Professor GR Evans looks at the history of an organisation that has rarely been out of the news in recent weeks – and asks what powers it really has   Universities UK has been in the news recently during the upset caused by the proposals to make major changes to the USS pension scheme. It...Read More

Academic pensions may seem like a niche interest. But, argues Dr Rowan Cerys Tomlinson, proposals to change the current pension scheme represent an assault on the entire sector I became an academic for many reasons: because of my intellectual curiosity, because I wanted to contribute to society by teaching, because academia offered the heady mixture...Read More

The big news this week is that there’s a real danger that falling student numbers may see some English universities forced to close down. Elsewhere there’s concern about pensions, student finance and bullying   Fears of university closures after removal of safety net   The Guardian, 30/01/2018, Anna Fazackerley Some English universities may be in danger...Read More

How will the new Office for Students operate? Professor GR Evans finds some worrying clues in job advertisements for the new regulator. Alistair Jarvis, new CEO of Universities UK, presented a robust challenge to the Office for Students (OfS) in an article in Times Higher Education in late December. He pointed out that its ‘relationship...Read More