University funding/finances

Former Downing Street policy guru Nick Timothy says former education secretary resisted university funding review and potential tuition fee cuts

College sport is deeply woven into US culture and commerce. But a long series of scandals has pointed the glare of publicity away from the basketball courts and football fields towards the athletics programmes themselves. Jon Marcus reports

A precise breakdown of foreign learners’ contributions to all areas and sectors of British life could help finally move the group out of the net migration count

Sam Gyimah and Damian Hinds will remove obstacles to major review and keep universities in the media spotlight, say experts  

UCU plan would maintain defined benefit scheme, but has been branded ‘unaffordable’ by universities

Analysis by Deloitte raises questions about current weightings for teaching and research funding

Governments could ‘abandon’ support for sector unless countries that attract graduates recompense those that taught them, academic warns

The uncapped system had many benefits but its cost was ultimately too high for politicians to bear, writes Andrew Norton

Private equity-backed music institute trebled number of students with taxpayer-backed loans to net £24.4 million in 2016-17, new figures show

After the twin shocks of Brexit and Trump, Patrick McGhee can only guess what the next 12 months will bring. Are you ready for peer-reviewed tweets, TEF results determined by University Challenge, and ‘lyecturers’ for hire?

Funding, Brexit and the growing power of China are among key issues to watch in 2018, say sector experts – but there is a glimmer of optimism, too

Claire Taylor looks at how UK universities can rebuild trust

Universities fear they will be forced to subsidise the cost of regulating new entrants to the sector

Concerns raised over moves to ‘mute’ students’ union and potential for far-Right figures on university boards

Certain disciplines and institutions likely to suffer from pegging of teaching funding

Promise of free higher education for majority of nation’s youth greeted with scepticism by university sector

Vice-chancellors’ salaries in Australia are the highest in the anglophone world, and are attracting sharp criticism, says Gavin Moodie

Keeping support for undergraduate courses at 2017 levels effectively ends demand-driven system, say universities

Sexual harassment allegations and Paradise Paper revelations among negative headlines

The mantra that research is loss-making is a convenient fiction used to draw more money to the centres of universities, say Peter Coveney and Christopher Greenwell    

Scott Beardsley looks at how the top job is evolving in the US, while Susie Hills shares advice from UK business executives on being a v-c

Higher education access provides ‘inoculation against political dislocation’, Universities Australia tells ministers

Longer courses could mean bigger loans, which would eat into the government’s trumpeted savings, says Nick Hillman

Rich Sullivan-Jones on why the National Audit Office looked into higher education, and what its report tells us about the HE ‘market’

As Germany, France and Nordic and Alpine countries continue with increased investment, much of the rest of the Continent has not recovered from the financial crisis

Department’s claim that ‘students could be left over £25K better off’ likely to prompt scepticism 

John Gill on today’s NAO report, which claims that students are, in effect, victims of ‘mis-selling’ by higher education institutions

Although satisfaction and learning are not the same thing, universities need to be better at explaining the value that they bring, says Will Pooley

A look at the latest detailed figures suggests something is awry, but it may still be too early to tell if Brexit is the culprit

Universities Australia highlights UK’s research spending increase as it warns government

University secures 2.54 per cent interest rate on borrowing to fund £1.5 billion capital programme

Wales will become the first system in Europe to offer equivalent maintenance support to full-time and part-time undergraduates, as well as postgraduates, explains Kirsty Williams  

Plans would ‘devastate’ members’ pensions, warns UCU after actuarial analysis

Higher education institutions may need to cut jobs if they are unable to raise fees to offset state funding cuts

Glyn Davis' book also advocates creation of new institutions

Staff say long budgeting cycles limit their ability to make informed decisions or react to changing circumstances

Diana Beech on an HE-light Budget that nonetheless has some implications for university staff and students

The former higher education minister on why the English sector must keep growing, the ‘barbarism’ at the heart of the schools system and how to tackle negativity about universities

Pensions expert criticises Universities UK’s ‘outdated’ proposal to end defined benefit scheme for almost 200,000 staff

Faith in private-sector innovation has driven Conservative reforms under both Willetts and Johnson – but is that really what universities need?

A badly understood notion of risk has created a fake crisis in university pensions that will devastate academia, argues Dennis Leech

David Robinson looks at what Philip Hammond might have in store for universities

Andrew Adonis says latest salary increase for institution's leader is ‘shameless and outrageous’

Tax bills are ‘deeply worrying’ for universities, say higher education experts

Statistics on dropouts prompt Simon Birmingham to make fresh calls on stalled package

IFS analysis says bringing back maintenance grants would also lead to little or no change for lowest-earning graduates across their lifetime 

Budget must address ‘scandal’ of debt burden faced by poorest students by linking fees to family income, says education charity

A single, comprehensive policy and funding infrastructure for UK tertiary education would empower learners and encourage innovation, say Paul Woodgates and Mike Boxall

Universities grew income from apprenticeships, traineeships and adult education budget to £32m last year

The apparent defeat of Australia’s latest attempt at higher education funding reform prolongs the agony for both universities and ministers, says Conor King

Hepi’s exposure of the degree to which teaching subsidises research should provoke a new approach to funding, says Phil Ward

Stark figures in new Hepi report prompt calls for chancellor to tackle research underfunding in budget

Research is paid for by legerdemain, and we should be honest about it if we want to correct funding imbalances and treat students fairly

Proposals would cut off key source of university borrowing and impose new taxes on wealthy institutions

Simon Birmingham suggests Productivity Commission report could change senators' minds

Robert Smedley sentenced for five counts of fraud alongside partner Christopher Joynson

Vice-chancellors say it is unclear whether the government will fully compensate universities after scrapping fees

Data from the OECD show that some European nations and the US have a more decentralised system 

Madeleine Atkins says institutions can cope with fees remaining at £9,250 for two years only

King’s College London professor says current loans system means most young people feel they have ‘no choice but to go to university’