NEW ON THE CDBU BLOG IN PURSUIT OF PREVENT – Words by John Holmwood, emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Nottingham John Holmwood considers how the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill intersects with the government’s counter-extremism policy, in the light of recent leaks about the recommendations to be expected from the Shawcross...Read More

THE LATEST CDBU NEWS: – New on the CDBU blog: ‘Getting off the back foot – and taking the offensive’ Words by Peter Scott, CDBU Trustee, Emeritus Professor of Higher Education Studies at the UCL Institute of Education and former Vice-Chancellor of Kingston University. – Contribute to our blog series on academic freedom! Email cdbupress@gmail.com. You...Read More

Ministers are understood to be considering lowering the student loan repayment threshold to £23,000, or an average increase of £400 in repayments per year. The decision has been met with widespread criticism and concern about how this might affect those on lower incomes, particularly in the wake of the pandemic. NUS Vice President for Higher...Read More

Words by Dr Jon Hall, senior lecturer at the Open University and CDBU’s Company Secretary. “Accessing our creativity is a fantastic way to top up our resilience.”Chief Operating Officer, North Tees & Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust  Resilience means being able to bounce back after a blow, after a tragedy, after a crisis. With reserves sufficient...Read More

Last week, the Department for Education confirmed that there are no plans to implement the use of vaccine passports on university campuses, after some ministers and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab had discussed the benefits of a passport system. Nevertheless, the DfE have scrapped any plans for their use but has strongly encouraged that universities promote...Read More

Words by Patrick Ainley, former professor of training and education at the University of Greenwich and regular contributor to the Post-16 Educator. The ‘Skills for Jobs’ Bill proposed in the Queen’s speech last week and introduced to Parliament today ‘is not a serious attempt to create a vocational education system linked to the transformative, socially-just...Read More

The government has announced a £50 million hardship fund for students who have been financially impacted by the pandemic. However, some feel more could be done to help students, with a group of vice-chancellors calling on the government to go further and waive student loan interest fees. New on the CDBU blog: Why Universities Should...Read More

Sexual abuse at English and Welsh universities has been described as a “public scandal” after a report revealed that universities are systematically failing to address instances of assault and harassment, while another report commissioned by Universities UK has claimed that British universities “perpetuate institutional racism”. Meanwhile, extra time and funding for PhD students has been...Read More

Plans for mass testing and staggered departure dates over a one week period have been laid out by the government in order to allow students to return home for Christmas. The plans have been met with criticism from some universities who say mass testing might be incompatible with the independent testing facilities already in place,...Read More

UCU have called for a judicial review of the government’s decision to ignore calls from its own Sage committee to move all non-essential teaching online and instead reopen campuses for face-to-face teaching. Sage advised the government that coronavirus outbreaks spurred by the reopening of campuses would be “very likely”. UCU have since recorded 27,000 positive...Read More