by Becca Bashford | Jan 8, 2021 | A-levels, Academic freedom, Covid-19, Erasmus, Erasmus+, Free speech, Further education, Government, In the News, Marketisation, News round-up, Opinion, Uncategorized, Widening access
As the world welcomes a new year, the issues that the coronavirus pandemic has inflicted on higher education remain. Students across the UK have begun rent strikes, university staff face the prospect of returning to unsafe campuses, and debates about the value of...
by Becca Bashford | Dec 11, 2020 | A-levels, Casual staff, CDBU Updates, Covid-19, Free speech, Further education, Government, In the News, Marketisation, News round-up, Opinion, Racism, Scotland, Uncategorized
An FOI request made by Times Higher Education has revealed that thousands of university staff have been made redundant since the coronavirus pandemic hit. Meanwhile, students across the country have planned the biggest rent strike in decades with over 20 strikes...
by Becca Bashford | Sep 4, 2020 | A-levels, Covid-19, Further education, Government, In the News, Marketisation, News round-up, Ofqual, Opinion, Scotland, Uncategorized
As the government scrambles to save face after the A-levels fiasco, universities are preparing to reopen their campuses to staff and students. UCU have called on the government to halt in-person teaching completely, warning that the mass movement of over a million...
by Becca Bashford | Sep 2, 2020 | A-levels, Covid-19, Further education, Government, In the News, Opinion, Uncategorized
Words by Steven Jones, Professor of Higher Education at the University of Manchester. One reason that the government took so long to U-turn over this summer’s A-level debacle is that the qualification itself holds a much loftier status in society, particularly among...
by Becca Bashford | Aug 22, 2020 | A-levels, Admissions, Casual staff, Covid-19, Further education, Government, In the News, Marketisation, News round-up, Ofqual, Opinion, Uncategorized, Unconditional offers, Widening access
After thousands of A-level and BTEC students were downgraded on results day, Gavin Williams and Ofqual – in a highly predictable U-turn – scrapped the algorithm and allowed students to use Centre Assessed Grades (teachers’ predictions) instead,...
by Becca Bashford | Aug 17, 2020 | A-levels, Admissions, Covid-19, Further education, Government, In the News, Ofqual, Uncategorized, Universities UK
Statement from the Council for the Defence of British Universities on A-level results. English universities have been remarkably silent about the fiasco over Ofqual’s determination of A-level grades. Universities UK issued an extraordinarily misjudged...
