BU Research Blog

Monday

Inequality

A study has revealed that high-achieving children from privileged backgrounds in England have a 53 per cent chance of entering a Russell Group university, compared with a one in four chance for their disadvantaged peers. Affluent children reach top universities no matter the system (THE).

Tuesday

Learning Gain 

Soon, there will be new efforts to explore the ‘learning gain’ which is known as the skills and knowledge that students develop in higher education. HEFCE is soon to launch around a dozen pilot projects to look at ways to measure the learning gain. One attempt to answer this is the Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes (Ahelo) run by the OCED. Earlier this month, however, it was announced that England would not be taking part in Ahelo, many have greeted the news with relief. Universities say no to new ranking (The Guardian).

UUK campaign for Europe

Universities UK have officially launched their Universities for Europe campaign. The aim of the campaign is to ensure that the significant benefits of EU membership to universities – and through them, to the British people – are properly explained. Higher education 

University leaders make the case for EU membership (UUK).

REF

James Wilsdon has written a blog in defence of the REF exercise following the attack by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA). In a five-page briefing, the IEA calls for the REF to be abolished because it is too costly, distorts research priorities and can be gamed. “The UK universities need the REF. We benefit enormously from the stable and relatively unrestricted funding that it delivers each year to our research system. And that system has been strengthened by the REF’s emphasis on the wider impacts of UK research, which are now captured in a searchable database of almost 7,000 case studies.” In defence of the Research Excellence Framework (The Guardian).

Wednesday

Business-University Collaboration

A third of companies surveyed by the data firm Beauhurst, said that academics lack the commercial understanding needed to make a business-university collaboration work. Academics lack understanding to make business-university links work, says study (THE).

University Finances

An article looks at the likely impacts of the latest round of cuts on universities and discusses how institutions may manage their finances. Hard Evidence: are universities strapped for cash? (The Conversation).

Thursday

TEF

Madeleine Atkins, the Chief Executive of HEFCE has argued that new arrangements for quality assurance and the teaching excellence framework should form a single overall system to avoid unnecessary bureaucracy and duplication. Quality assurance and TEF should be ‘one system’, says Hefce head (THE).

Tuition Fees

A report by the Sutton Trust has revealed that poorer students in England may be put off university by funding changes that could leave them with higher debts than middle-class graduates helped by their parents.  Higher debts may deter poor students from university, says report (BBC).

UK interdisciplinary research

A report by Elsevier explored international comparisons with UK interdisciplinary research. The report highlights an increasing global trend towards interdisciplinarity and confirms the UK’s world-leading research performance. Review of the UK’s interdisciplinary research (HEFCE).

Friday

Widening Participation

Sixth-formers are more likely to go to university if they are told about the social benefits rather than shown the potential long-term financial gains, new research from the government’s nudge unit (Cabinet Office behavioural insights team) has found. Tales of social life are best advert for university (The Times).