Apprentices are not the only ones who can reap rewards from this new educational pathway.
The Industrial Strategy published today says that “apprenticeships are a vital UK-wide vehicle for employer investment in their workforce, enabling employers to develop the skills and behaviours that they need, as well as offering opportunities for those already in work and those entering it for the first time”. More...

The University of East Anglia evaluated three approaches to measuring learning gain. What did they find?
The University of East Anglia’s (UEA’s) HEFCE funded learning gain pilot project was carried out in partnership with City College Norwich. The project evaluated three approaches to measuring learning gain, and this is a brief roundup of the findings. More...

The question of how, and how much, university vice-chancellors are paid is increasingly high on the news agenda. It is a legitimate and important debate, and one of public interest. More...

It is essential that we draw on international expertise throughout the REF review process.
The Royal Society is very fond of pointing out that it had a Foreign Secretary some 60 years before the UK Government did. While it is perhaps a little disingenuous to suggest that international engagement is linked to a particular job title, the observation does serve to emphasise that an international outlook has long been part of the fabric of research. More...

The ‘Prevent duty’ which higher education providers are required to follow has been controversial, but the arguments used against it are largely based on myths and misunderstanding.
The Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 (CTSA) has aroused great controversy by imposing a legal duty upon schools, universities, the NHS and other institutions to ‘have due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism’ (the ‘Prevent duty’). However, in an article published in the January 2018 issue of Public Law, we argue that the campaign against the Act and the duty in higher education rests largely upon myths, six of which are particularly prevalent. More...

For REF 2021, all associations or organisations that want to submit nominations for the expert panels need to provide information about equality and diversity. So what exactly do nominating bodies need to do, and why have we introduced this new process. More...

Our consortium of six universities – Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield, Warwick and York – is currently embarking on a HEFCE-funded project aimed at improving progression to and success in postgraduate study among students from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds, or from neighbourhoods with low progression to higher education (POLAR quintiles 1 & 2). More...

The KEF metrics system will provide more information for the public and businesses on the performance of universities in knowledge exchange – how they share knowledge, expertise and other assets for the benefit of the economy and society. The aim is to provide regularly updated data that enables fair comparison between institutions’ performance in knowledge exchange. More...

HEFCE has published a report that shows graduates in the UK have a greater sense of personal wellbeing and life satisfaction than those without a higher education qualification. 
The findings show that individuals are more likely to feel that their life is worthwhile when they have completed a higher education qualification. Graduates also tend to measure their lives higher in terms of overall happiness than non-graduates. More...