COVID
A recent UPP survey has found that students want to see prioritisation of a return to in-person teaching and are missing the face-to-face elements of the wider student experience. Meanwhile, data released by the Office for National Statistics (OfS) shows that over half of students felt that online learning had an impact on the quality of their course.
FINANCE AND FUNDING
The Universities Minister has said that rumours of a government plan to cut tuition fees in England to £7,500 in response to the Augur review did not come from government.
UCU has said that it believes proposals put forward by Universities UK on the future of the USS pension scheme risk cutting staff retirement income by thousands of pounds and has not ruled out industrial action on the issue.
REGULATORY AND GOVERNANCE
The Skills and Post-16 Education Bill (Lords), published last week, contains provisions for the OfS to assess the quality of provision in higher education, including through publication of minimum levels for student outcomes. It is not yet clear what measures OfS might use to do this. On Wonkhe, a member of the Augar review panel argues that this is all part of the government’s long-awaited response to Augar, and there is an opinion piece on benchmarking in this area and why it is important.
The QAA has published guidance which sets out a new framework for awarding credits to different levels of qualification (BSc, PhD etc). Many in the sector see this as an enabler for a more modular approach to delivering learning – see this piece from Wonkhe, for example.
For the governance geeks, here is a whistle-stop tour of the changing face of higher education law.
CYBER SECURITY
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has set up a Research Collaboration Advice Team to support researchers on issues such as cyber security and the protection of intellectual property. Meanwhile Jisc has signed a memorandum of understanding with their counterparts in Canada, Australia and the US to share information on cyber security threats.
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