This week on the podcast we discuss the proposed student lockdown for Christmas and the latest salvos in the sector’s slice of the culture wars.
We also review what’s happening on the ground in universities and consider a new report on student outcomes.
With Emmanuel Adukwu, UWE; Rachel Hewitt, HEPI and Mark Leach, Wonkhe’s CEO.
Items this week
- Five big questions hanging over guidance on Christmas
- Government should abandon the rhetoric of “low value” courses and focus on helping the students who are least likely to progress, says Graeme Atherton.
- With legislation in the offing for free speech, Ed Dorrell argues that universities need to get serious about the coming culture wars.
- A group of student leaders reflect on ongoing debates surrounding campus free speech, and propose reflection and action to tackle concerns.
Correlate
You may have spotted over the weekend that a ranking of universities based on the number of takeaway food providers that deliver to campus was compiled by the good folks at Bantshire University. I couldn’t help but wonder if a university that is well served by JustEat (other fast food apps are available) could get away with spending less on its own catering offer. So does the number of takeaways that deliver to campus correlate with the proportion of expenditure devoted to catering?
The Bantshire/JustEat ranking is a lovely proxy for how urban a university is, but it tells us nothing about catering spending. There is no semblance of a correlation whatsoever. The graph does note that UCL somehow spends nothing on catering, whereas the University of Essex spends nearly one percent of its expenditure. The university campus best served by takeaway food is City University of London, with over 950 outlets delivering. The other data is derived from the HESA Finance release for 2018-19, and where the data doesn’t exist, I’ve not plotted it.
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