News

President Donald Trump’s administration has rescinded plans announced on 6th July requiring international students studying in US universities to transfer studies or face deportation if they were pursuing degree programmes that were being taught entirely online. The decision follows a wave of trenchant opposition from universities that culminated in a

New guidance from the Department for Education (DfE) reclassifies trainee teachers as critical workers in a government effort to plug the school placement shortage arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. The move, which was published by the DfE on 14th July, has been welcomed by university-based teacher trainers. It means that

An investigation by the i newspaper has found that a significant proportion of UK universities are trying to entice prospective students into accepting offers with substantial “bribes”. Results for a Freedom of Information request submitted by i to 133 British universities found that 35 – over a quarter – were

A new study has found that nearly half of exam-year pupils from Years 11 and 13 received no school work at all during the government’s school closure strategy to limit the spread of COVID-19. The analysis was conducted by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) and drew on survey

MPs sitting on the House of Commons Petition Committee have called on the government to issue clearer guidelines regarding student entitlement to tuition fee refunds or repeating parts of their courses in the event of disruptions to their university education. The government should also consider allocating extra funding to higher

A new study by a literacy charity indicates that boys have fallen further behind girls in both their enjoyment and regularity of reading during the government’s COVID-19 lockdown strategy. The National Literacy Trust (NLT) in collaboration with Puffin surveyed a total of 58,346 children aged between nine and 18 years

Following growing outrage from schools, students and teachers after the International Baccalaureate Organisation (IBO) released its results for this year on Monday, the examinations regulator Ofqual is to “scrutinise” the organisation’s grading arrangements for 2020. In the space of a few days since Monday’s release, nearly 10,000 people have signed

Education Secretary, Gavin Williamson, has announced plans to jettison Tony Blair’s 21-year-old mission to enrol 50% of young people into university. He has instead chosen to embark on a programme of rebalancing post-school learning toward technical and further education. Williamson’s aim is to help the country recover and grow after

British universities are testing a new online teaching link to allow students in China to continue their studies for UK degrees. However, concerns are being raised about the dangers of self-censorship and the associated undermining of academic freedom, as the course materials are required to comply with Chinese internet restrictions.

The teachers’ union, NASUWT, has written to Education Secretary Gavin Williamson requesting “urgent clarification” over 13 key issues to enable schools to reopen safely in September. The union’s general secretary, Dr Patrick Roach, maintains in the letter that the significant range of measures set out in the Department for Education’s