The funding bodies and the REF should respect the employment relationship. We are therefore considering other ways to capture ‘Research-active staff’. These will need to recognise the contract, but truly reflect the university’s and the academic’s expectations of where there is a responsibility to carry out research that would be appropriately assessed by the criteria used by the REF. More...

In 2015, Northumbria University became one of the first UK universities to offer degree apprenticeships, launching its BSc Digital and Technology Solutions undergraduate programme. More...

Students from outside the European Union make up 60 per cent of entrants to postgraduate full-time taught masters degrees. This proportion has been relatively constant for much of the past decade, but the share of students from China has grown. More...

When the Statute of Artificers was passed in 1563, there were many more apprentices in the City of London than there were university students or graduates. London would have to wait another 250 years to have a university, though after this act it did have a regulated system of vocational training with fixed wages and compulsory training periods for the Guilds that oversaw it. More...

Almost two years ago Universities UK hosted a sector conference with the Skills Funding Agency on the first procurement round for a new part of the apprenticeships landscape, degree apprenticeships. More...

As a key part of a project funded by the Degree Apprenticeships Development Fund, the Association of Graduate Recruiters surveyed its employer members on their current and planned degree apprenticeship offer. More...

Unacceptable inequality persists in the degree and employment outcomes for certain groups of students. Our new Catalyst Fund programme, ‘Addressing Barriers to Student Success’, will tackle these issues head-on. More...

Major employers see the introduction of degree apprenticeships as an opportunity to grow their future workforce in collaboration with universities – boosting productivity, reducing churn and sharpening the skills of new talent. In turn, universities see the value of partnering with employers, to help address their region’s higher-level skills gap and explore long-term opportunities for knowledge transfer and research and development collaboration. More...

In January 2015, the Equality and Diversity Advisory Panel for the Research Excellence Framework expressed disappointment that relatively little progress had been made since the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise towards increasing the diversity of panel membership for 2014. More...

The apprenticeship agenda has presented Staffordshire University with a real opportunity to enhance employer relationships and upskill the region, and the university has responded to the challenge in a swift and dynamic way. More...