We’re going early again this week as we have a big focus on this week’s big report, and we’re sure you all want to know (although there is a lot of coverage). There is other news as well. Augar recommendations for the Review of Post-18 Education and Funding So finally, the long awaited report has… 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.
HE Policy update for the w/e 24th May 2019
We usually post these early on a Monday morning so you can all catch up before you start the week, but we write them on a Friday – these days they can be out of date within 10 minutes, let alone after a weekend. So this week we are going early! EU election results will… Read more »
HE Policy Update for the w/e 17th May 2019 (a bit early)
This week’s policy update is an early (almost) mid-week treat. There will be a bumper edition next week. The Minister defends universities Chris Skidmore was in front of Education Committee on Wednesday at an accountability hearing. You can watch it here. In the parts we watched, he answered questions on encouraging apprenticeships, and while he… Read more »
HE policy update for the w/e 10th May 2019
Research The Universities Minister, has delivered the first in a series of four planned speeches on how the UK can best achieve its ambition to invest 2.4% of GDP in R&D by 2027. It was a surprising speech in some ways, short on announcements, although there were some, and long on wishful thinking. We’ve pulled… Read more »
HE policy update for the w/e 3rd May 2019
Did you know you can access previous editions of the policy update online here? You can also find them on the BU research blog by searching on the “policy” category, although that is often a shorter version without the pictures. Local elections If you are reading this on Friday, the results are still being announced. The… Read more »
HE policy update for the w/e 26th April 2019
Brexit No news, just speculation this week. We’re currently predicting nothing will change and the UK will leave the EU without a deal on Halloween, even though that is the only option that MPs seem to be able to agree that a majority of them don’t want. There was a PQ, though, on Horizon 2020 Q… Read more »
HRA Research Transparency Strategy Group minutes available
The Health Research Authority (HRA) has formed the Research Transparency Strategy Group in response to the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee Report on clinical trials transparency. You can read more about the first meeting of the expert group, including the minutes by clicking here In relation to this, the HRA’s Director of Policy,… Read more »
BU migration health stakeholders’ meetings in Malaysia
BU’s researchers Dr. Pramod Raj Regmi and Dr. Nirmal Aryal have recently visited Malaysia for a consultation meeting. They organised meetings with stakeholders working on migration health related and Nepali migrant workers as Public Patient Involvement (PPI ) in Malaysia. These meetings discussed risk factors for sudden nocturnal deaths and kidney disease among Nepali migrant… Read more »
HE policy update for the w/e 12th April 2019
Brexit So we aren’t leaving the EU on 12th April – not that anyone really thought we would. Although the decision made by the EU in the middle of Thursday night means that we could leave at some stage up to the 1st June, it seems far more likely that EU elections will be held… Read more »
HE Policy update for the w/e 5th April 2019
A week is a long time at the moment. We have a mixed bag this week but we lead with Brexit to get it over with. Brexit In the Westminster Brexit bubble things can turn upside down several times in the space of a week. And even though many more people are watching Parliament live… Read more »
HE policy update for the w/e 22nd March 2019
This week we’ve got the government’s international education strategy alongside data that shows the value of international students to the UK. We’ve got a consultation on dropping BTECs, some less than impressive data on educational attainment, more campaigning on essay mills and of course, our take on the B word. And SUBU’s Sophie Bradfield explains… Read more »
HE policy update for the w/e 15th March 2019
A lively week in Westminster although not much specifically for HE – the Spring Statement had a few good news stories for us, although it’s all provisional because of Brexit, and of course that is the real story of the week. In fact not much has changed, the end result of the votes is as… Read more »
HE policy update for the w/e 8th March 2019
And it’s a bumper version this week, with a lot of really interesting new data, a super-critical TEF response from the Royal Statistical Society and we continue the speculation on fees and funding and Brexit. Mental Health Damian Hinds, Secretary of State, for education has launched a new taskforce to help students with the transition… Read more »
Nursing news – nursing degree apprenticeships: in poor health?
In December 2018 The Education Committee reviewed nursing degree apprenticeships and produced the report Nursing degree apprenticeships: in poor health? The Committee warned that the uptake of nursing degree apprenticeships has been too slow (only 30 started last year) and that the DfE won’t meet their target of 400 nursing associates progressing to degree apprenticeships from 2019…. Read more »
HE policy update for the w/e 1st March 2019
It’s a big week for TEF and new guidance is out on access and participation. No real news on the post-18 review but it’s apparently coming “in the Spring”. Policy watchers will remember that these terms are flexible in government circles – optimists enjoying the recent sunshine and the daffodils will think Spring is upon… Read more »
BU contributes to International Conference in India.
This past weekend saw BU Visiting Professor Padam Simkhada, who is a Professor of International Public Health in the Public Health Institute at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), delivering the keynote speech in an International Conference on Mixed-Methods Research (ICMMR 2019). His presentation at the conference, held at the Mahatma Gandhi University in Kerala (India), was held on Saturday. The… Read more »
Get an insider’s view on how to influence policymakers in Parliament
If you would like your research to have a real impact on policy decisions at a national level, you may want to book onto Achieving Policy Impact in the UK Parliament – a special workshop run by Sarah Foxen of the Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology (POST), the UK parliament’s knowledge exchange unit. This event takes… Read more »
HE Policy Update for the w/e 15th February 2019
We expect that Philip Augar will publish the report of his independent panel shortly. The Panel is advising the Department for Education on the Review of Post-18 Education and Funding and the Augar report has been badged by the DfE as an “interim” report. Although the Augar report will no doubt grab headlines, after much… Read more »