This week’s update looks at some ministerial statements, what the OfS has learned from its funded project son mental health and wellbeing, employability and what works, a look at foundation years, who does them, and the outcomes, more on international students and the review of the post-graduate work visa, and the OfS are taking a… Read more »
Category / policy
This part of the blog features news and information about higher education policy and how BU’s research is influencing policy.
BU resources to support research impact, communications and engagement
A reminder that the BU Research Impact, Communications & Engagement sharepoint site contains resources, news and opportunities across the spectrum of connecting external stakeholders and audiences to your research. Unlike the Research Blog, sharepoint sites feature content that’s only visible to BU accounts. Try visiting the site at Research Impact, Communications and Engagement and, if… Read more »
BU Policy update 2024: no 6, 6th March 2024
Politics and Parliament Budget All the budget papers will be here as they are released. The Office for Budget Responsibility has a video here with “5 things you need to know about their forecast” The IfS has a context paper here The Institute for Government has one too. BBC stories: Key points here. What does… Read more »
Leveraging the value of ‘capacity-building’ research impact!
The narrative around research impact has quite rightly come to the fore in recent years. With funding organisations looking for a ‘bigger bang for their buck’ and universities emphasising their contribution to societal and economic value, it is no surprise that the words ‘research impact’ are central to researchers activities. Whilst many researchers develop plans… Read more »
HE policy update 5: 26th February 2024
An interesting mixture of news: a look around through the eyes of the House of Lords library and a lengthy analysis of the differences between the 4 nations, a hopeful look forward through the UUK manifesto for the election, Research England are taking steps on spin-outs and there are serious concerns about abuse of franchised… Read more »
Sign up to BU’s Policy Influence Digest
If you’re looking to have an impact on local, national and international policy with your research, you may find the BU policy influence digest email useful. The policy influence digest highlights policy influencing opportunities and tips. The digests are usually circulated weekly and contain information on expert calls, specialist or committee advisor opportunities, areas of… Read more »
HE policy update: no 4, 5th February 2024
The update is a bit shorter this week, focussing on the bigger news on research and education. The next update will be in a couple of weeks. Research and knowledge exchange Ref changes: the wheels on the bus go round and round There’s nothing new in policy and politics. As the debate rages about research… Read more »
Free Training – Preparing for Impact in REF 2029
A reminder that the three-part webinar series from hivve titled Preparing for Impact in REF 2029 starts next week. Following the December 2023 announcement from UKRI that REF would be postponed until 2029, this free series is aimed at UK academics who want to get to grips with research impact in general, what the REF requirements… Read more »
HE policy update 22nd January 2024
This seemed like a good moment to explain what the Lifelong Learning Entitlement is really about and what it means for universities (spoiler: a lot of administrative work and not much else, in the short term), and this update also includes some horizon scanning by UKRI, some data on staff numbers and applications and a… Read more »
Free research impact training from Fast Track Impact
Free sessions from Fast Track Impact on preparing for REF2029, scoping an ethics of engagement and impact, integrating impact into your next funding bid and influencing policy. Book soon as some of these events only have a few spaces left. Preparing for REF2029 Date: 5 February, 2024 Time: 10:00 – 13:00 This session will help you monitor,… Read more »
HE policy update 15th January 2024
Politics and Parliament The PM has confirmed that 2 by-elections will be held in February. (from the FT) The Conservatives on Thursday moved the writ for by-elections to be held in Wellingborough in the east Midlands and Kingswood, near Bristol, both of which were held by Tory MPs. Peter Bone won Wellingborough in 2019 with… Read more »
HE policy update: outlook for 2024
New year, new start for the BU HE policy update. It’s an election year, so I will be looking at the policies, predictions and plots as the year unfolds alongside the usual news and comment. I’ll be trying some new approaches this year so let me know what you think. Alongside all the policy and… Read more »
HE policy update w/c 2nd Jan 2024
Welcome to the first update of 2024, which brings you up to date with what happened before the holidays. We’ve provided pop out documents so those with a keen interest in each topic can read more detailed summaries. We’ve the latest on the Renters (Reform) Bill, REF has been delayed until 2029, we summarise the… Read more »
New Nepal paper published
BMJ Global Health published our latest paper today under the title ‘The impact of decentralisation on health systems: a systematic review of reviews‘ [1]. This so-called review of reviews is part of a larger study funded by the UK Health Systems Research Initiative [Grant ref. MR/T023554/1]. in this larger Nepal Federal Health System Project we study… Read more »
Upcoming opportunities & training for policy influencing
Final round-up of the year from Parliament The following opportunities to engage with policymakers and Parliament have been compiled by UK Parliament’s Knowledge Exchange Unit (KEU). If you’d like to be kept up to date, you can also subscribe directly to KEU’s weekly round-up: Select committee inquiries launched in the last week (since 6 December 2023)… Read more »
BU carbon pricing research cited in select committee report on the financial sector and the UK’s net zero transition
BU research on the impact of carbon pricing has featured in a House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) report on the role of the financial sector in helping the UK achieve net zero emissions by 2050. A cross-faculty team comprising Dr Alan Kirkpatrick and Dr Tahani Mohamed of the Business School and Dr Festus Adedoyin of the Faculty of Science and Technology submitted written evidence… Read more »
MaGPIE has taken flight!
“There is not one region in the world, not one historical period, that has not seen mass graves”. (UN Special Rapporteur on extra-judicial summary or arbitrary executions, 2020) Wednesday 13th December marked the launch of MaGPIE, the pioneering £1.6 million ERC selected UKRI funded research project, run out of the Humanities & Law department… Read more »
Food for Thought for Parliament: Presenting Consumer Insights to All Party Parliamentary Group
Professor in Consumer Behaviour Jeff Bray writes about his experiences presenting his research to an All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG)… Earlier this term I received an unsolicited invitation to attend Parliament and present my research to an All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG). It was the first time that I received such a request and immediately… Read more »