The second biggest story of the day (from my colleague Luca Lombardo)… “With only 63,600 EU students in the UK in 2024/25, restoring their home fee status would add up roughly to £500 million per cohort, which is the same sum the government found in 2025 to back underrepresented entrepreneurs.”

Good to see this covered! Given govt spent £500m to reassociate (!) this is surely a no-brainer. Max ~30k p/a Erasmus students studied in the UK. Charging unis £925 per inbound student (when they don't even pay fees!) doesn't exactly scream 'please sign up to Erasmus again'...

NEW on Wonkhe: New analysis from the British Academy shows us huge areas of the country where key areas of humanities, arts, and social sciences are not taught. Ruairi Cullen has the details buff.ly/oHLZ4xW

The strong regional focus in the Edu Select Committee HE inquiry report out today is important and welcome; very proud the BA team’s research ended up having a big influence. If you want to chat HE research (especially how to fix things) I’m a dweeb who lives for this stuff - drop me a line!

NEW ISSUE: In this special extra edition of Renewal, @louisehaighmp.bsky.social, @yuanfenyang.bsky.social, and other members of the Tribune Group of Labour MPs set out paths to repairing Britain's broken economic settlement. renewal.org.uk/journal/volu...

“Like a badly-wired plug, the English HE system operated, but the longer it did so, the more likely it would spark. The current financial state of the sector suggests that, somewhere, the fire has already begun.” My first essay for The Post-18 Project is published today.

When politicians or commentators recommend school leavers become plumbers or electricians, typically they are often referring to other people’s kids as.ft.com/r/27211f5e-b...

"I’m very worried about what is being destroyed. We’re all extremely worried, because what we’re seeing is the ad hoc closure and drastic cutting of many, many departments across the country." Historian Lyndal Roper in today's THE: bit.ly/4sqsfJ2 #Skystorians 1/2

Totally superb and fearless writing here from Susan Pedersen. “…any man shocked by the Epstein story has been working over time at shutting his eyes” www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Fantastic to have Science Minister Lord Vallance open our @britishacademy.bsky.social sector conference this morning. He talks eloquently about protecting and growing curiosity driven research which does not provide a return during a single Parliamentary cycle

Closure of language courses is ‘national catastrophe’, warns VC. Birmingham leader Adam Tickell says “institutional mergers” may be needed to protect “national cultural assets”. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...

Why did the People's Vote campaign fail? Could Brexit have been stopped? What lessons can be learned? Join us on 19 March to launch @morganj0nes.bsky.social's new book: "No Second Chances: The Inside Story of the Campaign for a Second Referendum". All welcome! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/no-second-...

We are continuing to call for the government to withdraw the International Student Levy. This levy will add more financial pressure to a system under strain, threatening the UK’s research excellence, global reputation, and economic competitiveness.

Super exciting to see this in the flesh! This was such a side project for me but I got so much from it and loved having the opportunity to do it!

NEW on Wonkhe: Jim Dickinson assembles cross-national evidence showing Britain's shrinking graduate premium is a demand-side problem – and that closing courses won't fix it buff.ly/dGzdEAF

Reading @morganj0nes.bsky.social’s new book as it was meant to be read (on a Eurozone mini break necking a Cruzcampo)

Some great (if utterly depressing) charts and commentary from @jburnmurdoch.ft.com in @data.ft.com today. First one is a zinger… #studentloans

Interesting to see David Willetts today talking course closures and cold spots in UK HE: Willetts calls for expansion of strategic/vulnerable subject funding to protect humanities (and especially languages) degrees, particularly given their importance for defence and national security…

Really great to see Medr's Welsh HE subject provision deep dive out today, citing and following British Academy research into widening cold spots in Welsh HE, particularly in languages degrees (yes, including degrees in Welsh) www.medr.cymru/wp-content/u...

'The ground-breaking study from the University of Stirling will examine the educational, economic, social and cultural factors that impact on language learning, analysing the different approaches and outcomes in Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.'

I have joined The Post 18 Project as our first Director: my first intervention is to pour out my thoughts about why our student loan system is doomed, no matter how good policy works think it is. post18.co.uk/a-review-of-...

‘If I think about what this means, I want to cry’: what happens when a city loses its university?

'With cost-of-living pressures still severe, 45 per cent of UK 18-year-olds stated that...they intend to live at home for their studies – up from 43 per cent the year before. Among the total student population, this proportion is now almost half (49 per cent).' 2/2

The way to prevent regional HE cold spots is unis collaborating - but the CMA say likely only ok to jointly run courses 'if there are many providers offering a course nationally + the course tends to attract students from across the country who have other good options' (!) www.gov.uk/government/p...

This is why the @britishacademy.bsky.social is so worried about regional ‘cold spots’ in the provision of key university courses - young people who can’t afford the costs or the commute miss out on life-changing opportunities in labour markets that need these skills… www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Plus @christabelcoops.bsky.social @redrabbleroz.bsky.social @marzmac.bsky.social @lucydelap.bsky.social and many more! For full and unfettered access to the issue (online and in a lovely print edition) when it comes out I think you should subscribe here: renewal.org.uk

Lords debate on steep challenges to MFL language teacher recruitment (live now) - sobering discussion on a growing crisis, and the very real danger of languages vanishing from most young people's educational offer in the near future: parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/2bb318d7-b85d-4667-a579-0e9736398f42

England’s qualifications regulator Ofqual has said it would ‘welcome any interest’ from an awarding organisation looking to gain recognition to provide GCSEs, after all four existing exam boards in the country ruled out developing courses for the proposed British Sign Language (BSL) GCSE.

We have responded to the OfS consultation on quality regulation. We welcome some proposals, including the expansion of TEF to all providers. Yet we are concerned about proposals to transform the TEF’s core aims and raise the stakes of TEF performance. Here are our key takeaways:

Lots at stake in the OfS' new proposals for quality regulation and the future of the TEF! Read the British Academy's view below. Yes we went through all 246 subproposals (and eight annexes) so you don't have to - merry christmas: www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/60...

Hooray www.theguardian.com/education/20...

British Academy's pioneering 'cold spots' work now replicated by HESA. 'University "cold spots" are developing in some parts of the country, new data analysis suggests, with courses in some subjects no longer available to students in certain regions.' 1/2

All these questions prove is that very few people have the slightest clue what an apprenticeship actually looks like these days.

One of the reasons that emergence of ‘cold spots’ of subject provision matters: 52% of 18 year olds from the most disadvantaged backgrounds (the most deprived quintile in the Indices of Multiple Deprivation) plan to live at home when they go the university www.thetimes.com/article/22cc...

'This was even higher among the most disadvantaged students, with more than half (52 per cent) stating that this was their intention – meaning they are three times as likely to be based at home as their wealthy peers.' How/why Cold Spots really and increasingly matter to equality/inequality. 3/3

'A record 90,000 undergraduates are living at home this year, according to new figures from the university admissions service.' 1/3

Can confirm this is an excellent role! You'll be joining a fantastic team at an exciting time and working on some really interesting stuff. Plenty of time to apply over the Christmas break!

‘No one seems to care’: scholars decry plight of British Library Historian Peter Mandler said it was “a sorry state when a major piece of public infrastructure like this is hit so badly and no one in authority even seems to notice, much less care”. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-c...

Really enjoyed this on the fading regional promise of higher education: ‘We’ve never really believed in geographical equity in higher education. We’ve played at it, thrown money at it during boom times, made speeches about it. But when times get hard… the cold spots are always first to lose out.’

If you are a historian with policy-facing interests who has recently submitted their PhD (or will do so imminently), this fantastic new London-based postdoc fellowship in Applied History could be for you. www.history.ac.uk/fellowships/...

What a wonderful story - and a beautiful illustration of the power of the arts. Great writing expands our imagination. It helps us to see the world in new ways. And that has consequences that can never be measured by "average starting salaries" or "contribution to GDP".

Not reposting in agreement with the 10 principles (I disagree strongly on several), but because it's the 1st open, comprehensive agenda responding to post-16 White Paper (and the obvious direction of travel in DSIT/UKRI) I've seen from a sitting VC. Principle 2, subject provision, merits more. 1/6

What's lost when we lose staff, departments, programmes and faculties in Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, and what's that got to do with organ donation? Amid the looming losses faced by Cardiff, Edinburgh, Lancaster, Leicester and Nottingham (among many others), here's a worked example. 1/8

Did you take part in a mock election at your UK school or college between 1983 and 2001? Share your memories for a research project on young people and democracy in modern Britain! Write to us about your experiences here: forms.office.com/e/FNAwjfFR7f

‘However, the removal of the EBacc measure, coupled with the Government’s proposed changes to Progress 8, puts the humanities in direct competition with each other and with the arts.’ Glad to see the HA aligning with @britishacademy.bsky.social on this: humanities AND arts, not either/or, surely?

'Music and modern foreign languages degrees are among courses being suspended at the University of Nottingham, with the institution saying it “cannot rely on additional income” from the coming tuition fee rises.' 1/3

Coverage in The Times of our concerns about how languages will fare under the proposed changes to the national curriculum www.thetimes.com/article/9b0f... @britishacademy.bsky.social @cforsdick.bsky.social

EBacc was never perfect - but it was an important guard-rail around languages take-up at GCSE and sent a strong signal about the vital place of languages in any truly broad and balanced curriculum. It's hard to see how abolishing EBacc won't ultimately hit GCSE MFL entries hard.

Dusting this one off today...