Great listen - lovely to hear some perceptions from beyond the higher education sector in a discussion of the latest OfS attempts to sort out quality.

Worth taking your time to get your head around this - it's a big shift in the way OfS addresses quality and the consequences for not getting it right.

NEW on Wonkhe: There's something for everyone in the latest rethink of the Teaching Excellence Framework, but - as David Kernohan suggests - bringing disparate approaches together can highlight fundamental weaknesses buff.ly/4Zb2KLO

Love this. You can't go anywhere in the UK without finding a story of how students and the community work together.

Who fancies doing a HESES return using 58 subject groupings? wonkhe.com/wonk-corner/...

Little fun Easter egg in this article. You can use the visualisation to bring together any two universities that you like and compare their "student footprint".

wonkhe.com/blogs/the-fi... Greenwich and Kent come together under one vice chancellor and governance structure. Massive news.

NEW on Wonkhe: Students not being able to access essential digital tools is still a problem bit.ly/3V60TJx

You'll never guess* what has happened at the end of this year's New JNCHES process! wonkhe.com/wonk-corner/... * you will actual be able to guess very easily.

UCU will be balloting for strike action over pay - because clearly HEC have identified a large pot of money that providers who are currently laying off vast numbers of staff and closing courses could be using to sweeten the pay offer.

NEW on Wonkhe: Ministers at Universities UK conference were keen to show their appreciation for the sector – but Debbie McVitty argues that a deeper relationship with government remains elusive buff.ly/BsYQrAc

NEW on Wonkhe: Mack Marshall and Jim Dickinson chart a summer of startling student stories – from hidden hardship to systemic neglect – and warn that silence in higher education is costing students dearly wonkhe.com/blogs/for-st...

What if we had a higher education bill that fixed other higher education acts? wonkhe.com/blogs/sledge...

Jacqui Smith keeps both current jobs (skills, equalities) and stays in DfE but also gets a new role (Minister for Skills) in DWP. Patric Vallance is now Minister of State in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, but will also keep his current DSIT role.

Peter Kyle is leaving DSIT for business. Wish he could have mentioned that at UUK! There's also a rumour of a new "growth" department that would include the skills bit of DfE and some stuff from DWP (and, one assumes, business). Would this also include HE? who knows?

New chair of OfS made a speech. It is interesting. Here is why. wonkhe.com/wonk-corner/...

Very strange announcement. A three month "pause" in the REF process (but no change to the overall timeline). Just announced by Patrick Vallance at UUK conference.

NEW on Wonkhe: Finding opportunities for efficiency in shared services bit.ly/4oZDV4k

Wonkhe readers will be well aware...

The OfS has introduced new conditions for providers that apply to be registered when it re-opens applications. The new rules protect students and taxpayers, so the 429 providers on the register should study these conditions as much as aspirant providers. wonkhe.com/blogs/youre-...

NEW on Wonkhe: Registration rules are changing - but what does registration actually mean for providers, students, and government. Mike Ratcliffe asks the difficult questions buff.ly/MCbATb1

NEW on Wonkhe: Jim Dickinson explores the hidden depths of the higher education iceberg - from misperceptions about value to the quiet crisis of overstretched resources and shrinking provision buff.ly/3Y2U9aj

NEW on Wonkhe: When will OfS show its working? buff.ly/IY08vMw

NEW on Wonkhe: The UK has the opportunity to offer give academic asylum to American scholars – for Ben Fletcher-Watson and Lesley McAra, the idea of an Institute of Advanced Studies offers a way to make this happen buff.ly/B6sgsXy

Just 32% turn out 👀 www.ucu.org.uk/article/1396...

Last week on Wonkhe: Level 3 results day at UCAS is the most wonderful time of the year. Debbie McVitty was on the ground in Cheltenham for “UCAS Christmas”

Clearing updates added here. It's been a busy 24 hours. wonkhe.com/blogs/a-leve...

Well, yes. That's the way the policy was designed in 2012. The freezes since (under the last government) are the deviation from what was meant to be the norm.

Cranfield. More universities need their own airport, if you ask me.

A level data drop, recruitment action. One of my busiest mornings of the year is in mid-August and I love it! University more popular than ever, it seems. wonkhe.com/blogs/a-leve...

NEW on Wonkhe: Data driven university application guide, 2025 wonkhe.com/wonk-corner/...

One for "the kids" - by which I mean those dealing with university applications and level 3 results this year: wonkhe.com/wonk-corner/...

Beautifully done. www.ft.com/content/0e24...

B3 data! fresh B3 data, just published this morning! Get your university student outcomes regulatory tools here! wonkhe.com/blogs/ofs-ou...

Really interesting report by @stokel.bsky.social in @newscientist.com The time of day a student takes an oral exam correlates with different pass rates This is not a good thing One for #ltheChat

Charmed to see people pushing the "do REF with citation metrics" approach again, like it is the late 00s. Stupid idea then, stupid idea now. Citations are a measure of how prestigious your university is, not how good your research is.

B3 data! fresh B3 data, just published this morning! Get your university student outcomes regulatory tools here! wonkhe.com/blogs/ofs-ou...

NEW on Wonkhe: SQA results day, 2025 bit.ly/3J60805

Happy SQA results day and first day of clearing, everyone! wonkhe.com/wonk-corner/...

I can never understand why efforts to improve peer review don’t learn from the decades of educational research about how to do good, robust, constructive assessment and feedback. What would happen if we treated peer review as pedagogy? New in @wonkhe.bsky.social wonkhe.com/blogs/peer-r...

Jesus Christ on a bike www.officeforstudents.org.uk/for-students...

NEW on Wonkhe: David Kernohan addresses the low likelihood that someone with special needs support gets to university, in an analysis of the government's annual widening participation data release buff.ly/4rAlOs4

wonkhe.com/blogs/just-3... This makes me cross.

Do 600,000 graduates claim Universal Credit and would it matter if they did? wonkhe.com/wonk-corner/...

OfS funding allocations are out: wonkhe.com/wonk-corner/...

NEW on Wonkhe: If UK higher education was a nation state, what would it be like? Impressive, argues David Kernohan, and maybe worth treating differently buff.ly/aonPxRy

NEW on Wonkhe: OfS finally starts regulating to address issues with subcontractual provision. David Kernohan wonders whether it is too little and too late. buff.ly/MIQ06B4

I'm not sure that this is a conversation we are emotionally ready to have as a nation, but £3.99 should not be the price of a regular sized bag of Haribo.

“AI has wrecked the usual application processes of most large graduate employers in PR, media, & journalism. The proportion of recent undergraduates in paid employment in the sector has fallen from nearly 8% in 2020-21 to just 4.86% over the last two years. Again, this should be of national concern”