2,633 pieces
Newest first, since August 2013 · page 7 of 132
· SUs · Members
Devolution is coming to the regions – a guide for English SUs on getting to the table
Jim Dickinson explains Andy Burnham’s plans for a devolved hub in Manchester and English devolution more broadly, and sets out how SUs can get themselves a seat at the table.
With Sharanya Sivarajah
· SUs
Welcome is the moment to name a fight, not describe a structure
As students’ unions roll out their 2026 welcome videos and officer profiles, Jim Dickinson argues representation is described in theory while the fights students actually face stay below the waterline
· Wonk Corner
France puts a fivefold fees increase on the table, and then takes it off again
French higher education is in trouble.
· Wonk Corner
A new minimum English language requirement for student finance
I regret to inform you that the Skills Minister has been writing letters again.
· Wonk Corner
The degree is being outrun by the inheritance
There’s a fascinating new briefing out on how younger Millennials and Gen Z are faring.
· SUs · Members
What do the students coming in September want and need?
Jim Dickinson reports on Unite Students and HEPI’s Applicant Index 2026, a survey of 2,200 prospective students, and what it suggests incoming students will want and need from their SU.
With Wonkhe SUs explainer
· Wonk Corner
The maintenance loan fades into the background
Income from employment is now expected by students to be as important as the maintenance loan as a source of living cost support.
· Wonk Corner
Finland’s higher education vision is a pledge without a budget
Right across Europe, the same problem persists. Electorates want their kids to go to university, but don’t seem keen to pay for it.
· SUs · Members
Fund and Games
With Mack Marshall
· SUs · Members
Home and away
With Mack Marshall
· Wonk Corner
Young people are pessimistic about their future. Should they be?
New analysis from IPPR – the first output from its State of a Generation programme – argues that young people no longer believe the basic promise that hard work will be rewarded with security and opportunity.
· Wonk Corner
The TEF is OfS’ Brexit moment
There’s a version of the Teaching Excellence Framework’s (TEF) compatibility with the European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance (ESG) story that writes itself as a Brussels bureaucracy piece.
· SUs · Members
Russell Group SUs have said what they think
Jim Dickinson reports on Russell Group Students’ Unions’ launch of Our vision for higher education at the House of Commons, setting out policy asks on behalf of 750,000 students.
With Wonkhe SUs explainer
· Wonk Corner
The class problem in Chemistry won’t get fixed via APPs
When a university says it has hit its access targets, I always wonder which subjects the students it admitted actually ended up in.
· SUs · Members
What SUs (in England) need to know about the future of the TEF
Jim Dickinson sets out where the Teaching Excellence Framework is heading, and what English SUs need to understand about how their provider will be rated on student experience and outcomes.
With Sharanya Sivarajah and Wonkhe SUs explainer
· Comment
Students are coping better because the system is demanding less
Signs of genuine recovery in student experience appear in this year’s Student Academic Experience Survey. Jim Dickinson argues the data tells a more constrained story – one where value, expectations and withdrawal form a
· SUs · Members
What SUs need to know about research into students’ experiences of accommodation
Jim Dickinson reports on OfS-commissioned research into first-year students’ experiences of accommodation, based on a survey of 1,293 students plus focus groups and interviews.
With Sharanya Sivarajah and Wonkhe SUs explainer
· SUs · Members
The research on fixated behaviour – and what SUs can do about it
Jim Dickinson looks at fixated behaviour directed at student officers, drawing on patterns seen across years of conversations with those affected, and what SUs can do to support them.
With Wonkhe SUs explainer
· SUs
What looks like accountability can sometimes be stalking
Jim Dickinson draws on years of exit conversations with student officers – and finds a pattern of fixated, usually gendered behaviour that SUs may have been misreading as accountability
· SUs
Manchester (Uni of) will “make students go on placement”. So what?
A Russell Group vice-chancellor wants every student working with employers and communities for credit by 2035. Jim Dickinson unpacks what that actually means