23 June: Wonkhe's David Kernohan considers an IFS report which shows that graduates who move away to study tend not to come back, pointing out that this mode of social mobility disadvantages less well-off parts of the country. 

24 June: BBC News reports: "Research from the Institute of Student Employment shows competition for graduate roles is at a 'record high' as estimates suggest there were 1.2 million applications for 17,000 graduate vacancies last year." 

25 June: THE considers a report from UCL's Institute of Education calling on universities to "do more to support graduates from disadvantaged backgrounds to secure jobs after new figures showed declining numbers of state-educated, working-class and ethnic-minority applicants being hired". 

25 June: The FT reports that "job openings for UK graduates are at their lowest level since 2018 as employers hold off hiring and seek to cut costs by using AI". 

23 June: HEPI's Josh Freeman tells THE that AI has led providers to increase the assessment of students. Meanwhile, he tells The Guardian's letters page: "Institutions are switching to 'secure' assessments, such as… in-person exams... Others are designing assessments assuming students will use AI." Writing to the same paper, Chester's Professor Paul Johnson says that "we need to think carefully about how we are going to assess work, when at a click almost limitless superficially plausible text can be produced" – while Aberdeen's Professor Robert McColl Millar calls for "a move towards more analytical assessment, where students are faced with new material that must be considered in a brief period". 

27 June: THE introduces a new paper which finds that "most students are using GenAI, and so there are serious questions about the use of these assessment methods as valid ways to certify the learning of students".

25 June: Kent's Marta Almeida Hill and Francesca Plom tell Wonkhe about working with students to co-create approaches to widening participation. 

26 June: Warwick's Paul Blagburn and Southampton's Gino Graziano tell Wonkhe that "we need a whole-university approach to social mobility". 

26 June: THE considers an MMU report which argues the government should reverse "destructive" changes to teacher training in order to revive recruitment to the profession.

23 June: RPN notes that the government's industrial strategy aims to focus research on economic growth. FE Week highlights the news that "new courses will be funded through the growth and skills levy from early next year". THE observes that the government has pledged to "continue to support universities through the Higher Education Innovation Fund, a £280 million fund focused on commercialisation". 

24 June: Wonkhe's Michael Salmon writes: "The ambitions of the strategy… include a recipe for a more differentiated sector, with concrete choices made around engagement with key local industries and contribution to their associated workforce pipelines." David Kernohan observers that some subjects will gain while others lose. Wonkhe's daily briefing adds that "we learn that the first modular courses for approval as part of the Lifelong Learning Entitlement will 'support progression into the IS-8' [the strategy's eight-industry foci for growth], while elsewhere it's suggested that the growth and skills levy will be operational from April 2026". 

25 June: The PIE notes the strategy earmarks £54 million to attract ten world-class researchers to UK universities. 

27 June: Wonkhe's David Kernohan considers how LEO data might support the implementation of the industrial strategy. 

25 June: THE carries calls for an HE transformation fund. Philip Augar tells RPN improved governance could have helped prevent the sector's financial crisis. And BBC News and THE cite concerns from Welsh VCs that a lack of "policy stability" is exacerbating the crisis. 

26 June: Wrexham.com carries warnings from NUS Cymru president Deio Owen that student mental health is suffering as a result of HE cuts. 

23 June: The University of Leicester announces an agreement with Shanghai Polytechnic University to explore cooperation in teaching, research and academic exchange. Meanwhile the Ghana News Network reports Loughborough University has entered into a strategic partnership with five Ghanaian universities. And the University of Leeds announces that, along with Newcastle University, it has joined the Coimbra Group, an organisation which promotes the internationalisation of HE. 

24 June: Blogging for Wonkhe, University of York VC Professor Charlie Jeffery argues "international students bring real, tangible economic benefits" to the regions in which they study and therefore proposes "it is important that local citizens and political representatives understand what is at stake when widely held public concerns about migration lead to the targeting of a group – international students – whom the public both think highly of, and who make a big contribution to local economies". 

24 June: THE and RPN report skills minister Jacqui Smith has told the Commons Education Committee an international fees levy would "show the value of foreign students". 

24 June: THE covers the publication of a UNESCO report which shows that between 2000 and 2022 the global international student population more than tripled – growing from 2.1 million to nearly 6.9 million. 

26 June: Bath PVC Manuel Barcia warns THE readers against "the tendency of many institutions in the Global North to pursue internationalisation from a position of power, rather than a commitment to respectful and equitable partnership". 

20 June: THE reports that Russell Group CEO Tim Bradshaw has announced his intention to step down from his role next Easter.  

21 June: The Courier reports that former Abertay VC Professor Nigel Seaton has been appointed interim principal at the University of Dundee. 

24 June: THE reports that Birmingham provost Professor Stephen Jarvis is to be the University of Surrey's next VC. 

25 June: Sussex World reports that Chichester VC Professor Symeon Dagkas is to become vice chair of the Cathedrals Group of 14 universities.  

26 June: HEPI, RPN and THE cover the launch of ResearchPlus, a new group of "research-focused universities with a common purpose – to advance economic growth, prosperity, and societal wellbeing for the benefit of the places where we are located and for the wider world" – offering a "collective voice… for the research-focused universities outside the Russell Group". THE highlights the need for the group to take a "holistic view" of what it brings (27 June). 

26 June: BBC News reports that Bradford VC Professor Shirley Congdon is to retire at the end of the year. 

26 June: THE reports that Aston and Arden have launched new campuses in London.

20 June: Members of the London Universities' Council for Academic Freedom take to THE to welcome the OfS free speech guidelines: "This guidance has the potential to temper dogmatic implementation of the 'decolonise the curriculum' movement... It could end UK academia's decade of adopting contested positions on transgender issues promulgated by bodies such as Athena SWAN and Stonewall." 

23 June: Wonkhe's Jim Dickinson considers the sectoral impacts of the government's proscription of Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation. 

24 June: The Free Speech Union's Freddie Attenborough tells The Critic the OfS guidelines on free speech should reduce universities' tendencies "to curtail lawful but contentious viewpoints and to impose professional penalties that have chilled the exercise of academic freedom as defined in law". Simon Keyes, a former Professor of Reconciliation & Peacebuilding, tells The Guardian that he'd "go further" than the OfS guidelines: "All places of study should offer dialogue spaces so that shared deliberation becomes a core component of the educational experience. Welcoming the new rules on free speech in higher education, the Telegraph argues that "the desire for tolerance has spilt over into intolerance of arguments that are seen to run counter to the prevailing progressive views". And Advance HE's David Bass tells THE that "it's inappropriate for a university to be an activist institution, but it's entirely appropriate for an institution to be a space where activism happens under academic freedom." 

26 June: THE carries free speech tsar Arif Ahmed's statement that free speech is compatible with EDI. And DMU's Leena Dattani-Demirci and AGCAS's Claire Toogood tell HEPI about EDI initiatives for professional services staff (27 June). 

27 June: Wonkhe's Michael Salmon and Jim Dickinson "find the devils in the detail" of the government's plans for the implementation of the Freedom of Speech Act.