%) but has a 3-year time lag between entry and qualification and has capacity constraints, along with concerns about clinical placement requirements.
The second route, via the 2-year graduate entry (accelerated) programme is smaller in number but has been identified as having scope for increase.
The third domestic route is the apprenticeship scheme, which is relatively new and reportedly has funding constraint issues, but is now receiving some additional funding. The nursing associate route is the most recent, is growing in numbers and has scope for bridging to an undergraduate nursing course.
The other source of new nurses is international recruitment… An examination of recent trends highlights a significant growth in recruitment from non-EEA countries, and an upward trajectory of active recruitment, with policy changes and NHS funding allocated to support further increases. It is apparent that international recruitment, currently constrained by COVID-19, and potentially facing change driven by the post-Brexit immigration system, will be a critical determinant in the NHS meeting the 50,000 target.
A parliamentary question confirms there are no plans to reintroduce paid contracts for student nurses on placements in NHS hospitals.
The House of Commons Library has published a research briefing on student loans. These are always interesting reminders and usually suggest a question or two from MPs and maybe an upcoming discussion.
Naughty or Nice? Finally, for a little light-hearted relief as we move closer to the Christmas break Opinium polling (page 8) tells us who the nation expects to be on Santa's naughty and nice list:
Christmas closure
We'll deliver a light touch policy update (key news only) a little early next week to help you remain up to date as the university moves towards the Christmas closure period.
Tags: access and participation admissions Ageing Continuation credit transfer employability Graduate Outcomes innovation international students lifelong learning net carbon zero NSS nursing open access skills student experience student nurses student transfers sustainability wellbeing widening participation withdrawals
HE Policy Update for the w/e 3rd December 2020
COVID-19, Doctoral College, EU, international, NHS, parliament, PG research, policy, Research news, Student Engagement jforster
The Government has announced the requirements for universities to prepare plans for students to return to campus safely in January, flexibilities for 2021 level 2/3 exams have been confirmed, there's a new report about higher technical education, and the attainment and continuation gap for estranged students is of concern.
Parliamentary News
Local Rebels: The Government experienced a rocky ride as Parliament passed the Covid tier legislation on Tuesday. The Conservative rebels that voted against the Government can be seen here. Notably several local MPs voted against or abstained from the vote. Chope and Drax voted against, Syms said he would vote against (but was unable to vote as he acted as a teller for the no votes), Tobias Ellwood abstained.
WMS – Skills Bootcamps: The DfE published a Written Ministerial Statement from Gavin Williamson (Education SoS) giving an update on the Lifetime Skills Guarantee. It announced the extension of the skills boot camps including to the 'Heart of the South West' covering digital skills (software development, digital marketing, and data analytics) and technical skills training such as welding, engineering, and construction. A further £43m will be invested through the National Skills Fund to extend Skills Bootcamps further across the country in 2021.
January Restart
The DfE released the January restart guidance explaining the rules and priorities universities should adhere to for the safe return of students. (Press release here)
The return of students should be staggered over 5 weeks – this is to minimise transmission risks from the mass movement of students
There is a priority order for students to return with medical, practical and placement students returning first (4 to 22 January) to access their essential face to face tuition. Those with external (e.g. professional body) exams that cannot be moved are also permitted to return.
Other students will receive online tuition and return to campus in a staggered manner between 25 January and 5 February. The Government set out a priority order for those in the second phase of return e.g. postgraduates first, new starters last.
All students should be offered (the asymptomatic) testing on return to university before tuition recommences, social contact to be curtailed whilst awaiting the results of both tests (3 days apart)
Students who returned home over the winter break should not be encouraged to return to their term-time accommodation until their face-to-face teaching is scheduled to resume
Students who remained in their term time accommodation over the winter break or those for whom an early return is essential (e.g. those without study space or connectivity within their domicile, international students, students without other suitable accommodation, those who need to return sooner for health reasons). Students who return early due to these reasons and commuter students are expected to be able to access campus facilities such as the library during the period.
International students returning from outside of a travel corridor must self-isolate for 14 days, although they can pay for a private test which if negative will reduce the isolation to 5 days.
Students who spend the winter break within tier 3 should take a test before they travel, if this is available locally.
In her letter to Vice-Chancellors Donelan stated:
We do not underestimate the work that will need to be done to accommodate this plan including moving exams or putting them online and creating more online materials and lessons.
This plan is the best way to ensure all students can return and blended learning can resume whilst reducing the risks of mass movement and also ensuring all students can be tested.
We continue to support the blended learning model that universities have been using and still consider you, in collaboration with local public health teams, to be best-placed in determining the proportion of online/in-person teaching working that works for your setting. However, where it is deemed safe to do so, we would encourage as much face-to-face learning as possible, recognising the benefits this brings to student experience.
Financial Hardship: The Minister also announced there would be £20 million allocated on a one-off basis to support those that need it most, particularly disadvantaged students. They will work with OfS to produce the detail on this.
One shot: Earlier in the week the Government stated that students would be counted within the 'home' household numbers for calculating visitor numbers during the Christmas window. It also confirmed that students are only permitted one visit home between 3 December 2020 and 8 February 2021.
Wonkhe have a blog delving into the detail of the Government's statutory instrument which covers the student related aspects here.
No plans to cancel A-levels in 2021 in England
On Thursday Education Secretary Gavin Williamson announced extra measures to support students during the 2021 exams:
Students sitting exams and other assessments next year will benefit from a package of exceptional measures to make them as fair as possible and manage the disruption caused by Covid-19
In recognition of the challenges faced by students this year, grades will be more generous, students will be given advance notice of some topic areas, and steps will be taken to ensure every student receives a grade, even if they miss a paper due to self-isolation or illness.
exam aids – like formula sheets – provided in some exams giving students more confidence and reducing the amount of information they need to memorise;
additional exams to give students a second chance to sit a paper if the main exams or assessments are missed due to illness or self-isolation; and
a new expert group to look at differential learning and monitor the variation in the impact of the pandemic on students across the country.
Students taking vocational and technical qualifications will also see adaptations to ensure parity between general and vocational qualifications
Where a student has a legitimate reason to miss all their papers, then a validated teacher informed assessment can be used, only once all chances to sit an exam have passed
Test and exam results will not be included in performance tables this year, and instead will be replaced by attendance information, and student destinations and the subjects taken at key stage 4 and 5
And on remote education within schools and colleges there are updated expectations:
Primary schools are expected to provide a minimum of three hours a day on average; secondary schools expected to provide at least four hours' worth
Similar expectations will apply for colleges and other further education providers which take into account the sector's role in delivering both academic and technical provision
A Government news story tells us that the Social Mobility Commission is contributing to DfE planning process for the 2021 exams. They have recommended the Government:
Suspend school performance tables for 2021, as they fail to take account of the disproportionate learning loss experienced by students in areas of deprivation.
Work with schools and colleges to develop a clear and consistent system for collecting centre assessed grades that can be used as a contingency measure if individual students are unable to take exams.
Offer students the opportunity to take exams in Autumn 2021, without this being considered a 'resit'. The results would need to be made available in time for UCAS applications for 2022 entry.
Support schools with extra resources, such as additional staff and venues, so that they can provide Covid-secure examination environments.
Mitigations in content and structure of exams benefit all candidates, and so do not address gaps between those who have struggled with remote learning due to home circumstance and those who have not. As such, while some adjustment (like the reduction in content of English Literature) may be practically necessary and useful, it should not be regarded as a solution.
Generosity in grading for 2021 should aim for a midpoint between 2019 and 2020, but following a normal mathematical distribution, rather than replicating the anomalies of 2020.
Arrangements for students isolating at the time of exams have to take into account the vast difference in personal and socio-economic circumstances. Home invigilation should be avoided.
For the students progressing to university:
Arrangements providing grants and opportunities for gap years for those with fewer familial resources should be retained.
At the moment, some courses prejudice those who have done an extra year, and some institutions struggle to accommodate retakes of years because of funding reductions for older students – this could easily be addressed.
Their recommendations aim to ensure equity in the 2021 exam system: Most recognise that there is a widening achievement gap in the nation's schools and that the impact of coronavirus has disproportionally hit pupils in areas of deprivation.
The Social Mobility Commission statement included:
Schools must not ambushed at the last minute on this – they need time to adjust their teaching and their focus in ways that allow them to provide an effective education for the most vulnerable…We must also not fall into the trap of thinking that solutions that benefit all students will address the widening achievement gap. In a competitive exam system like ours, the key worry is that disadvantaged students will be outperformed by their peers whose experience of lockdown has been far smoother and more productive.
The key question the commission has considered in setting out our advice is 'What constitutes a good outcome for the students who have been most disadvantaged this year? Are they better with weaker grades in more subjects, or better grades in the subjects they need?' We firmly believe that if we can free up schools by taking away some of the pressure of performance tables that we think are unlikely to tell us anything useful about the system this year, then we can allow deprived students who have often suffered the most to be given tailored solutions.
The Government's invitation to the Social Mobility Commission sits a little awkwardly with the outcomes of Ofqual's analysis of the 2020 GCSE and A level awards (published late last week) which and concluded that there was "no evidence" that the system systematically disadvantaged poorer pupils or those with protected characteristics. However, the report suggests that there was "some evidence that some 6,300 GCSE entries by low prior attainers with unknown socioeconomic status (most of whom are at independent schools) may have received disproportionately overestimated grades." The same effect was not seen for A levels.
Ofqual also pointed out that although poorer pupils saw a bigger drop in grades B to E as a result of standardisation, the proportion achieving A* and A grades actually fell by less than it did for pupils from better-off backgrounds.
The new report looked at the centre-assessment grades, calculated grades and final grades issued to pupils. It found that had calculated grades been issued, the results would have been more closely in line with the established relationships between student characteristics and outcomes seen in previous results.
A Wonkhe blog explains Ireland's university admissions system: The CAO [Central Applications Office] is best understood as an application clearing house, rather than a strict comparator to UCAS. The system in Ireland is what the UK is now terming PQO: post qualification offers.
…With up to 20 choices to play with, however, students can choose to be very ambitious with some of their choices
Students applying to university will have a sense of what they may achieve in the Leaving Certificate, and thus can apply to courses that cover this range, though predicted grades don't exist in the Irish system…there's very little penalty to being speculative.
…points mean places. Rather than being entry requirements, they specify the lowest points score that gained a place in the previous cycle. When looking at options, students thus need to be aware that this grade can vary wildly from year to year, as the process is based on supply and demand.
It's not quite that simple… The nature of the supply and demand system means that the order of preference becomes all important. In Round One, students will be given a place on the course that ranks highest on their list of preferences, with all places below automatically denied. Then, as the rounds progress throughout August and early September, students can be made offers from their higher-ranked preferences, if they open up based on the decisions of other students.
There's a blog on the Australian system here.
Parliamentary Questions: Universities expected to be flexible in admissions at high ranking institutions so students don't miss out on places due to Covid related schooling disruption
HE Student Experience
HEPI published the policy note – Students' views on the impact of Coronavirus on their higher education experience in 2020/21. Findings show students' increasing satisfaction with online learning and positivity with how institutions ensure the Covid risks are minimised. The survey also shows that some students are spending the majority of their time in their accommodation the majority of students have experienced a decline in their mental wellbeing since the outset of the pandemic.
59% UG students satisfied with online learning (was 42% June 2020, 49% March 2020)
58% of students report poorer mental health than at the beginning of the pandemic (14% better mental health, 28% report no change to their mental health state)
42% of students are satisfied with the university's mental health services, 16% are unsatisfied
50% are satisfied with the HEI's other (non-mental health) support services, e.g. careers support.
44% satisfied with student union support
56% happy with how the institution has handled outbreaks of the coronavirus
79% say their HEI experience feels safe (see chart below)
33% of students spend all or most of their time in their accommodation. (Note 51% of students are receiving some face to face teaching nationally.)
60% understand the (Government's) end of term & Christmas travel window guidance
54% have concerns about the return to university in January 2021
There are colourful charts in the full policy note.
No detriment: Nationally students have been calling for no detriment policies to apply in 20/2021. Wonkhe have a blog. Snippet:
I can see a growing number of students signing petitions and commenting on SU forums that they are amazed that "no detriment" policies have generally not survived the summer, and are angry that poor performance this term might end up framed in institutional terms as something that is individual – and somehow their fault.
When we say we are maintaining "quality and standards" we may be hiding debates – about whether we mean the standard of that which universities might reasonably provide during a massively disruptive global pandemic, or the standard of attainment we might reasonably expect students to achieve during a massively disruptive global pandemic.
…What's very clear is that the comments from students on the forums and petitions should be seen as coalmine canaries – cries for help and exhortations for some empathy. Complex procedures to address individual failure caused by specific circumstances increasingly look tone deaf to a cohort whose only real shared experience is how miserable it's all been.
Pure "No Detriment" policies may well not fit the bill if there's not enough pre-pandemic academic performance evidence to establish a floor over. But we're going to need something…
There's the usual parliamentary question and response on HE student mental health. And the Universities Minister confirms the Government anticipates using mass testing as students return to university in January.
HEPI have a new blog written by a PhD student who experienced burn out. To support PhD students well-being she recommends:
Fostering cohesive online cohorts
Strong dedicated representation (Students Union) systems to raise and address issues
Hands on training (not virtual) to improve access to and experience of a range of career pathways beyond academia
The blog concludes: PhD funders need to recognise that, with the current financial provision, increasing mental health support services won't stop the pressures that undermine researcher wellbeing.
£61m boost for Europe's largest 'flying lab'
Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements (FAAM) have been awarded £61m by the NERC
Spread over 10 years, the funding will help to uncover causes behind rising methane in the Arctic, understanding the effect of biomass burning and monitor volcanic gases
The Airborne Laboratory will provide 'world-class' measurements for the benefit of the UK government, businesses and research community
EoI: Manufacturing Made Smarter innovation hub
The Digital Supply Chain Innovation Hub should focus on manufacturing supply chains, looking to digitally optimise and integrate these supply chains from end to end. UK registered businesses and research organisations can apply for up to £10m from ISCF to set up and run a digital supply chain innovation hub
UK-German collaborative research projects announced – the AHRC and German Research Foundation have announced 18 collaborative research projects, bringing together arts and humanities researchers to conduct outstanding research projects which span a wide range of subjects. UK budget of £4.8m matched by €5m for research teams in Germany. Projects will start in early 2021 and are expected to run for at least three years until 2023
UKRI Global coronavirus research and innovation network pre-announcement
Individuals of lecturer level (or equivalent) can apply to establish a single international network for research into coronavirus. The network may run for up to 4 years
The total fund and maximum grant are £500,000. Applicationsopen on 4 January 2021, and close on 23 February 2021.
Improving health in low and middle income countries pre-announcement – no size or funding limited, proposals that combine expertise from more than one sector to meet a global health challenge particularly welcome. Applications open on 1 February 2021, and close on 8 April 2021.
UKRI formally recognises the contributions of reviewers
UKRI will be the first funder to formally credit contributions of reviewers through the Orcid system
Reviewers will be issues with a 'review credit', which will be publicly displayed in their Orcid profiles
Concerns over future of international development research. In the Spending Review, Sunak said they will reduce the aid budget to 0.5% of GNI from 0.7%. Concerns have been raised that this could represent a missing £4bn a year
Medical Research Council calls for more collaboration to get the most out of key research opportunities. The call comes following the MRC's independent review
Changing the UK's intellectual property regime to attract investment in life sciences.
Research Professional writes that just one more formal three-way talk among the European Union institutions should be enough to reach an agreement on the remaining parts of the legislation for Horizon Europe
The Student Loans Company published in-year statistics on the number of notifications of student withdrawals.
The Student Loans Company (SLC) does not routinely publish data on the withdrawal notifications it receives from Higher Education Providers (HEPs). However, during Academic Year (AY) 2020/21 to date, there has been significant public interest in this data in order to contribute towards an understanding of how the COVID-19 pandemic may be impacting students. Therefore, SLC has taken the decision to publish this on an ad hoc basis as experimental statistics.
Based on this data, SLC has not seen any increase in student withdrawal notifications for the purpose of student finance in this academic year, compared to the previous two years. In this respect, withdrawal notifications are currently slightly lower than the previous two years for UK & EU students funded by Student Finance England, Student Finance Wales and Student Finance Northern Ireland. Some of this reduction may be explained by the irregular start to the current academic year.
Estranged students: The OfS released a report at the end of last week highlighting that estranged students are less likely to be awarded a first or 2:1 and more likely to drop out during their first year of studies. Around 3,000 students are classed as estranged when they enter HE each year.
According to the data:
The continuation rate of entrants in 2017-18 who were estranged from their parents was 8.2% lower than students who were not estranged – though this gap has reduced from 11.2% in 2014-15.
The attainment rate (achieving a first or 2:1) of estranged students in 2018-19 was 13% lower than students who were not estranged.
Care experienced students are more likely to drop out and less likely to achieve a first or a 2:1. In 2017-18 the continuation rate of care experienced students was 5.6% lower than that for students who have not been in care. In 2018-19 the attainment rate (achieving a first or 2:1) of care experienced students was 12.1% lower than the attainment rate of students who have not been in care.
Students starting in 2017-18 who were eligible for free school meals were more likely to drop out than those who were not – data showing a 5.4% gap. For students graduating in 2018-19, the rate achieving a first or 2:1 was 13% lower for students who were eligible for free school meals compared with those who were not.
There is an OfS blog which addresses the gaps.
Chris Millward, Director for Fair Access and Participation at the OfS, said: We expect universities and colleges to identify and tackle the barriers to success for the student groups identified in this data, so it will help them to develop their access and participation plans during the coming year.
Care Leavers: Wonkhe: The National Network for the Education of Care Leavers, along with a number of other campaigning and support groups with an interest in care leavers, has written a "message to all vice chancellors and principals". The message sets out recommendations on key ways to support the academic, social, and mental health needs of care leavers remaining on campus over Christmas.
White Disadvantaged Pupils: The Education Committee continued with their inquiry into left behind white disadvantaged pupils. Dods have provided a summary here. Place and the impact of the family were key facets of the meeting. Excerpts:
was important to look at educational underachievement not through the lenses of ethnicity but through the characteristics of the place.
…the pandemic did not bring forward new ways of deprivation, but it exacerbated existing ones…On the issue of families, he spoke about a report that came out two weeks ago which found that children had regressed during the time of the pandemic. In his view, this was not solely because of deprivation levels, but also depended on the support structures in the homes.
Level 4/5 and Technical Provision
Assessing performance: With the current Government's favour for bite sized provision, technical and skills alternatives to the traditional degree, and favouring level 4/5 provision there is a great blog here that considers all the past versions of these. It starts out: As sometimes happens with HE policy, we've been here before. Several times. And also comments: In terms of level, a qualification that goes beyond that expected of 18 year olds (level 3) but stays at level 4/5, is a holy grail – which is odd because the problem is that it's the thing that people aren't seeking enough. At its worst, it's the solution that people propose for other people's children.
It quickly runs through the best and worst covering DipHE, Associate Degree, Foundation Degree, HND, HTQs, and problems with the word 'technical'.
Gatsby Review Follow Up: The Gatsby Foundation were commissioned by the Government to review level 4 and 5 technical education in England. The review looked at the development of higher technical education in England since the 1944 Education Act, and how it compares with the experience of other countries. (The review was actually published in December 2018.) The original report concluded that England has a very small higher technical sector by international standards – the 'missing middle'. In the 1960s and 70s, the rapid expansion in university education following the Robbins report privileged full-time degree level study, while many professions increasingly expected degree-level qualifications from new entrants. The Foundation Degree was seen as successful in filling the gap and the decline of part-time student numbers impacted higher technical enrolments. The report describes other countries that embrace a larger role for higher technical education, and agrees with the Secretary of State's ambition for England to learn from international experience as it builds the technical education system. This week the Gatsby Foundation published Beyond the Missing Middle: Developing Higher Technical Education – a follow up report that they commissioned which explores the international success stories.
The report calls for
…further development in the higher technical system – allowing for recognition of prior learning, drawing on workbased learning, and built from modular components.
The framework would offer alternative routes, tailored to the needs of different students, to occupational competence. Not only would this approach be well adapted to the needs of adults who are already the prime candidates for HTE qualifications, it would also compete very effectively with most higher education degrees, which rarely offer these flexibilities.
Recognition of prior learning is often a slippery beast. The report suggests: While many countries have sought to develop special procedures for assessing and granting credit for prior learning, these procedures can be cumbersome. An alternative approach, used extensively in different countries, is to grant adults with relevant work experience direct access to the final examinations for a qualification without going through a required programme of study. This allows students themselves to prepare for the examination in a manner tailored to their existing knowledge and skills
Workbased learning is also emphasised and the author argues for apprenticeship style end point assessments to be applied.
There is lots more detail in the full document and Wonkhe have a blog. Research Professional cover the report too.
Dods tell us:
Reports suggest that first-year EU students face £800 Brexit bill if not in UK before 2021.
The Home Office said they will not qualify for EU pre-settled status if they arrive after the end of the transition period, even though they have been unable to relocate because of Covid. It potentially means tens of thousands of students will have to pay £348 in application fees for a visa with £470 a year in health charges, both new post-Brexit costs. One issue for EU students who have not started their education in the UK before the end of the transition period is that they cannot evidence their residency with rent receipts, utility bills or bank accounts.
According to Home Office rules published on the government website, students only need to provide one document dated in the last six months in order to be granted pre-settled status, including a "passport stamp confirming entry at the UK border" or "a used travel ticket confirming you entered the UK from another country".
In a section entitled "evidence that covers shorter periods of time",the Home Office states: "these documents count as evidence for one month if they have a single date on" suggesting a short trip to the UK up to and including New Year's Eve is enough to evince free movement rights.
Parliamentary Questions: Course/professional qualifications admissibility to graduate immigration route not confirmed yet
OfS Annual Review
The OfS published their 2020 annual review. Key points:
HEIs are urged to radically improve digital teaching and learning as they continue to negotiate the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Concerns are levied as the pandemic has 'exacerbated' existing inequalities – especially those impacted by digital poverty. Certain groups of students are vulnerable – international students, postgraduates and students who are vulnerable by reason of disability or for other reasons
The report on digital teaching and learning will look at how high-quality digital provision can be continued and delivered at scale; consider the impact of digital poverty; and explore how digital technology has been used to deliver remote education since the pandemic started.
Greater demand for adults to retrain at HE level is expected during 2021. 2021 should be a year when we look more seriously at how courses could be made more attractive and responsive to mature students, and a year when more adults are encouraged to take up such opportunities
Quality (and the OfS current consultation):
Poor-quality courses should be improved or no longer offered – the OfS consultation on this is mentioned: [it] proposes a series of measures to define, monitor and take action regarding the quality and standards of courses that do not reach minimum requirements
Our proposals would ensure that providers that recruit students from underrepresented groups and with protected characteristics are held to the same minimum level of performance as other providers, and would see consideration given to outcomes at subject level within providers, as well as at the level of the whole provider
The OfS set out actions they plan to take during 2021:
Fair admissions and recruitment
Following the update of Discover Uni in autumn 2020, which involved a new look and feel and improved course pages, further content and functionality is planned, including a new and improved compare and search functionality for courses, and more content for international students and mature students.
We will continue to be vigilant in monitoring the impacts of the pandemic to take action to support fair admissions.
We will work closely with the Department for Education, UCAS and UUK on the next phase of their work. In doing so, we will consider whether there is a case for further investigation of the issues identified in our admissions review, in light of the proposals that emerge during the coming year. In particular, we will consider the extent to which any proposed reforms consider the experiences of part-time, mature, international and postgraduate students. If there is a case to relaunch our review of admissions with a more focused set of considerations, then we will do so.
Ensuring high-quality teaching and learning
Conclude our online teaching and learning review.
Publish the findings of our consultation on quality.
Consult on our future approach to the TEF.
Conclude our review of the NSS and publish the findings.
Supporting all students to success
Develop further regulatory and funding incentives for mature student participation.
Continue collaborating with Uni Connect programmes to build on innovative delivery during the pandemic to support diverse pathways for students applying next year and beyond, including local progression from further education colleges.
Work with Student Minds to mitigate the mental health effects of the pandemic.
Relaunch the consultation on how universities and colleges should prevent and respond to incidents of harassment.
Deepen our understanding of student populations, including the intersections between different groups, through the access and participation dataset and a new Associations Between Characteristics measure.
Track student progress from outreach through to higher education and into employment, through the Higher Education Access Tracker and similar services.
Develop evaluation practice and the use of evaluation findings through the OfS-funded 'what works' centre, Transforming Access and Student Outcomes in Higher Education.
Graduate skills and prospects in the pandemic
Evaluate the support for local graduates through our funding, working with further education colleges and universities.
Ensure universities and colleges are closing attainment gaps and securing equitable graduate outcomes.
Continue to fund courses that provide graduates for industries, such as certain science, technology, engineering and maths subjects, and health and medical subjects.
Research Professional have a short article covering the OfS annual review here.
The Guardian has an opinion piece – The government should not impose a faulty definition of antisemitism on universities.
[Education SoS Williamson] threatens to remove funding and the power to award degrees from universities that do not share his faith in the efficacy of the IHRA working definition.
This is misguided, for a number of reasons. First, it misconceives the task universities face…structural racism in universities is profound, and racial harassment on campus is widespread. These are problems that universities must address. The imposed adoption of the IHRA working definition will not meet this challenge. It will, however, privilege one group over others by giving them additional protections, and in doing so will divide minorities against each other. For this reason alone, Williamson should pause and consider how best to protect students and university staff from racism broadly as well as from antisemitism.
The IHRA working definition is anything but straightforward, and universities already have some tools to deal with antisemitism.
The article goes on to suggest that adopting the definition is symbolic and it is linked with the Labour party's initial rejection of the definition. It also discusses the pros and cons of the working definition and states: Universities, like everyone else, are sorely in need of good and clear guidance on when speech on Israel or Zionism becomes antisemitic. Sadly, this is not what the working definition provides. In these circumstances, its imposition by the secretary of state appears reckless and brings real dangers.
It concludes: Antisemitism on campus comprises one part of a mosaic of harms and harassment suffered by racial and religious minorities. Jewish students and staff deserve protection, but imposing the working definition will add nothing useful to secure it.
There was a parliamentary question on what legislative options the Government is considering for HEIs that do not sign up to the definition. Excerpt: officials are exploring how best to ensure that providers are tackling antisemitism, with robust measures in place to address issues when they arise. Options identified by my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education in the letter include directing the Office for Students to impose a new regulatory condition of registration, and suspending funding streams for universities at which antisemitic incidents occur and which have not signed up to the definition.
Douglas Blackstock, Chief Executive of the Quality Assurance Agency, has announced he will retire during 2021. Research Professional have coverage (scroll down to 'Early Bath') mentioning HERA, TEF and QAA's move to a subscription body. The article highlights:
With Michael Barber on the way out at the Office for Students, the imminent departure of Blackstock provides the government with another opportunity to influence an appointment that could reshape the higher education debate. Such appointments tend to last longer than the ministers that make them.
…The QAA has always had a piquant relationship with the Office for Students, at least since the dying days of the old regime at the Higher Education Funding Council for England. It is not so much one of open hostility: it is more like two kids sitting beside one another at the pantomime, passive-aggressively competing over who gets to plant their elbow on the arm rest.
The Higher Education and Research Act left responsibility for quality shared between a designated agency and the regulator, but the boundaries were not clearly defined and have become more blurred over time. The Office for Students' consultation on standards and value hints at a potential external inspection regime for universities, something the QAA might rightly have assumed to be its job.
To be accepted on the register of the Office for Students, providers must be in good standing with the QAA. But it has never been clear what store the regulator puts by QAA assessments.
The Higher Education and Research Act also requires the Office for Students to work in tandem with Research England, a collaboration that has not always been as proactive as some involved might have hoped. These relationships are the loose ends in the fabric of higher education left by the 2017 reforms. Playbook is only thinking aloud when it asks whether this government might be minded to tidy them up almost five years after Jo Johnson first published his white paper.
Access to NHS talking therapies to continue remotely during the pandemic
University refunds and student complaints: All higher education providers registered with the Office for Students provider must co-operate with the requirements of the student complaints scheme run by the OIA and make students aware of their ability to use the scheme.
Discussions Government has had with student representatives on their university related needs during the pandemic
The Government doesn't intend to reinstate the paid placements for trainee doctor, nurses and midwives during the second wave of the Coronavirus.
Consideration of the Swiss replacement scheme
What other aspects (apart from student placements) would the Erasmus+ replacement scheme cover
Barriers to HE for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller pupils
Shadow Universities minister asks about graduate employment rates for 2020 graduates
Online learning: The BBC looks at whether online degrees will become more 'legitimate'.
Diversity and inclusion: Dods report that The Office for Students (OfS) have recently published two insightful articles on the implications digital skills and data science courses on diversity and inclusion within the HE sector. In their article on Friday, they reported how the OfS-funded Institute for Coding is finding the flexible, modular, digital skills education can improve diversity in learner cohorts and in the tech workforce overall. They note that demand for talent has grown by 150 percent in the digital tech sector over the past four years, and the implications this has for future learning demand.
Referencing the 'Digital Skills for the Workplace' course collection, they note that within the participants:
47% of learners surveyed were women
More than half of surveyed learners were over the age of 25
19% of surveyed learners were unemployed or looking for work
48% were working full-time, part-time or are self-employed
The Government's Digital Strategy has also estimated that, within 20 year, 90 percent of jobs will require some element of digital skills.
In their article, the OfS also discussed new data for AI and data science postgraduate conversion courses, which have shown greater diversity in cohorts, including high admission from Black students, women and students with disabilities. Most importantly, they note that the lack of diversity within these fields can lead to entrenched dataset biases, and that a lack of representative testing in AI "creates an artificial world."
Both articles highlight the benefits of flexible and modular learning – drawing attention to platforms such as FutureLearn, as well as online courses offered by partner universities on these ventures.
EdTech Start Ups: Jisc and Emerge Education relaunched their step up initiative, which aims to transform higher and further education by matching EdTech start-ups with colleges and universities to solve their biggest challenges. They've published a top list of recommended start-ups – new ventures ready to tackle the sector's five biggest challenges of digital learning, assessment, employability, wellbeing and recruitment. The full list and more details are here.
Back to 'normal': An SRHE blog drops a pin in the July 2021 calendar for end of pandemic in the UK with a normal teaching programme resuming in autumn 2021.
Tags: A-levels admissions anti-semitism erasmus EU students level 4 local MPs manufacturing mental health no detriment Office for Students Ofqual ORCID parliament PGRs QAA skills social mobility student experience technical education UKRI widening access
HE Policy Update for the w/e 20th November 2020
COVID-19, Global engagement, international, open access, parliament, PG research, policy, Postgraduate Research, Research communication, Research Ethics, Research news, Student Engagement, student research jforster
This week has been all about Government intervention in HE. The news has been non-stop so we've sectioned some of the biggest debates into separate documents which are linked to within the main text. Fear not, for our skim readers the basics on each debate are still covered in the main update.
Get comfortable, adjust your posture, the Government seems determined to tick all the boxes on their Santa wish list before the holidays (and the reality of post-Brexit Britain).
Quality: Lower value courses
Defining value for money has been a strong theme for government for the last few years. As has how the government will address their perception (shared enthusiastically by sections of the media) that the sector is riddled with "mickey mouse" "rip-off courses". We have discussed the challenges of measuring quality mainly by reference to salary many times in our updates. And you will also have noticed (and we have pointed out regularly) that the government have become fixated this year on employment measures alongside continuation as the only useful metrics. As you know, they are encouraging the OfS to sideline the NSS.
So this week has seen some major developments –and you will not now be surprised by the direction…..
… or (spoiler alert) the pattern….
Wonkhe (Mon):
In late February, Universities UK President Julia Buckingham used a comment piece in The Telegraph to trail a speech on a new tool to measure the value of individual subjects beyond just graduate earnings, including the benefit of students as well as to wider society and the economy – all framed as a kind of alternative Teaching Excellence Framework.
Now nine months on it looks like the results of that work are set to be published this week, with the same paper reporting this morning that Vice Chancellors are to "launch a crack down" on "low quality" degrees in a new charter aimed at ensuring institutions take a "consistent and transparent approach" to identifying and improving low value courses. Proposals will even consider options for a return (in England) to "external assurance or independent review". If the events of last week over admissions are anything to go by, DfE will likely publish its own competing plan on value by the end of Friday.
The UUK approach to quality concerns
On Monday Universities UK announced an advisory group were developing a charter to ensure universities (England only) take a consistent and transparent approach on potential low-value/quality courses. The UUK press release explains the rationale: Institutions already monitor and review their courses regularly and have robust processes in place to uphold quality and standards. Assessing value however is challenging, can be subjective and may involve areas such as graduate career satisfaction or employment outcomes many years after graduation.
The terms of reference for the charter are here. The charter advisory group will focus on:
Demonstrating the sector's commitment to consistency and transparency in processes to tackle low value courses through the publication of a Statement of Intent, agreed by universities.
Highlighting best practice where universities are already identifying low value or low quality courses, including the use of metrics, and taking rapid action to address issues.
Guidance will be published which universities are expected to follow
Longer term universities will also consider options for external assurance or independent review to make their processes stronger as part of an ongoing charter.
Professor Julia Buckingham, President of Universities UK and Chair of the advisory group stated: The overwhelming majority of courses are high quality and offer good value for students, but we want to address concerns that some could deliver more for students, taxpayers, and employers…The public needs full confidence in the value and quality of a UK university degree and the charter will demonstrate universities' commitment to constant improvement."
And by mid week – the somewhat more challenging OfS approach
Just as with admissions UUK were being proactive and trying to address the concerns through self-management. However, on Tuesday the OfS finally announced their (delayed) consultation on regulating quality and standards which they hope will strengthen the English higher education sector and its international reputation.
The proposals are to set baseline requirements for quality and standards including numerical baselines for providers to meet on student outcomes.
Providers will be assessed on absolute performance in relation to the baseline. It applies to all types of students whatever, wherever and however they study. The proposed minimum numerical standards will apply for continuation, completion and employment (at professional level) and they will be absolute numbers that apply to all providers and all subjects and groups of students including familiar splits for full and part time, mature students, ethnicity, gender, disadvantaged background. They will not be benchmarked or adjusted for demographics.
Sector-recognised standards for degree classification will also become baselines. Table 1 on page 3 sets out the proposed definitions.
The OfS is also clarifying the data they will use, the indicators and approach for risk-based monitoring and their approach to intervention. They state this clarity will support them to better anticipate risks to quality and standards and rebalance their approach.
The executive summary is a useful read and they have a guide to the changes.
The OfS reassure that the consultation is taking place at an early stage of policy development and make encouraging noises about listening to providers. We'll see.
The first and most obvious concern is about the impact of the numerical standards on universities with high numbers of WP students. This ominous section caught our eye:
We set a minimum baseline requirement for quality, which includes a minimum level for student outcomes. Our intention in doing so is to be clear that all students are entitled to the same minimum level of quality. We also expect higher education providers to improve access to higher education for the most underrepresented groups and to reduce the gaps between the outcomes achieved for these students and the outcomes achieved for other groups. We do not accept that students from underrepresented groups should be expected to accept lower quality, including weaker outcomes, than other students. We therefore do not bake their disadvantage into the regulatory system by setting lower minimum requirements for providers that typically recruit these types of students.
Let's hope they're listening to Johnny Rich (Twitter).
The other obvious challenge is about regulatory and bureaucratic burden. There is a clear tension between the aim to reduce bureaucracy and the desire for more and more data, more reportable events, more contextual data indicators to be reported etc. They have a weird argument that more burden in the short term means less burden in the long term because they can make their response proportionate with more data, but we are not sure that anyone will buy that!
The Guardian cover the story in Universities may face sanctions if they fail most disadvantaged and this Wonkhe blog is well worth reading: the B3 bear hunts down Mickey Mouse.
Keen beans will also want to delve into the content that Wonkhe also have on the topic:
The OfS blog on Wonkhe – OfS will tackle pockets of low quality higher education provision – worth reading for the first comment on the article which points out that the proposals will discourage providers from taking disadvantaged students, particularly those who might have a lower chance of success.
The UUK blog announcing the charter (before OfS announced the consultation). Again read the comments!
A Wonkhe blog highlighting why its wise to define the 'low quality' course
Wonkhe also review two papers on the topic:
The Social Market Foundation has released a briefing paper on evaluating quality in higher education. The think tank provides an overview of the current quality assessment system, how well it works, and covers the main criticisms put against it. It argues that if the government wishes to raise the general quality of higher education in the UK, it must determine the purpose of HE, identify its intended audience, understand the limitations of quality assessment, and decide how important quality assessment is and then fund it appropriately. You can read the full briefing paper here.
City AM has an opinion piece from the SMF's [Social Market Foundation] chief economist on how answering the question of what universities are for will go a long way to fixing much of what troubles them.
Commenting on the OfS consultation and proposals, Nicola Dandridge, Chief Executive of the OfS, said:
These proposals strengthen our ability to intervene where we have concerns. We have previously been clear that we are determined to stamp out any pockets of low quality, and these proposals would not only raise the bar in terms of the quality overall, but would enable us to monitor quality at a subject level, as well as taking into account issues which might be affecting students from particular groups.
We are also making it clear that we do not accept that expectations should be lowered for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. All students are entitled to the same minimum level of quality and outcomes, and it would be untenable to have a regulatory system which allowed universities to recruit students from underrepresented groups but then set lower expectations for their success.
Our plans – and the more detailed proposals we envisage setting out in 2021 subject to consideration of responses to this consultation – would allow the OfS to continue to investigate any concerns we have about quality and standards. We will be able to use our full range of powers if we consider that any of our registration conditions are breached.
We remain extremely mindful of the need to ensure proportionate regulatory burden. Universities and other higher education providers offering high quality higher education across the board will find that our proposed approach to quality places minimal regulatory burden on them.
The consultation also clarifies the inter-relationship between all this and the TEF. See Annex D – there are no questions associated with this. However, it is ominous again:
"Annex C contains proposals for the way in which weak TEF outcomes for a provider would result in additional scrutiny of that provider's ongoing compliance with the minimum baseline requirements contained in the B conditions".
It does too – take a look.
We expect to consult on our future approach to the TEF in due course…..
The way we structure our definitions of 'quality' and 'standards' for the purposes of setting baseline requirements (see Annex A) needs to be coherent with the components assessed by the TEF above that baseline. This is important because providers need to be clear about what is required to satisfy the baseline requirements in the B conditions, and then the performance above this that would lead to particular TEF awards.
The way we use data to construct indicators, and the indicators that we choose to use for baseline regulation and TEF assessment, needs to be consistent, or inconsistencies explained. The indicators we propose to use in the assessment of condition B3 (see Annex B) cover similar outcomes as have – to date – been measured through the TEF. To ensure the coherence and proportionality of our regulatory activities, and subject to further consultation on both our approach to condition B3 and to the TEF, we intend to align the uses and definitions of the measures within our assessments of condition B3 and TEF, to the extent that this is appropriate and practical (for example, TEF only relates to undergraduate provision, whereas our assessment of condition B3 covers both undergraduate and postgraduate courses).
The consequences of weak performance in relation to the B conditions, or in a TEF assessment, need to create incentives for improvement for providers that are below the minimum baseline or performing weakly in TEF.
Post Qualification Admissions (PQA)
So it never rains but it pours… last Friday after the UUK and UCAS recommendations on admissions that we covered in our update, the Secretary of State weighed in.
Gavin Williamson announced the DfE would review the admissions processes and potentially move to a post qualification admissions(PQA) system with students only receiving offers after their exam results. The press release focuses on the unfairness of the predicted grade inaccuracies which can work against high achievers from disadvantaged backgrounds whose grades are more likely to be under-predicted…Disadvantaged students are more likely to 'under-match' and enter courses below their ability than their advantaged peers. Under-matched students are then more likely to drop out of university, get a lower-class degree and earn less in employment.
Unconditional offers were also mentioned, which the Government maintains are encouraging students to accept offers that may not be in their best interest.
Williamson stated: By using predicted grades it is limiting the aspirations of students before they know what they can achieve…We need to explore how to change a system which breeds low aspiration and unfairness.
The Government committed to consult on proposals for change, including reviewing whether personal statements contribute to the unfairness. Any future change to the admissions system will not affect 2021 entrants although the Government aims to deliver any reform before the end of the current parliament. UUK had recommended no change before 2022/23 admissions at the earliest.
On Monday Williamson issued a short written ministerial statement (WMS). It contained similar material: The current system lacks transparency…In recent years we have also seen the emergence of undesirable admissions practices, such as the mass use of unconditional offers…a Post Qualification Admissions system [would] support social mobility and remove the complexity and undesirable practices of the current system.
In addition, it felt the educational disruption precipitated by the pandemic could also have been mitigated by a different admissions system:We know, due to the pandemic, that students have experienced considerable disruption to their education this year. We believe that the unique set of circumstances students faced could have been better dealt with by a fairer higher education admissions system.
The WMS also references the Sutton Trust's October briefing on PQA which contains a graduate poll with 66% of graduate in favour of removing predicted grades and basing decisions on actual results – 13% felt the change would actually be less fair.
The elephant in the room here is that disadvantaged students may have greater potential than they demonstrate in exams. Higher class sizes, less individual support, disruptive classroom environments, schools with poorer performance and overall outcomes, time zapping part time, poorer nutrition, less parental experience and support all play a part in achievement and a student's final exam grade. Some of these students may have been overpredicted grades by a teacher who recognised their potential, under the current system they would have been able to access higher tariff opportunities. Overprediction might even have been a motivator to stretch themselves further overcoming the disadvantage barriers. The same Sutton Trust report that the Government quote also states this:
A change to a post-qualification system would likely influence university applicants' choices in different ways. Just over 1 in 5 (21%) of those who achieved final grades higher than their predicted grades said they would have applied to higher tariff institutions if they knew their final grades before applying, while 29% who performed worse than their predictions reported they would have applied for institutions with lower entry requirements.
Successive Universities Ministers since Sam Gyimah have supported the agenda to get high performing disadvantaged young people into 'high status' institutions. However, as the Sutton Trust demonstrate above it isn't that simple and there will be disadvantaged winners and losers.
The Sutton Trust have a good diagram highlighting the differences between the current system and two potential alternatives. Last week UUK came out in favour of PQO (post qualification offers) the Government is currently favouring PQA.
Over here we have the sector's reaction and statements on the Government's announcement and there are other engaging blogs and snippets for those who are most interested in this topic to explore.
Towards the end of last week the news that several of the PM's special advisors were leaving No. 10 captured the nation's interest but what ripple effect might it have on HE? Wonkhe have a few things to say on the matter:
The big "reset"….means No.10 could be in the market for new takes on domestic policy agendas…it's been reported that Tory MP and university sceptic Neil O'Brien is to chair the Prime Minister's Policy Board [now confirmed]. It's an unpredictable combination of circumstances, but probably doesn't spell good news for higher education.
A ministerial reshuffle is being readied for the new year too, and the unpopular Gavin Williamson looks particularly vulnerable after a series of blunders – not least the summer examnishambles. But be careful what you wish for: The Times speculated over the weekend that Michael Gove could make a dramatic comeback to the education brief for 2021.
With so much emphasis on FE and Skills one does wonder what would happen to this agenda and the White Paper if Williamson is shuffled elsewhere.
O'Brien writes in Conservative Home: One of the great arts in politics is to see the problems and the big choices coming, so that you can solve them before the ship starts sinking.
On HE O'Brien writes:There's a long-expected decision to take on universities. Do we keep the current system? Or build up technical education, and try to reduce the number of students on low value university courses which lead to low earnings while consuming lots of taxpayer subsidy? He doesn't state his opinion but the questions are bang on the Conservative party line.
Finally Wonkhe tell us that the Politico London Playbook is reporting that MPs Jonathan Gullis, David Johnston, and Miriam Cates are in the running to lead a new Number 10 "task force" on the education and skills agenda.
Degree Classification Analysis
Coincidence in a week focussing on quality? Maybe. The delayed analysis of degree outcomes for 2018-19 from the OfS came out this week too.
You will recall the consternation caused by the last analysis (July 2019 which basically said that any achievement not explained by prior attainment was "unexplained". Here they add on 2018-19 data. Expect unhelpful press comment.
Our new analysis finds that in 2018-19, across the 147 providers considered, 14.3 percentage points of first class degree2 attainment change since 2010-11 are unexplained3 by changes in the graduate population. This is an increase of 0.4 percentage points from the unexplained attainment in 2017-18, which is the smallest increase observed since 2010-11.
In respect of both first and upper second class degrees combined and first class degrees alone, the 2018-19 provider-level comparison shows:
Most providers exhibited unexplained attainment significantly above the 2010-11 sector mean attainment.
All providers had more unexplained attainment in 2018-19 than in 2010-11.
The OfS have a blog post written by Nick Holland, Competition and Registration Manager, discussing their findings and 'why grade inflation matters'.
Headline findings:
5% of students included in the analysis received a first-class honours degree in 2018/19
Of these, OfS finds that 14.3 percent are unexplained when compared to attainment in 2010/11 (an increase of 0.4% on 2017/18 data)
In 2010/11 15.7% of students received a first – there have since been year-on-year increases in the proportion of firsts award, and the number unexplained
Sector-wide data shows students with the highest A-level results are most likely to gain a first-class degree
Students entering university with A-level (or equivalent) grades below DDD were almost four times as likely to receive a first-class degree in 2018/19 as their counterparts in 2010/11
The analysis identified large variations between providers, but an on-average levelling out of attainment between 2017/18 and 2018/19
The year-on-year change in first-class degreed attainment for the sector between 2017/18 and 2018/19 was 0.3%
The greatest fluctuation in year-on-year attainment changes occurred in providers with small numbers
Potential explanations for attainment changes:
For upper second and first class degrees combined, the highest attaining graduates for the additional contextual variable groups were white, non-disabled women from POLAR4 quintile 5 areas
For first class degrees alone, the highest attaining graduates for the additional contextual variable groups were white, non-disabled women from POLAR4 quintile 4 areas
Prior to 2010, the proportion of qualifiers achieving the highest A-Level grades had been increasing and it is unclear whether this was due to grade inflation or an increase in ability
While some of the reported unexplained attainment could be explained by the change in A-Level grading policy, there is still strong evidence of significant unexplained sector attainment increases between 2010-11 and 2018-19
Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of the Office for Students said:
'This data shows that the increase in the proportion of first class degrees awarded in 2018-19 has slowed compared to previous years, with a small increase from last year in the percentage of first class degrees which cannot be explained by other factors. While this may indicate that the brakes have been applied, it is clear that grade inflation remains a significant and pressing issue in English higher education.
'Overall, this data represents a mixed picture. It may well be that factors we don't account for in our modelling, including improved teaching and learning, have driven some of the increase that we have seen in recent years. There are also some striking changes at some of those universities which had previously awarded high proportions of firsts, although there is increased evidence of an unexplained increase in firsts at 73 per cent of universities.
'Unexplained grade inflation risks undermining public confidence in higher education, and devaluing the hard work of students. Degrees must stand the test of time, which is why the OfS will continue to address this issue at both a sector-wide and individual university level.
'The OfS launched a consultation this week with proposals which will help us to strengthen our ability to regulate quality and standards. These proposals, if taken forward following the consultation process, would let us intervene where evidence suggests that the standards set and recognised by the sector are not being met in practice by an individual university, college or other higher education provider.
'It is correct to say that a permanent solution will require continuing collective action from universities over a period of time. Ultimately though, universities are individually accountable for meeting the OfS's regulatory requirements in this area. Where we have concerns about unexplained grade inflation at any particular university or college, we are prepared to intervene to protect the integrity of the degree awarding system for all students.'
Wonkhe: David Kernohan complicates things a little, in a good way. And there's lots more in the Wonkhe archive on the issue.
Wonkhe and Research Professional supply lots of this week's updates:
R&D: An influential taskforce of university and business leaders has asked the government to put R&D firstin a revised industrial strategy to help the UK recover from Covid-19. (Research Professional.)
ARPA: the departure of Dominic Cummings, the chief adviser to the prime minister, adds to doubts over the UK Arpa. (Research Professional.)
What does the next US President mean for science and research? (Research Professional.)
Bullying: UKRI has announced the establishment of a Forum for Tackling Bullying and Harassment in Research and Innovation, bringing together research funders, representative bodies, scholarly societies, and the Office for Students. The new group will meet quarterly and summaries of work will be published.
UKRI and the US National Institute for Standards and Technology have signed a memorandum of understanding, with plans to work closely together in areas of research, research translation and commercialisation. (Wonkhe)
Digital Research Community: Wonkhe report that Jisc launched a digital research community last week, which they say will be exploring how technology and innovation can help improve current research practices.
One of the focus points of the new research community will be how digital technologies can be better deployed in response to the fast-changing research sector. This is part of a wider response to engagement with those working in research to explore issues around the use of technology, and to support the sector in responding to  such things as the recent UK Government's R&D roadmap, National Data Strategy, UKRI's corporate plan and the announcement of a new research funding agency.
It will provide a space for researchers, research leaders, research managers and other professionals in the field to:
Consider where technology solutions might alleviate concerns and support objectives, and the culture, skills and processes needed for effective implementation of those solutions
Share technology innovation and good practice, demonstrating the 'art of the possible'
Unite disciplines, mission groups and geography
Encourage collaboration and seek unified approaches
The group are due to meet for the first time in December. The first output from the group will be a webinar, which will present priorities and potential activities for the community – you can sign up to it here.
PGRs: In a week of non-stop big HE sector news the PhD extensions calls and debate has made a surprising volume of noise to also be prominent.
Wonkhe report on the University and College Union's open letter signed by more 770 academics and researchers, criticising the review released by UK Research and Innovation on 11 November, which rejected calls to grant extensions to PhD students affected by the pandemic. The letter's signatories say that without additional support, inequalities within the research community will be worsened and entrenched. The Guardian covers Monday's open letter to UKRI calling for the body to rethink its position on PhD extensions. (Wonkhe)
The latest UKRI announcements on support for postgraduate research students – a blog asking why it's taken so long to let them down. (Wonkhe)
The BBC reports that white applicants are offered PhD places at a higher rate than black, Asian and other ethnic minority candidates, according to data obtained through a freedom of information request. (Wonkhe)
PTES: AdvanceHE are report the latest Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES) shows positive trends from students, despite the challenges of 2020.
40,000 students from 69 institutions took part in PTES before and during the national lockdown and within the context of recent HE staff strikes.
79% of postgraduates were satisfied with their taught experience compared with 82% in 2019
Overall satisfaction declined by up to six percent after lockdown
29% of taught postgraduates did not feel their course ran smoothly in 2020
32% of taught postgraduates definitely agreed they were encouraged to be involved in decisions about the course
Lockdown was mentioned in a "significant minority" of negative comments. Those who referenced lockdown cited 'organisation' (14%), 'resources' (14%) and 'teaching' (12%) as their main areas of concern
Overall, lockdown appears to have been more impactful on PGT students than PGR students or undergraduates surveyed this year, with particular cohorts being hit the hardest:
Students who had already experienced disruptions (e.g. through strikes earlier in 2020)
Students with caring and work commitments
Students who declared a disability
Students with disciplines relying on specialist resources (such as creative arts or architecture)
Research Parliamentary Questions
How the Government will calculate the funding gap in the event that the UK does not participate in EU research projects after the transition period.
What positive steps UKRI has taken to increase diversity in the peer review processes and advisory groups.
If the Government will bring forward proposals to enable UKRI to prolong funding for research students unable to undertake face-to-face interviews as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.
The Social Mobility Commission published Changing gears – Understanding downward social mobility.
So far policy-makers have focused on helping people to experience upward mobility, ignoring the fact that others have to move down. This was not such an issue while professional and managerial jobs were still expanding, as there was more room at the top. But this is no longer the case. Given the many challenges we face due to the coronavirus pandemic, it is vital to understand why and how individuals experience downward mobility, and what, if any, barriers they face.
The report aims to fill the gaps in knowledge on the prevalence, nature and consequences of downward mobility. It explores who is more likely to be downwardly mobile and differentiates between involuntary downward mobility where people slip down the ladder and voluntary downward mobility where people are able to choose to take a 'lower' occupation. The report only considers occupational downward mobility, not income or wealth.
During 2014-18 21% of men and 24% of women (aged 30-59) experienced downward mobility, this in in line with other countries. 80% remained at the lower level 5 years later.
Downward mobility is highest among women with several children, ethnic minority groups from outside the UK and individuals with lower educational qualifications.
Caring responsibilities – Having more children increases the chances of experiencing downward mobility for women but has only a small effect for men
Ethnicity – Some BAME groups, especially those born outside the UK, are much more likely to experience downward mobility, even after accounting for their educational qualifications and other individual characteristics
Men and women with degrees are 50–60% less likely to be downwardly mobile, regardless of their skills in early life. This shows that talented people from less privileged backgrounds who do not or cannot access higher education are more likely to experience downward mobility than people from privileged backgrounds, who perhaps demonstrate less skill in earlier life, but can access the higher education opportunities that matter when accessing the job market.
Downward mobility is highest for children of those working in occupations that have tended to become more graduate-led over time (such as nursing, policing, fire or the military). This means that their children may not have been able to access similar occupations to their parents, without going into higher education. People experiencing downward mobility were also more likely to end up in certain sectors – including the police and military – which suggests that that there are knock-on consequences across generations.
It wasn't possible to quantify the proportion of individuals who experience voluntary or involuntary downward mobility. However, the factors associated with 'unfair' involuntary downward mobility, such as access to educational opportunities, opportunity hoarding, racial discrimination, caring responsibilities or poverty, are consistent with those limiting upward social mobility.
More detail on the impact of education as an insulator.
Those with degrees have a 15% chance of experiencing downward mobility, as compared with about 30% for those with GCSEs or below. Higher degree classifications, and studying subjects like medicine, teaching or science, further reduce the chances of downward mobility.
… achieving any formal qualification results in a much lower chance of downward mobility (20%). This suggests that the qualification itself, and not just academic ability, is one of the key factors influencing downward mobility. This reflects the importance that employers attach to degree level qualifications when selecting candidates for higher occupational roles; using degrees to distinguish job-applicants potentially excludes those with high potential but lower educational qualifications.
Our research showed a range of ways in which education helped to support people, providing benefits beyond the opportunities afforded by higher levels of qualification. Education, especially higher and further education, provided confidence, soft skills and a sense of belonging in the workplace. Those who had a higher level of education also tended to approach life's set-backs with greater confidence and resilience. This was notable when we discussed career challenges. Those with a higher level of educational attainment were more able to think strategically in terms of alternatives that might be open to them. They had a broad range of skills that they were able to draw upon beyond their qualification. There was a sense that education provided an endorsement of their skills and capabilities, enabling them to approach opportunities with confidence.
However, a degree wasn't found to insulate against the influence of other life events:
degree-educated professional women had been driven to considering lower-status roles by the stressful reality of combining demanding and inflexible professional roles with parenthood.
In another example, a working-class graduate from a rural location had felt that she did not fit in well with colleagues in a graduate job in London, and soon returned home to take up a lower-status job
Impact of educationally supportive home environment
Researchers have highlighted the role of opportunity hoarding in restricting social mobility, demonstrating the higher educational outcomes for middle-class children, even where early ability is on a par with their peers in routine or manual occupations. The research points to some privileged parents having a high level of involvement with their children's educational achievement, providing intensive support in order to hothouse their children academically, for example by nurturing cognitive and soft skills during childhood.
Many participants in the research sample for this report had had the opposite experience as children, with a lack of attention and oversight of their progress at school, from either parents or teachers. At school, many recalled that they hadn't been singled out as high achievers, nor had they been targeted as requiring extra support. Either of these labels, they felt, could have resulted in a greater interest in their progress, but the fact that they had not stood out meant that they had gone 'under the radar' and been allowed to drift into achieving below their potential. This lack of interest had left them feeling disconnected from school achievement, and gave them a sense that they could have achieved more, given the right support and guidance.
If you are interested in this topic the report is an easy read and there is wider content than the elements outlined above.
TASO: Wonkhe report that Independent evaluation hub Transforming Access and Student Outcomes (TASO) has published a report on the lack of evidence supporting the retention and attainment of disadvantaged and underrepresented students in higher education. Based on a review conducted by Coventry University and the Bridge Group, the report recommends research be carried out to establish causal links between action and outcome, with greater attention paid to understanding effects in a more granular and intersectional way.
Improving access to HE for care experienced students.
Whether the overall funding for pupil premium has been increased in line with the increase in the number of pupils who are eligible for free school meals.
£39.7 million disabled students premium 2020/21.
Wonkhe shared lots of content on international matters this week:
The Institute of International Education has released a recruitment survey that suggests that new international student enrolment in the US (and on US provider online courses) has decreased by a startling 43% between autumn 2019 and autumn 2020.
This HEPI blog has a piece asking why universities are so secretive about their reliance on international student recruitment agents.
The SRHE blog has a piece from two researchers on approaches to teaching international students in the UK.
UCAS evidence shows there is still demand from the EU for UK universities– but students need encouragement to study in post-Brexit Britain.
Student Intention (by Wonkhe)
Ahead of anticipated January starts, global polling by IDP Connect of more than 5,000 international applicants, offer holders and students, of whom 884 intend to study in the UK, finds that 80 per cent intend to start their studies as planned – a 21 percentage point increase since the first instalment of the International Student Crossroads research, which took place in April 2020.
The research, which is supported by Universities UK International, also finds an increase in willingness to begin study online with an expected transition to face to face teaching. However, 44 per cent of those polled say they would tolerate online learning for only three months before expecting to transition. 92 per cent say they would be willing to undertake a period of quarantine before beginning their studies, up from 77 per cent in the June 2020 instalment of the research.
The UK does not fare especially well in international applicants' comparative assessment of the national response to coronavirus (rated 5.7 out of 10), the safety of citizens and visitors (rated 6.4 out of 10), or the welfare of international students (rated 6.3 out of 10), lagging behind Australia, Canada and New Zealand, but scoring ahead of the USA.
International Perceptions: The All-Party Parliamentary University Group have published International student perceptions & why the UK needs to build more destination loyalty. There are several nice colourful charts.
Students from different markets should be approached in tailored ways that meet their specific needs. The research shows that Chinese students are risk averse – as a sector we can respect and support their needs by facilitating online studies and communicating frequent COVID-related updates. For Indian students, the emphasis should be on post-study work opportunities.
As the higher education landscape becomes increasingly competitive, the focus should be on promoting the UK to international students as a desirable, holistic destination. More destination loyalty is urgently needed in key target markets. This is to ensure that prospective international students are driven not only by prestigious institutions, but by the UK as a destination in itself.
The UK can do more to change international student perceptions. Efforts to key markets should focus on aspects such as student safety (particularly related to COVID), international student welfare (testimonials by international students currently in the UK are powerful) and what the UK is doing to effectively respond to the pandemic.
The blog suggests the UK government's new immigration graduate route has already had positive effects on recruitment.
Future of post-16 Education
In a week of relentless news it would be easy to overlook the Independent Commission on the College of the Future's report on the future of England's post-16 education system. While the report wasn't such a headline grabber it is significant because its deals with the Government's vision to reshape and rebalance the post compulsory education sector. Make no mistake this report is all about FE, reshaping and supporting FE, yet the themes are noteworthy for the stability of the HE sector. The document is bold and frank, it names the (potential) competition between FE and HE created by the Government's technical education agenda, alongside references to serving the other 50% of the population who do not access HE, and the intention to rebalance funding across the post-16 sector.
The (independent) Commission was formed to answer these questions – what do we want and need from colleges from 2030 onwards, and how do we get there? The report is well researched with an impressive range of collaborators. While it feels it has a weight behind it at this stage it is only a series of recommendations to Government. The recommendations however do track the Government's headline intent and the Skills White Paper is imminent.
The report itself needed a deeper delve into the implications and you can read our analysis here. It centres around the concept of a College place-based network in which employers are heavily invested and skills needs agreed and addressed. The skills and higher technical agenda, the relationship, support, collaboration and competition between local institutions (FE & HE), adult retraining, the unspoken Government agenda to rebalance numbers going into HE and reprioritisation of the status of the graduate degree route (and perhaps, therefore, the funding behind it all) all feature. Read more here.
Research Professional have a rather decent interpretation of elements of the report here. Their write-up is particularly good at drawing out where the Commission has tried to find solutions to reduce potential competition between HE and FE.
Lord Blunkett gives his take on the report's intent in The Times. On competition he states: Lifelong learning is complementary to higher education, which it embraces. Further and higher education working collaboratively will help to reach more people, deliver more impact and improve value for money.
However, his intent is less clear when he comments: Quality teaching equals quality learning, and further education must be underpinned by a commitment to excellence for students (unlike universities, where expertise is underpinned by research).
Student Fees petition – no blanket refund
Last week we highlighted that the Petition Committee had scheduled a debate on all five student fee related petitions. You can read the debate in full here or a summary here.
Only a handful of MPs attended the debate although those that did speak made a range of informed points. Michelle Donelan represented the Government to make it clear there would be no change. No blanket refunds and students need to pursue their own cases individually through the Office of the Independent Adjudicator.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) have a really insightful analysis on the topic – Who would benefit from reimbursing tuition fees?
The total cost to universities of refunding fees…for a whole year would be around £10 billion if the policy applied only to full-time undergraduates domiciled in England. Including all fee-paying students – which includes students from other home nations, international students, part-time students, and those studying for other degrees – would nearly double the amount to be reimbursed. [Almost half total university income in 2018/19!]
Among undergraduate students domiciled in England, this kind of reimbursement of tuition fees would primarily benefit the small minority of students who pay their tuition fees out-of-pocket, and those who go on to have high earnings after they have graduated. Only the roughly 10% of students (or their parents) who pay tuition fees directly would receive any immediate pay-out. All others will have taken out the full government-backed loan to cover their fees, so reimbursement would merely lower their student loan balance.
This change to the student loan balance only matters for high-earning graduates. The reason is that mandatory repayments only depend on graduates' earnings, and all remaining student loan balances are written off 30 years after graduates start repaying. Lower-earning graduates will not repay their loans within 30 years whether or not tuition fees are reimbursed, so their repayments would be the same… Borrowers in the bottom half of the graduate earnings distribution would gain virtually nothing from tuition fee reimbursement
The corollary of this is that by far the largest direct beneficiary of any such reimbursement by universities would be the government… Of the total amount reimbursed, more than two thirds would end up in the government's coffers.
No reimbursement option is particularly palatable for the government. Forcing universities to reimburse students may well bankrupt some of them, causing major disruption for some students and others. If the government shouldered the full costs, that would constitute an expensive give-away benefitting mainly high earners and international students.
Wonkhe also have a write up of the debate.
NUS – calls for change
The National Union of Students (NUS) has said students need urgent financial support as well as a plan for a new education system built on the principles of being lifelong, fully-funded, accessible and democratic, at the upcoming spending review.
NUS has been encouraging students and students' unions to hold Town Hall meetings with MPs, so that students can share their experiences, and put forward their demands directly to them. This is being supported by a programme of action being led by grassroots student organisers throughout the week to demand that the government provide them with financial support, and that universities and colleges meet their demands – including rent rebates.
Research by the NUS has shown that 20% of students did not think that they would be able to pay their rent and essential bills, and 3 in 4 students were anxious about paying their rent this term.
NUS is calling for the government to take urgent action by –
Providing funding to colleges and universities to be directed towards hardship funds
Investing to eradicate digital poverty and ensure that students have the technology they need to learn, including free internet access
Introducing financial support for students during lockdown periods
Providing students with the right to leave accommodation contracts without any financial detriment
Directing funding towards students' unions to empower students to shape decisions
On the lifelong, funded, accessible and democratic education system NUS calls for
Reintroduce non-repayable, means-tested maintenance grants, and set eligibility for these at previous levels plus inflationary increases
Greater investment into adult education, and all adult education funding invested into the further education sector to be ring-fenced for this purpose
All Equivalent or Lower Qualification (ELQ) funding restrictions should be removed through all levels of education
Raise the base funding rate for 16- and 17-year-olds in further education to at least £4,760
Extend the maximum student loan eligibility to enable all students to afford basic living costs without reliance on part-time employment
Greater investment in NHS children and young people's mental health services
Commenting ahead of the spending review, Larissa Kennedy, NUS National President, said –
The treatment of students during this pandemic is not an anomaly, it is indicative of an education system rotting at its core, with this being just the latest manifestation of the tyranny of the marketised university, which is forced to prioritise profit above all else.
Students need support now. They deserve better than the meagre measures they have been offered so far, and need urgent support to prevent a worsening mental health crisis, students turning to foodbanks for their next meal and a lack of access to education.
On top of exposing and exacerbating some of the systemic challenges for students, COVID-19 has also created an urgent need for greater support. The spending review must look to the future and secure students' present. The most important measures for this will be ensuring that students have the financial support that they require to cope with the effects of this pandemic.
The average programme funding for T level and non-T level full time study (the interest is in the comparison/different funding levels).
A different perspective question on the 'bail out' – The cost to the public purse for accounting and auditing to support universities to access finances during the C-19 outbreak.
Stepping up the pressure a little Baroness Tonge asks what legislative options the Government is considering to ensure all HEIs sign up to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of antisemitism.
With Welsh exams cancelled how will the Government ensure a level playing field for university admissions in 2021. Move to Admissions section?
How universities are accountable for curriculum decisions including whether to decolonise the history curriculum.
The Government doesn't intend to investigate ebook pricing and licensing practices although the zero rate VAT change is constantly under review for all taxes.
Covid: students only need one negative test to travel – Lord Parkinson: The guidance for students in England is that only one negative test is required.
Lord Parkinson on the January return to university guidance: people will want a bit of certainty about the resumption of education in January. Our hope is to be able to provide that guidance before the end of term so that everyone knows the situation going into the Christmas holidays. But of course, like everything, that will depend on developments in the virus and the pandemic. Lord Parkinson sidestepped answering whether students would require to be tested in January.
Accommodation codes of practice (and whether they need revision in light of Covid)
Students who wish to terminate accommodation contracts to go home to study online
Government urges universities and private providers to 'be fair' in their decision over rent charges during Covid, particularly for clinically vulnerable students.
Covid clusters at educational settings
Green Industrial Revolution: The Prime Minister has unveiled his Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution – summary here. Also Andrew Griffith MP has been appointed as the UK's Net Zero Business Champion. His role is to support the country's business community to make credible plans to net zero by 2050 or earlier and showcase the UK's place as a global leader in tackling climate change.
Board Diversity: Wonkhe report: that Advance HE has announced a new project to diversify higher education governing boards. In partnership with Perrett Laver, the HE Board Diversity Project will establish an evidence base of what can be done to ensure that university governing boards are truly diverse, with the aim to develop and share best practices and ways forward for the sector.
Racially inclusive: Wonkhe tell us that SUMS Consulting has published a briefing paper on making higher education institutions racially inclusive. The paper, based on a panel discussion with representatives from universities and student unions, covers best practices in support of students and staff; leadership on issues of equality, diversity and inclusion; creating an anti-racist university and other sector wide initiatives.
Making friends: HEPI have a blog on How the Government should reset its relationship with universities.
NEETS: Wonkhe have picked up on a Financial Times article which covers statistics from the Office for National Statistics demonstrating that the number of 18-24 year olds not in education, employment and training fell compared to last year. An interesting counterpoint to recent stories, although the population dip demographics may come into play.
Station of the Nation HE style: There's a new HEPI blog on the state of HE today – Turf wars, new providers and spending reviews – and how there are 118 fewer higher education providers in England than there were meant to be in 2020
Degree Apprenticeship regulatory regime: Wonkhe tell us that Universities that deliver degree apprenticeships will be subject to Education and Skills Funding Agency funding audits from April next year, according to a report in FE Week this morning. The first audits could come in the same month that Ofsted starts to inspect degree apprenticeships.
Shared Prosperity Fund: The University Alliance have published an open letter to the Government, (signed by 70 universities and businesses) calling for clarity on the delivery of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF). UKSPF is due to replace EU Structural Funds after they wrap up in 2023 and the EU funds have been a key enabler of collaboration between universities and businesses with funds used to support and develop communities and regions. The letter pushes for greater transparency and argues that without the timely replacement of funds, many of the projects and schemes universities and businesses collaboratively deliver in local areas across the UK are at risk. Affecting livelihoods across the county in a time of growing economic challenges.
Student Protection (closure): Wonkhe outline the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIA)'s new briefing note on complaints arising from course, campus, or provider closure. In the case of provider closure, there are particular concerns relating to the financial implications for students of transferring institution, the need to preserve student records, the impact of interruptions to ongoing processes such as academic appeals, placements, or research projects, arranging for the award of exit qualifications, and management of student accommodation. Wonkhe has a blog wondering if the protection we give students matches the risks they take.
Student Fee comparability: iNews covers analysis by the Russell Group that showed that by academic year 2023-24 per student funding in England will be similar in real terms to 2011-12, before the tripling of tuition fees.
Careers Guidance: The Social Mobility Commission published research on how effective training and careers guidance for frontline or low-skilled workers can increase their progression, pay and social mobility. It found that organisations with strong progression cultures benefit from increased productivity, higher quality outputs, lower staff turnover and being seen as more attractive places to work.
Tags: access and participation accommodation admissions app ARPA Augar review bullying careers degree classification Digital research employability fees and funding grade inflation Graduate Outcomes international open access PGR post-16 post-offer admissions post-qualification admissions PQA PQO PTES quality Review of post-18 education social mobility standards Student maintenance support student protection plans sustainability teaching excellence TEF value for money widening access widening participation
Business Engagement, COVID-19, EU, humanities, Industry collaboration, international, Knowledge Exchange, NHS, open access, parliament, PG research, policy, Public engagement, Research news, Student Engagement jforster
We've a lot to cover this week as the new lockdown seems to have inspired policy wonks to publish!
Input from the Government has informed how students should travel home safely for Christmas and the Education Secretary wants all the Skills answers.
Skills reform
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has written to Stephen van Rooyen (Sky CEO) who Chairs the Skills and Productivity Board. The Board provides a focus on the skills areas the Government should attend to within industry and also provides independent labour market advice. In his letter Gavin confirms the Board's priorities for the year ahead:
Under your leadership the board will play a central role in driving forward the government's ambitious plans to upgrade the skills system – including improving higher technical education – and boost productivity. I know we agree on the importance of ensuring that courses and qualifications on offer to students across the country are high-quality, are aligned to the skills that employers need for the future and will help grow our economy after the coronavirus outbreak.
To this end, you and I have agreed the board will prioritise the following questions over the next 12 months:
Which areas of the economy face the most significant skills mismatches or present growing areas of skills need?
Can the board identify the changing skills needs of several priority areas within the economy over the next 5-10 years?
How can skills and the skills system promote productivity growth in areas of the country that are poorer performing economically?
The Minister wants quick answers – I would encourage you to prioritise the accumulation of evidence that can have the greatest impact, to build on the excellent analytical work that has already taken place inside and outside government, and to focus on actionable insights that we can use to reform our skills system… I welcome the board's advice on what 'good' looks like across the globe
The letter also confirms the appointees to the Board of six leading skills and labour market economists:
Arun Advani – University of Warwick: Assistant Professor, IFS Fellow
Claire Crawford – University of Birmingham: Reader in Economics
Andrew Dickerson – University of Sheffield: Professor of Economics and Director of Sheffield Methods Institute
Ewart Keep – Oxford University: Emeritus Professor in Education, Training and Skills, Department of Education Oxford University
Grace Lordan – LSE: Associate Professor & Founding Director of the Inclusion Initiative
Sir Christopher Pissarides – LSE: Regius Professor of Economics and Nobel laureate
Admissions: Post Qualification Offers (PQO)
This is the surprising "big news" this week. Surprising from a timing point of view, at least. We need to get our acronyms right to start with. A lot of talk for years has been about PQA – post qualification admissions. However, it seems that we are now talking about PQO – Post Qualification Offer-making – i.e. students apply in a way not dissimilar to now, but offers are only made when results are available. So no more clearing – because essentially everyone is in clearing. It might also mean an end to unconditional offers in most cases (remember that these are already banned by the OfS in most cases, for the time being). Most importantly for the government, and those concerned by unfairness inherent in the system, it means an end to predicted grades. Although perhaps not……
UCAS triggered media excitement on Monday morning…
And on Friday, the UUK Fair Admissions Review – comes out in favour of PQO from 2023 subject to full consultation.
Q&A – useful for colleagues only wanting a short dip in – it's more an exec summary than Q&A.
Fair Admissions Review (actual document).
Press release/report intro page
The ending of 'conditional unconditional' offers
Guidance on the acceptable use of unconditional offers
A new code of practice to maintain standards
Greater transparency, consistency, and standard indicators to support contextual offer-making
Guardian Friday– Admissions reform – University leaders have given their backing to a radical overhaul of admissions policy which would mean UK students would only be offered places once they have their A-level results. The long-awaited reform aims to make the system fairer by eliminating the use of predicted grades, which are often unreliable, and will bring the UK into line with other countries, possibly as early as 2023/24.
We think it is a bit early to say that university leaders have backed it – this is a set of recommendations following a review which have yet to be consulted on…….
Stakeholder reaction to UUK proposals:
Emma Hardy MP, Labour's Shadow Universities Minister, said:
"The university admissions system has let students down for years, and Labour have long campaigned for reform.
"University admissions must provide greater clarity and opportunities for applicants, in a way that is fair to all; whatever their backgrounds.
"The Government must now listen to universities, colleges and schools and deliver a system that is fair and transparent."
Chris Millward, Director for Fair Access and Participation at the Office for Students, said:
'A fair and robust admissions system is essential for ensuring equality of opportunity for all students, and must help applicants from all backgrounds choose and gain admission to the best possible course and university or college for them.
'There is evidence that disadvantaged students could benefit from a system where offers are made on the basis of grades achieved rather than predicted grades, particularly in applications to the most selective universities. Post-qualification admissions could also help improve transparency in contextual admissions and other entry requirements. But it is not a magic bullet for fair access.
'So, we will consider all of UUK 's proposals carefully, including the proposed move to post-qualification admissions, and continue to work with partners across the higher education sector to improve the admissions system – that means identifying how to remove barriers to disadvantaged applicants, promoting transparency and clarity about the admissions process and ensuring the system works fairly for all.
'There is widespread recognition that aspects of the current system are not working. For example, research suggests that students from disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to receive under-predicted A-level grades. We have also temporarily banned 'conditional unconditional' offers during the pandemic due to the pressure that they can put on students to make choices which may not be in their best interests.
'As Universities UK proposes today, we have also called for universities to make a deeper commitment to contextual offer making. We know that school results are not achieved under equal conditions, and it is crucial that universities and colleges recognise candidates' potential when making admissions decisions. That's what they have committed to do through the access and participation plans agreed with OfS.'
Is this a priority?
Key areas of focus announced for the OfSthis year included admissions and recruitment including marketing and inducements
Government focus on fairness and choice: We expected this government may go further on choice and fairness by pushing hard on post-qualification admissions. Gavin Williamson does not like unconditional offers, university marketing or clearing and the government is convinced that there is mis-selling.
As we reported in September, Nicola Dandridge (OfS) presented at the Wonkhe event, the Secret Life of Students and said that the OfS admissions review that was launched before lockdown would remain on pause to allow universities to deliver the 2021 cycle first (and tackle any difficulties that arise).
And what did UCAS say? In Monday's announcement they set out two "options for reform".
Under a post-qualification offers model, all students, including those on technical and vocational routes, would receive offers from their chosen universities and colleges on the same day, after getting their final qualification results in the summer. This means students would not be giving up a potential place until their grades were known, and would retain the long selection window in the prior months, which allows time to support students with disabilities and those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Apost-qualification application model will be put up for discussion, which sees all students apply and receive offers after receiving their qualification results. To allow sufficient time for support from teachers, as well as applications to be submitted, assessed, and offers made and accepted, university term would need to begin in January.
There is no more detail: "Full details on the two models being proposed and how UCAS will collect and review feedback on them will be published in the coming weeks."
UCAS Chief Executive Clare Marchant notes that it is "It is absolutely crucial though that we limit any unintended consequences of such major change" and the report will be published alongside a mechanism to collect and review feedback from the sector. The Guardian and the Independent cover the announcement, while the Times publishes letters from Lord Blunkett, Nick Hillman and others on the proposed reforms.
Wonkhe:
tweeted the link to this August 2019 article by Mary Curnock-Cook." How researching post qualification admissions turned me from advocate to sceptic".
Jim Dickinson takes a lookat what's being proposed.
It's taken as read that post-qualification admissions will help applicants from disadvantaged backgrounds. But, says David Kernohan, the question is still open
In The Times, pupils could apply to university after A-level results day, an opinion piece says that now is the time to reform university admissions and an editorial says that universities should not make offers until A-level results have been received.
Admissions : Access to HE: Wonkhe cover the new report from AccessHE focuses on the impact of the pandemic on those applying for a higher education place in 2021. Assuming that students drop one grade from what they would otherwise have attained (for example D to E at A level) 5,000 applicants in London (75 per cent of whom are from BAME backgrounds) would miss out on HE study. England-wide, this could be as many as 27,000. There's a position paper from NEON and the NUS calling for a later UCAS deadline and a national taskforce.
SURE: You'll recall that Government had a bail out scheme of sorts for some universities research functions where Covid has caused significant disruption. It is now called the Sustaining University Research Expertise (SURE) package and Government have released a notice on the fund highlighting that UKRI will published detailed guidance shortly. Research Professional unpick the scheme here.
Some basic points on the fund:
It is to address short term losses in research related income (all funds received have to be spent on research or KE activity)
The government will cover 80% of a university's losses from international student income (for 2020-21) or the value of non-publicly funded research activity in that university (whichever is the lesser), supplemented with "a small amount" of government grant.
The loan interest rate 0.55% over a 10 year repayment period
The deadline to apply is mid December (even though the full guidance isn't out yet) and payments to providers will made by 31 March 2021.
There are other conditions too, such a pay restraint, and RP retain their sense of humour in describing the condition: there would also seem to be big disincentives from taking out a loan for any university that prizes its autonomy. As Darth Vader told Calrissian, "I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further."
ARPA: The Commons Science and Technology Committee held a session on a new UK research funding agency (ARPA) they continued to hear evidence on how the proposed UK ARPA will fit into the existing research landscape, with Amanda Solloway, Ottoline Leyser, and Sarah Hodgetts among the witnesses. Wonkhe report on the session:
UKRI chair John Kingman stressed the need to balance the desire to adequately fund any potential UK Advanced Projects Research Agency (ARPA) with the usual accountability when spending public money. UKRI chief executive Ottoline Leyser said she does not see proposals for any new funding body as an implicit criticism of UKRI, but one approach among many, within a context of rising government funding of research. Science minister Amanda Solloway said that while the focus of ARPA has yet to be decided, she wants it to be led by scientific merit rather than by government. You can watch the full session on Parliament TV.
Dods have a more comprehensive summary of the session here.
Arts & Culture: Research Professional (RP) report that:
Research England is announcing £1.1 million in funding for a National Centre for Academic and Cultural Exchange to facilitate knowledge exchange between universities and the UK's arts and culture industries. The NCACE will be run by the Culture Capital Exchange. The virtual centre will focus on showcasing the social, cultural, environmental and economic impacts of knowledge exchange in the arts, with plans to promote impacts in health, place-making, climate change and technology.
RP are critical of the Centre stating its impact is based on anecdotal evidence. More here.
Security Threats: The Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats (CREST) has received an additional £5.3 million to continue behavioural and social science research into security threats to the UK. Originally launched in October 2015 CREST is reported to have drawn collaboration from 140 researchers within 35 higher education institutions and small and medium-sized enterprises for research and engagement to add value to security training, practices and policies.
Doctoral Students: Wonkhe report that UKRI has advised funded doctoral students to discuss with their supervisors adjusting their projects to complete qualifications while funding is available. The research council will be making an additional £19m available to support students who find it more difficult to make adjustments – particularly those in their final year and those with ongoing support needs. This announcement comes alongside the publication of a review of student support, which found that 92 per cent of final year students asked for an extension, with an average length of 46 months. And there's a Wonkhe blog on the topic.
Digital: Jisc has announced the formation of a digital research community which will explore how technology and innovation can help improve research practice. Researchers, research leaders, research managers and other professionals in the field, such as developers, software engineers, and library and IT staff can join.
Students Engage! The Future of Engagement at Universities from HEPI covers blending public engagement into the student university experience.
R&D Taskforce recommendations: The National Centre for Universities and Business (NCUB) have published Research to Recovery a R&D taskforce report. In the report, business and universities set out a collective vision for a future driven by collaboration through research and development.
The report recommendations include:
A refresh of the Industrial Strategy that places research and innovation as its engine. By backing businesses innovation, the Government will help create a more resilient, competitive and productive economy.
The establishment of a network of 'Innovation Collaboration Zones' across the UK to aid the levelling up agenda. The Government, with UK Research and Innovation, should create simpler mechanisms to support businesses to innovate, and to galvanise industry and academia; the Times has the story.
The creation of a Global Collaboration Fund to encourage universities and businesses to pool their strengths to attract inward investment, attracting investment from businesses in the UK and overseas.
A widened remit of the Office for Talent to help grow and deliver domestic talent, alongside attracting global talent. A coordinated, cross-cutting approach needs to be taken to develop, upskill, retain and retrain domestic talent.
Preventing abuse: HM Revenue & Customs have published a policy paper on preventing abuse of R&D tax relief for SMEs. It limits claims to £20,000 plus 300% of its total PAYE and National Insurance contributions liability for the period.
An oral parliamentary question (so slightly longer content) on the recent steps supporting the growth of innovation and new technologies.
The Government is open to participation in Horizon Europe if a fair and balanced deal can be reached. Alongside this, BEIS is working with the Devolved Administrations to develop credible options should alternative schemes be required. Funding for any continued participation in EU research and innovation Programmes or EU replacement schemes is subject to allocations at the Spending Review. More here.
UKRI's proposed Open Access policy. And Rights to Retention.
Steps to ensure that PhD students from the EU wish to study in the UK after the increase in student visa costs from January 2021.
Ensuring that the UK life sciences sector continues to have access to (a) research funding and (b) collaborative working opportunities with European partners after 31 December 2020.
Government is analysing responses following its survey on the R&D roadmap.
And this one won't be responded to for two weeks (so it'll fit within the timing of the Spending Review without giving anything away) but it is worth noting it now:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to exempt research councils from the one-year spending review so they can fund long-term projects.
Exams (GCSE, AS & A level)
Wales: Following an independent review panel Wales has cancelled GCSE, AS & A level exams, due to the ongoing pandemic, replacing them with coursework and assessments. Some assessments will be set and/or marked externally, however they will be delivered in the teacher supervised classroom environment during the second half of the Spring term. The assessments will feed into the nationally derived centre-assessed grades. The decision will also allow schools to continue teaching throughout the summer term (BBC). TES also covered the story.
The BBC report Welsh Education Minister Kirsty Williams said:
The well-being of learners and ensuring fairness across the system is central in our decision making process.
We remain optimistic that the public health situation will improve, but the primary reason for my decision is down to fairness; the time learners will spend in schools and colleges will vary hugely and, in this situation, it is impossible to guarantee a level playing field for exams to take place.
We have consulted with universities across the UK and they have confirmed that they are used to accepting many different types of qualifications.
And it remained a "highly challenging year" but the announcement would remove pressures from learners and provide "clear time for teaching and learning".
Number 10 have confirmed that exams in England will still go ahead. Although Wonkhe have this:
Chair of the Ofqual "Recovery Committee" Amanda Spielman has suggested that England may only hold examinations in core subjects next year. She told the House of Commons Education Committee that cancelling exams would not be a "sensible default route", but that this year's A level candidates would face difficulties in catching up with their learning. You can watch the hearing on Parliament Live. The Financial Times and Schools Week have the story.
Exams in Northern Ireland will also go ahead but the number of exams per subject will be reduced (BBC).
The Education Policy Institute has published a report and recommendations on the 2021 exam series. It finds the Government doesn't have a credible plan B should exams not be able to go ahead and sets out a number of actions that would mitigate the risks for students. It also encourages HE providers to make full use of contextual admissions.
Committee: Ofqual partiality questioned & 2021 exams: The Education Committee has written to Gavin Williamson (Education Secretary) to highlight serious concerns about the independence, accountability and transparency of the exams regulator Ofqual. The Committee has called for proper planning to be put in place to ensure students in England are able to sit exams next year. The letter also sets out the Committee's findings and recommendations following the problems which resulted from the cancellation of this summer's exams due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Rt Hon Robert Halfon MP, Chair of the Education Committee, said:
The fallout and unfairness from the cancellation of this summer's exams will have an ongoing impact on the lives of thousands of families. But such harm could have been avoided had Ofqual not buried its head in the sand and ignored repeated warnings, including from our Committee, about the flaws in the system for awarding grades.
A lack of transparency and independence at Ofqual meant opportunities to raise alarm bells were missed. Ofqual should have acted to protect the futures of our young people.
There are arguments to be made for and against Ofqual remaining independent, and for its duties being brought inside the Department for Education directly under ministerial control. It must be absolutely clear to all where accountability lies. What is not acceptable is a half-way house position where lines of accountability for standards are blurred.
Both Ofqual and the DfE must learn hard lessons from this summer's exams controversy and move swiftly to ensure exams can take place next year in one form or another. They must ensure a level playing field for those from disadvantaged backgrounds who have struggled during Covid. The catch-up fund and pupil premium should be used to help those left behind or at home due to Covid issues.
Ofqual and the DfE must also make sure there is no repeat of the unfairness faced by pupils should the pandemic continue to impact on learning. Young people have already been among some of the hardest hit these past few months and they must be properly supported to ensure they get the future their hard work deserves.
Wonkhe put it succinctly: the regulator either seemed to ignore evidence presented to it or acted in such a way as to bring itself in line with ministerial wishes, blurring lines of accountability
Dods diplomatically say: …it is clear that Ofqual recognised the problems with the model of awarding grades yet failed to raise concerns about its fairness. Instead they simply followed the ministerial direction and hoped for the best— calling into question its independence.
Exams 2021: The Committee says:
Exams must go ahead in 2021 and robust contingency planning should be put in place as soon as possible to ensure this can happen.
There should be careful consideration on whether to continue with the full curriculum should particular local circumstances or lockdowns impact student learning. Any decisions must be informed by an assessment of the learning loss that has occurred since March across schools and how this has varied across the country.
There must be a level playing field for exams for those from disadvantaged backgrounds, who have struggled with Covid. Catch-up funding and pupil premium should be used to help these left behind groups.
There will need to be urgent consideration of what approach should be taken in light of the grade inflation that has occurred this August and how standards can be maintained.
GCSE curriculum – gateway to university not skills?
The House of Commons Education Committee held an oral evidence session on Left Behind White Pupils from Disadvantaged Backgrounds (click Transcripts to download the full session content). Below are the elements most relevant to universities:
Dr Alex Gibson (Senior Research Fellow, University of Plymouth) makes a plea for the use of the LSOA (lower layer super output area) to understand local deprivation. He states he found it: incredibly valuable in trying to explain variations in performance or access to university. …Once you are able to include that [LSOA] data, for instance the IDACI score…that is the number of children in each area living in income deprivation—you are able to bring in a lot more information. Once you have that, the significance of free school meal status actually drops away. Using the national pupil database, which is one of the most remarkable databases we have, allows you to pull in an awful lot more data than just free school meals, so I would call for that to be used at every opportunity.
Henri Murison (Director, Northern Powerhouse Partnership): …we have made GCSEs a preparation for A-levels, which are a preparation for university. I understand why A-levels are a preparation for university, because they are predominantly taken by people going to university, but GCSEs are supposed to be a gateway qualification for all young people to get on. The reality is they are not an accessible qualification for people who do not have lots of experience in the family of people who have gone to university. Schools can do an awful lot to open up those qualifications, but the reality is we need to have a fundamental look at what we are asking kids to study, because I do not think employers are very interested in what they include either.
Ian Mearns MP, Education Committee member: In a nutshell, are you saying that the curriculum that is being provided is only appropriate for the 50% of youngsters who are destined for university?)
Henri Murison: Yes
Tom Hunt MP (Education Committee member):
…There has been some criticism of the education system over the past few decades that there has not been enough focus on technical education apprenticeships. It has been very much a 50% target for university, et cetera.
Do you think it is a problem for some because, almost regardless of whether you want to go to university or whether you want to go on to a good quality apprenticeship, you have to do reasonably well in your GCSEs, for example? Do you think there has been a bit of a problem that, for many, they have looked at university and said, "That seems to be the only thing we are hearing about at school: we need to go to university. We do not really think university is a route for us or for me. It is not achievable for us to get there and there is not really anything else"?
There is not really a sense of there being multiple pathways. There hasn't been enough to promote good quality technical education and apprenticeships. Maybe if there had been there would be more of an incentive and a driver for children from low-income backgrounds, who perhaps do not want to go to university but who would be attracted by that technical route, to do better at GCSEs, for example, and that gap would not be so large.
At Q109 tracking individuals and their economic success from all backgrounds is covered – noting that the only longitudinal tracking that is conducted is on individuals who do go to university.
Wonkhe report: The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) unlawfully prevented thousands of disabled students from claiming benefits for essential living costs for seven years, the high court has ruled. It found that the department had rejected students' claims for universal credit without allowing them to undertake a work capability assessment (WCA), an unlawful refusal which Disability Rights UK has estimated could have impacted over 30,000 disabled students.
Piers Wilkinson, the former NUS disabled students' officer said "It is imperative that the government publicly recognise the result of the court case, and apologise for the extra hardships they caused to the thousands of disabled students the government denied and ignored". Despite the decision, disabled students making a new claim for universal credit will not be able to rely on the court ruling – Work and Pensions secretary Therese Coffey changed the regulations on 3 August, the next working day after she told the court that she would not be defending the judicial review.
Wonkhe report: The Times has an opinion pieceon how a university degree does not automatically lead to social mobility.
OfS have a blog on Tackling differential outcomes for underrepresented students in higher education based on the Addressing Barriers to Student Success (ABSS) projects. Case studies are provided. The summative evaluation of ABSS (issued last week) is here. OfS report that the approaches and interventions used in the projects are highly transferable, and it has led to accelerated sharing of what works and the roll-out of innovative solutions to a range of providers. It finds that:
Inclusive teaching led to increased student confidence, higher attendance levels and higher grades
Technology can play an important role in providing an inclusive environment
Enhanced student support led to raised confidence and resilience and improved staff understanding and confidence in supporting students from underrepresented groups
1-to-1 support was popular with students from lower participation areas, disabled students and those disclosing mental health conditions
Buy-in from senior leaders was important, it has a greater impact and chance of future sustainability.
Improving access to universities for care experienced students.
Explanations on how Universal Credit interacts with the student loan (this is worth a read for interested colleagues, the explanation acknowledges the loan and justifies why it is treated as income barring most students from Universal Credit).
Social Mobility Index
The Social Mobility Foundation has published its annual Social Mobility Employer Index which identifies the top 75 UK employers who have taken the most action on social mobility. It ranks the UK's employers on the actions they are taking to access and progress talent from all backgrounds. It highlights the employers doing the most to change the way they find, recruit and progress talented employees from different social class backgrounds.
This year's Index highlights that some sectors of the economy – law, public sector and financial services – have made positive strides to improve social mobility in the workplace, but overall progress is too slow. The charity is calling on those sectors which have benefited most from the Covid-19 pandemic, especially major tech, gaming, or pharmaceutical companies, to make a public commitment to social mobility in 2021. None of these sectors are represented in the Top 75 employers.
Alongside the launch of the Index, their chair, Rt. Hon Alan Milburn issued a rallying cry for business to do more to improve social mobility in the wake of Covid-19 or risk a lost generation.
Key findings taken from the report:
Despite the government focus on levelling up, only 36% of businesses are setting social mobility targets within their organisation despite 85% of respondents feeling their clients care about the social class mix of their workforce
Tech companies have seen profits soar during Covid-19. The combined post-tax profits of Alphabet, Amazon, Apple and Facebook have grown by $39bn during Covid-19. None of the tech giants entered the Index
Many businesses are not being transparent about who they employ with only 29% of entrants publishing socio-economic background data on their workforce
Only 11% of businesses track if they have a class pay gap despite the Social Mobility Commission finding that those from working class background face a 7% pay gap in Britain's professional and managerial occupations compared to their peers from better-off backgrounds
In law, a sector which received significant submissions for four years, there appears to be an unwillingness to recruit outside of Russell Group Universities. 84% of legal firms graduate intake was from a Russell Group university
However, it is positive to see employers investing more heavily in employee development, with 48% of organisations offering buddying and mentoring support (up from 30% in 2019) and supporting the creation of networks of employees from similar backgrounds up at 40% (from 26% in 2019). This progress is welcome given the importance of peer support for career progression. This work could be enhanced by diversity awareness training with a focus on social mobility – only 34% of organisations currently offer this which is unchanged from 2019.
Augar: The long awaited response to Augar may still be delivered during the Spending Review. Lord Parkinson mentioned it this week with some ominously odd phrasing: The government is carefully examining the Augar Report and its recommendations as part of the wider Post-18 Education Review. We are considering a response alongside the Spending Review, with a view to providing certainty to providers and students.
The Government responded to the latest tuition fee related petition – Lower university tuition fees for students until online teaching ends. In essence, they continue to maintain it is a matter for individual universities.
However, on Monday (16 November) there will be a Commons debate on tuition fees (as is required when a petition reaches over a certain high signature level threshold) and a DfE Minister will be present at the debate to respond on behalf of the Government. (The Commons Library is briefing members – here.) The debate will be based on all 5 petitions which, taken all together, received over 980,000 signatures.
Require universities to reimburse students' tuition fees during strike action
Reimburse all students of this year's fees due to strikes and COVID-19
Refund university students for 3rd Semester Tuition 2020
Require universities to partially refund tuition fees for 20/21 due to Covid-19
Lower university tuition fees for students until online teaching ends
You'll recall the Committee investigated the fee petitions through an inquiry and issued a report during July calling for the Government to take urgent action and review the support for universities and students in the face of the "greatest challenge they have faced for generations". Receiving a reasonable standard of education and the disproportionate impact of remote learning on certain groups (e.g. disadvantaged, disabled students, those requiring practical tuition or specialist equipment) were noted as important factors.
In its response to the Committee's report, the Government accepted that students should be able to take action if they are unsatisfied with their university's response to the pandemic. However, they rejected the Committee's recommendation for a new centralised system which enables all students to easily seek a full or partial refund of their tuition fees, or to repeat part of their course.
The forthcoming mini Spending Review, unfavourable responses to parliamentary questions and Monday's debate into tuition fees has the Russell Group on edge. Wonkhe report:
The Russell Group has published a briefingfor MPs on the sustainable funding of universities in the group. It calls on parliamentarians to ensure students and universities are provided with a "cast-iron guarantee" that if fees are cut in any Augar review response, that teaching grants cover the funding shortfall in full. It also calls for future demand for higher education places to be met in full.
Existential questions: value for money, the role of universities
Plenty from HEPI this week:
Value for Money: A Risk, Wrapped in a Mystery, Inside an Enigma – on value for money, excerpt: Lamentably, there is no easy or fool-proof way of measuring value for money and whichever metrics-paved alley you wander down, the inevitable end results will be that you create some behaviours you want and some you may not want. To draw an analogy, you weigh yourself, measure your height and calculate your body mass index, the result is not good. This leads you to decide to embark on a weight loss programme. You weigh yourself every week, you lose weight but hate eating all that rabbit food and cutting out the booze and end up depressed. Weight loss might be good but depression is bad. Any metrics-based system could end up producing unintended consequences that the Government and universities do not want… A tricky problem lies ahead for the Government managing a spiralling national debt – and the escalating cost of higher education does not help matters.
Universities have always had a civic role to play, COVID has made that role even more important
Nick Hillman (HEPI Director) wrote for Conservative Home setting out Three options for higher education. Less support for students, fewer of them – or else they pay more
"The Treasury was happy to countenance a big expansion of university finance when it did nothing to blemish its scorecard in reducing the deficit. It will take a sterner view once the actual costs show up in the budget deficit." [Paul Wallace, Prospect.]
Once again, the Government is facing three options: providing less money per student through lower fees and loans, which would drive some universities to the wall; reducing student places, just as the number of school leavers is about to start a decade-long growth; or tougher student loan repayment terms, which would mean paying a little more. None of these options is palatable.
If it were down to me, I wouldn't cut education spending at all. The triple whammy of Brexit dampening down skilled migration to the UK, economic change wrought by the pandemic and higher unemployment among lower skilled people in the coming recession mean we should be investing as much as we can in all types of education. More education is always better than leaving people to build blank spaces on their CVs.
Yet if the higher education sector must take some further pain in the spending review, then tougher student loan repayment terms of the sort in place in other countries and of the type recommended by the Augar panel is a better place to start than pushing universities to the brink or blocking aspirational learners from enrolling in higher education.
HEPI's big ticket item this week is on the Graduate pay gender gap which looks at how the graduate gender pay gap changes over time tries to explain its persistence. Findings:
The overall graduate gender pay gap is not accounted for by subject of study, type of university attended, prior attainment, social background or ethnicity. Men appear to be more willing to be geographically mobile, which is likely to enhance their career prospects, but it is unlikely that increasing the mobility of women would significantly reduce the difference in pay.
Men appear to be more focused on their career search than women: they begin their career planning earlier during their time at university, make more applications and are less likely to give up once they have begun an application. They also display more confidence – perhaps overconfidence – and are more speculative in the jobs they apply for.
On the other hand, women are more likely to be offered a job once interviewed and are less likely to be unemployed on leaving university. This may in part be because they are more efficient in their job seeking; but it could equally reflect the fact that they are less ambitious in the jobs they apply for.
Women are more likely to work in part-time employment, both during and immediately after their degree than men; whereas men are more likely to undertake an internship during their degree, possibly providing them with an advantage when applying for jobs.
There are differences in attitudes to employment. For a higher proportion of men than women, a high salary is the mark of a good job. On the other hand, women are more likely to look for job security, work-life balance, a good company culture and a job which enables them to contribute to a cause they believe is meaningful.
Men and women are equally satisfied in their work, despite women being less well paid on average.
Among the recommendations are:
higher education institutions should promote information about the graduate gender pay gap, so students are empowered in their career planning to make the best decisions for their circumstances;
universities should make particular efforts to help female students undertake internships;
employers, working within current equal opportunities legislation, should make particular efforts to provide internship and networking opportunities for women; and that
the relative pay of male and female graduates should be included among the indicators of ranking bodies.
given the gendered impact, the Government, ranking compilers and others should not use comparative earnings as a measure of the worth of programmes or the quality of institutions.
Shadow Universities Minister, Emma Hardy MP, commenting on the report: This report shows that the government's desire to judge university performance on graduate income is deeply flawed. The government ending it [presumably here she means gender pay difference] cannot be the job of universities alone.
Student / Staff Engagement
Advance HE published their 2020 UK Engagement Survey of student and staff engagement between Feb and June 2020. They report:
Students surveyed since the spring lockdown report higher levels of engagement in four out of seven areas. Most notably, there is higher engagement in partnering and interacting with staff, two of the areas of engagement where students have reported generally less positively than other aspects.
Students responding during lockdown are in fact 2% less likely to have considered leaving their course, which is a positive endorsement of how they have been supported, as well as how they have adjusted and adapted to learning under lockdown.
In new analysis, students who live away from campus and/ or other students show high levels of engagement which indicates that geography and living arrangements do not need to be a barrier to the quality of learning.
Overall engagement:
89% of students reported finding their course challenging and 78% reported high levels of critical thinking
'Staff student partnership' and 'interacting with staff' results remain consistent with recent years at 42% and 36%, though in the period of lockdown these improved to 45% and 38% respectively.
Overall engagement measured by ethnicity of UK domicile students
BAME students again reported higher level of engagement than White students in every measure.
The 2020 findings point clearly to students from BAME backgrounds putting in a significant amount of time and effort into their learning; for example,
in engagement with 'Research and Inquiry', BAME students reported engagement levels of 71%, while White students reported 66%;
in engagement in 'staff student partnership', the figures are 46% and 40% respectively.
In terms of retention, students surveyed this year report being marginally less inclined to consider leaving than last year: 27.4% in 2019 and 26.5% in 2020. A breakdown by pre- and during lockdown responses, shows students are less inclined still to consider abandoning their studies: 26.9% 'pre' and 24.9% 'during'.
In a new area of analysis for 2020…how students' living arrangements and commuting distance links with levels of engagement. There appears to be no detrimental impact of a long commute on how a student engages or develops.
Likewise, living alone and/ or away from other students is actually linked with slightly higher levels of engagement or development than the more traditional model of living close to others.
The analysis shows that age appears to be a key factor in this, with older students – who tend to be those living far away from campus and not with other students – revealing that their levels of motivation and organisation can overcome some of the potential barriers posed by distance or circumstances.
Wonkhe report: Students who took the survey during lockdown also report much greater time spent caring for others and working for pay, and less time in scheduled teaching.
Students reporting caring responsibilities: 26% in 2019 to 31% in 2020, and 45% specifically during the lockdown period.
The Institute of Student Employer's annual recruitment survey highlighted that employers hire back 50% of their former interns and placement students. Also despite efforts to move internships online during Covid there were 29% less short-term internships and 25% less placements than in 2018/19. The decline was not evenly spread across the economy, and in all sectors apart from legal, employers are expecting placement opportunities to decline – most dramatically in the retail, charity and built environment sectors.
There's a good internship blog on Wonkhe by Tristram Hooley of ISE, he states: So far government employment policy has pretty much ignored higher education students and graduates altogether. There is a need for this to be addressed as the recession deepens.
As the survey sits behind a paywall here is Wonkhe's coverage: The Institute of Student Employers' annual survey of graduate employers finds tough times for graduate recruitment, with the number of graduate jobs dropping by 12 per cent in 2020, and further reductions expected next year. Sectors worst affected are retail and fast moving consumer goods, which has seen a 45 per cent reduction, while by contrast the charity and public sector has increased recruitment by four per cent. An immediate challenge for universities is widespread reduction of employers offering internships and placements – which could potentially affect promises made to students applying for sandwich courses and courses that include a placement as part of the offer. The Guardian has the story.
Meanwhile: The National Centre for Universities and Business (NCUB) has called on the government to offer more support for graduates looking for employment, following the release of Office for National Statistics data showing that 13.6 percent of those between 18 and 24 are currently unemployed. [Wonkhe.]
i News covers polling of business leaders by YouGov, which says that more than half of them do not consider a degree important when hiring staff.
Finally, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have released their latest Labour Market Overview covering July – September 2020.
Unemployment among 16-24 year olds is now at 14.6%, with the number of unemployed young people rising to around 602,000 – up from 581,000 in the last data release.
Youth employment is now at a record low of around 3.5 million, and the employment rate for young people now sits at 51.4%.
There has been a record high number of redundancies leading up to September, increasing by 181,000 this quarter.
Covid – Student Migration
The Government have released the guidance for students to travel home at the end of the term while controlling Covid-19 transmission risk. The Government's press release (which is more readable than the guidance) is here, the written ministerial statement is here and the OfS Student Guidance is here. The guidance has UK students observe the national lockdown then travel home on staggered departure dates between 3 and 9 December following mass Covid testing on campus. The exact departure dates will vary from between individual institutions and will coincide with the cessation of face to face teaching.
On mass testing the Government states: the Government will also work closely with universities to establish mass testing capacity. Tests will be offered to as many students as possible before they travel home for Christmas, with universities in areas of high prevalence prioritised.
Students testing positive will be required to self-isolate for a further 10 days. And the Government points out that: Moving all learning online by 9 December gives enough time for students to complete the isolation period and return home for Christmas.
There is additional detail on students who will travel outside of the UK.
De Montfort and Durham universities continue to run the pilot test for the mass testing within universities, including identifying those who might be infectious but have no symptoms.
Colleagues will have seen Jim Andrews' all staff email explaining BU is working through the implications of the national guidance whilst putting the detail and local measures in place. Jim's email also reminds that whatever a student's individual situation is BU will be here to support them and that the University will remain open.
Wonkhe say: We're not at all sure if this spreads out student migration in December, or in fact has the unfortunate and ironic potential impact of concentrating something that usually happens over a month or so into about a week. They are also quick to point out there is no detail on returning to campus in January. They say: To accidentally cause outbreaks via mass migration once is deeply regrettable, to do it twice is looking disturbingly like you value not bailing out universities more than you do public health. And even if you can get students to campus safely, there will remain the uncomfortable realities of campuses whose capacity has been reduced while halls and housing (where your problem was last time) will be even more densely populated than September thanks to additional international arrivals.
Finally they state: It's fair to say the response to the plans has been mixed – with many in the sector and beyond raising concerns around viability and the cost to providers. Wonkhe have a good (and irreverent) blog on the topic which delves into the real issues such as are the tests voluntary (and the comments ask why would students take the test and how can they afford last minute train tickets?). The blog also talks about commuter students, students who will stay on campus, and students on placements. The Independent has a student penned piece which brings home the costs of public transport within the student travel window. The Times explain that National Express are in talks with some Universities to get students home at normal commercial rates. And Swansea have done the maths and concluded it is impossible for them to test all students in the time period allowed: If we were testing 21,500 people twice, at that rate of 1,500 tests a day, it would take a month – we've actually got about three days. It's not possible to test everyone in the time we've got now, from the time we've been asked to the time everybody will be set up to do this we could not test all students – and certainly not all students 24 hours before they left – nobody will really be able to do that.
Both Wales and Scotland will also test students and are asking students to voluntarily reduce social interaction in the two weeks before they travel home. Wales also intend to adhere to the 9 December travel deadline.
Universities Minister Michelle Donelan said:
We know this Christmas will feel different, and following this incredibly difficult year we are delivering on our commitment to get students back to their loved ones as safely as possible for the holidays.
We have worked really hard to find a way to do this for students, while limiting the risk of transmission. Now it is vital they follow these measures to protect their families and communities, and for universities to make sure students have all the wellbeing support they need, especially those who stay on campus over the break.
Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Jenny Harries said:
The mass movement of students across the country at the end of term presents a really significant challenge within the COVID-19 response.
The measures announced today will help minimise that risk and help students get home to their families as safely as possible for Christmas. It is crucial that students follow the guidance in order to protect their families and the communities they return to.
Shadow Universities Minister, Emma Hardy, said: After weeks of unnecessary delay the government have finally acknowledged Labour's call from September that more must be done to get students home safely over Christmas. They must work with universities and local government to ensure that rapid and accurate testing is available for all students who need it. It is deeply concerning that the government still have no plan for what students should do in January. They must bring a plan forward urgently.
Larissa Kennedy, NUS National President, said: We particularly welcome this mass-testing approach as it equips students with the knowledge to make informed decisions about travel ahead of the winter break based on individual risk, instead of being subject to blanket rules we've seen elsewhere this term. The government must now ensure that universities have enough resource to cope with the mass demand for this testing. We do now need a clear strategy for January return: students deserve better than another term of uncertainty.
It has now been confirmed that further guidance on the January return will be issued in the next few weeks. Despite media to the contrary a recent poll found that 85% of students intend to return to their accommodation in January 2021 when term resumes. More on the poll below
There is a parliamentary question requesting that UK students studying in France access Covid tests before they travel home so they do not have to quarantine on arrival. It is due to be answered next week. Shadow Universities Minister Emma Hardy asks whether the mass testing will use the Innova rapid lateral flow tests. A new angle – students who have signed accommodation contracts for courses that have no in-person teaching due to C-19. And the Government hasn't able to confirm (yet) whether specific modelling on the demand for Covid testing re: the return of university students was carried out.
Meanwhile there are rumours that 50 Conservative MPs have banded together to oppose the imposition of any further blanket restrictions in England beyond the end of the current lockdown on 2 December. The PM has maintained throughout all his comms this week that lockdown will end as planned and the country will return to the tiered alert system.
PQs:
If there are plans for a post-covid-19 review of the performance of the Office for Students.
EU students with pre-settled status who are isolating within EU countries due to Covid – whether they will be exempted from the continuous residence requirement (answer – yes, in theory.)
Unite Students and Opinium ran a student survey on Student Experiences during the COVID-19 Pandemic (separate results). The results paint a picture of relative satisfaction, resilience and a 'making the best of it' attitude amongst the students polled. The also run contrary to recent media which blames universities for bringing students into accommodation for financial gain under false promises of face to face tuition.
85% of students intend to continue in their student accommodation in January
82% are happy they moved into student accommodation rather than staying at home
More than four in five are happy they decided to go to university, with 81% agreeing that although it's not how they expected their first year to be they still value their time there.
81% are glad they didn't decide to defer, with:
41% said they were driven by a desire to 'immerse themselves in university life'
34% to live with people their own age away from home and
27% saying they were motivated by wanting independence from their parents
The importance of the whole university experience is reflected in students decisions to live away from home, with the majority of students feeling they are benefitting from the experience this year:
92% like the greater independence that comes from living away from home
64% like living with people their own age
Different, but valuable from HEPI covers the Unite poll in brief.
Jisc published The impact of cyber security incidents on the UK's further and higher education and research sectors. It uses findings from their cyber security posture survey. The document is intended as a means of strengthening understanding of cyber risk and promoting internal discussion, the report also offers advice on how institutions can improve their defences and shorten recovery times.
While many institutions reported a monetary impact of under £100,000 in the last twelve months, the exact monetary burden of cyber attacks remains unclear. The impact on staff is a concern, with additional staff time, including working out of hours, taken up to respond to incidents, as well as the welfare of staff and students targeted by cyber criminals. The report recommends that institutions ensure that they are up to date with security technologies and have a plan in place for when a security breach occurs.
Wonkhe have a guest blog on the topic here.
BU also reminded staff of our handy safety guide for staying safe online this week.
UK nationals living in EU will be classed as home students until 7 years after the transition period.
When asked what assessment the Government has made of the HEPI report on demand for HE to 2035 (I.e. the expansion needed in HE) the Government representative in the Lords stated:
This government wants our universities and other HE providers to focus relentlessly on outcomes for the individual, skills for the nation, and rigorous academic standards. Excellent outcomes are key to filling our productivity gap, fuelling our economy, and creating opportunities. It is vital that a fair and open post-16 education system offers genuine opportunity and levelling up across the entire nation, with equity between technical, vocational, and academic routes.
As part of the Post-18 Education Review, the government is carefully examining the Augar Report and its recommendations, including those that would affect capacity. We plan to respond to the Post-18 Review alongside the Spending Review.
International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism and upholding free speech in universities.
Fees: Wonkhe have a new guest blog from the NUS president in post when the move to Higher Fees was voted through Parliament – 10 years ago this week. It's a reflective piece looking back on whether doing anything differently would have changed the outcome and provides insight to the thought processes of the parliamentarians and politics of the time.
Adult Learning: From Wonkhe – The Social Market Foundation has published (Adult) education, education, education. It shows that funding for adult education (excluding apprenticeships) has nearly halved since 2009/10, and explores the role that adult education does and could play in improving the labour market outcomes of low-income households.
Curriculum cultural diversity: The Petitions Committee and the Women and Equalities Committee held an evidence session on Black history and cultural diversity in the curriculum.
Healthcare students: The House of Commons Library has updated its briefing on funding for healthcare students in England.
STEM: The APPG on Diversity and Inclusion in STEM have published a Data Analysis Brief on the diversity and representation in the STEM (including health) workforce as it stood in 2019. Key findings:
Out of a workforce of 32.8 million people, 9 million (18%) worked in STEM occupations.
The STEM workforce has a lower share of female workers (27% vs. 52%) and disabled people (11% vs. 14%) than the rest of the workforce.
The share of ethnic minority workers in STEM is on a par with the rest of the economy, as a result of a workers with Indian ethnicity being more likely to work in STEM than elsewhere. People of other ethnic minorities tend to be under-represented in STEM.
Disabled people of all ethnicities are underrepresented in the STEM workforce. The gap in representation between STEM workers and others, is larger for disabled women than disabled men. While a majority of non-STEM disabled workers are female (59%), only one-third (33%) of STEM disabled workers are female.
65% of the STEM workforce are White men.
Proportionally, White women are less likely to be STEM workers than ethnic minority women: 10% of White female workers are in STEM, compared to 13% of ethnic minority female workers.
There is little difference in the gender balance of the STEM workforce when the youngest age group (16-29), within which 29% of STEM workers are female, is compared to those aged 30-49 in STEM, a group which is 28% female.
Higher Education Task Force: A Freedom of Information request has pushed the Government's Higher Education Taskforce to publish some details and documents on the meetings that have taken place. The documents themselves are the perfect shade of civil service bland making them palatable for the public without giving too much away. Only a small section is redacted in the notes from an earlier meeting. The documents are published here (you'll need to open the zip file). As Wonkhe put it there are no jaw dropping smoking gun moments here and the content needs to be interpreted by reading what isn't there as much as what is. This Wonkhe article delves into the non-published behind the scenes discussions and the wider sector occurrences to add meat to the scrawny published bones.
Policy Advisor Policy & Public Affairs Officer
Tags: admissions adult education ARPA Augar review Brexit COVID-19 cyber security Department for Education diversity Doctoral Students employability fees and funding graduate employment healthcare students international students PGRs PQA PQO R&D roadmap R&D taskforce skills social mobility STEM student engagement student experience unconditional offers value for money widening participation
HE Policy Update for the w/e 23rd October 2020
COVID-19, EU, Funding opportunities, Impact, international, Knowledge Exchange, parliament, policy, Public engagement, Research communication, Research news, Student Engagement jforster
Some fresh news and reports but overall a quieter week HE wise as the Government continues to focus on the rise in virus numbers nationally. Much of the media interest has focussed on familiar topics such as student complaints and white working class students. HEPI looked at future demand for HE study and UUK surveyed about modular study, have a new vision for the HE sector and talk international research partnerships.
The Policy Update is taking a break next week to coincide with the Parliamentary recess. See you all in November!
The Treasury has confirmed that the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) will cover a one year period to set Government department's resource and capital budgets for 2021-22 due to the constraints of the pandemic. The Devolved Administration block grants will also be set for the same period. The exact date the CSR will be delivered hasn't been confirmed but it is expected towards the end of November. The CSR focus is expected to cover:
Providing multi-year NHS and schools' resource settlements and priority infrastructure projects at full funding.
Providing Government departments with the certainty they need to tackle Covid-19 and deliver the Government's Plan for Jobs to support employment.
Enhancing the vital public services to continue to fight against the virus alongside delivering first class frontline services.
Investing in infrastructure as part of the levelling up agenda and to drive economic recovery and Build Back Better.
Rishi Sunak, Chancellor, said:In the current environment it's essential that we provide certainty. So we'll be doing that for departments and all of the nations of the United Kingdom by setting budgets for next year, with a total focus on tackling Covid and delivering our Plan for Jobs. Long term investment in our country's future is the right thing to do, especially in areas which are the cornerstone of our society like the NHS, schools and infrastructure. We'll make sure these areas crucial to our economic recovery have their budgets set for further years so they can plan and help us Build Back Better.
Factors that will be of interest to HE that were meant to be included within the spending review are the Government's response to the Augar review, response to the Pearce review of the TEF, and implications impacting on HE resulting from the Government's already announced intentions for FE.
It isn't clear whether the announcements over the last month on skills and technical education are it or whether there is more to come on FE. There was a debate on the role of colleges in a skills-led recovery from the Covid-19 outbreak this week. During the debate Robert Halfon (Education Committee Chair) welcomed the recently announced increases for FE funding and called for a long-term plan for FE, specifically a 10-year plan for college funding. Speaking about a previous Education Committee report he said:
We found that sometimes initiative-itis was standing in for long-term vision and the sector needed more money going into the base rate of funding, over small pots of funding.
He also said:
There is a social justice case for a pupil premium to support disadvantaged 16 to 19-year-olds. We have to get the basics right.
I urge the Minister to consider whether the apprenticeship levy pot could be fine-tuned so that companies can use more of their levy if they hire younger people from 16 to 19 years, people from disadvantaged backgrounds and people who are going to meet our skills needs where we have huge skills deficits.
We need to ensure that there is much closer collaboration between further education colleges and universities, because further education can play a major role in promoting degree apprenticeships—my two favourite words in the English language. Part of the £2.5 billion skills fund should be spent on covering training costs for small and medium-sized businesses taking on young apprentices.
Finally, it would be very special to see institutes of technology across our landscape. We have done this before, with national colleges and other schemes. I urge the Minister to ensure that they are properly integrated into further education, and that they are further education institutes of technology, not just some brand new shiny buildings. Why not help them to build the prestige of further education?
A vision for universities
UUK also published Recovery, Skills, Knowledge and Opportunity – a vision for universities. It sets out what universities do now and do well and how as a sector we contribute to the economy, communities, the nation's wellbeing, innovation and research. It also sets out a wish list series of reforms and recommendations for the future vision.
Below we list some of the recommendations within each section. As you read the recommendations you'll spot several touch on the Augar Review's recommendations and recent Government priorities and announcements such as FE & the Skills agenda.
Economic recovery and levelling up
Relax the eligibility criteria for financial support for higher education to enable greater access to short courses from level 4 and level 5 up to postgraduate study, specifically removing the requirements to i) study at an intensity of 25% or greater of a full-time equivalent course; and ii) follow a full course for a specified qualification.
Modernise the regulatory system to recognise the level 4 and level 5 components of an undergraduate degree, not just as non-completion of level 6
Make it easier for higher and further education providers to collaborate and deliver more flexible opportunities for upskilling and re-skilling locally
address Sector Deals and integration with local Skills Advisory Panels,
ongoing support for Institutes of Technology,
ensuring that reforms at levels 4 and 5 allow learners to progress to technical, apprenticeship and more academically focused provision
remove regulatory obstacles that hamper innovation and block partners working together
Support a national graduate paid intern scheme, getting highly-skilled graduates into companies to help those businesses to thrive.
Ensure that research funders meet more of the cost of research, and significantly grow flexible, excellence-driven and low-bureaucracy research funding for universities (known as quality-related research).
Grow the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) in England. The removal of the lower thresholds in the fund should be considered to enable small, research-active universities to drive growth and support economic recovery in their localities.
Equal chances: equality, diversity, inclusion and transforming lives
Continue funding for collaborative partnerships between higher and further education providers and schools. This should include expanding opportunities for the most high-need schools to engage
Introduce targeted maintenance grants for those students that need them the most and remove the financial barriers for those wanting to study flexibly, such as part time and mature students. Extend support for the additional costs of study via Childcare Grants and the Parents' Learning Allowance to all students.
No cut in real-terms funding per university student. This includes maintaining remaining government funding per student and the premium for supporting those from the most disadvantaged backgrounds
No imposition of student numbers caps in England. Any government-enforced number caps would create new barriers to access and a cap on aspirations.
A high-quality university experience for all students
Work with students and universities on proposed reforms to the National Student Survey (NSS) to ensure that student feedback continues to play a role in driving up quality and providing useful information to students, while keeping the administrative burden to a minimum.
Bureaucracy:
not proceeding with subject-level TEF until the limitations of the methodology, its costs to universities and the taxpayer, and the actual value of its contribution to student decision-making in the wider student information landscape, have been fully considered
using data and intelligence already available through other sources (e.g. UCAS) to minimise reporting demands
OfS should not increase the bureaucracy burden when it adds new conditions or expands the regulatory framework
The UK's globally competitive position
Prioritise full Association to the Horizon Europe and Erasmus+ programmes
Ensure that funded contingency plans are in place should Association not be possible. Any funding to replace Horizon Europe should be additional to current research and development (R&D) spending commitments set out in the 2020 Budget, including providing guarantees for third country participation in Horizon Europe. A national replacement mobility scheme should also be fully funded.
Ensure that the UK's visa and immigration system offers a 'best-in-class' service to international talent in terms of cost, accessibility and ease of navigation
See other recommendations listed on pages 13-14
Secure the sustained growth of healthcare programmes to meet the government's ambitious targets through funded expansion of medical and health/social care placements and investment in teaching capacity, including support for digital innovation and simulation.
Commit support for clinical academic roles and career pathways that provide teaching and research capacity, and instil research-informed practice that is shown by evidence to improve patient outcomes, quality and safety.
Target support for whole-university approaches to the mental health and well-being of students and staff to build on the lifetime well-being gain for graduates, enhancing their resilience and health literacy.
Tackling climate change – see page 18
Culture and community – Support our creative economy by reviewing R&D definitions to ensure that these are not narrower than those of competitors, and do not neglect R&D in the UK's internationally strong creative industries, which have been hit hard by Covid-19 measures.
The Minister writes: Amanda Solloway has written to Greg Clark (Chair of the Science and Technology Committee) on the stages of consultation and discussion the Government has taken in the development of the new ARPA style body. She also responded to the Committee's questions on university research funding and Horizon Europe and alternatives.
Reforming the REF
Amanda Solloway spoke of reforming the REF in the Research Landscape speech for the Education Policy Institute webinar on Tuesday.
She said that the Government recognises the importance of science and innovation for the future and mentioned the commitment to increase public spending on R&D to £22 billion per year by 2024/25. On the Roadmap she said there was a duty to spend that money wisely so it can make the biggest difference possible. Key to this is evaluation… And evaluation can be a powerful incentive – and it can change behaviours. Through linking evaluation to funding, we have introduced policies intended to drive greater impact and openness from our research… But, if implemented in the wrong way, or in a way which doesn't evolve, evaluation can drive negative behaviours. She said culture was at the root of the challenges with conducting research.
Researchers tell me they feel pressure to publish in particular venues in order to gain the respect of their peers, which wrongly suggests that where you publish something is more important than what you say. That just can't be right.
People talk to me about "REF-able publications" – a total distortion of the value of research and a constraint on the diversity of research objectives. Despite the rich variety of outputs that can come from research, over 97% of outputs submitted to REF 2014 were text-based. Just think about that. And it is surprising how commonplace it is to talk about the UK's leading position in "citation impact" – an odd phrase, actually, which confuses a process with an outcome. Indeed, the processes researchers use to communicate with each other have now become so ingrained into the recognition and reward system that publication and citation seem to have become ends in themselves…. people feel pressured to show significant results from their work, to get it published, just to justify the effort and investment involved…This could be having a profound effect on the very integrity of science itself – leading to questionable research practices and evidence of a growing crisis in the reproducibility of research.
We have created this situation, in part because of the way we evaluate success.
Although intended for simple purposes, universities have turned the REF into a major industry, with rising costs and complexity. Lord Stern also commented on this, but I am not convinced that the changes introduced have gone far enough. There are now very few parts of academic life in the UK that are not affected in some way by the REF.
…a risk-averse compliance culture risks stifling creativity and diversity.
… we know that 4 in 10 surveyed researchers believe that their workplace puts more value on metrics than on research quality.
…it's really important that I say clearly up front. I have absolutely no intention of disrupting the important work of the current REF. It is vital that this work continue as planned, delivering robust outcomes which will inform significant funding decisions over the coming years. And, perhaps even more importantly, we must protect our dual support system, which is a key strategic advantage for the UK research base.
However, we must be prepared to look to the future and ask ourselves how the REF can be evolved for the better, so that universities and funders work together to help build the research culture we all aspire to. We need to work together to build an evaluation system that achieves our goals.
More quality time spent on research.
A positive culture which recognises all contributions to research.
A culture which motivates people to do diverse, creative and risk-taking work.
Institutions improving in ways that align to their diverse missions.
And clear accountability for public funding without layer upon layer of complex bureaucracy.
We should not shy away from asking the tough questions.
We need to be prepared to take bold decisions.
We need to consult widely… Culture change doesn't happen overnight – and this is equally a conversation which we must not rush. I have today written to Research England to ask them to start working with their counterparts in the devolved administrations on a plan for reforming the REF after the current exercise is complete. Recognising the importance of protecting the current REF and valuing it. But being clear that we need to continue the journey towards building that better system we need.
Research Professional cover the speech here and Wonkhe pick apart the speech in a very short (and worthwhile) blog, read the comments too!
REF2021 – Research Professional have a piece on getting REF 20201 'done'.
Horizon Europe – Politico raises concerns of 'long-term consequences' if UK does not participate in Horizon Europe following a leaked scientist letter.
Funding News – Wonkhe tell us:
The Wellcome Trust has launched a new vision and strategy for the research they fund. Wellcome's current funding schemes will close over the course of 2021, to be replaced by three new discovery research schemes. These will cover work done in the fields of mental health, global warming, and infectious disease. The exact closing date for specific schemes can be found on Wellcome's website. Applications for the new schemes will open in summer 2021.
UKRI has announced details of support and facilities available to Natural Environment Research Council grant holders. This consists of specialised equipment, analytical facilities, and expert advice for researchers.
Race Equality: Advance HE have a short video by PhD student Daniel Akinbosede on race equality and why it is important for HE to mark black history month. He covers the research funding awarding gaps and he urges HE institutions to use Black History month to reassess their policies and processes rather than 'just hosting a few cultural events'.
Prolific Publishing : Times Higher profile a gambling studies academic who publishes a paper every two days
EU / UK Research & Education: You can watch a session on the future UK-EU relationship on research and education. The Committee intends to address these questions during the session:
Should the UK seek third country affiliation with the EU's Horizon Europe and Erasmus+ programmes at the end of the transition period?
What should the priorities be for future domestic research funding if the UK does not affiliate with Horizon Europe?
How might the lack of a positive data adequacy decision at the end of the transition period affect the UK's research and education sector?
What would the impact of a 'no agreement' scenario be for UK universities and research bodies?
Are research and education organisations, including universities, research institutes and businesses, well prepared for a 'no agreement' scenario at the end of the transition period?
Answering the Committee's questions will be:
Professor Sir Richard Catlow, Foreign Secretary and Vice President, Royal Society
Catherine Guinard, Policy and Advocacy Manager, Wellcome Trust
Hillary Gyebi-Ababio, Vice President for Higher Education, National Union of Students
Vivienne Stern, Director, Universities UK International.
Parliamentary Question: how much funding the Government plans to make available in grants during the second stage of the university covid-19 research support package that was announced in June 2020. Amanda Solloway answered: …it will depend on income losses which at this point remain unclear – each university's allocation is the lower of 80% of losses in international student income or the value of non-public research funding.
Future International Research Partnerships: UUK published Future international partnerships: putting the UK at the heart of global research and innovation collaboration. They state it
…proposes a wide-ranging set of policy recommendations to enable UK universities to grow and diversify their international research and innovation collaborations. Specifically it sets out a clear plan for how the UK can expand and capitalise on researchers' international links to attract talent and business investment from overseas.
Over the next decade, universities will pull their weight to ensure that the UK is able to meet global, national, regional and local needs…Universities…will be instrumental to make the government's vision a reality through their international networks of excellent partners (Chapter 2) , their critical contribution to building innovation capacity in their local economy (Chapter 3) and their institutional partnerships with universities across the world (Chapter 4) provided that their role as global collaborators becomes a feature of the domestic system in the future (Chapter 1).
… However, this requires taking a strategic system view in which international connections are hardwired into the structure of the domestic funding system, rather than treated as an add-on or an afterthought
Recommendations for each area are peppered throughout the text and cover responsibilities for both Government and HE institutions.
Scottish Shake Up
Wonkhe succinctly report on a FE/HE review commencing in Scotland:
The first phase of what amounts to a major Scottish Funding Council review of the shape and scope of the HE and FE sectors hints at a unified funding model by level of provision, and a range of potential collaborations. The report – "Coherence and sustainability: a review of Scotland's colleges and universities: phase one" – focuses on the "emergency period" of 2020-22, but recommendations are made with an ear to existing trends and likely future societal needs.
An associated financial projection highlights the varied impact of Covid-19 on sector providers. The report suggests a number of potential measures – including a cut in student numbers, consolidation of courses across providers, and "fee-only" places for providers that can afford to take the loss. Of interest around the UK will be potential measures to include regional demographic and economic skill demand data in planning and funding higher education. This first stage report follows a period of consultation with stakeholders – further such consultation will take place before the phase two report is released in February 2021.
The Times has an opinion piece from Anton Muscatelli, Principal of the University of Glasgow, which welcomes the review and calls on the universities of Scotland to work together.
And a blog: A Scottish Funding Council review is supportive of the sector as it stands, but ambitious in rethinking tertiary education post-Covid.
Parliament's Petitions Committee considers all e-petitions which achieve over 10,000 signatures. Decisions on all are here. Of most interest are:
Cancel GCSEs and A Levels in 2021: The Committee agreed to consider scheduling this petition for debate at a later point.
Lower university tuition fees for students until online teaching ends: The Committee agreed to debate this petition along with other petitions about tuition fees on 16 November.
Extend Tier-4 visas and waive third-term tuition fee for international students: The Committee noted the Government's responses.
Modular learning
UUK have published a summary of results from a poll they commissioned with English adults aged 18-60 who were interested in future university study and either unemployed (or at risk) or wanting to up or re skill.
82% were keen to study individual modules of a degree and this would make them more likely to undertake university study. (Currently learners have to commit to 25% of full time equivalent to access financial support/loans.)
Earning whilst learning and maintaining a good work-life balance were important and the top benefits identified for modular learning.
UUK say these findings come as universities call for the introduction of loans for more flexible study, which would unlock opportunities for those with caring or work responsibilities.
Business management was the most popular subject individuals would select; engineering was second (a skills shortage area in industry), then teaching and nursing/allied healthcare
13% who were interested in university education said they were not likely to study part-time, but would consider modular study. UUK say this finding means that modular study has the potential to increase the number of people with high level skills in the UK
93% of those likely to undertake modular study, if loans were introduced, placed value on being able to gradually build up to a full qualification
Over one third of those unlikely to undertake modular study, even if loans were introduced, were concerned about repayment.
UUK say: The polling also revealed concerns over how financially accessible university study is, highlighting the need for a comprehensive government-funded national education campaign on student finance… The lack of clear information on the student finance system is holding back individuals of all ages that could benefit from higher education. Targeted maintenance support should also be explored to ensure flexible learning opportunities are truly open to everyone who would benefit.
UUK Chief Executive, Alistair Jarvis, said:
With one million more job losses forecast by the end of the year, it is more important than ever to boost people's skills and maximise their job prospects in a flexible way.
The government should change the eligibility criteria for financial support for higher education to allow more people to benefit from access to shorter courses, and it should make information about the student finance system more accessible.
The recent announcement of a Lifetime Skills Guarantee is welcome, but it is not yet clear how much flexibility will be built into the system at undergraduate and postgraduate level.
Providing more people with the opportunity to upskill and retrain will be crucial to meeting the country's skills needs, rebuilding the economy and levelling up.
Growth of HE by 2035
HEPI have published Demand for Higher Education to 2035 which considers the country's changing demographics and participation rates. It finds that England will need an additional 350,000 more places, whilst Scotland will need fewer places despite increased participation in HE.
The report explains the findings:
In England –
if demography were the only factor, without any increase in participation, there would be an increase in demand of 40,000 full-time higher education places in England by 2035 due to rises in the 18-year old population;
if participation also increases in the next fifteen years at the same rate as the average of the last ten years, then this increases to a demand of 358,000 full time higher education places by 2035;
the greatest growth in demand will be seen in London and the South East, due to both demographic changes and patterns of participation. Our projections suggest that over 40% of demand for places will be in London and the South East.
In Scotland –
if demography were the only factor, without any increase in participation, there would be a decrease in demand of 18,000 full-time higher education places in Scotland by 2035 due to a decline in the 18-year old population;
if participation also increases in the next fifteen years at the same rate as the average of the last five years, then we can expect the decrease in demand to shrink to close to nil full-time higher education places by 2035;
these projections suggest Scotland will be able to accommodate a growth of participation in higher education without increasing student numbers, due to a decline in the 18-year old population.
This is ambivalent news for Scotland who are already struggling with the financial effects of Covid and the impact on their HE institutions. However, whilst expansion seems unlikely it means the cost to the Scottish Government is less. Wales isn't covered by the report and Northern Ireland is expected to be similar to Scotland but precise calculations are not possible because of data comparisons would be inaccurate.
Although the report does cover how some in Government would like the student numbers cap on HE places to return it doesn't really tackle the effect of the Government's intention for technical education demand to increase, with a likely resulting shrinkage in traditional HE degree route. Although written for another topic Sarah likes the below by Wonkhe which summarises the Government direction:
Developing government rhetoric on "low-value" or "low-quality" courses in higher education seems to be evolving to address a concern that too many students do not progress into graduate jobs when they take those courses. The hope seems to be that creating more technical routes at levels four and five and – potentially – reducing the availability of degree-level courses that might cannibalise demand for these new routes will funnel at least some of those students in a more economically productive direction, as well as create new education opportunities for those who are less likely to progress to degree-level higher education…white working class young people…
Research Professional also make interesting comments in the same vein:
Previous incarnations of the Conservative government imagined that a growing demand for higher education in England would be met by the private sector. That was the whole point of the Higher Education and Research Act 2017, which sought to create favourable conditions for supply-side reform in higher education. That spirit seems to have been abandoned… The Johnson-Cummings-Williamson way seems to be to funnel that demand into further and technical education… the government is… listening to its skills tsar Alison Wolf. Wolf is a devotee of the eccentric notion that the UK's productivity problem is the result of too many graduates working in non-graduate jobs, and that the cure is to boost the number of people with subdegree technical qualifications. Of course, the increased demand for higher education that Hepi identifies does not necessarily translate into a corresponding rise in graduate job opportunities, but it does reflect a competitive dynamic in the workforce whereby higher education is the perceived path to successful employment.
Wolf's emphasis on technical education will not address the country's productivity woes. It may, however, go some way to addressing the UK's reliance on immigrant labour to fill technical vacancies in the labour market. The two things should not be confused.
UK productivity issues are not caused by its higher education participation rates but by the massive imbalance in the UK economy between services and manufacturing, the uncompetitiveness of sterling against currencies in emerging economies, and being slow out of the gates on the fourth industrial revolution. None of which can be solved by sending fewer people to university.
Returning back to the HEPI report…
However, while FE intentions and the growth of technical alternatives may direct young people aware from the traditional academic degree the HEPI report highlights how we are entering a global recession and that student numbers tend to increase during a recession as people choose to avoid entering an unstable labour market or look to retrain. On page 40 of the report HEPI also ponder a growth in mature numbers (again due to need to retrain and the intended flexibility in the loan system) and page 41 looks at the impact of Level 3 attainment increases and decreases on HE admissions. HEPI conclude that the growth in demand for English HE
should not make the higher education sector complacent. All these projections could be over-estimations if government policy were to change to restrict the number of students entering higher education. Assuming there is no significant change to the student loan charges and repayment terms, the projections set out in this report will be seen as a significant additional cost to the Government. The response to this could be to limit the overall numbers of students entering higher education by setting student number caps, limiting the provision of courses that are deemed 'low value' or by introducing minimum entry standards. All of these would limit the number of people able to enter higher education. It is likely that the effects of any of these changes would be felt most by those students from disadvantaged backgrounds. If we want to see all those who www.hepi.ac.uk 45 wish to enter higher education able to do so, we will need to continue to make the case to Government of why, now more than ever, continuing to educate our population to higher levels is so critical.
Rachel Hewitt, HEPI Director of Policy and Advocacy, said:
There have been declining numbers of 18-year olds in the population in recent years, which has impacted the way universities have operated. However, 2020 is the last year of this trend and universities are set to see a significant rise in student numbers over the next fifteen years. Among focusing on their recovery from the current pandemic, universities will need to consider how they can scale up to incorporate this level of demand. Government will also need to consider how to best prepare for this increased level of demand.
There are those who would like to see a cap on the number of students entering higher education. However, these projections show clearly that if trends in participation continue as in recent years, capping student numbers in England would deprive a growing group of students who will be looking to enter higher education, which would likely be detrimental to the push for greater equality of access to higher education.
Our projections suggest the greatest growth is likely to be seen in London and the South East, partly due to their existing higher levels of participation. If government is committed to levelling up across the country, perhaps the focus should be on the disparity of participation rates across England, rather than debating national targets.
For policymakers in Scotland, these projections suggest an easier path to tread…Scottish universities should be able to take on more students without having to expand the number of places available, limiting the cost to the Scottish Government.
Research Professional have their take on the HEPI report here.
While the discussion of how to get students home for Christmas still hasn't abated this weekend the media are asking whether – once the majority are back home – how feasible it is for students to return to campus in January. Guardian article here; BBC here.
Research Professional:…what happens when they all need to head back to their university campuses again. Can Covid Britain condone not one but two mass movements of people in the space of less than a month? We are already witnessing the fallout from just one student exodus
From the BBC article:
…options are under discussion about whether next term should be fully online – or maybe for the initial weeks – or for delayed or staggered starts, rather than risking triggering a fresh wave of campus outbreaks.
Students could "amplify" the spread of coronavirus, said the SAGE advice, and movement around the Christmas holidays posed "a significant risk to both extended families and local communities".
Unlike the autumn term – when university starting dates in the UK are spread across about a month – the January return is much more concentrated. And it leaves the universities and the government with a decision about whether to press ahead with bringing students home and then straight back again, including across areas where travel is being discouraged – or finding a different way of starting the new term.
university leaders are pointing to the idea of a greatly expanded testing regime – and say privately that campus outbreaks seem to have peaked and are subsiding.
The BBC article also states decisions on the process for students who wish to return home for Christmas will be published next week (commencing 26 October). Among the issues to be clarified will be how, if in-person teaching stops in the week beginning 7 December, what would stop students disappearing home in the days before that, rather than remain confined for a fortnight's isolation. They're adults and it isn't boarding school. The DfE is expected to publish a specific date that face to face tuition should cease by.
And whether students will even want to return is covered by the Guardian:
The growing fear, meanwhile, is that disillusioned students may simply drop out – a decision with consequences for the rest of their lives. Some struggling freshers have already fled, while others have quietly started commuting from home. Academics still teaching in person talk of lecture theatres emptying out, with students either self-isolating or too frightened to show up.
Boris Johnson has vowed to get students safely home for Christmas, but some in academia are beginning to worry more about getting them back in January. What if some decide they'd rather not risk getting trapped in locked-down cities once again? Before long, the government may be forced once again to choose between pumping more cash into universities or trying to craft a solution on the cheap. Let's hope this time it doesn't fail the test.
Wales: Welsh universities will continue to deliver blended learning during the two week fire-break lockdown. It has been stated that it is safer for students to remain on campus during the firebreak and to avoid travelling home.
Covid Cases: Wonkhe have a very short analysis.
It states: This…is not an absolutely reliable indicator – but it does look like the days of extremely rapidly growing case numbers among students might be behind us…Universities have been particularly good at testing, and fairly good at managing student self-isolation…What we don't know…is the number of symptomatic cases, or the severity of those cases.
None of this is to downplay the huge number of cases in student-heavy MSOAs, or the utter foolishness of bring students back to campus this term. We need to think about next term very carefully…We are by no means leaving the second wave, though the student-based initial spike may be coming to an end.
The Times also reports a slow down in young case numbers.
Covid related parliamentary questions
Whether the Government have formed a COVID-19 response University stakeholder advisory group; and if not, why not.
Limiting the charges universities can make on students
Training for university students to help them access their online tuition
What compensation is available to university students who have their online tuition cancelled
Steps to ensure students have access to digital and online learning during Covid-19
Emma Hardy, Shadow Universities Minister, asks when the plans for safe return of students home from universities at the end of the autumn term will be published
Steps to increase C-19 testing capacity and reduce wait times for students and staff at universities
The Welsh move has reinvigorated media debate concerning whether all HE teaching should be online or face to face continue where it is essential. We've all been around this discussion wheel many times now. Research Professional bring it up again and highlight that an (unnamed) Vice Chancellor has sensibly said [That] there were three main reasons to keep in-person teaching going:
universities have worked hard to make campuses and classrooms Covid-secure;
depriving students of face-to-face teaching could exacerbate mental health problems; and
putting all teaching online could lead to the risk of students moving around the country and spreading the virus.
And Research Professional (RP) add (you're allowed to sigh here): A fourth consideration not mentioned by the vice-chancellor could be the need to deliver what was advertised and avoid complaints—and more calls for tuition fee refunds. They mention the new OfS intention to monitor universities with significant numbers of students being required to take all their courses online and the pre-pandemic strike action.
In addition, RP made freedom of information requests to research-intensive universities finding that during lockdown the number of complaints about teaching or course…grew in 2020 compared with the same period in 2019. RP continues: At King's College London, for example, complaints rocketed from 17 in 2019 to 567 in 2020. Cardiff's response to the FOI request sums it up: the past two years had been "some of the most difficult for our students and their university experience". While the spokesperson pointed out that the "vast majority" of Cardiff's 30,000 students had not complained, the university recognised that there had been a "disappointing" increase in complaints… The cumulative impact of two periods of industrial action on some, and the current global pandemic, have presented unprecedented challenges and impacted on the delivery of teaching and learning.
What is interesting to note is that quite a volume of complaints relate to the strikes rather than the vast majority on Covid related online teaching and learning, as the media would have us believe. And RP highlight that Not all universities that responded to our request reported a rise in complaints, and not all complaints will translate into requests for tuition fee refunds. Anyone who has ever written an online review knows that the act of complaining can be cathartic enough. If you have the will you can read more from RP on complaints here.
The Guardian have an article too capturing the student voice amongst the reporting.
Research Professional highlight the parental role in student complaints:
Beware, too, the wrath of the helicopter parent.
"In Facebook groups and WhatsApp circles, parents furious that their children are racking up debt in order to be banged up in Covid-riddled halls of residence are beginning to organise," Hinsliff wrote in her Guardian op-ed. "One group of parents, using the hashtag #Fees4What, has started an online petition urging parity with Scotland, where students have the right to end university tenancy agreements early owing to Covid; others are plotting legal challenges."
Playbook has followed the threat of mass student actions closely, as you will know. We have spent less time considering the possibility of parents and guardians mobilising to bring legal action against a provider. It is a scary thought.
Smita Jamdar writes for Research Professional to suggest how universities can mitigate the risk of student demands for refunds. Smita writes:
routes are available to students to secure what are, in effect, partial or full refunds—but to do so, they would have to identify specific assurances and promises made by institutions that had not been fulfilled, or alternatively show that the service they received was not of a reasonable standard.
Smita suggests that To mitigate the risk of claims universities can:
Ensure that information for students and prospective students is accurate and up to date
Changes to provision and services should be kept under review to ensure that wherever possible, the impact on students is continually monitored and appropriate remedial action is taken as promptly as possible. Particular attention should be paid to those courses and students where the risk of adverse impact is especially high: practical and laboratory-based courses and students with disabilities, for example. Communication of changes needs to be accurate, clear and regular.
Universities should comply with the provisions of any force majeure clause carefully. There may be obligations to give notice or to consult students that must be discharged or the clause may not be enforceable.
Low-level complaints and social media storms can be useful indicators of where future legal claims may lie, and institutions should ensure that quick action can be taken in response to emerging problems. It may be helpful to have an escalation process that ensures problem areas within specific schools and faculties are logged at a central point, which considers whether there are lessons for the wider institution.
introducing a bespoke, simplified complaints process, so that every effort can be made to address complaints without the need for external consideration…This should be accompanied by clear guidance for decision-makers so that there is a consistent position across complaints, and consistency of findings and outcomes, without the different facts and circumstances of each case being overlooked.
Wonkhe have a guest blog on fee refunds urging universities to explain things better.
White Working Class: Following last week's NEON publication Wonkhe have a blog on not treating white working class as a homogenous group.
…exactly who are we talking about? Are we all talking about the same group when we discuss the white working class?
Any comparison between ethnic groups has to grapple with the fact that the white working class far outnumbers any other ethnic group. And they live all over the country, from deprived fishing villages in Devon, rusting seaside resorts on the Essex coast, former pit villages in Cumbria, and on council estates in Toxteth, Kilmarnock, Aberdare, or Romford.
These structural questions, about who lives where, with what infrastructure, and what opportunities, these are the things that come to mind when I think about what my chances of getting in higher education were.
I have no doubt that most who use the term mean well, just as I know that there are many people across the UK who find that the term suits them well. But if we're going to solve the issue of so few white working class boys and girls entering higher education, then we need to be more precise and engage with the country as it exists.
Britain is still a country shaped by wealth and class. The way we start to fix that is by looking seriously at how working class people actually live, and that begins by talking to us, not just about us.
There is a great comment to the blog which highlights that the past measures of social class were withdrawn and there hasn't been a replacement:
A big issue is that there is virtually no official data on social class collected and reported on meaning that we are stuck with poor proxies such as free school meal eligibility or living in a disadvantaged area. The first narrows the debate a lot – it confuses being from a working-class background with being in poverty and so only includes a sub-set of people from working-class backgrounds. The second captures a lot of people from advantaged backgrounds and, for POLAR and similar measures, ignores ethnically diverse working-class areas including (virtually) the whole of London and large parts of other cities.
HE data by social class used to [be] reported until HEFCE decided to abolish it a few years ago despite the pleas of the Social Mobility Commission on the basis that data quality was poor (I think it's still collected though – just not available publicly). The planned replacement measures appear to have been canned, meaning we're left with two measures of disadvantage, neither of which are good proxies of coming from a working-class background: going to a state school and living in POLAR/TUNDRA Q1…
This lack of data needs to be resolved…[if] the UK Government wants to get serious about tackling the inequalities faced by those from white working-class backgrounds. Enacting Section 1 of the Equalities Act 2010 to impose a duty on public bodies to "when making decisions of a strategic nature about how to exercise its functions, have due regard to the desirability of exercising them in a way that is designed to reduce the inequalities of outcome which result from socio-economic disadvantage" would also help – it's been lying around on the statute book for over a decade now…
Recycling spending again and again: Wonkhe have a blog – Jim Dickinson took to Wonk Corner yesterday to count the number of times that DfE has reallocated £256m of Student Premium Funding since the start of the pandemic. It's a lot.
Education: Equality of Opportunity: An oral question within the Commons on ensuring equality of opportunity in education took place this week.
Michelle Donelan (Universities Minister): … talent is equally distributed, but opportunity is not. This Government have made it our mission to rectify that, and equality of opportunity lies at the heart of the work by the Department for Education, including opportunity areas, access to higher education work and reforms to further education such as the flagship T-levels. We recognise that education has an unparalleled ability to create and unlock opportunities across the nation.
White working class, the levelling up agenda, and raising school standards were also mentioned.
Care leavers (not specifically HE related) – what proportion of funding available to young people leaving care announced in 2019 has been allocated to initiatives which provide dedicated support for girls and young women as a named group; and what steps he is taking to monitor and evaluate the effect of that funding on girls and young women leaving care and experiencing poor mental health. The answer talks about a pilot scheme for certain groups.
Supporting care leavers and estranged students during C-19.
Secondary school careers advice and effect on social mobility (again not specifically HE related). Also a question on whether there are plans to incorporate the monitoring of the quality of careers advice in schools into the OFSTED inspection process.
Gaps: Advance HE have published their annual analysis of students by equalities characteristics LINK. Wonkhe have a blog by Advance HE introducing the key points. Numbers of students with declared disabilities have more than doubled since 2003-04, and the participation gap between the genders continues to increase. The blog also highlights that at the current rate of progress the awarding gap between white and BAME students would not close until 2070-71, and that between white and black students until 2085-86.
SEN: A parliamentary question on when the Government expect to publish the outcome of their review of support for children with special educational needs and disabilities. The answer should pop up on this link from 3 November onwards.
Non-continuation
There has been speculation whether the difficult study circumstances in 2020/21 will lead to an increase in the student drop out rate. Students who leave university within (roughly) four weeks of first commencing are not liable for their tuition fee loan. This week Wonkhe have been talking about the official measures – the Higher Education Statistics Agency's UK Performance Indicator on non-continuation – which captures data on students who leave more than 50 days after the start of their course (but not before). This leaves a hole round about days 28-50 where student drop out is not monitored nationally. Wonkhe state:
So even in three years' time, when this data is released, we will never know exactly what happened at the start of the autumn 2020 term. Another unknown and unknowable number is of the students who enrolled and never turned up, or that left within two weeks…In 2020, an empty room in a hall or an unanswered Zoom call might be the only indication that something has gone wrong.
Wonkhe have a blog cobbling together a data source to show attrition. On non-continuation they highlight that it is often a drawn out withdrawal:
When a student "leaves" higher education they tend not to make a sudden decision and then immediately notify everyone that needs to know. The process is best understood as a gradual disengagement. A student may stop attending lectures first of all, or find themselves unable to continue to support themselves financially, or find themselves with other responsibilities and other constraints that stop them being able to participate.
The DfE updated guidance on UK students intending to study in the EU after the transition period. The information relates to those who are planning to study in the EU, and those who are continuing their studies in the EU. The links also contain information on travel insurance, making changes to Erasmus+ placements and support when students are abroad.
SUMS Consulting published a short briefing paper: Crystal Ball Gazing: What is the Future for Handling Exceptional Circumstances? Highlighting the changes that were made to exceptional circumstance policies to account for the pandemic disruption but also addressing the exponential increase in the volume of requests for exceptional circumstances in recent years. There is more content here. The paper concludes:
The combination of Covid-19 and the learnings from the last few months have led many universities to significantly change their approach to exceptional circumstances. Over the next few months, it is inevitable that further adaptions may be required to accommodate events such as local lockdowns or students being sent home. There is a move to divert resources from approaches that add little value, to those that benefit the student. Universities are adapting their evidence requirements, introducing self-certification and focusing on consistency across academic disciplines. The OIA is due to publish the final version its Good Practice Framework later this year, and there is no doubt that this too will incorporate many of the lessons from universities in operating the process during Covid-19. The pandemic has accelerated the rate of change in so many aspects of university life – the exceptional circumstances process is proving to be no different.
In thinking about their exceptional circumstances process this year, universities may wish to consider:
How coherent is your overall policy framework? When were related policies last updated?
How recently have you reviewed the evidence required to support exceptional circumstances?
How recently have you reviewed the list of examples of circumstances that are likely to be accepted and those that are likely to be excluded?
How do you ensure that there is consistency and equity in determining exceptional circumstances across different disciplines and academic units?
Have you decided whether to introduce self-certification with safeguards, if you have not already taken this step?
Analysing your data over an academic year in the way that UWE has done, to discover the impact of your present process.
Whether or not your existing processes are inclusive?
Young unemployment
The Alliance for Full Employment (AFFE) have published Youth Report: A Million Reasons to Act on the impact of the pandemic on young people's employment prospects. Under-25s suffered 60% of the post-March redundancies, and male youth unemployment is at 16%, more than three times the UK adult rate. They call on the Government to convene a jobs summit of UK nations and regions to address to impending issue.
The report also states that Kickstart, the Government's main youth unemployment programme, will not provide anywhere near enough places for those in need of support. The report estimates that over 1m young people will be unemployed by November, and are likely to "fall through the net."
They identify four new groups who will require the Government's attention and help as we head into winter:
Many of this summer's 500,000 school college and university leavers
Young people who lose their jobs on or before October 31as a result of Covid, as furlough ends
Young people in partial lockdown areas where businesses are closed down and where young employees not eligible for furlough are being laid off
Young people made unemployed because of the general turnover of staff, which is highest among the young, and including those on temporary contracts, who will now struggle to get new opportunities.
The report, which features a foreword by former PM Gordon Brown, recommends the following priorities for the Government:
Provision of quality work experience – not a return to the Youth Opportunity Programmes (YOPs) or Youth Training Schemes of the 1980s
Training geared to new jobs, like in care sector It and logistics, jobs linked to the recovery from lab technicians and contact tracers, to care worker and teaching assistant not training for continued unemployment.
Help with job searches – a vital element of getting into work, as demonstrated by the 2009 Future Jobs Fund.
A wage subsidy in the order of a £100 a week for six months for employers to take a young person on full-time.
Prof. Gregg (author) concludes: The recession in the UK has only just started, in terms of the impact on jobs, consumer confidence and firm planning. Yet because firm profitability was already low and the trading block under Lockdown, the wave of job losses will be incredibly condensed and intense between now and next April. This means that the need for getting intervention on the ground is urgent and hard to get to scale in time.
The Guardian cover the above report and report on a call from former PM Gordon Brown for employers to be given a wage subsidy of £100 a week to hire workers under 25 as part of a plan to prevent youth unemployment exceeding levels seen in the 1980s.
Graduate unemployment was also mentioned in this week's Department for Work and Pensions topical questions:
Q- Tim Loughton (Con): With forecasts showing that there may be as many as 1 million young people without a job, I urge the Minister to think outside the box. I have long argued that we should use graduates and gap-year students to help some of those pupils who have missed out on schooling to catch up. Can we devise, with the Department for Education, a scheme to pay them a variation of JSA to provide such a service, or at least offer greater flexibility for claimants who volunteer to help in such a way or to take the pressure off other public services?
A – Dr Coffey: One element of the kickstart scheme, a £2 billion investment in the future of our young people, is designed to help people to get on the first rung of the ladder with a proper job. It is a way for those people who have recently left school or university and are at risk of long-term unemployment to get experience and financing, which does not just have to be through private organisations and could be through local government or charitable or other sectors. It is a specific way to ensure that those people get not only a job but the extra training and wraparound support that they need to help them further on in their lives.
As we're on a break next week some of the parliamentary questions cover the two week period, you may have to check back on them in early November to see the response.
HE sector
What steps the Government is taking to increase the accessibility of counselling and support services for HE students.
Introducing an immigration checking service for Student Finance to check student eligibility similar to that of the employer checking service. (Answer: the SLC already ask the Home Office for this information when necessary.)
What steps the Government is taking to ensure that jobs involving recruiting, retaining and supporting students in their studies are protected in higher education (answer: nothing additional to the national schemes)
The Erasmus replacement questions have started up again here is one example
Gender diversity: what assessment the Government has made of the potential effect on gender diversity of university (a) students and (b) teaching now Silver Award of the Athena SWAN charter for Women in Science is not required. And: what steps the Government is taking to assess the effectiveness of UK research bodies and university departments in working to and achieving gender diversity.
HNC & HND student loan uptake (2017-2019)
Shadow Education Secretary – Kate Green has been in post as the Shadow Education Secretary for 3 months already. There is a good background and profile on her in Schools Week which suggests she is committed to slower policy making with sufficient time for research and evidence based formulation.
Historic Statues: Colleagues following the debate surrounding the removal of historic statues may be interested in this Lords discussion on the topic. It is not specifically HE or education focussed, although the matters covered do have some application.
Groceries: While it isn't policy news, if you were interested in the reasons behind the price increases for your food shopping during lockdown the Institute for Fiscal Studies have a paper on it. In short: less promotions were available and there was a reduction in product variety. They're unsure if the autumn restrictions will see the return of grocery inflation.
HE numbers: The House of Commons Library has published a research briefing on HE numbers. It finds that: Headline student numbers have increased to new records following a short dip after to the 2012 reforms. There are however ongoing concerns about numbers outside this group where trends have not been so positive, including part-time undergraduates, some postgraduates students, overseas students from some countries, especially Nigeria and Malaysia, mature students and some disadvantaged groups. There is also considerable concern about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and student numbers, particularly those from overseas and uncertainty about the impact of Brexit on EU student numbers.
Physics: The Institute of Physics is railing against the limiting words of others which are influencing young people from continuing to study physics post-16. Report here.
many young people who want to pursue physics to improve their future are being denied the opportunity by those whose opinions they trust.
many young people are put off studying physics from age 16 by misconceptions about what physics is
They are told "physics is too difficult", "it's not creative" or "it's boring"… They are told that physics is not for the likes of them based on their ethnicity, their sexual orientation, their disability and their social background.
People of Black Caribbean descent: In England, young people of Black Caribbean descent represent the ethnic group least likely to pursue physics post-16, with only 0.5% choosing to study physics A-Level despite making up 1.4% of all young people in England aged 16 – 19.
People from poorer backgrounds: Young people from poorer backgrounds are much less likely to study physics than peers from wealthier backgrounds. In England, only 2.7% of students from the most deprived backgrounds choose physics post-16 compared to 8.1% of the least deprived.
Girls: Latest figures show that girls are far less likely than boys to choose to study physics post-16. In 2020, physics was the second most popular A-level subject for boys in England and Wales and the fifth most popular in Northern Ireland. In 2019, only 3.59% (1,869) of girls in the Republic of Ireland chose Leaving Certificate physics, compared to 9.91% (5,884) of boys.
People with disabilities: According to the Higher Education Statistics Agency, in 2017/18, 13% of physics undergraduates in the UK had a known disability, much lower than the percentage for all working age adults (19%).
The House of Commons enters recess next week and the policy update will take a break. We'll be back on 6 November.
Tags: access and participation admissions Augar review climate change Continuation COVID-19 Devolved government employability equality and diversity exceptional circumstances FE fees and funding health and wellbeing horizon 2020 international students lifelong learning modular learning ref social mobility student experience student numbers teaching excellence framework technical education TEF widening participation
HE Policy Update for the w/e 16th October 2020
Business Engagement, COVID-19, EU, Impact, Industry collaboration, international, parliament, policy, Public engagement, Research news, Student Engagement jforster
A big week for pandemic news as more restrictions bite across the country. The Secretary of State is getting tetchy and the Department for Education and the OfS are both going back on recent pledges to reduce bureaucracy, as they add new information requirements. Meanwhile if you missed it, Jane wrote last week for the 10th anniversary of the Lighthouse Policy Group on what policy people actually do and why.
Graduates preparation for work
The DfE published the Employer Skills Survey 2019. Employers stated 78% of graduates were well prepared for work during their first job. The media has picked up on a slight drop in perception (80% in 2016; 81% in 2014). Research Professional cover the survey release in Graduates 'less prepared for work' than four years ago. The article also highlights that:
Staff working at the employers who were surveyed were given less training than in previous years
Fewer employers had vacancies than in 2017, but the number of hard-to-fill vacancies had increased. "This suggests skills problems when recruiting are persisting [and] indeed, given the lower vacancy numbers, becoming more 'concentrated'," the survey said.
The government recently revealed plans to encourage more school leavers to take vocational courses, saying there were "too many graduates with degrees that don't get them the jobs that they want", and too many skills shortages in important occupations. Social media followers will likely have spotted the backlash at the Fatima cyber advert this week (the BBC cover how the Culture Secretary stated it was crass and immediately removed to be replaced by a picture of a baker – so the 4 universities offering foundation degrees in baking technology might be quivering under their chef's hats right now).
Joe Marshall, Chief Executive of the National Centre for Universities and Business, said the figures showed that employers were "consistently reporting that graduates are very well or well prepared for work" and that "should be commended". However, he stressed that it was "vital that employers and universities collaborate" to increase positive feedback from employers in future years. "The labour market is fast moving, now more than ever. It's only through working together and universities understanding employers' current and future skill needs that we can best prepare graduates for the world of work."
On a similar theme the Sustainability Exchange published Future Graduate Skills: A Scoping Study – Executive Summary which aims to bring further understanding to the area of changing graduate requirements, graduate skills gaps, and sustainability skills. While it primarily focusses on sustainability there are familiar themes for graduate employment. Here are the most relevant summary recommendations (for more detail access the links on the left hand side of this screen).
Undertake extra-curricular activities during your time at university, and make a note of the projects this involves, the responsibilities you take on, and the skills you have learned, as this will be valuable when you come to apply for work.
Be proactive in seeking out opportunities for real-world work experience alongside academic study
All degree courses should involve at least 2 weeks (or 1 day per week for 1 semester) of work experience or a placement of some kind to enable students to develop real-world understanding of the professional or business workplace. This does not have to be in the sector related to their degree discipline, as the focus is on developing students' experience of practical realities alongside academic theory.
All courses must equip students with the cross-cutting skills necessary for addressing sustainability challenges, such as critical thinking, lateral thinking, and systems thinking. Interdisciplinary or cross-disciplinary learning and problem solving are valuable ways to get students out of their disciplinary silos and to start understanding the interconnectivity of systems.
Universities as businesses have a responsibility to provide their staff (both office staff and teaching staff) with training on sustainability. This includes sustainability theory, practical applications of sustainability to different sectors, how it relates to their discipline, and how sustainability can be incorporated into their modules and teaching material
Businesses should be more proactive in contacting universities to offer work placement opportunities, guest lectures, and information on what exactly they are looking for in the graduates that they hire.
UKRI & the OfS have two new short videos on postgraduate researcher mental health and the importance of the role of the supervisor. They follow on from the OfS and Vitae report we mentioned in a previous policy update.
Size isn't everything Research Fundermentals blogged highlighting that Although larger universities get the majority of research funding, their success rates are no better than that of smaller ones. What makes the difference is the culture and expectations at each.
There's a nice scatterplot which shows that almost all UK institutions fit a very clear 'funnel', and that those with most of the grants don't necessarily have a higher success rate than those with very few…the amount of their UKRI funding is solely down to the fact that these universities put in more applications. It should follow, then, that smaller universities just need to apply more, and their income would significantly increase. This is true up to a point. But realistically there are five major factors that stop them doing so. Culture, training, confidence, time and necessity all impact. Read more here. The fact that success rates for the smaller universities are as good as the best in class shows that a lack of talent is not what is stopping smaller institutions from getting more funding, everything else is.
Less Research Time Research Professional discuss the drop in time spend doing research since the pandemic gripped the nation:
40% of researchers reported a decrease (early career researchers were most likely to report the drop)
Teaching load and an increase in caring responsibilities were noted as they key factors leading to a drop of research time
Other issues: research or publications being delayed; future funding opportunities decreased
Half of researchers surveyed have undertaken research in new directions e.g. Covid related work
Medical researchers who are not working on Covid-19 research were frustrated and felt their work was perceived as lower priority for funding.
Respondents made a number of suggestions to improve the situation, including improving access to facilities; encouraging collaboration among research groups; granting extensions to projects and funding; and making concessions for any reduction in research quality.
Impact The Universities Policy Engagement Network has a new blog – Equality of voice in policy impact: seizing the pandemic moment.
Excerpts:
…one key area where the pandemic presents a chance to improve on the past is that of diversity of voice – the question of which experts get policy makers' attention. And this, in my view, is an area that goes to the very heart of what we are attempting to do with policy impact – because we can't claim to be improving the basis of decisions if the expertise we contribute does not reflect the breadth of expertise that exists.
One line of inequality stands out as potentially 'having its moment': the long-acknowledged need to broaden out beyond the 'golden triangle' of Cambridge, Oxford and London to tap into the deep wells of knowledge that exist elsewhere. As activity shifted online in the wake of Covid-19, many an academic from further afield has found new opportunities to speak directly to decision makers in ways previously limited to those based a short hop from the corridors of power. Finding time in busy people's diaries has proven somewhat easier when the ask is simply to dial into a Zoom meeting. And it turns out that when in enforced isolation, policy makers are as receptive as anyone to something approximating face to face contact.
Things will, at some point, shift back again – but both researchers and policy makers are now far more comfortable than before with virtual engagement. So there's good reason to think that geography will be less of a factor in who gets heard in future.
…virtual engagement favours the tech-savvy young researcher already active on social media, so arguably this is a good moment to address the relatively low profile of early career researchers. But in a high-stakes world, are policy makers willing to take a chance on as-yet-unproven experts? More importantly, in a largely online world is it feasible for younger researchers to develop the networks and social capital on which many a senior academic's public profile has been built?
Future Leadership Fellows Wonkhe tell us – Speaking at the Future Leaders Conference science minister Amanda Solloway announced the latest wave of Future Leadership Fellows, who together will receive £109m in government funding in support of their work on major scientific problems, such as cancer treatment, space travel, and emissions reduction. The funding comes as part of UKRI's flagship Future Leadership Fellowship scheme, on whose website you can find the full list of fellows.
Science Minister Amanda Solloway said: We are committed to building back better through research and innovation, and supporting our science superstars in every corner of the UK. By backing these inspirational Future Leaders Fellows, we will ensure that their brilliant ideas can be transferred straight from the lab into vital everyday products and services that will help to change all our lives for the better.
ECR Forum Wonkhe report that UKRI has announced a pilot of a new Early Careers Researcher's Forum, to be launched later this year. The forum will seek to recruit 400 early career researchers to share their insight with UKRI on the issues that matter to them.
Event The Institute for Policy & Engagement is running an event on how to achieve policy impact through digital means. The workshop will explore the "New Normal" and what this has meant for researchers and policy impact professionals. Many have had to change their approach to connecting with policy makers. This session will investigate new ways to engage and achieve policy impact in this context.
A Covid Christmas
The OfS are planning to re-survey students on their opinion of teaching and learning to see if anything has changed since their last poll which was compiled at the peak of lockdown. Here's the results from the last poll.
OfS say:
With the rapid changes in course delivery as a result of public health advice, we are actively seeking assurances from individual universities and colleges about the quality of their online and blended offers, and that the course will be delivered as promised during the current academic year even if changes are required for public health reasons. Indeed, while online teaching is of course different to face-to-face teaching, many universities and colleges have developed innovative and good quality digital provision for their students. Where we believe universities and colleges are not delivering on this, we can investigate and take action if the quality of courses falls below our minimum requirements.
Is it just Sarah, or does deliver the course as promised but change it to adapt to emerging public health advice seem a little oxymoronic?
Wonkhe report the latest speculation on the measures surrounding students returning home for Christmas: English universities could be asked to lock down for the final two weeks of term to make it possible for students safely to return home for Christmas, according to Richard Adams and Sally Weale at the Guardian. Reportedly, "early stage" plans would involve teaching delivered fully online while students remained on or near campus in term-time accommodation. The plans have yet to be endorsed by Universities UK or any other representative body for universities, and it's not clear at this stage whether the Westminster government is making any plans to manage a further student migration event in January. There's also coverage in the BBC, the Times, the Guardian, the Independent, i News, and the Mail.
Meanwhile iNews state switching to 100% online teaching two weeks before the end of term is too late to halt the spread of the virus. And the Telegraph consider an alternative 'testing blitz' with negative results the trigger to travel home.
Here's a set of pandemic related Parliamentary Questions:
Ensuring universities remain operational throughout the pandemic
Assessment of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on universities
Whether the location of residential university students who test positive for COVID-19 is recorded in national statistics according to (1) their GP's address or (2) their university address.
Detaining students who have not tested C-19 positive in halls of residence and definition of a student household
Limiting the spread of C-19 on university campus
Students with specialist medical conditions that are isolating
Students safely heading home for Christmas
Publishing data on students living in campus accommodation with C-19
With reference to the minutes of the fifty-fifth meeting of SAGE on covid-19 on 3 September 2020, if the Government has developed a national strategy defining key principles for additional covid-19 testing in universities.
Funding grants during the second stage of the university covid-19 research support package that was announced in June 2020
Support for universities implementing their own testing measures
Several longer exchanges through Education Oral Questions on:
safe teaching and services within universities during the pandemic.
Access to digital and online learning, the Christmas guidance, numbers with C-19 at universities and institutions providing data on numbers
Higher non-completion rates
OfS (it is buried within the Topical Questions link so I'll include the exchange below):
Q – Andrew Griffith: The purpose of the Office for Students is that "every student has a fulfilling experience of higher education". In the light of the current difficulties faced by undergraduates, will the Secretary of State commit to a post-covid review of the OfS?
A – Gavin Williamson: I will work closely with the OfS to ensure that it is working with universities and that universities are delivering what students expect and require for their studies. We will always work closely with all government organisations to deliver the very best for students and ensure that universities deliver on students' behalf.
Assessment of HE institution insolvency
Students & Mental Health
Mental health training for university lecturers
Government support for student wellbeing; and supporting universities to provide more mental health and wellbeing support to students during the Coronavirus.
Assessing the long term impact of lockdown on students' mental health
Student Covid complaints: The higher education ombudsbody for England and Wales is testing "special processes" that would allow it to more quickly process complaints from large numbers of dissatisfied students. Research Professional have the scoop here.
Student Sport: Wonkhe report on student sport exemptions: Indoor student sport at universities is exempt from simplified restrictions within all of the new English coronavirus alert levels, according to an updated Sport England FAQ. It says that student sport can take place in groups larger than six on the basis that such activity is covered by the exemption allowing activities "for the purpose of education and training" – although organisers should consider how best to minimise exposure by avoiding unnecessary travel and mixing with teams from other institutions.
GCSE, AS and A level exams will go ahead in 2021 but start 3 weeks later than usual (on 7 June). Results days are Tuesday 24 August for A and AS levels and Friday 27 August for GCSEs so students will start the following academic year as normal. Gavin Williamson, SoS Education, stated:
Fairness to pupils is my priority, and will continue to be at the forefront of every decision we take in the lead up to exams next summer. Exams are the fairest way of judging a student's performance so they will go ahead, underpinned by contingency measures developed in partnership with the sector.
Students have experienced considerable disruption and it's right we give them, and their teachers, the certainty that exams will go ahead and more time to prepare.
The Government's press release also stated:
Given rising case numbers and the battle to suppress the virus, it is also right that there is consideration of the range of scenarios which might impact students' ability to sit exams and develop contingency plans. More detail on this to be published later in the year but work with Ofsted on circumstances has begun.
The government is also confirming today that no further subject-level changes to exams and assessments will be made for GCSEs, AS and A levels… It is expected that for the majority of vocational and technical qualifications that are taken alongside or instead of GCSEs, AS and A levels, awarding organisations will look to align timetables with 2021 exams.
Research Professional (RP) state that University leaders have demanded more details on how they should cope with a three-week delay to A-level exams in 2021. The also report that UUK have said: Universities will work to implement the new timetable. However, we continue to seek further details from the UK government and Ofqual—in particular on how the process will ensure fairness in the 2021 grades. RP also digest the wider and interwoven elements surrounding the announcement here and inform that Daniel Zeichner, Labour MP and co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Universities, stated: I suspect that most universities will be reluctant to alter their term dates until we are much clearer about the availability of vaccines and the need to maintain virtual teaching. RP also asked Zeichner if he was surprised that the education secretary had seemingly made it through the summer's chaos relatively unscathed. "While many will be surprised that Williamson is still in post, this is not a government that takes responsibility," he said. "My guess is that most ministers will stay in place to take the flak until next year."
Colleagues interested in this topic may enjoy this House of Commons debate on Exams: Covid-19.
Institutes of Technology
The Government announced the funding competition for the next wave of Institutes of Technology (IoT) which are business and educational collaborations (FE and HE) aiming to deliver the higher technical knowledge and develop the workplace skills to fit with the country's industry needs. The Government has committed £120 million so there is an IoT in every area of the country, as part of their levelling up agenda. As yet Dorset does not have an IoT.
IoTs aim to:
Significantly increase the number of learners with higher technical skills which are crucial to national, regional and local productivity growth;
Attract a wide range of learners to maximise the social as well as the economic impact of this new type of institution;
Improve the occupational competency of learners to meet the needs of employers now and in the future.
IoT's are intended to address gaps in manufacturing, engineering and transport which currently have an acute shortage of technician level STEM skills and to boost workforce numbers in artificial intelligence, data and innovative technologies. You can read more on IoTs here.
Meanwhile Gordon Marsden (previous shadow FE &HE Minister) stated that IoTs risked becoming "skills white elephants" and "the follies of mandarins and ministers"…Simply building and opening new IoTs won't do the business—in fact, current stats are showing that those already opened are struggling for numbers.
The Government's ambition for all HE institutions to adopt the IHRA antisemitism definition continued to inspire comment this week. A Jewish academic, Geoffrey Alderman, writes in Jewish News on the drawbacks of the definition (it is worth a read) and concludes: Like the proverbial curate's egg, the IHRA definition is good in parts. But it is very much a work in progress. To compel universities to adopt it in its present form, on pain of financial penalties and other sanctions, seems to me a thoroughly bad idea.
At the end of last week SoS Gavin Williamson wrote to Vice Chancellors in what Wonkhe called a final written warning. The Minister's letter states:
I have asked my officials to look at developing options to address this [universities not adopting the definition]…there remain too many disturbing incidents of antisemitism on campus, from both students and staff, and a lack of willingness by too many universities to confront this…I am frankly disappointed that the majority of higher education providers have not yet adopted the IHRA definition. I am surprised that some universities have actively chosen not to use this straightforward way to demonstrate clearly that they do not tolerate antisemitism. These providers are letting down all their staff and students, and, shamefully, their Jewish students in particular.
While many universities have rightly been quick over the summer to demonstrate their readiness to take action against other forms of racism, it is frankly disturbing that so many are dragging their feet on the matter of antisemitism. The repugnant belief that antisemitism is somehow a less serious, or more acceptable, form of racism has taken insidious hold in some parts of British society, and I am quite clear that universities must play their part in rooting out this attitude and demonstrating that antisemitism is abhorrent.
I believe sincerely that adopting the IHRA definition is morally the right thing to do.
I will consider going further to ensure that all providers are tackling antisemitism, with robust measures in place to address issues when they arise. I have asked my officials to explore how best to achieve this. I have asked my officials to consider options that include directing the OfS to impose a new regulatory condition of registration and suspending funding streams for universities at which antisemitic incidents occur and which have not signed up to the definition.
If I have not seen the overwhelming majority of institutions adopting the definition by Christmas then I will act.
The Board of Deputies for British Jews has applauded the Minister's letter, stating: We welcome this intervention by Secretary of State for Education Gavin Williamson calling on universities which have failed to sign up to the IHRA definition of antisemitism to do so by the end of the year. His letter demonstrates the Government's commitment to protecting Jewish students on campus. We have been calling on universities to adopt the international definition of antisemitism for several years. There is no excuse for them not to take this essential step. We hope that the Government will take a similarly muscular approach towards IHRA with social media companies in the package around the Online Harms Bill.
UUK have stated: We recommend universities do all they can to tackle antisemitism, including considering the IHRA definition, whilst also recognising their duty to promote freedom of speech within the law.
Research Professional say:
The likely outcome of all this will be that university managers see no alternative but to adopt the terms of the IHRA, potentially driving a further wedge between 'the university' and some of its staff and students. Division is the point of a culture war after all.
The cause of fighting antisemitism is too important to be treated in this way. It should not be a stick with which to beat the perceived recalcitrance of liberal universities.
It is unlikely that when universities are in the headlines for the effects of coronavirus among the student population, the issue of the IHRA definition will gain much momentum in the national press. The country, if not the secretary of state, has other priorities right now.
A focussed Research Professional article on anti-Semitism here.
Legal perspective Smita Jamdar, a Partner at legal firm Shakespeare Martineau contemplates whether the Minister would be acting within the law if he was to take action against universities who do not adopt the definition:
There is no legal obligation on universities to adopt the definition. The Secretary of State's recent letter to Vice Chancellors exhorting them to adopt the definition makes no claim to the contrary; instead it explicitly asserts that adopting the definition is in the view of the Secretary of State morally the right thing to do. He goes on, however, to explain that he is asking officials to explore options for enforcing this moral obligation, including "directing" the OfS to impose a registration condition or suspending funding streams. There are obvious reasons why alarm bells should ring when politicians seek to enforce what they see as moral obligations through indirect legal routes such as this.
Does the Secretary of State have the power to direct the OfS to impose a registration condition? Not as such, not directly…the Secretary of State can decide what weight to attach to institutional autonomy when deciding whether to guide the OfS towards a registration condition on adopting the definition. But, equally, the OfS has the discretion not to follow the Secretary of State's guidance…The OfS might itself face challenges for breach of its public sector equality duty if it takes action to introduce a condition in relation to antisemitism, but not in relation to other forms of discrimination. Nevertheless, if the Secretary of State and the OfS address these issues in a reasonable way, a court is likely to defer to their judgment.
What about restricting access to funding streams? This is straight out of Trump's playbook, who last year signed an executive order to require federal agencies to tie access to funding to a commitment by universities to ensuring freedom of speech… Restricting access to student loan funding would most likely require an ability to restrict what individual providers could charge by way of fees, perhaps using the model developed under the abortive student number controls that were introduced and then revoked earlier this year.
So, there are hurdles to overcome in introducing a registration condition or restricting access to funding, but they are not insurmountable.
Susan Lapworth, Director of Regulation at the Office for Students has helpfully pointed out that if the Secretary of State issues a formal direction (rather than guidance) the OfS must not merely have regard to it, it must follow it. A direction under the Higher Education and Research Act must be made through regulations.
There is lots more discussion and detail on the legal technicalities in Smita's blog here.
Tony Strike (Sheffield University) writes for Research Professional on credit transfer drawing on his research surrounding the choice a student makes to change institution.
The students we surveyed and interviewed said that student mobility could help them remain in higher education if their personal circumstances changed—that is, it could help a student move to a provider more suited to their changed needs, preventing the student from being forced to drop out of higher education altogether. Students did not see it as an opportunity to trade up or to move around in higher education by acting as if they were shoppers in a market.
Almost two-thirds of the students surveyed said they were unsure about or disagreed with the principle that improving student mobility would improve the quality and value of their degree. Most students in focus groups expressed concerns about the quality of their course and its intellectual coherence if they engaged in mobility processes.
Any switching scheme introduced with a narrative only about student choice would therefore have imposed a view on students that most did not hold. The students in the study did, however, think transfer should be possible and frictionless when and if they needed it, and when other stresses driving the need to move would mean any artificial barriers were likely to be keenly felt.
But the students who wanted to move, or who could conceive circumstances in which they would have to move, feared it would be difficult and would devalue their degree and make them look unreliable…Their teachers, equally, had concerns about the intellectual integrity of a degree 'broken' across locations.
Students nevertheless said that there was a need for clearer and more transparent processes, information, advice and guidance on student mobility in higher education providers, and higher education as a whole, which they perceived would help students in need and tackle any stigma associated with transferring.
There did not appear to be significant demand for student mobility that remained unmet because of existing practices…However, the minority who expressed a desire to withdraw or transfer said they would benefit from changes that made student mobility a more openly recognised practice.
Last week Jo Johnson (previous HE minister who attempted to push student credit and transferring institutions) stated he'd received 'push back' from some HE institutions on the credit transfer plans. The media pointed the finger at the Russell Group which prompted Tony's to write the article. The article is clear it is against the politicisation of the use of student credit transfer and focussed on supporting students rather than a marketisation strategy. He states: If students and universities did push back against the idea of credit transfer then it was not against credit transfer itself but against the attempted politicisation, rather than amelioriation, of a mechanism already being used in the student interest.
Wonkhe report on the new UUK guidance – Managing risks in Internationalisation: Security related issues.
Universities UK has published new guidance for universities on how to safeguard against security risks while engaging in international collaboration The advice is split into four key areas: protecting a university's reputation and values, its people, its campus, and its partnerships.
Among its recommendations, the advice suggests that Chatham House rules could be introduced to online seminars, to allow international students to submit work anonymously, without fear of interference from their government. It's also recommended that university governing bodies assess annually the effectiveness of measures put in place to manage risks associated with internationalisation. The Times reports on the guidance and also publishes an editorial on the need for universities to resist the influence of China.
Brexit: Wonkhe report that the DfE has also published a new compilation of briefings and guidance for higher education providers to prepare for the end of the Brexit transition period on 31 December 2020.
Potential effect of the end of the transition period on FE & HE (Answer: The Government are thinking about it.)
Continuation of Erasmus, and alternative to Erasmus.
NEON (and ESRC) have published The Future of Student Outcomes featuring case studies from institutional projects which address gaps in degree attainment and how to improve undergraduate degree outcomes. The press release calls on the Government to shift attention away from assessing the value of courses and toward supporting those groups who are more likely not to achieve good degrees and graduate jobs…The report argues that while the Prime Minister and the government is right to highlight challenges associated with graduate unemployment/under-employment and low earnings addressing these issues by restricting entry to certain course[s], [or] to higher education overall is a one club approach to a multi-faceted problem.
Dr Graeme Atherton, NEON Director, states:
As this report shows improving student outcomes means concentrating on which students need support, understanding their needs and then making the necessary changes in policy and practice to make a real difference. Vague attacks on course quality, or forcing young people away from higher education will not help the students who really need to achieve their full potential.
The report calls for a student-focussed approach to improving outcome, including:
embedding a value-added approach to teaching learners from BAME and lower socio-economic groups that recognizes their strengths and culture
addressing the heavy psychological burden of debt on students,
investing in better financial and non-financial support for post-graduate students
a national work experience framework for students that goes beyond the present socially skewed, patchwork approach based on unpaid internships.
Graeme Atherton also blogs for Wonkhe to explain the basics.
Research Professional also cover the story here. Neon also explored how the "long shadow" of student loans affected outcomes for disadvantaged students and how precarious academic contracts constrain widening participation work.
Education Committee The Education Committee held two sessions on left-behind white pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds with a number of notable HE figures giving evidence. You can read a summary of the session prepared by Dods here or access the full session. The BBC also cover it here. Below we cover a Parliamentary discussion on the Equality Act which also mentions white working class boys.
Disability A new Wonkhe blog on how few disabled graduates are aware of the financial support available to them for access to work. Only 0.76% of disabled people in the workforce are applying for Access to Work funding.
Ensuring that the Lifetime Skills Guarantee is accessible to those with disabilities.
The adequacy of careers advice in secondary education, particularly advice on the social mobility of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds.
What steps the Government has taken to close the attainment gap for (1) disabled children, and (2) children from (a) disadvantaged, and (b) BAME, communities.
Care leavers access to digital devices and the internet; and the same answer was given to what plans they have to meet with organisations which work with care leavers to discuss access to digital devices and the internet.
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by the Social Mobility Commission The long shadow of deprivation, published on 15 September. (This has an extended debate style answer because it is a response to an oral question within the Lords.)
Disadvantage, discrimination and the Equality Act
Ben Bradley MP introduced a discussion into the Commons on the Equality Act 2010: Children from Disadvantaged Backgrounds. He stated:
Rather than the Equality Act 2010 existing to prevent discrimination, an awful lot of people in influential positions—even in our national institutions—seem to be under the impression that the Act and its provisions on positive action give them the right to actively discriminate in favour of certain groups. Discrimination on the basis of those characteristics is, of course, illegal, whether it has "positive" as a prefix or not, but it seems commonplace. For example, there are countless scholarships and bursaries for higher levels of study offered only to BAME students. That is not positive action, I am afraid; that is discrimination. There is a difference. Encouraging under-represented BAME students to apply for scholarships, yes; excluding all white students from a scholarship on the basis of their race should be a no. That is the very definition of discrimination, and it is even worse when, without the lens of identity politics, it is actually the disadvantaged white children who struggle most to access higher education, not BAME children. That positive discrimination favours a group that already does better statistically, and at the expense of the most under-represented. But as I have said, that is commonplace. The Act, or at least its interpretation and implementation, is fundamentally flawed.
According to research by the writer and commentator Douglas Murray, the Act has, in the main, tended to support and promote those who are already closest to their destination, rather than digging down into supporting those in genuine need, perhaps due to the lack of provision around socioeconomic circumstances… It seems clear that socioeconomic status or social class is, in fact, the greatest indicator of life chances, but that is not a protected characteristic nor is it enacted in section 1. I am sure that there is a reason. Geographical disadvantage was also raised.
The discussion moved onto white working-class boys:
In education at least, the constant false interpretation of the Act, which promotes positive action for BAME and female pupils, seems entirely backwards. Disadvantaged white boys are statistically faring the worst. They are under-represented at universities and in our public institutions, and their life chances are most limited because they are most likely to have no qualifications.
I am fed up to the back teeth with identity politics. I do not want to be stood here saying, "White kids this," and, "White kids that." I value all kids and their futures, and the support they get should be based on what they need, not on the colour of their skin, their gender or any other grand narrative that we concoct to make ourselves feel better. Separating black and white, gay and straight, male and female in that way is combative and unhelpful, but it sometimes feels like I have to highlight white disadvantaged kids and their plight, because otherwise they do not seem to get a look in.
If we talk generally about disadvantage, the system and our legislation—this misinterpretation of the Equality Act—always seem to bring the discussion back around to the BAME, female and other misinterpretations that we have enshrined in law. If we do not say "white kids", the popular narrative and the system seem to leave them behind—and have done so in many cases—in favour of a fundamentally flawed diversity agenda, which is hugely frustrating and, in many ways, wrong.
…will the Government review the implications of amending the Act to remove or change any damaging positive action elements that go way beyond preventing discrimination and, due to the constant misinterpretation of those who claim ownership of it, appear in practice to condone positive discrimination to the exclusion of some of our country's poorest people?
The Minister responded: The Equality Act provides protection to all children, as well as to adults. We must get away from the perception that protected characteristics in the Act are there only to protect certain groups and exclude others. For example, a white boy at school is covered by the Act in the same way, and to the same extent, as his BAME classmates or schoolgirls of any race. If a white boy from a disadvantaged background feels he has been treated less fairly in educational work compared with his female or BAME peers, he has a means of redress available to him, initially through informal routes, but ultimately at a tribunal if it is felt to be necessary.
And dismissed Ben's claims of discrimination:
The Act enables positive action to help to ensure that all groups of society are fairly represented, but that is not the same as positive discrimination, where one group might be unfairly favoured over another. Positive action is designed to enable the promotion of a level playing field. An example of positive action is when an employer wants to address the fact that it does not have any disabled apprentices; the employer can favour the recruitment of a disabled applicant over a non-disabled one, provided that their applications are broadly of equal merit. That is positive action.
Positive action is designed to enable opportunities to be given, as opposed to positive discrimination, which is unlawful. That is why it is so important that the guidance is clear on the subject. We need to promote the level playing field and enable levelling up, and not encourage behaviour that could constitute levelling down.
We need to avoid taking a tick-box approach…We want to avoid such distractions and concentrate on real help.
On addressing socio-economic status through the Equality Act:
Social status is not one of the characteristics protected by the Act, and we need to be careful not to use it as a vehicle for social engineering rather than as a shield against discrimination. A duty of that kind would more likely result in public bodies trying to retrofit a levelling-down agenda, rather than offering better opportunities for all disadvantaged groups and levelling up.
We understand, however, that pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds, including boys, may face greater challenges at every stage of education. We are committed to addressing those challenges, levelling up education standards and improving outcomes. [Through early years intervention, the Opportunity Areas and Virtual Heads for excluded and looked after children.]
This Times piece follows similar themes to the Commons discussion.
Within this week's parliamentary questions are some we've mentioned previously but the response was delayed and they've only now been answered:
Government not planning to publish minutes/discussion from HE Taskforce
Assessing if there is merit in making financial support available to students wishing to complete a second undergraduate degree
Affordability of e-books
Part time study, the Government's flexible 4 year funding (and consultation on introducing the lifelong loan entitlement & legislating for it)
The accessibility of HE for part-time mature students
Violence & Abuse: Research Professional report on UUK's guidance on supporting staff and students experiencing domestic violence and online abuse during the C-19 pandemic. UUK said universities' primary focus should continue to be on prevention, which should include policies on reporting domestic violence and abuse, and said universities should highlight their support services online.
Student suicides: Wonkhe report that The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has updated its annual count of deaths by suicide of full-time students in England and Wales. 182 were recorded, which represents a ten year high. Almost 70 per cent were males.
NSS: The Office for Students had published updates to National Student Survey results from 2019 and 2020, including data amendments and accounts for provider mergers since initial publication.
State of the Nation: The DfE released its second annual 'State of the Nation' report on children and young people's wellbeing. Dods summarise:
This year's report is of particular note, as it captures the effects of the pandemic on young people's mental and physical wellbeing. Here are some top-line findings:
Subjective wellbeing may have decreased, with older young people reporting increases in anxiety
Some groups of children and young people have had lower personal wellbeing than others (e.g. SEND, BAME, working-class students)
Children and young people have been happy with their health, although the primary worry has been COVID-19 and the potential impact on their loved ones
Children are generally as happy as usual with their view of the future, though the majority of older young people are worried
Most children and young people up to 17-years-old remain happy with relationships with friends – a third to a half of primary children had regular contact with friends, and most secondary age children reported the same
Just under half of older young people reported the pandemic affecting their relationships
Older young people have seen impacts to their own employment, and some evidence suggests that the number of low-income households has increased recently, effecting children as well
Average happiness with how they get to use their time remains high, with most being fairly physically active throughout April to July
Most are happy with their home setting, but some children and young people's homes are not 'decent' and some have spent more time in such homes during the pandemic
You can find the DfE press release here, and the full 'State of the Nation' report here.
Education: The Institute for Public Policy Research has published a report on the future of education after Covid-19
Grade inflation: Wonkhe report on a recent paper which takes a detailed and critical data-informed look at the phenomenon of grade inflation and argues for a more nuanced understanding of the rise in Firsts. They suggest that "unexplained firsts" should always point to a need for further research rather than punitive measures, and that the deficit model of "grade inflation" is obscuring a number of phenomena. The rise in attainment appears to be a global issue – and the authors call for the development of "assessment literacy" as a first step towards deescalating the issue. There's a blog too if you'd prefer the shorter version.
Tags: admissions anti-semitism Brexit COVID-19 credit transfer disability employability freedom of speech grade inflation institutes of technology international students Mental Health and Wellbeing NSS policy engagement social mobility tier 4 white working class boys widening participation
HE Policy Update for the w/e 9th October 2020
COVID-19, ECR Network, hate crime, innovation, international, NHS, parliament, Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, PG research, policy, Postgraduate Research, Research news jforster
The virtual Conservative Party Conference took place – we've coverage of the relevant fringe events below; the Science and Technology Committee ran an interesting session on ARPA, and university adoption of the definition of anti-semitism is back on the agenda.
What next for HE policy?
Jonathan Simons of Public First writes Ambitious Minds for Research Professional aiming to provide insight into the Government's thought processes behind their HE agenda. The quick read is illuminating (even if you aren't a policy geek).
The Lords debated the Lifetime Skills Guarantee and Post-16 Education on Tuesday (we mentioned Boris and Gavin's announcements for this in the policy update last week). Debate followed similar lines as last week plus University Technical Colleges and parity of esteem were discussed.
Lord Storey triggered a chuckle in his enthusiasm for extra funding for FE colleges: My Lords, this is very good news. I do not have to sit on the Bishops' Bench to say hallelujah. Later he raises: There is no mention of university technical colleges, which have done an excellent job. Does the Minister see an enhanced role for them?
Lord Baker of Dorking echoed this: I am very grateful for the mention of the colleges that I support, the university technical colleges. At the moment, they are by far the most able and successful technical schools in the country. We are having a record year in recruitment and we have incredible destinations. Last year, one of our colleges on the north-west coast of England produced 90% apprentices, which is absolutely incredible when the national average is 6%.
He continued: The trouble is that, since 1945, there has been a huge drive to send people to universities, which is good for social mobility but it means that graduates have had disproportionate esteem, disproportionate political influence and disproportionate reward compared with those who make things with their hands. This is the time when we have to elevate the intelligent hand: to train not only the brain but the hand as well.
Baroness Berridge (Minister for Schools): My Lords, I assure the noble Lord that there is no snobbery in the Department for Education; we want to promote parity of esteem for vocational and technical qualifications across our sector. The Prime Minister and the Secretary of State are behind this.
Maintenance Support
Meanwhile the Centre for Progressive Policy has published Beyond hard hats – What it will take to level up the UK and some of the recommendations chime with delivering the Lifetime Skills Guarantee. The report calls for a Learners' Living Allowance to support those undertaking part- or full-time training, as an equivalent to maintenance loans available for higher education students, to be paid back under the same conditions upon employment.
HE at the Conservative Fringe
There was a Conservative Party fringe event: Back in business: what can modern universities do to support Britain's recovery? (sponsored by HEPI and MillionPlus). Universities Minister, Michelle Donelan, was on the panel. The event discussed changes within the FE and HE, the recent Lifetime Skills Guarantee announcement, and how universities can provide quality education in a post-Covid world. Also: technical qualifications, up-skilling and re-skilling, the Augar review, and institutions' roles within their local community.
The Education Policy Institute (and Sheffield Hallam University) ran Higher and further education in post Covid recovery: Competitors or Collaborators? Former HE minister Jo Johnson was on the panel along with the CEO of the Association of Colleges (David Hughes), the public policy editor of the Financial Times (FT), Sheffield Hallam university, Sheffield College and EPI.
The level 4 & 5 'regulatory jungle' was discussed, FE & HE working collaboratively, the FT pointed out that the forthcoming demographic bulge meant there was no shortage of students to go around, and suggested that ensuring a blend of FE and HE was the best way to meet the rising need. Skills were discussed with Jo stating he'd pushed for both credit transfer and modular funding during his HE Minster tenure, but neither are easy to achieve nor implement well. He also called for the removal of the ELQ rule across all subject areas. You can read the rest of the session coverage in this summary.
Wonkhe report specifically on Jo Johnson's speech: Speaking on an Education Policy Institute panel yesterday, former minister Jo Johnson reported that snobbery about further education was an "artefact", and there was currently an "aggression" towards higher education in the media. He also noted he had experienced "push back" from some more established universities in developing a national credit transfer framework. TES has the story. The recognition of the media aggression was a welcome acknowledgement from a former minister.
There was also an event on engineering.
Education Committee – HE Minister
The Education Committee held two accountability sessions this week (these are a regular occurrence and question a Minister or senior public figure on the handling of current business). Colleagues interested in disadvantaged school children, catch up, county lines, and educational inequalities will be interested in the summary of the first session here (prepared by Dods).
The second session questioned Michelle Donelan, sadly it was more watery than juicy. She stated that she did not know how many students were currently under lockdown at universities in England instead highlighting that C-19 rates were still relatively low at universities. Donelan said that most students were abiding by the guidelines but that a minority were socialising in a way that was driving spikes in infection. She confirmed the Government was committed that all students could return home at Christmas and various measures were under consideration as to how this would be achieved. Recent sector press has speculated that the DfE were completely unprepared for the guidance the Secretary of State promised would be issued to the sector guiding institutions on how to achieve this. And Wonkhe have confirmed the DfE will launch a Covid-19 helpline for both institutions and students. Donelan was unclear if this would be an automated system or a real person on the end of the line. On the guidance Research Professional report that Donelan was reticent, stating it was being drawn up and will contain a "robust" Q&A session, but it is not quite ready for publication yet….but that one approach being looked at was the quarantining of students in the two weeks before the end of the winter term
Donelan also commented on the perennial fee refund topic stating it was a matter for individual universities, rather than the government, to determine whether students should receive refunds, however she stated that online and blended learning was working well. She also took a strong stance and stated that universities that had not yet adopted the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism would ultimately be forced to do so by Government (more on this below).
Wonkhe have a blog covering the Committee session and considering some of the aspects arising within a sector context. David Kernohan writes: the hearing was just more evidence that DfE is not on top of the situation when it comes to keeping students safe. Guitarists will find fine resonance with the beginning of the blog.
Drop the boo boo
Labour didn't want to drop the Secretary of State's mistaken statement last week (that £100 million was available to universities for digital access – it isn't, it's for schools) and raised a Point of Order because the mistake hadn't been corrected in Hansard. Gavin Williamson managed to weasel out of outright confirming he'd got it wrong instead he said: As the House will know, the Government have made available more than £100 million for electronic devices. Those youngsters who are in care and going on to university can access that funding to enable them to have the right type of devices, whether that is a laptop or a router. If a student's family circumstances change while they are at university, they can go to the Student Loans Company to have their maintenance grant re-assessed. Although the original record hasn't been amended Kate Green has raised this enough now to have made her point about Gavin's mistake.
Anti-Semitism Definition
The House of Commons debated universities (not) adopting the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism on Tuesday. Ahead of the debate the Telegraph reported that only one fifth of universities have adopted the IHRA definition of antisemitism.
Sarah has added some key snippets from the full debate below. You'll spot from the summary that parliament were disdainful of the reasons the sector has given for not adopting the definition.
…in January this year, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local …(Robert Jenrick) wrote to all universities demanding that they adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism or face funding cuts…. This debate—and, indeed, previous requests by Members to universities—is intended not to be a stick with which to beat the higher education sector… (Christian Wakeford)
I am disgusted that we stand here today, in 2020, to condemn the ways in which universities have not only refused to engage with or listen to students…The institutional hijacking of freedom of speech that is currently being used as a façade for universities and professors to scurry behind is appalling. (Jonathan Gullis)
Vicky Ford (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State) stood in for Michelle Donelan to give the ministerial perspective on the debate:
Universities have a big role to play. We expect them to be welcoming and inclusive to students of all backgrounds, and the Government continue strongly to encourage all higher education providers to adopt the IHRA definition, which would send a strong signal that higher education providers take those issues seriously. However, they are autonomous institutions and that is also set out in law. As such, the decision on whether to adopt the definition rests with individual providers… The Government will continue to call on providers to adopt that important definition. It is a decision for vice-chancellors, but I urge them all to listen to their staff and students, as well as to the wider community and, indeed, our proceedings.
Without doubt, the university experience of many Jewish students is overwhelmingly positive. However, the number of antisemitic incidents in the UK remains a cause for concern…in the first six months of this year, the number of incidents of antisemitism involving universities rose by an alarming 34%…That is absolutely unacceptable and shows how much further the sector has to go to tackle the issue.
Our universities should be inclusive and tolerant environments. They have such potential to change lives and society for the better. I am sure that our universities are serious in their commitment to tackle racism and hatred, but much more work remains to be done
At the end of this week's Education Committee session Chair, Robert Halfon, stated:
It was "strange", Halfon said, that so many universities had not adopted the definition when they were so quick to "pull down statues" that were deemed offensive. He posited that many institutions "seem to turn a blind eye" to antisemitism.
There was no lack of clarity in Donelan's response to this. "I want every university to adopt this definition. So did my predecessors, who have written several times to universities on this matter." Williamson had also written, she said, but it had "not shifted the dial".
"We are not seeing enough…universities adopting the definition and it is simply not good enough," Donelan continued, adding that she and her department were looking at "other measures…to make it happen".
"I urge universities to do this," she said, or the Department for Education will find ways "to ensure that you do so".
ARPA – The Science and Technology Committee held a particularly juicy session on the potential new ARPA style research funding agency. A summary of the two sessions is here and the full session content will shortly be available here.
In the first session the witnesses thought it right that Government should set broad strategic goals and research direction for the agency, particularly those centred on specific challenges (such as health, energy and defence policies). A witness suggested there was no need to wait for consultation outcome on ARPA – that set up could run parallel. Neither witness felt UKRI should run ARPA – that it should sit at a high Government cross-sector level, and that UKRI don't currently have a challenge-setting role. Walport railed against this statement in the second session stating UKRI could be guided towards a more ARPA-like model without the need for a new body by giving UKRI more freedom and money to work on specific challenges.
The second session witnesses were Sir Mark Walport (UKRI's previous CEO) and Jo Johnson (previous Universities Minister). Both were responsible for setting up UKRI and both were concerned that an ARPA body would be beneficial. Johnson stated a new body could work but it would have to complement the existing organisations. Furthermore, that there was still no clarity over what purpose a UK ARPA would serve and a new green or white paper should establish this. Overall, he was in favour of ARPA becoming a part of UKRI. Hosting ARPA outside UKRI could fragment the coherence and oversight of the UK research sector. The geographical location of where to locate ARPA was discussed.
Do read the summary here as the above only touches on part of the discussion.
Life Sciences – Two Conservative party fringe events touched on Life Sciences. Here are the summaries:
The Future of Life Sciences – panellists spoke on levelling up in the context of life sciences and the future impact that the sector could have the on the health and wealth of the UK. Data access within the NHS and speeding up access to new and innovative medicines were also mentioned.
Healthy Boost: Putting Life Sciences innovation at the heart of Levelling Up – panellists discussed the need to effectively integrate the life sciences in any future plans to rebuild the UK economy. The unequal effect of Covid on areas was discussed, alongside improving health outcomes and living healthier lives through prevention and Government investment. Manufacturing within the life sciences was mentioned alongside maintaining progress with medicines and medical devices. Universities were mentioned as anchor institutions.
Research Professional also cover the Life Sciences sessions.
REF Review – UKRI have publicised the REF Review which will consider researcher's perceptions and experience in preparing and submitting to REF 2021. It aims to understand attitudes towards REF 2021 and the affect it has on the academic environment. It also intends to capture views on the challenges and opportunities; whether REF is a driver of research behaviours and culture; and reflection on the practical preparations for REF 2021 at the institution, including lessons learned and changes from REF 2014.
REF Modifications Survey – During lockdown REF was put on hold while new dates were agreed and a survey proposed modifications to the REF exercise. REF have published the summary of the 164 responses to the survey which examined the appropriateness of the modifications for outputs, impact and the environment. A majority of respondents were happy with the modifications although many felt further detail was needed.
REF have also updated information on:
Guidance on submissions
Panel criteria and working methods
Audit guidance
Institutional-level environment pilot: supplementary guidance on submissions and panel criteria and working methods
Global Research – Wonkhe tell us about the Wellcome Trust's Global Research report:
The Wellcome Trust has released a new report – "The UK's role in global research". Among 24 recommendations to government, it calls for the full implementation of the BEIS R&D Roadmap, an increase in QR and other funding that promotes research flexibility, and measures to improve the experience of international researchers and collaborators in working with and in the UK.
Research Professional also covered the report (from half way down this link): The terms 'science superpower' and 'Global Britain' are now used frequently by the government as a shorthand for its ambitions for research.
International collaboration is not restricted to universities…and must also hold for industries with a strong research focus, such as the pharmaceuticals and aerospace. This is how Global Britain will stay competitive.
The UK must also be strategic and not waste resources on duplicating infrastructure that is available elsewhere. The country should use its reputation in science "for good", combining research and diplomatic strengths to work with multinational organisations such as the UN, the World Health Organization and the G7.
To put it bluntly, if not upfront because the reference appears 10 pages into the report: "Full association to the EU's Horizon Europe research programme must therefore be at the heart of the research strategy for Global Britain." However, the country should also forge partnerships beyond Europe, says Wellcome, and this could be financed out of quality-related funding dedicated to international collaboration.
The research funder wants to see the government "commission an 'international' equivalent of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy's R&D Roadmap that sets the overall vision for Britain's place in the world for research. This should become the 'North Star' for government decision-making, based around clear goals."
There is a lot to unpack in the Wellcome report, including the idea of a "single front door" for investment in UK science; bilateral funding schemes; and making the UK a champion of "regulatory diplomacy". The funder wants to see the cost of visas reduced for researchers and provision for research collaboration written into free trade agreements.
Postgraduate Research Students – UUK, OfS, UKRI and Vitae have published their collaboration – Supporting mental health and wellbeing for postgraduate research students which consider the 17 projects addressing PGR wellbeing that were supported by Catalyst funding. They describe the programme reach: The 17 successful projects covered a wide range of activities targeted at PGRs and supervisors, including workshops, mentoring programmes, peer networks and training embedded into induction events. Co-production was a positive theme, with 171 PGRs directly involved across 11 projects… A variety of resources have been developed for use by the sector available on the OfS website: these range from training materials to wellbeing apps, blogs, online hubs and videos… Fifteen projects have provided case studies that outline their activities, impact and challenges.
Two-thirds of the projects reported improved mental health from their PGRs involved including that PGRs were more aware of how to support and improve their own mental health, and had improved knowledge of where to get help and support. You can read more on the projects here, and the recommendations are on pages 8-9. The report concludes that while the quality of the supervisory relationship is key, all university and college staff have a part to play in supporting the mental health and wellbeing of PGR students.
This week's research related parliamentary question:
UKRI's open access policy: international collaboration between UK and overseas researchers; the impact of the open access policy on research-intensive universities; the economic effect of the open access policy
Areas of Research Interest to policy makers
The Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) have released a new opportunity for research colleagues:
In April POST ran a survey of experts on the COVID-19 outbreak expert database that resulted in the publication of syntheses about the future effects of COVID-19 in different policy areas. From this survey POST developed Parliament's first Areas of Research Interest (ARIs) which are lists of policy issues or questions that policymakers are particularly interested in.
Currently only the ARIs which are linked in some way to Covid have been released. However, they are not all health based and touch on a range of themes from Crime, economics, inequalities, trade, supply chains, mental health, education, sustainability across several sectors, and so on. Do take the time to look through the full question list to see if it touches upon your research area. Non-researcher colleagues can share the list with academic colleagues within their faculty.
Alongside the publication of the ARIs is an invitation to experts to add current or future research relevant to the topics to a repository that Parliament may use to inform future policy making and Parliamentary work. Research with relevant research across any of the disciplines are invited to submit their work.
BU colleagues are strongly encouraged to take advantage of this rare opportunity to present their research to policy makers The Policy team is here if you need any help.
R&D Place Advisory Group
The Government have announced the R&D Place Advisory Group that will advise Ministers on the R&D places strategy which will build upon the R&D Roadmap and deliver the levelling up strategy across the public, private and voluntary sectors. The press release states that the aim is to build on local potential so that all regions and nations of the UK benefit from a R&D intensive economy. The Place Advisory Group support this by:
proposing, challenging & testing potential policy options to make the most of R&D potential to support local economic impact in areas across the UK, including how best to increase the place focus in public R&D investment, factor place into decision-making across the R&D system, and foster greater local and national co-creation and collaboration to make better decisions on R&D
contributing to the evidence base, including identifying priorities for long-term development
exploring other relevant issues as requested by the Minister
The press release also states the group will advise the ministers in confidence. So proceedings may be hard to come by.
The group will be chaired by Amanda Solloway as Minister for Science, Research and Innovation. You can read her speech launching the group here. The secretariat function will also be provided by her department – BEIS. The group is expected to meet monthly while the Government develops the place strategy.
Admissions – Level 2/3 Exams
In Scotland the National 5 exams are to be cancelled for 2021 and replaced with teacher assessments and coursework. Higher and Advanced Higher exams will go ahead but will commence 2 weeks later than usual on 13 May. The BBC explain it as: like using coursework and tests for GCSEs while carrying on with slightly later exams for A-levels.
Scotland's Education Secretary John Swinney stated that going ahead with all exams during the continuing Covid pandemic was "too big a risk"…it couldn't be "business as usual" for exams but also "there will be no algorithm". And if Highers cannot be taken, there would be a contingency plan to use grades "based on teacher judgement".
There are rumours the Government is less certain that exams will go ahead in England. This week they stated universities could start later in Autumn 2021 to accommodate a delay to A level exams. An announcement from the Government on exams is expected later in October. This was confirmed in response to a Parliamentary Question calling for clarity before students submit their UCAS applications. Donelan also confirmed a statement was forthcoming. During her Education Select Committee hearing when she commented that it would be inappropriate if she were to pre-empt and "steal his [Williamson's] thunder" by making any announcement. And on potential disruption to the start dates for the 2021-22 academic year, the minister added that "if term time needs to be moved slightly to accommodate any potential change in examinations, that is something that can be done quite straightforwardly". (Source.)
In their article the BBC pose the two key questions:
How can exams be run fairly when so much teaching time has been lost because of the pandemic?
And how do you make a definite plan for such an indefinite situation – where it's impossible to know how much more disruption might lie ahead?
Concluding that the Government really does need to get its skates on!
Wonkhe report that: Government information on sponsoring an international student has been updated to reflect the new student visa route. There's also detailed technical guidance on the new route, and a guide for sponsors with material on English language requirements, certificates of sponsorship and record keeping provisions.
UUK also blogged on the topic: Government must act now or risk losing European students for years to come outlining 5 steps they want policymakers to adopt to stabilise demand for UK HE:
Continuing to promote the new student route so that all international students are aware of the changes being introduced. This is particularly important for EU / EEA students.
Improving and extending the Study UK campaign into key markets in Europe by coordinating existing campaigns currently in European markets and increasing investment in Study UK to £20 million a year.
Providing targeted financial support for EU students such as through an expanded or newly developed EU scholarship offer.
Lowering immigration route application costs so they are in line with the UK's international competitors.
Committing to continually reviewing immigration requirements in light of the Covid-19 pandemic
The Higher Education Commission convened by Policy Connect have published Arriving at Thriving – Learning from disabled students to ensure access for all. It highlights that despite higher numbers of disabled students accessing HE the barriers they face when they get here are still numerous and unacceptable in today's inclusive society. The report makes 12 recommendations to improve disabled students' experience of HE and have a positive knock on effect on their attainment, continuation and graduate outcomes. The report states:
Many of our findings make hard reading, and we cannot shy away from the fact that our evidence demonstrates an unhappy situation for many disabled students. Much progress has been made over the past few decades… However, our findings make clear that the road to progress has not ended, and it is vitally important to continue to call attention to the needs and experiences of disabled students.
There are numerous practical changes that HEPs can and are implementing themselves to improve disabled students' experiences…the focus of the majority of our recommendations is on what the government and the Office for Students can do to create and ensure improvement across the HE sector.
In setting out the key information here we focus on what is lacking, however, the report contains case studies and examples of success too aiming to share and spread good practice throughout the sector.
Teaching and learning isn't accessible enough – e.g. regularly being physically unable to get to or sit in lecture theatres or other academic spaces; unable to access learning materials; not receiving lecture capture where it has been promised; and not receiving other reasonable adjustments set out in their support plans, including adjustments to assessments. Student support services professionals are frustrated at the lack of change and adjustments they can enact within their institution – and not for lack of trying. Some students reported they felt there was no accountability, including at senior level, for ensuring access to learning.
The bureaucratic burden of applying for funding and support is too much – the Disabled Students' Allowance admin and timeliness was particularly criticised. Complaints processes were also seen as working against some disabled students. Funding doesn't cover enough of the additional costs a disability entails when studying at HE level.
The lack of accessibility occurs across social activities, clubs and societies too. The report finds there is a widespread lack of awareness or care among the wider student cohort for the existence of disabled students and their needs. Although some Students Unions are recognised for their awareness and culture changing work.
Disclosing the disability to the HE institution remains a barrier which impedes the transition to HE.
The report concludes:
All of our twelve recommendations – and we could have made many more – require implementing in their own right if we are to achieve lasting change. The ideal would be for this to take place as part of the system transformation we set out in recommendation five – for the government to create a new system to support disabled people from the classroom to the workplace.
Former HE Minister Chris Skidmore, who set up the Disabled Students Commission in 2019, blogs for Wonkhe to launch the HE Commission's report. He states:
This report provides welcome evidence for the Disabled Students' Commission's work, not just by illuminating the obstacles that exist, but also by promoting the wealth of good practice already taking place in the sector. During this time when it has become necessary to rethink modes of higher education delivery, the sector must harness the opportunity to embed accessibility into course design, and to make consideration of disabled students' needs the norm.
I know that many of us share a vision for disabled students to have a positive experience in higher education, able to expand the horizons of their knowledge and to develop social capital which will support them to succeed in life. To achieve this, we must break down the barriers which have been uncovered by this inquiry, and work to create a future of equal access and inclusion for all students. I hope that this report will help to provide the momentum needed to carry us into that future.
Professor Geoff Layer, Chair of the Disabled Students' Commission, praised the report. He stated:
The Disabled Students' Commission welcomes the findings of this report. The issues and challenges raised in the Disabled Students' Inquiry report are consistent with the work of the Commission and highlight the need to improve access to higher education and the experience of disabled students.
The Commission will be using the findings of the report to move forward with plans to inform and advise higher education providers about improving support for disabled students.
Hillary Gyebi-Ababio, NUS Vice President for Higher Education spoke at the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Students on Tuesday warning MPs not to repeat previous mistakes by ignoring students during this pandemic. She raised the safety of students returning to campus, being locked into tenancy contracts and a lack of access to online learning. She called on the Government to give students the right to leave their course or accommodation without financial detriment and address the financial pressures within the education system (see this). Hillary said:
Students have been ignored time and time again during this pandemic, whether it was not providing them with hardship funding when they were in financial need or denying them the A-Level grades they deserved because this government were more concerned with grade inflation than social justice.
And now we are in the worst of all scenarios. Students are being forced en masse to return to campuses across the UK, without adequate procedures in place to keep them safe and coronavirus infection rates rising. It seems like every day we hear a new report of a mass outbreak on a university campus. But this is not the fault of students, who have been following the advice they have been given and abiding by the rules. This is the failure of government and university leadership to keep us safe.
I want you as MPs, and even those of us that are student leaders and students here to reflect on 2010, for a moment. Students were outside parliament marching together because they felt let down and betrayed by the government of that day. They were a generation who felt unheard, unseen and uncared for. Students today are feeling the same. They are fed up of being ignored, but now, just like in 2010, they are unmistakably fired up. Students are more politically engaged than ever and they are willing to take action to fight for the education they deserve. Students deserve better.
The APPG for Students Twitter feed highlights the other issues that were raised including digital poverty and the shift to online learning, Muslim students concerned about Test and Trace, and quality of teaching on courses which don't suit digital delivery.
Research Professional talk of the continued policy intent to not charge HE fees or a graduate contribution in Scotland.
On calls for fee refunds due to Covid teaching changes the Office of the Independent Adjudicator has published an update. The key message that a blanket ban on fee refunds is unacceptable continues and the site has FAQs for students on whether a partial refund might be appropriate or not.
Also making news this week was the decision by the University of St Andrews which means first-year students can leave at any point before December without paying any course fees (accommodation fees are still accumulated). Research Professional speculate the decision could lead to a string of similar demands at other UK universities.
Advance HE published Diversity of Governors in HE. (Press release here.)
9% of governing board members were women, compared to 54.6% of staff members overall.
Around nine in ten governors were white (89.2%), 5.3% were Asian and 2.6% were Black.
4% HE governors were disabled, and a long-standing illness or health condition was the most commonly reported impairment among disabled governing board members.
In general, the age profile of governors was higher than for staff overall, but a higher proportion of governors were age 25 and under (reflecting the inclusion of student members on the majority of HEI boards).
A higher proportion of HE governors were UK nationals compared to staff overall (93.2% compared to 79.0%), and nearly 1 in 5 BAME governors (18.9%) were non-UK nationals.
A fifth (21.7%) of boards had 50% women members or more. In over two in five, 41.6%, women made up fewer than 40% of governors.
A fifth (21.1%) of governing boards had no BAME members, and over a third (35.6%) of boards had no disabled members
Please note – several parliamentary questions haven't been answered within the required Parliamentary. If a link is not showing an answer check it again in 3 working days. The link is good, the Government are just slow in responding this week.
Repayment of student loans during maternity leave – (a) steps to ensure women don't face unfair financial hardship; (b) how many people made student loan repayments whilst on maternity leave in last 5 years (the Government stated it would be too expensive to obtain the answer to this question).
Ensuring that university maintenance loans reflect student living costs
Steps to increase the diversity of students taking STEM subjects
What recent assessment has been made of the accessibility of HE for part-time mature students
The Student Loans Company is still deciding what to do about a student's maintenance loan when they switch from living away to living at home due to Covid.
Whether the Government undertook a risk assessment prior to September, of the impact of students returning to universities on the transmission of COVID-19
Assessing the longer term effect of C-19 lockdown on university students.
Steps to support universities to deliver safe (a) teaching and (b) student services during the covid-19 outbreak.
What steps the DfE has taken to respond to covid-19 outbreaks in group university accommodation (and steps to supply enough tests).
What assessment has been made of potential for job losses in HE sector (due to C-19 institutional closure); similar Q on insolvency; ensuring student focussed jobs are protected
Making C-19 tests available for all returning students; practice testing policy for returning students (asymptomatic)
And from Prime Minister's questions this week:
Matt Western (Lab, Warwick and Leamington) said that universities were struggling to contain the coronavirus, with 5,000 cases reported in recent weeks. More local and immediate access for communities was needed, he said. In Leamington, he was told that Deloitte would not deliver testing facilities until the end of this month, weeks after students would have arrived in the town. He asked the PM if the Government was not expecting students to return to universities.
The PM responded it was important that students returned to universities and praised students for complying with the new regulations. There were particular problems in certain areas and the Government would be pursuing measures to bring the virus down, he added.
The affordability and availability of academic ebooks
Potential merits of introducing an immigration checking service for Student Finance to check student eligibility similar to that of the employer checking service.
Whether funding is available for new applications from students or education institutions for support with digital access. (Emma Hardy, Shadow Universities Minister, asked this one so it is probably just a political point score after the Secretary of States gaffe on the tech funding last week.) And a similar one here.
If you're interested in the number of study visas granted in 2020 the answer is given as a link within this parliamentary question.
The Government will present the TEF report (and their response will be published at the same time) in due course.
On social mobility from Prime Minister's Questions this week: David Johnston (Con, Wantage) said that just 12% of journalists and chief execs came from a working class background and just 6% of doctors and barristers. He called for a renewed focus on social mobility to make better use of all of the country's talent.
There are no new consultations and inquiries relevant to HE this week.
Midwifery: The Royal College of Midwives has published a report on supporting midwifery students through a global pandemic and beyond.
Mental Health Nursing: Despite 1 in 4 people experiencing a mental or neurological condition at some point during their life mental health nursing remains an unpopular profession (despite making up one third of the UK mental health workforce). A new research report Laying foundations Attitudes and access to mental health nurse education by the Nuffield Trust considers how to attract more people to study mental health nursing and the reasons behind why numbers are currently limited.
C-19 student test results: The BBC raises the issue whereby new students C-19 test results are going to their home GP rather than the university area in which they now reside. This topic has been mentioned several times in Parliament this week with the Opposition pushing the Government to respond.
Dyslexia: The Data & Marketing Association (DMA) has published an employer guide to inclusivity in the workplace. They highlight that dyslexia in the workplace remains misunderstood and the guide aims to help employers support a diverse workforce. They state:
Our Dyslexia Employer Guide is the latest instalment in our neurodiversity guidance series, offering organisations free advice on how to create a positive, supportive, and flexible workplace culture that permeates all levels of the business.
The guide provides comprehensive guidance and recommendations on reasonable adjustments that employers can make to recruitment processes, the workplace environment, support networks, and most importantly, how to treat employees as individuals.
In addition, it features case studies offering advice for dyslexic people written by dyslexic professionals, from junior marketing executives all the way to managing director level, on useful coping mechanisms they apply on potentially problematic areas and how their skillsets have helped them to thrive in the creative industries.
Balance: Wonkhe report that The Women's Higher Education Network has published research into the experiences of parents working in higher education professional services during the lockdown. Drawn from a survey of 1074 parents, the report found that traditional gender roles still influence the division of domestic responsibilities. The report recommends that employers provide guidance to parents on workloads and expectations, and encourage them to work flexibly.
Similarly, HEPI has a piece on the difficulties student parents face studying at home during the pandemic.
Teaching via social media: Wonkhe have a blog about the wins and pitfalls of utilising the tech that students prefer and teaching through sites such as WhatsApp with notifications through Twitter. The comments are a must read for both sides of the discussion. There are also two other blogs on the adjustment HE lecturers underwent to teach online during Covid – one from a healthcare educator and one charting the human experience.
DfE: The Information Commissioner's Office reviewed the DfE (who cooperated fully) and have found them in direct breach of data protection law. A DfE spokesperson said:
We treat the handling of personal data – particularly data relating to schools and other education settings – extremely seriously and we thank the ICO for its report, which will help us further improve in this area.
Since the ICO completed its audit, we've taken a number of steps to address the findings and recommendations, including a review of all processes for the use of personal data and significantly increasing the number of staff dedicated to the effective management of it.
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Tags: admissions ARPA COVID-19 disability Dyslexia governance industrial strategy international students life sciences nhs Postgraduate Research ref 2021 Research Excellence Framework technical education tuition fees
HE Policy Update for the w/e 2nd October 2020
Business Engagement, COVID-19, Industry collaboration, innovation, parliament, PG research, policy, Postgraduate Research, Research news, Student Engagement jforster
We're in October already! This week has been busy in Parliament, and we had some Ministerial engagement too. Boris unveiled a skills pledge and Gavin Williamson made a statement regarding students returning to universities (and was subsequently slammed for inaccuracies). And angry parents have taken issue that their children might be prevented from returning home from university for Christmas if they are in isolation or caught in local lockdowns.
BU welcomes the Minister for Universities
Michelle Donelan MP paid a short virtual visit to BU this week. You can read more here. It is good that the Minister is making time to make these visits and the conversation was wide ranging and interesting. Thanks to all involved, especially as these things are always short notice and subject to last-minute change.
Comprehensive Spending Review – and all its ramifications
No one knows quite what form (or if) the comprehensive spending review (CSR) will take. However, sector organisations continue to lobby the Government with their wish lists to be included within the CSR. The Association of Colleges have published their 37 pager much of which aligns with recent Government ambitions on skills spending, higher technical education, apprenticeships, levelling up and addressing disadvantage. Specifically they call for higher rates of FE funding, expanding provision to accommodate the 2024/25 young population surge (plus IT infrastructure investment), a 16+ pupil premium, and the favourite old chestnut – reducing oversight, bureaucracy and compliance costs.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies published Spending Review 2020: COVID-19, Brexit and beyond. Pages 3-5 summarise the key findings succinctly and ultimately the report advises the Chancellor not to plough ahead with a full Spending Review. It concludes:
Even if Mr Sunak makes the sensible decision to set only one year of spending plans, the process will be fraught with difficulty, with many delicate trade-offs. Perhaps the most important question is the extent to which the extraordinary funding increases provided in response to COVID-19 need to continue into future years.
[With Covid likely to] swallow up much of the increase in funding pencilled in between now and 2023−24. Whatever is left would likely be allocated to priority areas such as the NHS, schools, the police or the 'levelling-up' agenda. The Chancellor has rowed back from the spending envelope he committed to in March, but his emphasis on the need for 'tough choices' suggests that it could become less, not more, generous. Other public services could well be facing a further bout of austerity
No one is expecting good news. And the Government's intentions following the Augar report are expected to be laid out as part of the CSR. Even HEPI warn of impending doom when they consider Augar in the context of recent events below.
Chair of the Science and Technology Committee Greg Clark has written to the minister for Science, Amanda Solloway, relating to research and development investment. The letter is available here. He asked for:
Further detail for example on the terms of support for higher education institutions announced by the Government.
The Government's plans to address research funding & cross subsidisation in the long-term to ensure that university research funding is sustainable.
Further details on the R&D roadmap
Match funding change: On Thursday the Government suspended the 50:50 matched funding requirement for industrial research applications to the Aerospace Technology Institute programme. This is to mitigate the effects of Covid on the industry.
When the Life Sciences Investment Programme will launch and whether the comprehensive spending review will increase the Programme's budget. (Answer: within the year, no further funds are expected on top of the £200 million already committed.)
Steps to support R&D – implementing the roadmap; investing £236 million through strength in places fund, innovation expert group and place advisory group being set up; reducing bureaucracy; plans to leverage and increase foreign direct investment.
Prioritising the development and uptake of human-relevant new approach methodologies in the R&D road map; plus reducing the use of animal research
Supporting high tech industry
A selection of Wonkhe blogs relevant to research interests:
Using the CSR to rethink research funding: Funding the full cost of research would allow universities to renew their public mission
If the UK is to be a science super power, policymakers must support public and non-profit research organisations as well as universities.
Who is looking after and working for the PhD students?
Off topic – but interesting – Sellafield have released a report in the name of sharing the importance of science. It highlights how R&D has transformed their organisation & safety. Short press release here, report here.
PM's Lifetime Skills Guarantee
Boris announced the Lifetime Skills Guarantee scheme (full speech here, press release with stakeholder support here). Main points:
The Lifetime Skills Guarantee is a system where every student will have a flexible lifelong loan entitlement to four years of post-18 education. Boris stated this will promote real choice – at the moment many young people feel they have to go for the degree option. They feel they have only one chance to study, and to borrow. They might as well go for the maximum, and get a degree. It launches April 2021 in England and is paid for through the National Skills Fund.
Adults without an A-Level or equivalent (a level 3) will be offered a free, fully funded college course, to learn skills (those valuable to employers) and the opportunity to study at a time and location that suits them. The list of courses is expected to be released shortly.
The funding model will change with more flexibility to study in bursts (so an individual can spread it across their life period) and easy access to loans for higher technical as well as degree programmes. Politico state there will be a push to massively expand vocational courses. The government will provide finance for shorter-term studies in areas such as coding to help train workers for jobs of the future, rather than the typical three or four year university studies.
Alongside studying in segments students should be able to build up credits and transfer between different providers both colleges and universities. This in itself is expected to enable more part time study.
Boris pledged to:
invest in skills & FE (£1.5 billion for college capital works)
expand apprenticeships (as mentioned above) and make them more portable to move from company to company
expand digital boot camps (£8 million, programmes in four new locations)
from 2021 boot camps will also be available for construction and engineering – supporting the national Industrial Strategy
62 additional courses will be added to the free online Skills Toolkit
end the pointless, nonsensical gulf… between the so-called academic and the so-called practical varieties of education… now is the time to end this bogus distinction between FE and HE. (Not all Conservatives agree with this – see this blog in Conservative Home.)
Boris also said:
The post-18 educational system is not working in such a way as to endow people with those skills…lab technicians, skilled construction workers, skilled mechanics, skilled engineers, and we are short of hundreds of thousands of IT experts
…And look I don't for a second want to blame our universities. I love our universities, and it is one of this country's great achievements massively to have expanded higher education.
But we also need to recognise that a significant and growing minority of young people leave university and work in a non-graduate job, and end up wondering whether they did the right thing.
Was it sensible to rack up that debt on that degree? Were they ever given the choice to look at the more practical options, the courses – just as stimulating – that lead more directly to well-paid jobs?
We seem on the one hand to have too few of the right skills for the jobs our economy creates, and on the other hand too many graduates with degrees which don't get them the jobs that they want.
Kate Green MP, Labour's Shadow Education Secretary, commented: A week ago Labour called for a National Retraining Strategy fit for the crisis Britain faces, but what the government proposes is simply a mix of reheated old policies and funding that won't be available until April. By then many workers could have been out of work for nearly a year, and the Tories still think that they will need to take out loans to get the training they will need to get back in work. These measures will not reverse the devastating impact of a decade of cuts, and will not give workers the skills and support they need in the months ahead.
Association of Colleges responded to the PM's speech:
We believe that colleges should play a bigger part in a more collaborative education and skills system that allows people to train and retrain throughout their lives. Today's speech is a strong sign that this thinking will form much of the foundation for the upcoming FE white paper and develop a system that works for all adults and not just those fortunate enough to go to university.
A new entitlement to a fully-funded Level 3 qualification and more flexibility built into L4 and L5 are important steps forward as the government begins to implement the Augar Review. There is a lot more to do to stimulate demand from adults and employers and to support colleges to have the capacity to meet needs.
We must get this right to ensure our education and skills system is fit for purpose – I hope the Prime Minister's words are just the beginning on the road to a fairer and more accessible post-16 system for everyone who needs it.
The Institute of Economic Affairs is less convinced:
…The speech lacks specifics.
The Prime Minister has made a time-honoured distinction between 'academic' and 'practical' skills, although there is little here to explain how exactly this shift will occur. Successive governments have made the same noises.
Extra funding for people without A-levels may be sensible, but it is not clear that there will be a massive demand for lower-level qualifications from either students or employers.
The offer of more flexible support for higher education and spreading study over longer periods is welcome in principle, but again there is little to suggest how this will work in practice. There is no evidence of a more fundamental change, such as linking a university's funding to the success of its graduates, which might incentivise new forms of provision.
This speech is worthy, but it amounts to neither a convincing response to rising unemployment nor to a radical change in adult education.
Skills Productivity Appointment
With the FE sector and skills focus holding significant traction within Government a new appointment is significant. Stephen van Rooyen will head up the Skills and Productivity Board. His Chairmanship will have an influential role in driving forward the Government's FE reform programme. The Board is responsible for advising on the skills that employers need for the future and that will help grow our economy post C-19, alongside how to ensure the courses and qualifications are high-quality. Stephen's background is here, including his support for apprenticeships.
Stephen stated: The work of the SPB will be carried out by a panel of five leading skills and labour market economists, supported by Department for Education officials. The panel will undertake independent research and analysis in response to questions set out by the Secretary of State and Chair. Applications for panel members closed earlier this month and appointments will be made in due course.
Education Committee session
Following Boris' pledge the Education Committee session focussed on adult learning schemes and mechanisms questioning Gillian Keegan Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Apprenticeships and Skills. Direct HE relevant content was limited to whether there would be any maintenance grant support for more disadvantaged students. Keegan replied that there were already discretionary funds to support disadvantaged students, or those facing additional barriers to learning.
Robert Halfon, Chair of the Education Committee pointed out there was nothing on community learning in Boris' announcements. Keegan responded that the announcement was focused on economic outcomes for individuals, and, that the focus is on learners and helping them access more modular and flexible training. While this isn't about HE it reveals the depth of emphasis the Government is placing on flexible learning at all levels and that adult and skills budgets aren't altruistic – just like Government intent for HE – support focuses on the key skills needs for the country to support economic prosperity. So no fluffiness on the route to levelling up!
Keegan also showed interest in the concept of a skills tax credit to incentivise employers to provide training to low skilled employers, however, she conceded it hadn't worked well in other countries.
On the social care sector the Government intend to professionalise this employment area initially through T-Levels and apprenticeships. Keegan felt this might be a route to higher pay in the sector.
Lifetime Skills Guarantee and Post-16 Education
On Thursday Gavin Williamson, Education Secretary, made another oral statement, this time on the Lifetime Skills Guarantee and Post-16 Education. There was much overlap with and reiteration of Boris' Skills Guarantee speech with a little additional detail.
Here are the key points in brief:
A White Paper will be published later this year on how to re-balance further and higher education.
FE has been overlooked for decades resulting in lost opportunities and businesses with unfulfilled skills gaps.
Everyone must have the opportunity to upskill and retrain – both young people who do not want to attend university and those who are forced to retrain following redundancy.
Linking with Boris' skills pledge speech from Tuesday he called for closer alignment of FE and HE and re-announced the lifetime skills guarantee and greater flexibility in the educational system for people of all ages. There will be a consultation on the flexibility and transferability of credits during 2021 and the Government will legislate as needed in this Parliamentary session.
Williamson stated that these announcements will support the country's recovery from Covid, however, they are also a continuation of the commitment to levelling-up. He reminded that the skills guaranteed means adults without A levels can re-train. He also reiterated that there would be funding for alternatives to degrees e.g. loans for higher technical education.
The apprenticeships programme will be expanded and barriers that employers face in taking on apprentices addressed. This will include allowing larger businesses to transfer their unused levy to fund smaller employers and ensuring redundant apprentices have the opportunity to continue their education.
T-levels (equivalent to 3 a-levels) have now commenced (in autumn 2020).
Williamson also announced funding of £111 million for the expansion of traineeships, £32 million for recruiting careers advisers, and £17 million for work academies in England. He restated previous funding commitments of £170 million which intends to establish 12 Institutes of Technology (IoT), with £120 million following on to develop a further 8 IoTs. The funding competition for the next 8 IoTs will open shortly.
Skills Gaps
Incidentally The Migration Advisory Committee published a review of the shortage occupation list this week. The key reasons given for wanting to be on the SOL were:
A lack of a suitably skilled workforce in the UK
An unwillingness of the UK workforce to consider certain roles due to: physical demands; unsocial hours; an unwillingness to relocate; or seasonality of these roles;
That training alone is not a viable solution due to the time it takes and lack of long term certainty.
The Committee also warned Ministers to urgently address low pay in the social care sector in order to avoid a staffing crisis in January.
Augar Review
Having detailed the rise and Government zeal for FE and technical skills alongside the announced flexibility in funding and the comprehensive spending review speculation we'd be remiss if we didn't mention Augar, particularly the fees aspect. Fortunately HEPI covers the interpretation of Augar within the recent context in a discursive manner here. The blog is titled: As the Government begins implementing the more popular elements of the Augar report, we shouldn't forget the rest of it (including what it said on fees)…
…no one could have predicted how much change would happen between then and now. When the Augar report was published, Philip Augar said it was a take-it-or-leave-it package. In other words, he said it was a carefully calibrated model, not a pick-and-mix. I suspect the goal was to disincentivise policymakers from banking any proposed savings and then rejecting the counterbalancing proposed new spending.
after the COVID crisis began…[Augar]… writing in the Financial Times that his most high-profile recommendation – reducing the headline full-time undergraduate fee cap from £9,250 to £7,500 – should perhaps be junked while others should still be implemented.
Now it has been confirmed by the Prime Minister that some of those other recommendations are indeed now to be implemented. For example, the Augar report's first two recommendations were for 'a single lifelong learning loan allowance' and access to student finance 'for modules of credit', and these ideas have now been accepted. The devil will be in the detail…
But such tweaks cost money and, now that the Treasury is beginning to finalise its plans for the Spending Review, it is time to focus again on that most famous of all of the Augar report's recommendations, the one on fees… In the COVID crisis, we may all have paid too little attention to the fact that the actual proposal for a lower fee cap remains on the table… There will be voices urging the Treasury in the run up to the Spending Review to cut spending on universities (either to reduce borrowing or to spend more on other priorities, including other educational priorities)… Cutting fees could play well in the culture war. It would be at one with some of the negative coverage of universities in recent times. And universities are typically in larger towns and cities that are less likely to be represented by a Conservative MP… But cutting the income of universities now is an objectively terrible idea… it nonetheless seems clear that severe cuts to the main income stream for universities in the midst of a crisis, while failing to replace the lost income, would make the Institute for Fiscal Studies's dire warnings about the number of universities that could go bust during the pandemic much more likely to come true.
In a week where there has been a constant focus speculating on the CSR and with the Government making announcements about flexibility in student loans and new spending pledges fresh attention has fallen on the student loan outlay figures which were published at the end of last week.
The Government changed the way it accounts for certain things, including the student loan, in the last Parliament and we now have the RAB – the Resource Accounting and Budgeting charge which predicts the proportion of loans that have been paid out to students that are expected to never be repaid back into the Treasury.
The RAB has now hit a whopping 53%, yet the DfE target for unpaid loans is much lower at 36%. Uncomfortable figures particularly with the Government's claims that not enough students are accessing graduate level jobs at the end of their degree and that too many young people are choosing to go to university over other routes. And all within the landscape of unprecedented Government borrowing to fund the pandemic and economic needs (and dare I mention it – Brexit). In addition, there is also the forthcoming population boom to consider with 2030 expected to require a significant increase in availability of provision – all of which would have to be paid for. However, the Government may be hoping to redirect some of this boom demand into more technical or hop on – hop off higher level provision.
A current forecast suggests the Government will have a £20 billion outlay by 2024-25 for student loans.
The great annual migration
Gavin Williamson made a statement and responded to questions regarding students returning to universities. Below follows a summary of the main points in the full statement and questions session. For a shorter version you can read the press release which just covers Williamson's statement here.
Students will be able to return home for Christmas should they wish to. The Government will work with universities to ensure this can occur safely. DfE Guidance will follow however it may include ceasing face-to-face contact two weeks early to provide time for students to self-isolate before returning home. Universities must ensure students who wish to remain within their university accommodation over the Christmas period are safe and well looked after. However, Williamson didn't directly address a later question by Mark Harper MP who asked for reassurance students would not be trapped in their university accommodation for the period of self-isolation. [Many have pointed out that this ignores the fact that many students go home (or elsewhere) much more regularly than this….]
Labour (Yvette Cooper MP) asked if the Government was proposing all students self-isolate at the end of term to return home and pressed for mass testing Williamson stated that different cases, local circumstances and term end dates mean they envisage the self-isolation will cover only a very small number of universities. Later Hilary Benn pressed Williamson on whether students may go home to isolate again. He responded: We will be setting out clear guidance in terms of students and making sure that that fits within the broader guidance right across the country that is available for the wider population as well.
Blended learning should continue with face-to-face contact where possible. Teaching should not be solely online. The 11 September tiered approach guidance balancing learning requirements against the C-19 risk and local restrictions continues to apply.
Students who isolate must be properly cared for and the university should ensure they can access food, medical and cleaning supplies. Confirmed that universities are doing this. Students living outside of the campus or university housing should also have access to advice and support. Williamson was challenged during the questions by Sir Edward Leigh who was opposed to an enforced whole halls of residence lockdown. Williamson stated: Students follow the same rules as those in society and: We always want to ensure that there is a sensible and proportionate response to ensure that students are able to go about their business and continue their learning online and, importantly, face to face.
Universities need to provide additional mental health and practical support to students during these difficult times, particularly those new starters. The Minister stated he was pleased with universities efforts in this regard – Many universities have bolstered existing mental health services and offer alternatives to face-to-face consultations. Once again, I would like to thank staff at universities and colleges who have responded so quickly and creatively to the need to transform those essential services.
Later Damian Hinds MP planted a friendly question asking Williamson to talk about the great work done by universities and the likes of Student Minds – the support available and how it is being stepped up. Williamson responded: An amazing amount of work is done by every single university, but there has also been a recognition by the Office for Students that there may be gaps. That is why the Office for Students has stepped in to ensure that where students find that there is not that type of provision, something is provided for them, so that no student is in a position of not being supported. It is incredibly important that all students understand that support is available to them for them to be able to enjoy their time at university and succeed in their studies.
Acknowledged Universities hard work to make reopening as safe as possible. Feels both universities and students have followed the guidance. Students only subject to the same restrictions as the community in that area. Stated C-19 cases occurring in universities is inevitable, just as it is in the wider community, however, he believes universities are well prepared to handle outbreaks as they arise. Expressed that he was impressed with the way universities have worked with local authorities and local public health teams to safeguard students and staff.
The Department for Health and Social Care are working to make sure testing capacity is sufficient and appropriate for universities. They continue to make more tests available, more local testing sites and more processing laboratories. However, demand outstrips supply so staff and students should only request a test if they have symptoms or are advised to by an official.
Universities are also able to call on £256 million provided by the Government for hardship funding for students who have to isolate. Williamson also mentioned this money later in relation to chi Onwurah MP's question which stated the only financial support the sector has received is to address the shortfall in scientific research funding, which is critical but does not have an impact on the learning experience. [The £256 million isn't additional or new money and actually it was decreased in May from its original allocation so this has been criticised as misleading – see below]
The Government have taken a conscious decision to prioritise education…We will never be in a position where we can eliminate all risk, but we will not condemn a generation of young people by asking them to put their lives on hold for months or years ahead. We believe that universities are very well prepared to handle any outbreaks as they arise.
Later in the discussion he stated that: We must not forget, however, that hundreds of thousands —almost a million—students have safely returned to university over the last few weeks. They will start their studies and benefit from a brilliant, world-class university education.
During the questions the Government was critiqued for:
Not doing things sooner – why did it take the Secretary of State and the Health Secretary until last Wednesday to write to local directors of public health about the return of university students? (Kate Green). Answer: they were updating from the last advice SAGE produced, acting on the issues and suggestions made by SAGE.
Test & trace ineffective -self-isolating students live in particularly difficult circumstances (e.g. room size, no family support, living with a group that are practically strangers). (Kate Green). Later others used the shambolic privatised test and trace system to press for students to have access to tests to travel home safely (Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi).
Remote learning – students without digital access or a device; and additional support for students with SEN. This is where Williamson got himself in hot water. He stated: The hon. Lady raises an important point about digital access. I am sorry that she missed the announcement that we have made £100 million available for universities to use to ensure that youngsters have digital access, including students from the most deprived backgrounds, who would perhaps not be in a position to access courses. It is vital that if we are in a situation where people will have blended learning, all students are able to access it. We are taking seriously some of the challenges that all students and universities will face, which is why we have made £256 million available to make sure that where students are facing real hardship, universities can access funding to help them. [However, the £100m for digital access was for schools, so he has been criticised for that too as well as the £256m claim]
Lilian Greenwood MP picked up on disabled students accessing equipment and support Williamson stated it was the universities responsibility: under equalities legislation there is a duty on universities to ensure that there is proper and fair provision for all students. That is what we would expect from all universities. He also mentioned the £100m fund again (which is for schools).
Williamson side stepped and didn't respond directly to Carol Monaghan's call to address the fee-paying structure of (English) higher education by reducing fees and increasing Government funding to universities. Williamson stated: I thank the hon. Lady for putting forward policy suggestions for future Conservative party manifestos. We want to ensure that universities are properly funded, so that they are able to have world-class facilities that can beat other universities anywhere in the world. Laura Trott MP also addressed fees – in some cases students will be paying full fees for what are now only online courses – and she called on the Minister to advise and ask the OfS to confirm that university bonuses not be paid unless fees were lowered. Williamson stated: I will be asking the Office for Students to look at this and give very strong and clear steers on this matter to ensure that no bonuses are going out as a result of this crisis. [Incidentally if you can stomach more on the fee refund debate Wonkhe have an excellent article debating the latest here. ]
Dame Cheryl Gillan MP called on Williamson to champion two-year degree courses. Williamson sorted the accelerated offer and reiterated there were other routes apart from university, including apprenticeships.
And on white working class boys (following a question from Robert Halfon, Chair Education Select Committee) Williamson stated: On why not enough youngsters on free school meals or white working-class boys are going to university, that is a real issue. We need to see change. We need to look at different options to ensure that those youngsters realise that they can succeed as well at university as all the other youngsters who choose to go. We will ensure that we deliver it as we level up across the country over the coming years.
The session concluded with Williamson confirming if Covid student numbers rose substantially the Government would review its position – We will constantly work with the sector very closely to ensure that we adapt and support it if the pandemic means that we have to make changes.
Labour issued a press release after the statement: Williamson's blunders in the chamber further evidence serial incompetence. It covers the £100 million digital mistake and a second – Williamson said: the "Student Loans Company also offers a system whereby extra maintenance support can be made available through individual assessment." Labour have critiqued this stating Students can change their maintenance loan applications if there is a change in their household income, but this does not allow the Student Loans Company to provide additional maintenance support simply because of increased needs for students. Labour raised these aspects as a point of order and called for the record to be corrected. It was refused but the Deputy Speaker acknowledged that the opposition had successfully made the point on the record.
Wonkhe dissected the statement mistakes too and added:
That Williamson encouraged the Office for Students to forbid the payment of bonuses to university staff – the Office for Students does not directly have this power.
They also clarified what we mentioned above on the £256million boost to student hardship funds. Wonkhe state: These already existing funds were initially allocated to universities to support students from disadvantaged backgrounds as "student premium" funding, and were actually cut from £277m last year by Gavin Williamson back in May.
NSS to LEO
With the launch of the NSS review Emma Hardy, Shadow HE Minister, wrote for Research Professional to voice concerns on alternative judgements of university quality:
Ditching the NSS with no replacement would put greater emphasis on Longitudinal Education Outcomes data, which only tell us how much graduates earn. This appears to fit with this government's notion of 'value for money' and 'value to the taxpayer', and this is no doubt how it will be presented. However, what it can't be said to measure is 'value to the country' or even 'value to the economy'.
Covid-19 has underlined the importance of key workers and there are many graduate jobs, including those of nurses and health workers, that do not carry big salaries. LEO data may be able to tell us which graduates go into the best-paid employment but, because wage levels are geographically influenced, they discriminate against universities in deprived areas that support local economies by training the graduates those economies need.
Worse, the data discriminate against higher education institutions that recruit more students from disadvantaged backgrounds, because a significant determiner of postgraduate income is still students' socioeconomic background before they attend university. As the main measure for judging universities, LEO data can only embed inequalities—the exact opposite of 'levelling up'.
Her article goes on to suggest that this definition of value looks like a proxy for an attack on the numbers going to university. And after noting past cuts to technical education Emma states: the government has tried to blame the crisis in further education on the success of our universities. Universities should not allow this to continue unchecked…
And the implications of the virus….
It's unlikely that you've managed to escape the tug and thrust of student Covid news over the last week. We'll cover it here as speedily and painlessly as we can.
Mass testing continues to be central to the Opposition's calls. Earlier in the week Kate Green (Labour's Education Secretary) pressurised the Government on Sunday's BBC Breakfast calling for a commitment to test every HE student before they return home at the end of term. She also stated we should pause the student migration now until an "effective, efficient testing system" is put in place.
Next in the saga was Amanda Milling MP, Co-Chair of the Conservative Party, who stated: There are no plans to keep students at university over Christmas and Labour is deliberately creating unnecessary stress for young people to score political points.
Finally Williamson put us out of our misery on Tuesday when his speech confirmed the Government and universities would work together to save Christmas allowing students who wish to, to return home. The details surrounding isolation and plans for those with active Covid symptoms are to follow in DfE guidance. And in Thursday's Covid briefing the PM paid tribute to students who were studying in these unprecedented times.
Kate Green also wrote a letter to Gavin Williamson which included students access to remote learning. She stated:
[On remote learning]…To do this, they must also have access to the right equipment, connectivity and environment. The "digital divide" has been raised with your department on numerous occasions, including in a recent report from the Office for Students which showed its impact on students from disadvantaged backgrounds. What urgent steps are you taking to bridge the digital divide…?
Leaving home to go to University should be a momentous and exciting step for young people and their families. It is deeply distressing that so many will now not get the university experience they deserve, and face the appalling prospect of being locked in their rooms with no chance to make new friends.
Universities have done all they can to prepare for students' safe return to campus, but the government has failed to play its part. You let young people down with the exam fiasco over the summer, and now many of those same students are being let down again. These young people deserve better than your incompetence.
Previously she has stated that students should have the choice to remain in the family home:
We do think it is important that students have a choice. If they feel they are going to be safer at home then they should be able to stay at home and conduct their learning remotely.
OfS Edicts: The OfS have commented on the student situation as they return to university and expressing their expectations for the HE sector to meet:
Universities have worked hard to make campuses safe, and have developed programmes that mix face-to-face and online learning. However, our guidance says that is essential that they provide students with as much clarity as possible on what they can expect. Where the situation changes universities should provide regular information updates.
Where students need to go into isolation, universities have to be clear about how courses will continue to operate in these circumstances and what welfare, resources and support are available. Universities should provide information about how testing can be accessed where it is expected by the health authorities and ensure that such students can access food and other essential provisions. We will be following up with individual universities and colleges where we have concerns about the arrangements they are making for teaching and academic support.
Students have a right to good quality higher education – whether that is taught online, in-person or a mixture of the two. Where they feel this is not happening they can raise concerns with their university, escalating complaints to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator where a resolution cannot be found. They can also inform the OfS, and we can and will investigate if we believe that universities have not taken all reasonable steps to protect standards or where quality is slipping for groups of students.
Finally, here is a small selection of this week's coverage on students & Covid.
Scottish Pact: Scotland's Universities have agreed a Consistent Core of Care – a package of 10 measures – to support student wellbeing for the first semester in response to C-19. Three measures specifically address students who are quarantined or isolating such as very regular check ins with the student/household.
Student Spread: The New Statesman has used Office for National Statistics local neighbourhood classifications (he granular output areas) of student areas to compare Covid cases.
They found:
1.15 confirmed cases per student neighbourhood in England
compared to 0.36 cases per non-student area.
Student areas are also more likely to be represented among those recording the highest case rates.
The effect is greater within cities with substantial student districts and particularly in the north.
The number of cases is rising faster in student areas than non-student areas.
The article acknowledges that:
not all of the cases within the student classified areas will have been students
as a whole, there are still more Covid-19 cases outside of student neighbourhoods than within them
Also: cases were rising in workplaces across the country before students went back to university – indicating they were not the cause of the rise in cases, but rather accelerated a pre-existing trend.
The Times Red Box has a piece calling for immediate mass testing in every university town. They believe students and staff should be tested twice per week and look to Illinois which has a campus tracing team who support with tracking and immediate testing so no one isolates unnecessarily. They also suggest using the universities laboratory capacity to process the tests (40 in the UK have the facilities the article suggests, others could use a mobile facility on site). Acknowledging that rapid testing can be inaccurate in identifying a lower viral load makes the retesting a key part of the approach. The interesting aspect of this article is that it makes the case not just to stop the spread of the virus but for the mental health of students – it sees regular mass testing as unlocking an almost normal experience.
Research Professional have coverage of student mental health in Top priority – How serious are universities about student mental health?
LBC have a short piece on the human rights lawyer who has stated the Manchester residence lockdowns were legally dicey.
Will the Government introduce mass-testing for C-19 for students who wish to return home for Christmas
Whether the Government undertook a risk assessment prior to September, of the impact of students returning to universities on the transmission of COVID-19 (this won't be answered until next week)
The BBC published University entrance: The 'taboo' about who doesn't go primarily looking at the barriers and alternate motivations of young white working class males.
The OfS has released TUNDRA data which measures the frequency with which people living in a more granular area have accessed HE over a series of years. Wonkhe have a very short blog with some charts utilising the new data.
UCAS have a new blog considering the aspects which may encourage care experienced students to disclose their care background in their application personal statement.
Lord Hunt championed several parliamentary questions on ensuring care leavers have access to the internet and a digital device this week – see here, here, here and here.
The Sutton Trust has published a report on school closures and lower social mobility
Exams cancelled?
The VC's of Birmingham and Sheffield Hallam have a thoughtful piece in the Times calling on the Government to cancel the 2021 A level exams:
Decisions need to be made now to give teachers, universities and students certainty. The coming year will be unpredictable. Local lockdowns will have a differential effect on learners who have already faced massive disruption. Making that up would be tough anyway; making it up through further local disruptions to teaching will be almost impossible. The danger is that next summer's results will be as chaotic as this year's, with students having had much less time to learn.
There is a simple solution for assessment. This year, government rightly allowed teacher grades to stand. The problem was no effective grade moderation. Government should ask examination boards to use the time we now have to develop a robust moderation approach. It's a method which works in almost every other advanced educational system.
Our approach would have huge benefits. It would give students certainty and remove the worry that learning would be interrupted by a local lockdown. It would give universities certainty about assessments. It would ease progression from school to university for learners whose education has been so interrupted. There is also another benefit: it would open up a route to more effective university admissions, fit for a post-Covid world.
This parliamentary question confirms the Government does not intend to implement predicted grades in 2020/21. And this one questions the steps the Government are taking to ensure schools have clear guidance on exams in summer 2021 before students have to submit applications to UCAS.
NAHT also have grave concerns about the 2021 exam series, they're particularly concerned about the impact of a compressed time period with back to back exam conditions:
we remain concerned about proposals that next year's summer exams should be pushed back. While that initially sounds like it would help students have more time to learn and prepare, it could have a disastrous effect on students' experience. Delaying the exam series, while still needing to generate results in time for university offer deadlines, would necessitate a compression of the exam series, meaning more exams for young people in a much shorter space of time. Given how high stakes these tests are, this could only add to the unfairness and inequity of the situation, could lead to further disadvantage for some students over others, and would certainly have a negative impact on students' mental health and wellbeing.
Ongoing teacher assessments could end up being crucial this year – we should be looking at how we use a range of measures rather than assuming things can be fixed by simply delaying the exams. If 2020 has shown us nothing else, it is that relying solely on a series of high-stakes exams means that we are left with no other options if things go wrong…Unfortunately there are currently few signs that the authorities who presided over this year's chaos have learned the right lessons or are acting quickly enough to avoid another mess.
And the TES cover calls from Lord Baker to cancel the 2021 GCSE and A level exams.
Currently the media focus is on assessment methods and arrangements but over the academic year increasing focus is likely to build on universities admissions arrangements and timescales.
Potential implications for suicide prevention policy from the Office of National Statistics' estimate of suicide estimates (HE students)
Maintenance loanswill not be available to students enrolled on a distance learning course (this does not apply to courses currently delivered digitally due to C-19).
Monitoring changes in the level of drop-out rates among higher education students due to the covid-19 outbreak in the 2020-21 academic year. (Answer: the HE taskforce will address this if it becomes an issue.)
Changes to a student's loan when they switch from living away to living at home
Students struggling to provide a guarantor for accommodation & OfS Student Space platform.
Oversight to ensure international students are quarantined upon entry to the UK
Increasing access to online learning (spoiler – no new measures intended)
Asked about funds to support deep cleaning in universities the Minister only referenced the support for schools.
Degree Apprenticeships: Ofsted are now solely responsible for the inspection of apprenticeship training provision at all levels – including degree apprenticeships delivered within HE providers and all level 6 & 7 provision. There is a partnership aspect in that the OfS will continue to provide Ofsted with relevant information to inform inspection judgements. Gavin Williamson's letter to Amanda Spielman, HM Chief Inspector, is here. It also instructs Ofsted to build capacity and capability for the new responsibilities upskilling existing staff and: the recruitment of additional inspectors with suitable expertise including knowledge and experience of higher education…Ofsted should also work closely with [Government Education] officials and the Office for Students in preparing the apprenticeships sector for this change, particularly… those providers who are not already familiar with Ofsted inspection. I expect Ofsted to work collaboratively to ensure that the circumstances of the sector are fully understood.
Remote working within HE Sector: Wonkhe tell us about a new report from SUMS consultancy into higher education working practices during the pandemic finds that line management support, team cohesion and institutional communications were most important in supporting staff wellbeing during the initial stages of the pandemic.
SUMS consulting have published: Working well – during and beyond Covid-19: A report into staff health, general wellbeing and remote working enablement in the HE Sector
The HE sector is not on its own in having to adapt quickly to changes in work location and practice. Many of the observations set out in this report transcend industries. However, this research has specifically sought out the perspectives of those working in UK higher education…The resulting paper identified eight critical success factors to support good change management in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis; and learning points for the future… This study reflects on initiatives put in place driven by remote working during the Covid-19 pandemic and poses questions around the potential for these initiatives to be sustained and embedded in the long-term employee experience.
Wonkhe also covered the report and have highlighted: line management support, team cohesion and institutional communications were most important in supporting staff wellbeing during the initial stages of the pandemic.
Engineering Careers: a new digital platform for engineering outreach (online and in person) activities (aimed at schools) has been launched – Neon.
Levelling up: The UK2070 Commission have published Go big. Go local – a new deal for levelling up the UK. The blurb: There are deep-rooted inequalities across the UK. These are not inevitable. However, we lack the long-term thinking and spatial economic plan needed to tackle them. Included in the 10 point plan (page 2):
Creating New Global Centres of Excellence harnessing increased investment in research and development to create 'hub and spoke' networks of excellence and growth across the country comparable to the economic impact of the 'golden triangle' of London, Oxford and Cambridge
Future Skilling the UK tackling the historic under-performance of the UK on skills through national plans to raise attainment levels, especially in those skills needed to achieve the levels of the best performing places.
a powerful ministerially-led cross-government committee needs to be established with a dedicated team, to oversee delivery and embed levelling up, supported by spatial analysis, flexible funding and new measures of success…
Page 48 lists the top 24 most deprived Council areas in terms of access to services, skills and education & levels of social mobility.
You can read the full report here.
Travel & Transport Guidance: The updated guidance for higher education providers in England on when and how to reopen their campuses and buildings is available here. The updates relate to travel and transport.
International: Wonkhe report that The Foreign and Commonwealth Office will announce later today expanded vetting for overseas applicants to university courses relating to questions of national security. This comes amid concerns around students from China collecting information for the People Liberation Army. The Times has the story.
Tags: access and participation admissions adult education apprenticeships Augar review Graduate Outcomes home working life sciences lifelong learning longitudinal education outcomes NSS R&D roadmap Review of post-18 education skills student finance Student support technical education
HE Policy Update for the w/e 25th September 2020
BU research, COVID-19, EU, innovation, international, parliament, PG research, policy, Public engagement, Research news, Student Engagement jforster
Has anyone else been shouting at the radio last week and over the weekend, or muttering aloud while reading social media posts? Or is that just me? There has been nowhere to hide from negative and badly informed stories about students, universities and the virus this week. Then you add in the news that lorries will need permits to enter Kent in January and things start to feel a bit bleak. So to cheer you all up for the weekend we have the usual wide and varied selection of policy news. If it carries on like this we might need to start including recipes or knitting patterns to lighten the mood (we're not knitters, BTW).
Another delay to the big #HEpolicy announcements?
With the Autumn budget scrapped we start to wonder what will happen to the Comprehensive Spending Review and the associated announcements on the Review of Post-18 Education and Funding, and the Augar report that informed it. And the other things we are waiting for, which may or may not be linked, i.e. the response to the Pearce report on the TEF and a subsequent OfS plan for the TEF going forwards. The link being that the outcome on fees may be a link to "quality" which may link to the ambition for the TEF as an indicator. The BBC article we linked to above says that the CSR will still proceed but last year's review was downgraded to a one year update. This year's was meant to be a 4 year review but may go the same way. In which case, we may be heading for another delay on big changes to fees and funding.
That would be consistent with other things – we reported last week that Nicola Dandridge had said that the OfS admissions review would stay on pause until we had got through this year's recruitment cycle, with continued uncertainty about the timing of A levels and other assessments next year and the potential for other disruption.
The OfS have also not rushed to radical change on the NSS, despite the government's request for a "root and branch review" by the end of the year. They announced this week that the review will take place in two stages. The first stage will
Assess the bureaucratic burden the NSS places on providers and how this could be reduced.
Explore the unintended consequences of the NSS for provider behaviour and how these could be prevented, including whether the NSS drives the lowering of academic standards and grade inflation.
Examine the appropriate level at which the NSS could continue to provide reliable data on the student perspective on their subject, provider and the wider system, and what could be done without depending on a universal annual sample.
Examine the extent to which data from the NSS should be made public, including the implications of Freedom of Information (FoI) legislation.
Ensure the OfS has the data it needs to regulate quality effectively.
Ensure the NSS will stand the test of time, and can be adapted and refined periodically to prevent gaming.
Ensure the UK wide role of the survey is considered in any recommendations.
The second stage of the review will look more widely at the role of the NSS, including which questions should be asked to support regulation and student information across all four countries of the UK. OfS intend to consult students, providers and employers in their review.
The contract for the 2021 NSS has already been awarded, and the OfS intend to continue with the survey next Spring, however, providers will not be required to promote it. Also: given the significance of the review, the board agreed on a number of measures to amend the 2021 NSS. First, any decision on what to publish from the NSS and at what level should await the outcome of the review to ensure that the 2021 published results were aligned with the new direction of travel resulting from the review.
There is a Wonkhe blog questioning the assumptions and Government concerns over the NSS, and another by David Kernohan which asks really good questions.
Research Professional had a lot to say this week:
How likely it is that the Government's R&D budget promises can be realised
Several universities are unofficially jostling to host ARPA
UKRI have asked for more funds to deliver the place based levelling up agenda
An article speculating whether UKRI may fall to the Government's cull during their consideration of the making the research system more efficient
They also covered the Industrial Strategy Council's report highlighting strikingly uneven distributions across the UK of research and innovation funding. Meanwhile over on Wonkhe a new blog asks whether focussing state R&D spend at regions which are not currently research-intensive is a levelling-up solution and provides examples from the UK and overseas. And the Royal Society explore the contribution of public and non-profit research organisations to the research and innovation landscape.
New UKRI Chief Executive Professor Dame Ottoline Leyser spoke this week: Science and Society, 20 years on: legacy and lessons for a post-Covid world at an online event marking the 20 year anniversary of this report. The report was credited with triggering a policy and institutional shift towards public engagement, dialogue and deliberation. Dame Ottoline spoke of the lasting significance of the Science and Society report and emphasised the continued importance of public engagement in research and innovation:
We have made good progress. But despite efforts to engage the public in research there remains a significant gap between those who feel able to make informed choices, to question, challenge and influence research and innovation, and those who feel disconnected, underrepresented and disenfranchised…For this group, science is something that is done to you, not something in which you have a voice.
In the next 20 years, we need to make the next step in the evolution of the place of science in society…science IN society. Science needs to be a normal part of cultural life…An expanded research and innovation concept that includes all the participants, not just the researchers and innovators, can build science capital, connecting a much wider range of people with the system, making it familiar and part of their world.
This approach would build the research and innovation system out into society, at the same time as continued development of public engagement to include much more embedded co-creation would bring a wider range of voices in to the system.
Science Minister, Amanda Solloway, also spoke at the event. The UKRI press release for the event is here.
Commons Science & Technology Committee : Wonkhe report on this week's session of the Science and Technology Committee:
Giving evidence to the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee, William Bonvillian of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Peter Highnam of the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) set out the working model of DARPA, including potential avenues for the commercialisation of research and innovation, and spoke to the challenges of replicating DARPA's success outside of the defence context. Regina Dugan of Wellcome Leap suggested that the life sciences could be a potential focus of a fledgling agency, while Antoine Petit of French National Centre for Scientific Research spoke on the relationship between researchers and government in the French system. You can watch the entire session here; or ask us for a more comprehensive summary (Ref: D24/09-10:05)
PhDs: Oxford University was recognised by the media this year as making inroads into improving the diversity of the undergraduate students it admitted. The Telegraph report on a pilot approach they are testing to address diversity within PhD admissions. Oxford intend to take into account a student's socio-economic background as well as their academic credentials.
The proportion of transport-technology research innovation grants awarded to (a) female entrepreneurs (b) companies led by women (7.4% awarded to teams led by women); and the proportion awarded to disabled entrepreneurs (not known – no disability data collected).
Any obligation & timescale that organisations in receipt of R&D tax breaks are required to publish their research within; and preventing duplication
In 2020/21 enrolments were expected to drop as Britain hit the lowest point of the population demographic dip for young people. However, nationally admissions numbers have been good (for home, international and disadvantaged access) suggesting that the limitations of Covid have not hampered recruitment as much as feared (although enrolment may be a different story). The UCAS clearing analysis statistical releases are available here.
Wonkhe highlight a record 515,650 students with a confirmed place, up 4% from last year, and an 8% increase in the numbers of disadvantaged students. There has been a 12% increase in numbers of students accepted into higher tariff institutions, attributed partly to an increase in overseas applicants, and partly to the effect of the late adjustment of centre assessed grades. The Guardian, i News, and Tes have the story. The UCAS press release gives more information here.
UCAS Chief Executive Clare Marchant said:
This has been one of the most momentous of undergraduate admissions cycles in living memory. The dust certainly hasn't settled – our end of cycle reporting in the winter will provide the definitive account of the year.
Predictions that the lower and medium tariff providers could have their numbers decimated haven't come to pass… While there has been little (medium tariff) or no growth (lower tariff) in overall acceptances for the two other groups, they have not fallen off a cliff edge for these groups as a whole; though recruitment in the weeks following A level results day didn't benefit them to the extent in previous years as students used their raised grades to move (back) to higher tariff
Courses that will educate the next generation of frontline workers have been incredibly popular. The inspiring and welcoming healthcare sector is currently due to have a record 34,190 new nursing students, a huge increase of more than a fifth on last year. Demand for teaching courses has also risen during the pandemic. These courses are particularly popular with mature applicants, and previous UCAS research has shown the link between these subjects and periods when the economy and job market is in decline.
… the demand for UK HE is still palpable, testament to all those who work in the sector.
Read more from Clare here.
Labour Party "conference"
Parliament has not broken for party conference recess this year. Labour opted to run four days of virtual contact for party members including the popular fringe events which normally discuss a wide range of matters significant within the policy sphere.
HE Fees: Earlier in the week Research Professional reported there wouldn't be an announcement on Labour's fee policy: Playbook understands that following discussions on that topic last week (covered in last Monday's edition), progress was made—but not enough for Labour to nail its colours to the mast on university matters. The smart money is on an official policy line in mid-to-late October.
Too many graduates?
Tuesday saw an event led by Policy Exchange (who describe themselves as a centre-right think tank): Too Many Graduates, Too Few Workers: How should higher education adapt to a shrinking knowledge economy? Dods 'attended' the event and have summarised the discussion here; it is worth a read with the party divisions clear behind the thoughts expressed.
Wonkhe also suggest indicators of Labour's emerging HE attitude were present at the event:
there were hints of a developing Labour policy that seemed keen to improve technical routes within and around universities, and on providers being even more closely linked to ideas of place and space. And: Shadow Minister for Further and Higher Education Emma Hardy enumerated her benefits of higher education – soft power, individual aspirations, and public good.
There's a good (and slightly humorous) Wonkhe blog on the event and it expands more on the Labour education hints:
The ideas in the earlier policy of higher level education without leaving your locality, and the support for higher technical education, appears to suggest a developing policy position that takes the best of the NES thinking and marries it with some of the more sensible parts of Augar.
We are pleased to introduce Roshana Wickremasinghe, Policy Adviser for SUBU! Roshana has been with SUBU since February. Previously she taught secondary level English in Poole as part of the Teach First Leadership Development Programme. She has an MA in Transformational Leadership in Education, and hopes to undertake a PhD examining the impact of government policy on public perception of HE.
Do look out for Roshana's contributions to this week's policy update and more from her on the student perspective in future editions.
Student Matters – SUBU guest blog
Roshana covers the new student fees parliamentary petition and an Advance HE report on student transition.
Petition: In addition to the popular petition that gained 352,658 signatures over the summer, another petition asking for a partial tuition fee refund has appeared with 191,000+ signatures. Rather than a total refund, the petition is calling for a partial refund due to the implementation of online teaching. The government's response to the previous petition was that universities should review complaints issued by students receiving poor quality learning, with vague wording not directly addressing the issue. With many universities in America already reversing any plans for in person teaching despite historic promises, it will be interesting to see how this will impact consumer rights in the UK system if our universities make similar U-turns.
Transition: AdvanceHE have published a report on the 20/21 transition process back to university for new and returning students. The document explores how universities can support students by managing expectation, awareness of student concerns, addressing digital poverty, supporting wellbeing and supporting academic study. The report comes in response to the increased concerns of students during this typically stressful time of year (money, socialising, campus safety measures and timely advice). Whilst the report does not reach any 'stand out' conclusions, it does stress the need for clear and personalised communications to students during the full transition process.
The Adam Smith institute published: State of the Unions: How to restore free association and expression, combat extremism and make student unions effective critiquing the student union model of today.
Roshana summarises the briefing paper: The highly critical report proposes that student unions currently cost taxpayers £165 million per annum, with an average spend of £75 per student per year. The report goes on to state that unions undermine freedom of association and expression through compulsory membership, lack democratic legitimacy, limit free speech and pursue a narrow political agenda (the list is much longer than this). Despite the almost humorous tone of the report, criticising SUs for banning sombreros and clapping, it has been well received in government by figures such as Sajid Javid and a foreword written by the Chair of the House of Commons Education Committee.
On the day of issue both Wonkhe and Research Professional dismissed the report.
RP: The report…is nothing if not provocative…It is available online if you wish to read more. However, if you want a nuanced take on what is undeniably a legitimate area of interest then you needn't bother. Much of the report will already be familiar to Playbook readers. It turns out that when trying to give cast-iron examples of where students' unions, which host many thousands of events every year, have a problem with "cancel culture", it's the same old tired examples that get dragged up. Nonetheless, the paper certainly provokes debate, if you like that sort of thing.
Wonkhe: When the Department for Education published its proposed restructuring regime for higher education providers back in July, many were surprised to find that expenditure on students' unions – and in particular their sabbatical officers and "niche activism" – had been identified for scrutiny. There didn't seem to be any anchoring evidence for the assertion that funding for such things was "disproportionate" and "not focused on serving the needs of the wider student population", but now, courtesy of the Adam Smith Institute, some background has emerged…[It] contains a long list of culture war stories about students, and some inaccurate and misleading figures on expenditure and voter turnout, but very little on student welfare, student voice, or the good work that students' unions have been doing to support students during the pandemic. It proposes that students' unions be split up, with the National Union of Students required to collect individual subscriptions from students. Of course Wonkhe have a blog on it too: Do students' unions waste money?; and one for data buffs.
The report is easy to dismiss. However, the Chair of the Education Select Committee, Robert Halfon, a particularly influential parliamentary figure, stated the suggestion of a split model was "intriguing". He continued:
By making the political part of student unions voluntary, ordinary students would no longer be required to finance political activities of which they did not approve… money could be focussed on those functions that students do appreciate, such as decent social and recreational facilities, better student sports, and more effective academic representation.
Research Professional report that Halfon stated:
student unions had to choose whether to represent members or become "bastions of obsessive political campaigning. Across our universities and colleges, far too often, freedom of expression and intellectual curiosity on campus are being deeply eroded because of minority political activism."
The same RP article mentions NUS' immediate refutation of the briefing paper (poorly researched, outright misinformation, OfS concluded no evidence of free speech being systematically suppressed), alongside the Adam Smith Institute's response which maintained the integrity of their report and findings.
HEPI have a story New polling shows students' support for the Labour Party has grown under Keir Starmer and students have become more politicised since the start of 2020
Students & Covid
The flurry of commentary and blogging surrounding Covid and the influx of students to their university area continued this week. Here is a selection mostly from Wonkhe:
Not enough whack for the moles: The press seems to frame students in lockdown as some kind of mild inconvenience, but…if students are in lockdown without enough money to cover essentials, away from support networks and unable to work or return home, what happens next?… universities are going to want to do all they can in the coming days to avoid misery for those that follow the rules, and misery for those that don't. (Wonkhe)
What data is useful for responding to C-19 risks? There is very little useful "real time" data on student activity or the presence or absence of a Covid-19 outbreak… But we can track cases which may have an impact on students, staff, and local communities, at a high resolution but with a time lag – using public data. (Wonkhe)
Keeping student data safe through Covid (Wonkhe)- University staff and students must be aware of what happens to their data; this means processes must be completely clear and transparent. Institutions should also bear in mind that the only acceptable circumstance for health or track and trace data to be shared in the case of Covid-19 is if a public health body, for example Public Health England (PHE), requests it. It is therefore essential that processes are in place to avoid mixing or aggregating it with other data that might be shared elsewhere by mistake.
We know that online fraud and scamming ramped up during lockdown. In recent weeks this has given way to greater numbers of cyber attacks. This Wonkhe blog anticipates the university sector is particularly vulnerable and makes recommendations of how to prepare.
Wonkhe examine the SAGE minutes here, and state: what we have is more evidence that lazy or in some cases dangerous assumptions about student behaviour have clouded the advice given to DfE which has then re-emerged as advice to universities.
iNews features a student's reflections on his return to university: We no longer have that lively ebullient feeling we once had. The sense of collectiveness is simply absent…. Not being able to go out and live the student life is peculiar, but I know it is best for our safety. My peers and I are fearful of contracting the disease, but we also fear our education will be significantly impacted too. The messaging from the Government is also incredibly confusing. Reopening institutions will inevitably result in people interacting through lecture theatres, seminar rooms and public transport. I'm worried this could cause an astonishing escalation of Covid-19 cases across the country and lead to more blame being put on the shoulders of young people.
The health secretary, Matt Hancock, was quick to shift the accountability to young people. This blame game is profoundly unfair.
Similar themes on lacking the sense of belonging, which we know is so important to students, is raised in this Wonkhe blog, and it also reminds about commuter students.
On Wednesday the PM confirmed that schools, colleges and universities should remain open despite: the recent rise in coronavirus cases. There was mention of students in the C-19 debate on Tuesday:
Boris Johnson – The most important thing is that the students who are now back at university in large numbers should, like everybody else, follow the guidelines. It is also important that, where there are outbreaks in universities, students should not be going home to infect their older relatives.
The above touches on one of this week's major themes that rose in the publics' consciousness: fear that students may infect relatives when they return home at vacation times (with Christmas being particularly celebrated) alongside fear students won't be allowed home for Christmas. iNews cover it here: Ministers have yet to draw up plans to prevent students from spreading coronavirus, but will be desperate to avoid telling students to celebrate Christmas away from their families. And Wonkhe reiterate that SAGE did not say students cannot return home at Christmas and debate whether the concept of 'household' will allow students to pop home at the weekends.
Finally Wonkhe tell us that Advance HE has released"Safe for Staff", a report into the equality implications of reopening university campuses.
What research is being done on younger students spreading covid-19 into the wider community. (Focuses on schools/colleges.)
Still no answer to what additional support will be provided to universities in areas where there is no campus or local walk in covid-19 testing centres.
What discussions the Government has had with universities about the steps taken to prevent new outbreaks of C-19 when students return home.
Steps to ensure foreign students are quarantined upon entry to the UK & oversight of the process
Career Satisfaction
HESA have published: Higher Education outcomes: How career satisfaction among graduates varies by ethnicity. Wonkhe cover the report and – yes, you guessed it – they do have a blog dissecting it further:
A new report from HESA finds that UK domiciled Black mature graduates were less likely to report career satisfaction than their peers.
An analysis of Longitudinal Destination of Leavers from Higher Education (LDLHE) data dating back to 2013 found a nine per cent difference in career satisfaction between Black graduates aged above 26 and their White peers. For younger graduates the gap was around 2.6 per cent, in both cases after controlling for personal and study characteristics.
These findings also highlight the lack of a current career satisfaction measure for graduates – there's no measure in the new Graduate Outcomes survey, though it is suggested that HESA are looking at addressing this.
Graduate Career Recruitment
The Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS) has published: Evaluating the effectiveness of employer engagement (shorter summary report here). It explores the range of careers or employability-related interactions taking place at universities between students and employers through surveys with AGCAS members and 8 interviews with graduate recruiters. Key findings:
The careers fair is not dead. In face-to-face interactions, careers fairs are still seen as one of the most effective employer engagement activities for both universities and employers.
Employer-led skills sessions/presentations were the most commonly offered activity, and rated one of the most effective activities according to employers.
Work-based learning such as placements, and embedded curricula activity are considered most effective by universities, despite the majority of employer engagement activities being extra-curricular.
From a university perspective, generic advertising services are considered to be the least effective employer engagement activity
Before March 2020, a minority (only 21%) of careers-related employer engagement was delivered virtually and only 30% was embedded. Virtual was also not considered to be as effective as face-to-face delivery.
To measure effectiveness, universities tend to focus on experiential feedback, while employers look for quantitative numbers of hires or applicants and return on investment.
Employers want to know that the information they are sharing will reach students, so they are often keen to speak to student-facing staff as well as employer engagement professionals/their account manager.
The majority of careers services have specialist employer engagement teams with some form of employer engagement strategy, and most use an account management model to personalise the service they offer employers.
The final page considered graduate recruitment activities in the post pandemic world:
The pandemic has had a severe and signification impact on students, graduates and the wider population and it is unlikely that things will ever fully return to normal. Whilst appreciating the damage caused by the crisis, it is also important to acknowledge where it has influenced positive changes. For employer engagement, we may see the use and effectiveness of online activities increase dramatically. The flexibility resulting from increased remote working may see employers targeting a wider range of universities more sustainably. Students who struggled to afford the costs of travel to interviews and assessment centres may find their access to opportunities improved.
AGCAS plan more 'short pulse surveys' to understand how C-19 has changed employer engagement moving forward into the future from now onwards.
HEPI have a relevant blog: Isolation Generation – looking ahead to the sector's unique recruitment challenge which highlights that this year's Year 13s have an almighty catch up to achieve on top of contemplating their next steps. The article paints this year group as an even bigger challenge than the lockdown-exam-cancellation generation because of the lack of face to face contact that can be delivered. Excerpt:
Almost 90% of next year's applicants are already in the advanced research stages of their application but only 27% have already chosen their final five higher education courses.
We might have expected that number to be higher, but with 59% reporting that they do not have enough information to make their decisions, it is clear there is an immediate need for more targeted information and advice. As pre-applicants undertake their research, they are casting their net beyond friends and family to find new opinions. There is obvious growth in virtual Open Days and virtual school events, but university websites are now seen as more important by 57% of all students. UCAS, too, by more than 40%.
At the other end are parents and the recommendations from friends, which are comparatively less influential. Only 1% of pre-applicants told us their parents were now more influential when making their choices and just 9% said the same about friends. Applicants are now placing their trust directly with first parties. For the higher education sector, it means more scrutiny of their messaging, but also more demand.
Next year's applicants are very aware of what is coming for the economy.
More than half of all Year 12s said since the lockdown they now assign more importance to 'high graduate employment rates'. A fifth, think the same for placement years. This year's applicants are looking for recession-proof degrees more than ever, and the onus is on universities and colleges to convince them of their own efficacy.
Today's students are Gen Z and the sector should base their assumptions on the fact that they are the most agile and digitally-focussed customers they have come across. They want the answer to everything in their pocket – and they expect it now.
Does the Government intend to mandate universities to publish their C-19 risk assessments.
Providing support to university students unable to provide a guarantor to secure their accommodation; the number of students unable to provide a guarantor
What additional funds will be made available for universities for deep cleaning after cases of C-19
Whether NUS representatives will be invited to join the taskforce on university capacity
Any plans for a new immigration route to allow international students to undertake a work or study based placement of between 6 & 12 months.
Social Sciences: HEPI blog: For employers, the Social Sciences stand up to the STEM obsession
OfS Board: David Palfreyman and Simon Levine will continue as non-executive board members on the OfS board for a three year period.
Student skills survey: Wonkhe are running a survey about student skills following their Secret Life of Students conference last week. They are working to understand current thinking on the skills students should be acquiring during their time at university. There's no national consensus on what these skills should be, or even what they're called – we've heard soft skills, life skills, employability skills, transferable skills – but employers want students to be able to demonstrate them. We know that whatever you call them, it doesn't make sense to think about "skills" as distinct from subject knowledge, so we're asking academics and those in academic-adjacent roles such as education developers, careers advisors, education technologists, and librarians to share your views about the state of student skills in 2020 via this short survey. As an incentive, once you complete the survey, you will be offered the chance to enter your name into a draw to win £100 in Amazon vouchers and a £100 donation to the charity of your choice.
Different times: The Guardian states universities are expecting unprecedented demand for student hardship funds as the part time job market collapsed under Covid. It also covered concerns that online learning will lead to higher drop out rates as students struggle to adjust to digital study and curtailed socialisation. Monitoring engagement online is also a concern. The article ends with a comment from Jacqueline Stevenson at Leeds: for some students, taking a break from their course will be the best thing, rather than a catastrophe. "Dropping out can be a pejorative term and is caught up with the idea of failure. But if someone makes a sensible decision to leave, and may come back later to finish their course, that should be celebrated. A student can carry that feeling of failure with them for a very long time."
Study UK: The British Council's 'Study UK' event (including 65 UK universities) will promote the benefits of studying in the UK to UG & PG prospective students across Europe during October and November. 13,000 students from Europe are expected to join the education events. This event aims to give students direct contact with UK universities, which the students cited as the most influential source for making their study abroad decisions. Maddalaine Ansell, Director of Education at the British Council said: '
Our research shows that European students view the UK as the most attractive overseas study destination for teaching quality and employability. However, misconceptions about the application process, fees and requirements – particularly after the UK's withdrawal from the EU – may be discouraging some from applying. Study UK Europe: Gateway to the UK aims to address this through a unique mix of information sessions and one-to-one conversations with higher education institutions. We will enable UK universities to reach European students directly – and to provide them with the information they need to start what we hope will be a life changing UK study journey.'
Tags: admissions ARPA Augar review employability Graduate Outcomes Review of post-18 education student numbers students' unions teaching excellence framework technical education TEF UKRI
COVID-19, EU, international, parliament, PG research, policy, Postgraduate Research, Research news, research staff, Student Engagement jforster
Hi all, there is very much of a "what will the new academic year hold" feel about this week. Will there be another national lockdown? Is the rise in virus cases a second wave or a small bounce? What will university students do when they are not learning or socialising online? In the "find someone to blame for everything" environment that is so prevalent (and so disheartening), students are the latest group to be targeted for vilification. But there is other news too…
The Minister speaks
Science Minister Amanda Solloway spoke this week to promote researcher wellbeing and push for changes in the sharing and evaluation of research.
The Minister spoke of the barriers to sticking with a research career – little chance of secure permanent employment, a hamster wheel of short-term funding alongside publishing in the 'right' journals, alongside a focus on bullying and harassment. The Minister said:
it was an enormous shock… to learn that nearly two-thirds of researchers have witnessed bullying or harassment at work, and almost half have experienced it themselves…. As government, it is our duty not to condone the behaviour of bullies, no matter how talented they may be as individuals.
Institutions with widespread bullying and harassment problems should not benefit from the taxpayer's support.
we should make sure that we create real longevity in careers. Employers should provide clear career paths, and the stable employment contracts to match… for those that wish to pursue a career in R&D, we should provide clear routes to progression, including routes between academia and other places, and between technical and research roles
Having a casualised research workforce where the vast majority of people can't develop a proper career is no way to build our status as a science superpower.
Because research is inherently creative – it's about finding out new things, taking risks and venturing into the unknown. Nobody should live in fear that, if they don't play exactly the same game as everyone else, according to the same narrow set of rules, they'll lose their jobs.
Funding System
we must do whatever we can to put diversity at the heart of everything we do… promoting diversity should never simply be reduced to a tick-box exercise – just one more thing you have to demonstrate to win funding.
We must look seriously at whether the system of short-term grants for projects is really working… Or whether it's instead promoting a monoculture of bureaucracy and risk aversion.
This means supporting sustainable and well-funded teams, units and institutions. With support for everyone involved in our R&D vision – from top scientists to postdocs to PhD students and doctoral apprentices, from technicians to professional support staff. From leaders, managers, governors, and people working in our funding agencies. To people interested in science, engaging with research, or considering a future in research for themselves or their children. Our R&D People and Culture Strategy should support the whole system – backing everyone to do their best.
And when we do provide funding, we should do it properly and sustainably.
Evaluation & Access to Research
it's so baffling to me that scientists and researchers seem to evaluate each other in such strange ways – by obsessing over spurious metrics or narrow indicators of prestige…the pressure you feel from things like grant income targets or the impending Research Excellence Framework (REF)… I of course recognise that the 'publish or perish' culture in research is not unique to the UK
So I have today written to science ministers across the world, to invite them to join me in looking closely at this dependence on publications and to find out what we can collectively do about it….an outdated [reliance on]… closed-access journals which locks scientific discoveries away, tragically curtailing their usefulness. An important part of the