Emily Commander
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Emily Commander21 May 2021
Freedom of speech, and reducing your carbon footprint
ACCESS AND PARTICIPATION Bath's SU President, Franci Masala, has a blog post on the Wonkhe website which highlights the important role students and Student Unions can play in ensuring that universities are held accountable for delivery against their Access and...
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Emily Commander14 May 2021
In person teaching is back, and can you regulate free speech?
COVID On Monday, the Universities Minister wrote to universities and students confirming that remaining restrictions on in-person teaching would be lifted from 17 May. Students returning to campus will be encouraged to take a Covid test before traveling and three...
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Emily Commander7 May 2021
Campus in the pandemic, pay offers and what will the Queen say about education?
COVID Although the government has not yet announced when universities will be allowed to re-open their campuses, new data from the Office for National Statistics suggests that 80% of students are now living where they go to university. Meanwhile, there...
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Emily Commander30 April 2021
Complaints and EDI
ADMISSIONS AND RECRUITMENT For anyone interested in demand for HE, admissions numbers, fairness and the way that demographics and this year’s exam arrangements feed into this, there is a useful article on Wonkhe. REGULATORY OfS has published its specification...
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Emily Commander23 April 2021
Refunds: Consumer action may not be the best or quickest solution.
COVID The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has responded to an open letter from 20 students’ unions calling for action to uphold student rights by saying that “consumer enforcement action may not be the best or quickest solution”. The CMA’s...
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Emily Commander16 April 2021
Returning to campus?
COVID This week, the Minister confirmed that students will be advised to return to campus only when the country enters step 3 of the lockdown exit plan, currently scheduled for 17 May. Letters from the Minister to institutions and students...
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Emily Commander1 April 2021
New regulation, education agents and supervision agreements
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...
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Emily Commander26 March 2021
Covid, research funding and unequal outcomes
COVID The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Steps) (England) Regulations 2021 passed a vote in the House of Commons on Thursday. The Regulations don’t do much to facilitate a full national return to campus after Easter. Wonkhe has an interesting article...
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Emily Commander18 March 2021
Research funding shortfalls and OfS warnings on quality
RESEARCH FUNDING A study hosted on the HEPI blog warns that the UK is likely to miss its target of spending 2.4% of GDP on research and development by 2027. The Russell Group of universities has written to the Prime...
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Emily Commander12 March 2021
(Yet) more guidance, Turing, USS and breaching the equality gap
COVID THE reports that English university leaders are pushing for a majority return to campus after Easter if infection rates continue to fall. It is timely, therefore, that OfS has updated its guidance on the subject. OfS has also updated...