Mike Ratcliffe
@mike-rat.bsky.social
đ€ 560
đ„ 91
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Student and university administrator
https://moremeansbetter.wordpress.com
Fantastic lecture from Prof Georgina Brewis on the public and popular history of university students. Showed how this has changed across the 20th century, but also how the methodology of doing that history has changed - now rooted in oral and material histories
#UCL200
#IOELectures
2 days ago
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More from
@natsecsoc.bsky.social
on questions that OfS arenât answering about providers who governing documents actually do chill free speech and academic freedom. As theyâve not had an answer from the notifications process, theyâre off to court.
www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/why-...
add a skeleton here at some point
3 days ago
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OfS degree awarding powers news: a two year extension to the DAPs for Richmond, the American International University in London. A question I continue to have is why is Richmond is allowed to use university title when it doesnât have indefinite DAPs?
4 days ago
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Josh Fleming writes that the OfS wants the sector to âhave clarity on the regulatory environment in which they operateâ, so they wonât appeal the outcome judicial review of their investigation into Sussex on freedom of speech.
www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/why-...
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Why we are not appealing the Sussex free speech case
Letting the judgment against the OfS stand is the best way to achieve freedom of speech and academic freedom across English HE, says Josh Fleming.
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/why-we-are-not-appealing-sussex-free-speech-case
5 days ago
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Among the LLE news today is the guidance on standardised transcripts. Focused on issuing for each âmoduleâ (which DfE use to refer to the stand-alone 30 credit offering) thereâs some challenges - such as an assumption that modules will be from the same parent course.
www.gov.uk/government/p...
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Lifelong learning entitlement (LLE) modules: standardised transcripts
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/lifelong-learning-entitlement-lle-modules-standardised-transcripts/lifelong-learning-entitlement-lle-modules-standardised-transcripts
5 days ago
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OfS register news: one less provider. The Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust has voluntarily left the register as it has âmerged with North London NHS foundation and no longer delivers HEâ. In 24/25 there were 310 FT & 720 PT PG students taught or registered at this provider.
6 days ago
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HESA finance data published this week contains the head of provider remuneration table. At the highest end are the heads of multi-billion turnover research intensive universities and the highly competitive business/social science schools. And some of the for-profit providers.
add a skeleton here at some point
9 days ago
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Naturally the Red Route/L10 corridor is first on Paulâs list of outstanding features of UK HE; but to think of it as a long corridor is to miss how magnificent it is from the outside. (Photos from Simon Phippsâs brilliant Brutal North book)
add a skeleton here at some point
9 days ago
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The OfS warns against over-optimism. If you were thinking of being optimistic about the finances of English higher education, thereâs a report here for you:
www.officeforstudents.org.uk/news-blog-an...
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OfS warns against persistent over-optimism as analysis finds institutions under continued financial pressure - Office for Students
The Office for Studentsâ (OfS) annual financial sustainability report shows that, while higher education institutions reported a small improvement in financial performance in 2024-25, they remain unde...
https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/news-blog-and-events/press-and-media/ofs-warns-against-persistent-over-optimism-as-analysis-finds-institutions-under-continued-financial-pressure/
10 days ago
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Itâs exactly 25 years since the last football match at the old Manor Ground in Headington. As part of an ongoing tribute to the old ground, Oxfordshire have maintained a controlled parking zone system that stops people parking 2-4 on Saturday afternoons.
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
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Oxford United - 25 years since we said farewell to the Manor - BBC Sounds
Nick Harris took a trip back up Headington Hill to reminisce, with Lilley Mitchell.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0nkknl0
11 days ago
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Peter Scott argues that a policy of il est bon de tuer de temps en temps une Université pour encourager les autres is no way to run a higher education regulator.
www.hepi.ac.uk/2026/05/11/f...
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Free speech, bias and the case of the OfS vs Sussex - HEPI
Over the weekend HEPI published a blog on subject-linked maintenance grants and a book review of Danny Scottâs book âThe Undisputed King of Selstonâ. This blog was kindly authored by Professor Sir Pet...
https://www.hepi.ac.uk/2026/05/11/free-speech-bias-and-the-case-of-the-ofs-vs-sussex/
13 days ago
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OfS provider news. Global University Systems, through a joint venture with Brightstar Capital Partners, has acquired Study Groupâs academic operations.
news.sky.com/story/mark-k...
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Mark Kleinman blog | See the latest stories from Sky News' City editor
Mark Kleinman has broken numerous major stories about the corporate and financial sectors since joining Sky News in 2009. See his latest stories, analysis and updates here, and follow him on X at @Mar...
https://news.sky.com/story/mark-kleinman-blog-see-the-latest-stories-from-sky-news-city-editor-13475361
14 days ago
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The celebration of David Attenboroughâs birthday today has included media teams posting photos of a panoply of academic dress of higher doctorates of British universities.
15 days ago
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Itâs nice to see a northern powerhouse adopt quaint traditions just like a southern teacher training college did.
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16 days ago
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Sites of former HEIs: a series. Lady Mabel College, an emergency teacher training college. It merged with Sheffield City Polytechnic in the 1970s and teaching stopped at Wentworth Woodhouse in 1986.
20 days ago
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At Firth Hall - ceremonial hub and concert venue. This had been dissertation deadline week, so great to see happy students enjoying their last concert.
20 days ago
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You can visit the former sites of HEIs, but you can also find remnants of former identities in the university library. The books themselves carry the names of predecessor colleges.
moremeansbetter.wordpress.com/2026/05/02/a...
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Another thing your library can tell you about your universityâs history
There are remnants of previous institutional identities lurking on the library. A look at three universities where you can find book plates from former colleges.
https://moremeansbetter.wordpress.com/2026/05/02/another-thing-your-library-can-tell-you-about-your-universitys-history/
22 days ago
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Thereâs an HE policy announcement from Reform but am struggling to find the detail. The video conflates different types of âforeignâ students; those who already have settled status and those being sponsored for a visa. Apparently fewer of them (?) will save money.
24 days ago
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So, farewell to commuting to the South West. No more awful connections with hanging about in Didcot. No more contemplating why itâs cheaper to go Oxford to Bristol Parkway than Didcot to Bristol Parkway. Next week: commuting to the furthest reaches of the South East.
24 days ago
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The OIA Annual Report highlights the problem with the DET course. Brit College's 2024 abridged accounts said it had ÂŁ1m in cash but it refused to refund and compensate students who could not get the qualification they had signed up for. The college is now in administration.
add a skeleton here at some point
25 days ago
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An interesting day ahead for the regulation of higher education in England. Judgement on the University of Sussex case: on freedom of speech but also on governance.
25 days ago
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DfE spotted a problem with the Diploma in Education & Training course, got Ofsted to do some inspections, digested those, removed the course's eligibility for funding and changed who could train FE lecturers. Now OfS is doing a retrospective review.
www.officeforstudents.org.uk/news-blog-an...
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OfS announces a review into the Diploma in Education and Training course - Office for Students
The Office for Students (OfS) is launching a review into the Diploma in Education and Training (DET) course, a UK teaching qualification for those teaching in the further education and the skills sect...
https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/news-blog-and-events/press-and-media/ofs-announces-a-review-into-the-diploma-in-education-and-training-course/
26 days ago
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Today the Power to Award Degrees etc (Spurgeonâs College) (Revocation) Order 2026 comes into force. Itâs the first time OfS has removed DAPs for a provider thatâs actually exercised them. Brief update to this blog on DAPs and their possible transfer.
moremeansbetter.wordpress.com/2025/11/05/w...
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Who will buy these wonderful Degree Awarding Powers?
Thereâs a market for UK degree awarding powers. Someone made Buckingham an offer they could refuse and when Spurgeonâs College went bust people made them offers. Whatâs going on?
https://moremeansbetter.wordpress.com/2025/11/05/who-will-buy-these-wonderful-degree-awarding-powers/
27 days ago
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Fantastic to be in Durham for
@burgonsociety.bsky.social
spring conference. Academic dress is interesting in its own right, but it illuminates much about university history, including the development of subjects and perceived hierarchies between them.
#histed
28 days ago
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Former sites of HEIs: a series. Darlington College of Education, 1872-1978. It focused on nursery education. Building became an arts centre, but is now flats. Has a good institutional history by the then Principal Olive Stanton, âOur Present Opportunitiesâ published in 1966
29 days ago
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Plenary celebrating the work of Professor Claire Calendar - a focus on the funding of HE. Hearing of her contribution to forcing the issue of PT students into the policy sphere and the understanding of the impact of debt on the lived experience of graduates. Timely with the Plan 2 debate.
about 1 month ago
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This is an excellent discussion on the attractiveness of a graduate tax - of course
@jonathansimons.bsky.social
is right. Everyone who has looked at this has rejected it. Itâs simply not viable.
add a skeleton here at some point
about 1 month ago
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Ahead of questions in Parliament, DfE confirms that they will commence some more parts of the HE(FoS) Act - allowing staff, visiting speakers etc to complain to OfS. A scheme was consulted on before by OfS so presumably they exhume that.
questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-stat...
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Written statements - Written questions, answers and statements - UK Parliament
Information from UK Parliament on written questions & answers, written statements and daily reports.
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2026-04-20/hcws1525
about 1 month ago
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The Charity Commission should take a view on whether a charity should be allowed to sell its operating arm. There are particular issues about C&G, but this has implications for the conversion of charitable HE providers into for-profit variants.
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
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Fee hikes, big bonuses, then bosses exit: the curious case of City & Guilds privatisation
Sale of vocational training brand and million-pound executive pay deals now subject to Charity Commission inquiry
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2026/apr/19/fee-bonuses-bosses-city-and-guilds-privatisation-charity-commission
about 1 month ago
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Do we plan new higher education provision properly? I found a presentation from my first visit to UWE in 2009 which highlights various schemes with a spatial planning theme - some more successful than others. How will the newly announced TECs fare?
moremeansbetter.wordpress.com/2026/04/16/m...
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Mapping the history of Higher Education highlights the cold spots
An old presentation from 2009 highlights spatial planning of higher education in Britain and Ireland. Few formal exercises have happened, but in 2009 a new âUniversity Challengeâ was unâŠ
https://moremeansbetter.wordpress.com/2026/04/16/mapping-the-history-of-higher-education-highlights-the-cold-spots/
about 1 month ago
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Itâs a mistake for DfE to render the LLE into a cash figure rather than credits. Every year the LLE will change and modules taken in the past will have weird values.
www.timeshighereducation.com/news/degree-...
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Degree-holders allowed access to extra student finance under LLE
Historic tuition fee rates adjusted to current levels, leaving those who have undertaken traditional three-year programme ÂŁ9,790 to play with
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/degree-holders-allowed-access-extra-student-finance-under-lle
about 1 month ago
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Do âBible Collegesâ meet the public interest governance principles on academic freedom and freedom of speech as required in OfS Condition E1?
@natsecsoc.bsky.social
writes to
@houseoflords.parliament.uk
Industry & Regulators Committee.
committees.parliament.uk/publications...
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https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/52545/documents/292534/default/
about 1 month ago
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A weekend of celebrations of pedestrianisation and low traffic neighbourhoods in Oxford (masquerading as a folk festival). Even has proper April showers.
about 1 month ago
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Former sites of HE providers: a series. The former orphan houses at Ashley Down founded by George MĂŒller were used by the college that split becoming Bath University and Bristol Polytechnic. Part of West of England College of Art was also here. Now used as housing & City of Bristol College.
about 1 month ago
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OfS degree awarding powers news: two orders for Spurgeonâs College will be revoked from 27 April 2026. Spurgeonâs is in administration, it had facilitated 132 students to transfer after its sudden closure, but has left the register.
about 1 month ago
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This is an interesting set of responses from
@tom-richmond.com
to the charge that some HE providers are taking excessive risks. Some suggested interventions are targeted and proportional, others just provoking. Good to have the debate thoughâŠ
www.hepi.ac.uk/reports/a-de...
about 1 month ago
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Sites of former HE providers: a series. The building for St Peterâs College was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott. The Church of England closed it twice; it was reopened by the ministry in 1945 as an emergency teacher training college but closed again. The site is just outside the Close.
about 2 months ago
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Sites of former HE providers: a series. In 1335 the regulator (Edward III) suppressed the University of Stamford. Masters of Arts at Oxford continued to swear not to teach at any other university in England except Cambridge and specifically not Stamford until 1827.
#Histed
about 2 months ago
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While itâs possible for a government to do two things at once, it does seem extraordinary that the US government has turned its attention to the money being spent on College football.
www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
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Urgent National Action to Save College Sports
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/04/urgent-national-action-to-save-college-sports/
about 2 months ago
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More on the potential sale of the University of Buckinghamâs operation to a for-profit company. Thereâs a fine piece of mischief in here - the picture used is of the former Crewe campus - an utterly disastrous initiative.
thecritic.co.uk/asset-stripp...
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Asset-stripping on campus? | Tim Congdon | The Critic Magazine
Selling universities to private companies risks destroying their charitable purpose
https://thecritic.co.uk/asset-stripping-on-campus/
about 2 months ago
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Our biggest concern must be for genuine students caught in this problem. But, as Jim notes, have DfE/SLC made an assumption that many arenât genuine? They have the numbers from cases such as ABA, Brit & OBC - is that why? And then, what happens when the college goes bust?
wonkhe.com/wonk-corner/...
add a skeleton here at some point
about 2 months ago
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Sites of former HEIs: Wesley College, Bristol. An example of planned consolidation, the Methodist Church bought a new site in 1946, selling other colleges and amalgamating them. But costs were too high and the college was closed (see archived website) now a retirement home.
about 2 months ago
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There's a lot of very sound advice in this
@lseheblog.bsky.social
podcast - doing HE mergers for strategically sound reasons is the best option - they are not a way of saving money in the short term.
blogs.lse.ac.uk/highereducat...
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University mergers: head, heart, and hidden costs - LSE Higher Education
With UK universities facing severe financial pressure, merger talk is everywhere. In this podcast, Elisabeth Hill, Chris Husbands, and Huw Morris warn that purely financially driven mergers without st...
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/highereducation/2026/03/31/university-mergers-head-heart-and-hidden-costs/
about 2 months ago
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Outcomes-based regulation has failed to maintain what Sir David Watson called the âcontrolled reputational rangeâ. Here
@jimdickinson.bsky.social
joins the dots - the picture is a group of for-profit providers (mostly franchising) making a lot of money.
wonkhe.com/blogs/regula...
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https://wonkhe.com/blogs/regulatory-failure-is-letting-ways-to-widen-access-get-a-bad-name/
about 2 months ago
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Another reminder of the wide world of higher education - at Euston yesterday saw people with these distinctive bright green scarves. Awards from CNM in herbal medicine, homeopathy and nutrition at ceremony in Friends House.
m.youtube.com/watch?v=HZtv...
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đ CNM Graduation Ceremony 2026 â Live Stream
YouTube video by College of Naturopathic Medicine
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HZtvsqKpCb4
about 2 months ago
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Former sites of HEIs: a series. The shared home of the LCC Central School and the London Day Training College. Opened by Lord Rosebery in 1907, the LDTC had moved from sharing with Northampton Institute. It later moved to Senate House then Bedford Way.
#UCL200
#Histed
about 2 months ago
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Hereâs another problem arising from franchising - students who were promised they could study just at the weekend only shouldnât have been eligible for FT maintenance loans.
www.politicshome.com/news/article...
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Over A Dozen Universities Wrongly Spent ÂŁ190m Of Taxpayers' Money On Student Loans
Exclusive: A student loans mistake by universities has seen up to ÂŁ190m of taxpayersâ money wrongly given to unaware students, PoliticsHome can rev...
https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/universities-wrongly-spent-nearly-two-hundred-million-taxypayers-money-student-loans
about 2 months ago
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Nice to see
@ukri.org
explaining its role at Swindon railway station. Posters may be old school advertising, but this campaign explains the difference that research makes to lives.
www.ukri.org/news-and-eve...
about 2 months ago
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Another FE merger brings the number of registered providers down to 425. Exeter College has merged with North Devon College and so Petroc has come off the register. The college uses the name 'University Centre for Northern Devon' but it's not listed as trading name by OfS.
about 2 months ago
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We now have measures from OfS and DfE to protect public money by strengthening oversight of partnership delivery. But, if some partnerships with non-genuine students close, where will the money go? A blog on precedents:
moremeansbetter.wordpress.com/2026/03/24/w...
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Where will the money to pay for delivering courses to people who arenât genuine students go?
Thereâs a concern that there are ânon-genuineâ students in the system. Should delivery partners be allowed to keep the profits from âteachingâ them?
https://moremeansbetter.wordpress.com/2026/03/24/where-will-the-money-to-pay-for-delivering-courses-to-people-who-arent-genuine-students-go/
2 months ago
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