A chance to buy part of a former site of an HEI. Redland Hill House was part of a post-war emergency teacher training college, which merged with Bristol Polytechnic in 1975. This building had been a school, but now up for auction. www.hollismorgan.co.uk/property-det...

One of the criteria for this funding relates to the Defence Universities Alliance - where only providers that have ‘approval for university title’ are eligible. I wonder what the MoD understands by that? Using ‘university’ in your name or title? moremeansbetter.wordpress.com/2026/02/02/w...

So I got to thinking there should be a list of University Centres. These are good things; often the only HE in town. Turns out there are more than you’d think and more than DfE or OfS have on lists they have. So I made my own list. moremeansbetter.wordpress.com/2026/02/12/a...

This is an interesting account of the merger that created @citystgeorges.bsky.social. There are key insights in here but as noted there isn’t a mergers playbook, so each one will be different. Headroom - both financial and institutional capacity - is key. www.hepi.ac.uk/reports/we-b...

If you thought that universities were exaggerating the threat they might run out of money, here’s the scary bit from Lincoln Bishop’s annual report.

Anniversaries are a great incentive to look at institutional history, but it’s wonderful that this new history is so firmly looking at students. Particularly exciting to see what’s been found about the cohorts from the earliest days. #UCL200 blogs.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/2026/02/...

OfS degree awarding powers news. Pointblank Music School has time-limited powers up to bachelors degrees in specific areas. The powers come into force on 1 April 2026 and are for four years.

The only redeeming part of the discussion about tuition fees on Politics South was that the picture featured graduates of Portsmouth university (which they had interviewed students at).

The last of the ‘boots on the ground’ assessments concludes today with regulatory action. OfS opened an investigation in May 2022, appointed a team in November 2022 which concluded their assessment in May 2023. A report was published in October 2024. www.officeforstudents.org.uk/news-blog-an...

Ok, so this is clearly not what I want to know about the ‘super-university’ but I think I might be less triggered by these headlines if this was a ‘supra-university’. This is one university joining another but keeping its identity. ‘Super’ comes later. www.independent.co.uk/bulletin/new...

Southend: “How can you have a city without a university?” Coastal communities particularly hit by the withdrawal of HE provision. You can build it (capital funding comes along in waves) but if they only come in the hundreds, there’s no additional recurrent funds. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

If we are serious about student protection; then a form of administration for HE providers in liquidation seems necessary. In the cases we have seen, the creditors have got very little. An OfS provider’s parent company went bust with £7m in unpaid debts. wonkhe.com/blogs/not-in...

A post where I look at the places that DfE allowed to use ‘university’ in their name. There are changes coming to which providers must be registered with OfS. DfE should require a provider to be registered before allowing the use of the U word. moremeansbetter.wordpress.com/2026/02/02/w...

Very helpful reminder here from Rachel Reeds that the LLE is coming: there’s much to do. Even those universities with long traditions of credit accumulation need to dust off processes ahead of students’ enhanced entitlement to transfer. www.hepi.ac.uk/2026/02/02/i...

College sport is very different in the US. They’ve found another difference as Excel Esports weekend ‘battles’ take off. You can get badges as individuals or compete as a college team (with rankings). There’s a European open coming in Amsterdam in May. www.washingtonpost.com/sports/inter...

It’s important for universities to explain that they use criteria to assess students and there’s lots of reasons that students may be performing better. Some of these are to do with both universities & students paying much more attention to assessments. www.thetimes.com/uk/education...

The British Academy of Jewellery is an OfS registered (fee cap) provider. There was a note on this week’s HESA student numbers publication to say they were not included - but it was “understood to have registered around 2000 students in 24/25”. feweek.co.uk/jewellery-ac...

So, if you look up how to buy a submarine, you can find this company. There’s standard submersible stuff - but at the most expensive end it goes all James Bond villain and you can get a sub to keep your data on or an actual floating island.

I like advertising at train stations; this can be effective for higher education. Here’s a place based ad, which promotes the offering as just metres away. Except the agency has put it at the wrong Bristol station, so the course is 9km away

Publication of 24/25 student data by HESA. So many fun bits of information: which university had 19,090 non-EU PGT students? Which had 34740 UK UG students? Which provider had no students at all? www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-ana...

There’s a curious report from the Centre for Social Justice on technical education today. The separation of ‘technical’ is oddly presented; with the notion that polytechnics becoming universities meant ‘our outstanding technical HE alternative was slain at the altar of free market competition’

It was nice to join the Wonkhe podcast to talk about the present for a change. Not a quiet week: the International Education Strategy, UCAS end of cycle data and a new NUS campaign on student maintenance focused on parents. wonkhe.com/blogs/podcas...

Your reminder - we only have one more intake under the current English student finance system. From 2027 it will be the ‘game changing’ LLE - for which we do not have the full regulations (or a host of systems).

OfS Register News: change of date. The entry for the University of Derby has changed this month. It used to say they got degree awarding powers in 1993 but now it says it got them in 1992. The “single, authoritative reference about a provider’s regulatory status” isn’t all that authoritative.

OfS Degree Awarding Powers news. LAMDA Ltd has taught degree awarding powers on an indefinite basis. It was awarded the powers on a time limited basis in 2021 and then extended in 2024.

The split in US Higher Education between general UG and professional PG is accentuating the gap between men and women going into professions. If fewer men are going to College, then far fewer will be doctors, vets or lawyers. www.latimes.com/california/s...

Reminder: accounts for HE providers with a year-end of 31 July had to be signed off in five months. Then they needed to be published in two weeks. By any measure, that time has elapsed. Perhaps providers should be required to post an explanation so we know they’ve not forgotten?

While continuing to welcome students, the new international education strategy is presented as firmly in favour of growth of TNE. www.gov.uk/government/n...

Last week OfS launched a provider panel & a stakeholder survey to ‘improve how it engages’ with the sector. Also last week it advertised for a senior litigation and regulatory lawyer (managing complex and novel cases) and a head of counter fraud (to mitigate against misuse of funding by providers)

Two weeks ago the Telegraph posted an article about ‘Mickey Mouse’ degrees based on a report by the Taxpayers Alliance. This post is not about the meaning of TPA report, but what it means that the TPA report has not appeared. moremeansbetter.wordpress.com/2026/01/17/t...

Is there an inherent tension between “viewpoint diversity” and avowed anti-wokism? This is a long read on the much vaunted ‘University of Austin’. www.politico.com/news/magazin...

A Cambridge college proposed adding some schools to a mailing list. We’ve had a week of angst about university admissions and widening access as an outcome. www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Not to be picky, but this says: “We have leaders from large research-intensive universities, registered and unregistered institutions, further education colleges, and specialist creative institutions…” All the leaders are at registered providers. www.officeforstudents.org.uk/news-blog-an...

Late last night there was an adjournment debate on government support for HE; specifically on the closure of Essex’s Southend campus. Practical options seem limited to supporting current students; not to find a way to maintain provision in a cold spot. hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2026...

Putting a new college onto the site of a hospital is complicated. Obviously it’s more involved today than it was for William Waynflete, but the planning documentation for the new Warneford hospital, with ‘Radcliffe College’ taking on its 19th century buildings, is formidable.

If your course has been accused of being a ‘Micky Mouse’ one (because it’s too vocational or not vocational enough or has the word ‘critical’ in the title), here’s a helpful guide what to do . wonkhe.com/blogs/so-you...

A week ago the Telegraph published a piece purportedly ahead of a report of the Tax Payer’s Alliance. Except, the report has not appeared. So this was all false: a press release without a report. This is what fake news really looks like.

The announcement of Professor Nick Braisby as interim vice-chancellor at Bradford adds another name to the list of people who have been serial leaders of HEIs. Governors are keen to appoint people with an assured track-record. moremeansbetter.wordpress.com/2016/12/01/s...

I’m in favour of new providers and new curricula but there’s a risk that a mixture of hyperbole while being snippy about existing providers gets people’s backs up. Nmite is tiny and has only survived because of generous donors (including DfE) www.timeshighereducation.com/news/tiny-en...

Another scheme to have a university in Milton Keynes fizzles out. To lose one putative university may be regarded as a misfortune, to lose four (?) looks like carelessness.

OfS degree awarding powers news. The email with the tick next to the diploma arrives to confirm that Royal Northern College of Music has research degree awarding powers from today. (OfS has sadly passed up the opportunity to have a graphic showing people in more obviously doctoral garb)

Former sites of a HEI - a series. In 2007 the Oxford Business College moved into two floors of 65 George Street. It was billed as the ‘main campus’ of OBC. In late 2024 this sign appeared saying that the building was under refurbishment; but no works happened, the site was soon advertised. 1/4

Apparently the Tax Payers’ Alliance has complied a list of the ‘wokest’ courses using “its own judgment to determine which courses fit the bill”. Anything with ‘climate’ in the name clearly counts. Of course the TPA hasn’t put up the report yet www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/202...

A year ago, DfE added providers to the HTQ list. This highlighted a problem for LLE - and later it was agreed to allow much longer for such providers to join the OfS register. This blog (with helpful suggestions) was the most read on my blog in 2025. moremeansbetter.wordpress.com/2025/01/06/n...

The site of the Swindlestock Tavern in Oxford has been refitted to become a work café. The St Scholastica day riots started there, so hopefully everyone will get along in the nice work spaces. More information on the riots (and centuries of punishment): www.oxfordhistory.org.uk/mayors/gover...

We’ve not had as many of these pieces recently - when the headline says ‘Major university urges’ it’s actually an insight piece in a report by academics in a university. Of course, rather than engage with the interesting report on decolonisation, they fetch McGoven. www.sagepub.com/explore-our-...

OfS degree awarding powers news. It’s a happy new year for the Royal Northern College of Music which has been granted research degree powers from 5 January 2026 for four years.

Old Road is example of change and tradition in Headington. This is likely to be the last mummers play performed outside the Crown and Thistle. A coaching inn, but without that trade since the turnpike at the end of the 18th century, pub closed in 2011. Developments continue at the Old Rd Campus.

Sites of former HE regulatory bodies (a festive special). When created by the 1988 Act, PCFC opted for Bristol as its location; taking a lease on Northavon House on the Polytechnic campus. UFC moved to share the building. After the 1992 Act, they became HEFCE.

Former sites of parts of HEIs. This large pile of rubble was the Waynflete Building. On a prominent site, it was part of the expansion of Oxford. Without many fans, the inability to convert the rooms from the 1950s UGC standard to that expected in 2020s has required its demolition.