GOVERNANCE AND REGULATION
OfS has announced the immediate introduction of a new condition of registration designed to protect the interests of students where a higher education provider has to close or runs into severe financial difficulty.
The government has published guidance for universities on implementing the Prevent duty, including guidance specific to particular roles, such as the head of institution and chair of the governing body.
COVID
OfS has updated its student FAQs in line with the latest safer travel guidance from the government.
University Alliance has published an open letter calling for the government to allow universities to fully reopen campuses from 12 April. Meanwhile, the Higher Education Policy Institute has published polling on the student experience during the Covid pandemic. Less than half of the respondents expect to receive face-to-face teaching during the remainder of the academic year.
RESEARCH AND INNOVATION
The first ever edition of the long-heralded Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF) was released by Research England this week. It seeks to support universities in interrogating their own performance on exchange.
Opposition has continued to government cuts to UKRI official development assistance funding with widespread coverage in the media – see the President of UUK in the Guardian for example.
RECRUITMENT
The British University International Liaison Association and the UK Council for International Student Affairs have published a report on the UK’s approach to quality assurance for overseas education agents, suggesting that a quality assurance framework might be needed.
STUDENT ISSUES
THE has an interesting article on a growing trend towards using supervision agreements to govern the relationship between PhD students and their supervisors.
EQUALITY, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION
This week a report from the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities has caused widespread controversy, but there are – nonetheless – some interesting recommendations in relation to higher education (see recommendations 3, 7, 8, 13, 15, 17, 20 and 24).
Advance HE has published guidance on the collection of data about the identity characteristics of students and staff in higher education.
The last of the Advance HE podcasts on Decolonising Identity has been released.
HEPI is running a free seminar on Monday 26 April entitled “How can we build a more sophisticated understanding of universities’ contribution to social mobility”. To register you can click here.
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