Author

Alec Charles

Press, PR & Comms Officer, QAA

16 July: Blogging for Wonkhe, QAA's Helena Vine identifies some key points from the Quality Code Advice & Guidance on operating partnerships with other organisations – while, in the first of three blogs on the new Advice and Guidance for HE Professional, Tom Yates and Andy Smith highlight some of the essentials for engaging students as partners.

12 July: THE looks at a Sheffield initiative which highlights the fact that "students who have previously been safeguarded progress to university in 'vanishingly low' numbers".

13 July: Wonkhe's David Kernohan considers the possible impact of the new cap on domestic foundation year fees, and find that – although "rumours of the demise of the classroom based foundation year, or even the franchise model in providing this, are likely to be overstated" – "it remains to be seen, by whatever measure, whether the cut-price offer is as good".

17 July: THE reports that, following a record number of applications from 18-year-olds reported in UCAS's latest data release – and as the sector anticipates a drop in the proportion of top A-level grades – "UK universities are gearing up for what is expected to be another 'cut-throat' student recruitment round, with little sign of elite institutions reining in efforts to take the lion's share of the domestic intake". UCAS's Director of Data & Analysis Maggie Smart tells HEPI: "Continued growth [in the size of the UK's 18-year-old population] drives the increase in UK 18-year-old applicant numbers we have observed in recent cycles. But when we look at their overall application rate to understand the strength of demand among this group, the data shows a marginal decline again this year – down to 41.2% from 41.9% in 2024. The historically strong growth in the propensity of UK 18-year-olds to apply for HE, which we've observed across the last decade, has clearly plateaued. This could be due to a range of factors, such as young people choosing to take up work or an apprenticeship, or financial barriers." She notes increases in applications from China, Nigeria, Ireland and the United States, but a decline in demand from domestic mature students. Meanwhile, Wonkhe's David Kernohan examines the data – finding "a sharp rise in the popularity of business, subjects allied to medicine, engineering, and law" and "an intriguing drop in applications to computing subjects". The FT heralds "a record number of Americans [applying] to undergraduate courses at UK universities" in the wake of what it calls "Trump attacks on higher education". And the Telegraph sees "universities scramble to give out offers so they don't go bust" – while The Independent supposes that "universities are in a 'scramble for students' in a bid to avoid redundancies and course closures due to financial pressures". The Times says that "universities and colleges have made more than two million offers in a scramble to fill places" as "British 18-year-olds applying for undergraduate courses hits [a] record high" – but Wales Online observes that "Wales is the only UK nation to see a fall in university and college applications this year". The PIE highlights the record number of Chinese applicants.

14 July: Birkbeck VC Professor Sally Wheeler tells THE that the government's plans for the LLE are "unambitious" and "disappointing".

16 July: THE covers the publication of a report from the Lifelong Education Institute and Newcastle University which argues that "tertiary education providers need a 'unified voice' that can coordinate regional partnership work and help develop local credit transfer frameworks that allow students to seamlessly move between institutions".

17 July: THE covers the publication of a report from the Social Market Foundation which argues that "ministers must back higher-level vocational training – including degree apprenticeships – if the government is serious about improving health services, boosting housing supply and growing sectors such as artificial intelligence and green technology". Meanwhile, the University of the West of Scotland's Gary Gillon and Elaine Jackson tell Wonkhe that "making the most of degree apprenticeships requires collaboration across the whole of the UK". And FE Week reports a 7 per cent rise in apprenticeship starts, mainly driven by the over-25s and higher apprenticeships.

18 July: FE Week reports that millions have been lost in write-offs to apprenticeship-provider failures.

14 July: RPN reports "UK universities are facing intensified calls to leave Elon Musk's X after its integrated artificial intelligence chatbot praised Hitler, while fresh analysis shows a 'quiet retreat' from the social media platform by institutions" – explaining that "X's chatbot, Grok, generated an outcry after saying Hitler would be the best person to respond to alleged 'anti-white hate', referring to itself as 'MechaHitler' and making antisemitic comments".

14 July: Writing for THE, Ashoka University's Saikat Majumdar warns against the ideological bias built into generative artificial intelligence, fearing that "the nexus of neoliberal and state power is not a long way off from strategically deploying AI as a powerful tool to suppress the legitimacy of dissent even within the university community". Meanwhile, blogging for HEPI, Higher Futures' Derfel Owen and Janice Kay observe that DeepSeek "is not… able to access external reports critical of the Chinese state, de facto showing that Gen AI models are wholly dependent on the large language data on which they are trained".

15 July: THE reports that the OIA has raised concerns as to the "limitations" of AI detection tools. Meanwhile, the Royal Statistical Society, the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications and the London Mathematical Society issue a joint statement on academic integrity: "We believe that… invigilated on-campus examinations and closed-book assessments are a valid assessment approach for mathematical sciences and should be retained as options within the portfolio of assessment approaches." Wonkhe's Jim Dickinson writes: "In the age of AI, academic integrity concerns trigger a debate about assessment reliability. But what they ought to trigger is a debate about what we want students to learn – and whether, when they get that final grade, it's supposed to signify reaching a standard in general, or doing so at a specific predetermined time."

17 July: Writing for THE, LSE's Claire Gordon and KCL's Samantha Smidt stress the value of education development centres: "In an era in which questions are being asked about the value of higher education in an AI-enabled world, universities are beginning to grapple with the complicated question of what institutions and learning will look like in a world where much of what people have been doing for decades will be done by AI. In that endeavour, a bridge between the academic community and the universities' strategic priorities is vital. And that is what EDCs provide."

11 July: University World News carries concerns raised by EngineeringUK CEO Hilary Leevers that "the lack of engineering graduates coming out of United Kingdom universities has highlighted the failure of the demand-led student choice system of higher education to produce the skilled workforce essential to driving economic renewal" – given that "only 6.1% of UK undergraduates in 2020-21 enrolled in engineering and technology first degrees, while these sectors accounted for 25% of job adverts and 19% of the UK workforce".

17 July: HESA publishes data showing that "among 2022-23 graduates, 82% of respondents were in employment or unpaid work" - with "the majority of these graduates… engaged in full-time employment (59%)… 11% of graduates being engaged in part-time employment and 10% in employment and further study". THE highlights the news that "the proportion of graduates in full-time work has dipped for the first time in three years, while a trend of growing dissatisfaction among international students has continued". Wonkhe's David Kernohan observes: "There's been a year-on-year decline in the proportion of graduates from UG courses in paid employment in professional services – that is the destination of just 11.92 per cent of them this year, the lowest on record. Industries that have seen growth include public administration, wholesale and retail, and health and social care… If you've an eye on the impact of generative AI on early career employment, you'd be advised to keep an eye on the information and communication sector – currently machine generated slop is somehow deemed acceptable for many industrial applications… in PR, media, and journalism."

12 July: BBC News covers the graduation of ARU Peterborough's inaugural cohort.

11 July: RPN reports that the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology has listed university market exit as its second-highest risk and is developing plans for an "insolvency regime".

15 July: The FT carries warnings from the British Academy that UK universities are "at risk of long-term decline" unless "ministers overhaul their 'confused if not incoherent' approach" to higher education.

15 July: LSE's Professor Nicholas Barr supposes that "the only way out of this financial dead end for universities is for the government to recoup more money from student loans than it currently does".

16 July: THE and RPN convey warnings from London mayor Sadiq Khan that an international student levy would represents an "act of immense economic self-harm".

16 July: THE carries concerns from the Russell Group that the real-terms value of tuition fees has dropped by a third since their introduction in 2012. Meanwhile, UUK president Professor Dame Sally Mapstone tells THE that the current government's short-termist approach isn't good for higher education. And, blogging for Wonkhe, the OIA's Charlotte Corrish calls for a sector-wide approach to the protection of students in the event of market exit – while THE reports on the OIA's calls for universities to pay into a scheme to cover costs for students stranded by institutional failure.

17 July: RPN notes that the DfE has rated the risk of the failure of an HE provider as "very likely". Meanwhile, The Economist observes that – having "failed to focus on efficiency for the mass market" – "Britain's bankrupt universities are looking for cheaper models".

18 July: UWL VC Professor Peter John tells THE that his institution's intervention in Ruskin College "shows takeovers can work".