NEW FROM CDBU! Legislating against a phantom: Making sense of the Higher Education (Free Speech) Bill Notions of an ‘intolerant’ university that polices and controls the speech, behaviour and political standpoints of students are increasingly pushed by right-wing commentators. Along with the obligatory references to cancel culture, ‘woke bullies’ and de-platforming, Donelan informs us...Read More
Review by Patrick Ainley, former professor of training and education at the University of Greenwich and regular contributor to the Post-16 Educator. The argument in this book is that mass higher education, for all its multiple and irreversible achievements, is experiencing a general crisis’ (150). It is well timed. 58 UK universities struck for three days...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
The universities regulator, The Office for Students, has this week confirmed drastic cuts to funding for arts and creative subjects amid government plans to redirect the money to fund other “high-cost” subjects including science, technology, engineering and mathematics, medicine and healthcare. The cuts have been described as ‘the biggest attack on the arts in living...Read More
Top universities including Durham, York and Manchester have employed specialist investigators to deal with a rapid rise in reported sexual assault cases, with some paying investigators up to £10,000 per case. This follows the publication of a new anonymous testimonial site, Everyone’s Invited, which has amassed nearly 50,000 testimonies of sexual assault, harassment and misogyny...Read More
On 27 May, staff at the University of Sheffield received confirmation via email that it’s renowned archeology department will close and be merged with other departments. The decision has been met with huge criticism and described as an ‘act of cultural vandalism’. The department is known for its world-leading research, including specialist research into world...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
Words by Right2Learn The Right2Learn campaign was founded in December 2020 with a simple mission: to campaign for a legal right to learn throughout life. This mission drew on the work of the Lifelong Learning Commission set up by the Labour Party in 2018 which examined in great detail the inequity of access to education...Read More
As the government prepares to gradually ease Covid-19 restrictions, with the hope of returning ‘to normal life’ by late June, university staff and students have been left wondering when, or if, they will be expected to resume face-to-face teaching and return to campuses. New on the CDBU blog! Gurminder K Bhambra, Professor of Postcolonial and...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
