Author
Alec Charles
Press, PR & Comms Officer, QAA
Our round-up of some of this week's media coverage of higher education highlights interesting new work on access, artificial intelligence, graduate outcomes and the student experience, and finds mixed messages for the tertiary sector in the Spending Review.
Access & Success
9 June: London Metropolitan University's Eleni Meletiadou tells HEPI about "empowering mature students through inclusive AI literacy".
9 June: The Social Market Foundation publishes a paper which "explores how universities can further enhance social mobility, by embracing a placed-based approach that ensures their role as hubs for their communities".
9 June: Wonkhe's Jim Dickinson argues that the efficacy of Access and Participation Plans is undermined by the aggregation of data.
9 June: Wonkhe's Mack Marshall and Canterbury Christ Church's Susan Kenyon discuss strategies to make the experience of commuter students more visible.
10 June: Writing for Politics Home, Labour MP Darren Paffey praises the Russell Group's recent pledge to enhance care-leavers' access to higher education.
10 June: Unite Students' Jenny Shaw tells Wonkhe that "small, local actions" are valuable in delivering social mobility.
11 June: Undergraduate student Holly Cobb tells THE that universities need to improve their support for young carers.
12 June: A 72-year-old due to start her second year at university this autumn tells the Telegraph that the government "shouldn't pull the plug" on student loans for the over-60s.
Graduate Outcomes
10 June: The British Academy's Pablo Roblero and Alfie Denness tell Wonkhe about research which "challenges the narrative that SHAPE graduates have weak labour market prospects, showing that their employment rates are strong: 87 per cent of SHAPE graduates were in work in 2023, compared to 79 per cent of non-graduates with level 3 qualifications and 88 per cent of STEM graduates".
Academic Careers
10 June: Professor Isabel Lucas, PVC Education at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and outgoing Chair of the Heads of Educational Development Group, tells HEPI why academic career progression routes should "look beyond research" – and renew their focus on "innovative teaching and educational leadership".
12 June: Hartpury University's Claire Farquharson and Sarah Sandford tell Wonkhe that "teaching quality is often seen as 'secondary' to research output when it comes to academic progression" – and detail their own work in establishing a "more sustainable and supportive environment" for early career academics.
13 June: Northumbria's Emma Thirkell and Birmingham's Kamilya Suleymenova tell Wonkhe about an identity crisis among academics expected to be "risk-taking pedagogical entrepreneurs".
Student Experience
11 June: Blogging for Wonkhe, Liverpool's Dr Gemma Ahearne reflects upon how her own experiences have informed her approaches to enhancing the student experience through accessible assessment, responding to feedback, scaffolded learning and learning through play.
12 June: HEPI publishes the findings of its Student Academic Experience Survey 2025, which show that 68 per cent of students undertake paid work during term-time (up from 56 per cent last year), that students spend only 11.6 hours each week on independent study (down from 13.6 hours per week last year), and that 61 per cent of assessments are returned within two weeks (compared with 45 per cent last year). The Standard, The Independent, THE and RPN highlight the news that more than two-thirds of students are in paid work while studying. Wonkhe's Jim Dickinson concludes that "the student experience is beyond breaking point".
Sustainability
11 June: THE reports that 91 per cent of institutions which put themselves forward for its Impact Rankings run curriculum content focused on sustainability but only 63 per cent assess their students' understanding of this area.
Artificial Intelligence
10 June: THE reports on research which suggests that "standard methods to ensure assessment integrity, such as 'traffic light' systems and 'declarative approaches', give assessors a 'false sense of security' while potentially disadvantaging students who follow the rules".
10 June: THE considers a report which shows the UK produces fewer AI-skilled graduates than Ireland or Finland, as the government says that the sector is failing to keep up with employers' demand for AI skills. The Guardian reports that Ohio State University has announced that its students will be required to "become fluent in combining conventional learning with AI". BBC News looks at government guidance which allows teachers to use AI in "low-stakes marking such as quizzes or homework". FE Week reports that this toolkit suggests colleges could use AI to "monitor attendance patterns" and even generate "ideas for lessons".
10 June: BBC News covers the launch of a government-funded scholarship scheme to support "young people with exceptional talent in AI".
11 June: QMUL's Dr Andrew Woon tells HEPI that "the key argument for retaining exams is not that they are more ‘secure’, but that their true value lies in ensuring students… could develop a deep, internalised understanding of their subject matter". He argues that "traditional exams, when thoughtfully designed, can play a valuable role in developing traditional literacy skills, including reading, writing and critical thinking, which remain essential in the age of AI " – adding that "as AI tools increasingly streamline reading and writing tasks across the education system, reinforcing these foundational skills becomes even more important".
12 June: Wonkhe's Jim Dickinson observes that "SU staff are both struggling with student staff recruitment because of the volume of AI-assisted applications, and starting to use AI in their work when producing things".
Financial Crisis
10 July: RPN covers the publication of new figures from the Office for Students which show that UK universities lost £6.2 billion on research activities in AY2023-24, as a result of the widening gap between grants and costs. The story is also covered by THE, which highlights a deficit of £1.7 billion on publicly funded teaching in England and Northern Ireland – up from £1.5 billion the previous year. Wonkhe's David Kernohan takes a deeper dive into the data: "For every £100 a university spends on teaching home students, it receives £89.20 from the public purse."
11 July: THE warns that higher education cuts are entering a "dangerous new phase" as many institutions move from voluntary schemes towards compulsory redundancy processes.
11 July: Blogging for Wonkhe, UCL's Professor Peter Scott ponders popular perceptions of the HE sector: "Was it really reasonable to plan, as the cranes went up on campus, on the basis that the tuition fees windfall would last for ever? Or that in crabby post-Brexit Britain the very considerable expansion in the number of international students would not provoke a populist backlash?" He stresses that, while he favours a retreat from a "narrowly transactional and crassly commodified" view of higher education, he believes that the capacity to understand opposing perspectives can only strengthen the sector's own arguments.
11 July: Birmingham VC Professor Adam Tickell tells RPN that universities need to convince the government that they aren't "crying wolf" over their current financial problems, and criticises proposals for an international student levy.
12 July: THE and RPN carry warnings from the N8 group of research-intensive universities based in the north of England that academic publishers' current models for open access publication are "financially unsustainable".
12 June: Wonkhe's daily briefing notes that Scotland's Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth has confirmed that "cross-party talks on the future of the higher education sector" have begun, in collaboration with Universities Scotland. Meanwhile, Westminster's Education Committee launches an inquiry into the financial viability of universities.
12 June: RPN cites UUK's Vivienne Stern's warning that funding changes could mean "bread and water" for some providers.
Spending Review
8 June: Wonkhe's David Kernohan muses on what the Spending Review might bring: "Very few people will be disappointed in cuts to bureaucracy (at least in the short term, people do tend to become very upset when waiting times rise and services become less effective) and measures to address fraud."
9 June: THE supposes that – while most of the relevant detail is expected to be revealed in the forthcoming White Paper on the reform of the tertiary sector – "the spending review could provide clues to the government's priorities and will show how much the Department for Education has to play with amid significant budget cuts across all departments" – but cites fears of "HE reform being sidelined as ministers focus on skills".
9 June: Wonkhe's Jim Dickinson argues that the government's announcement on winter fuel payments shows that "investing for the long term often loses out to pensioner power".
11 June: THE's coverage of the Spending Review highlights funding for AI provision and the restoration of the funding for Edinburgh's supercomputer. Wonkhe's David Kernohan observes that there wasn't much for higher education in the Spending Review: "If there are to be measures to address the funding problems in the university sector, these documents would be the places to look for clues – there were none here." RPN cites sector concerns as to the apparent inevitability of the international levy and notes that R&D money has been directed towards government priorities. FE Week adds that the Chancellor has pledged a "record investment" of £1.2 billion in skills in order to put "over a million young people into training and apprenticeships".
Skills England
9 June: Sunderland VC (and Skills England vice chair) David Bell tells THE that "English universities must be involved at all levels of the skills system" – and that this includes supporting opportunities for "more apprenticeships and other shorter-course training and education that is directly targeted towards employers".
Engines of Change
10 June: Blogging for Wonkhe, Aston VC Aleks Subic argues that "if British universities are to thrive in the twenty-first century, they must transform and become active architects of economic and social transformation".
International Relations
10 June: The PIE reports that new research suggests that interest in studying in the UK remains "robust" – despite concerns surrounding the immigration White Paper.
11 June: THE cites claims from former Home Secretary Jack Straw that international students' asylum applications constitute a "racket". His comments are also covered by The PIE.
12 June: The British Council publishes research revealing "a trend among UK universities to re-evaluate and, in some cases, tighten their English language requirements" for international applicants.
13 June: THE reports a "surge" in study visa applications, apparently as a result of American policy developments.
Great Expectations
6 June: Law firm Shakespeare Martineau announces the appointment of former Nottingham Registrar Paul Greatrix as its director of HE consultancy.
Happy Birthday, Birmingham
9 June: The University of Birmingham announces a special celebration on 21 June to celebrate the 125th anniversary of its establishment – a "campus community festival".
Trumped
12 June: THE carries a warning to UK institutions from Yale professor, podcaster and former International Development Secretary Rory Stewart: "It's very, very tempting always to think, 'Well, America's gone a bit crazy. That'll never happen here.' But... American culture is very, very powerful, and what happens in the US moves more easily than we want to acknowledge, so don't be too smug."