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How to imagine a better future for democracy | adrienne maree brown and Baratunde Thurston
Itβs the Tories who broke Britain, but now they want teenagers to pay for it | Gaby Hinsliff
Cutting degrees to pay for more apprenticeships is plain barmy β just look at the facts and ask yourself who this is aimed at
Once upon a time, elections used to be all about kissing babies. But for parents of teenagers, this one has felt more like a smack in the teeth. Last weekend, our children were threatened with compulsory national service, for no obvious reason beyond keeping nostalgic pensioners happy. Now, just in the middle of their GCSE revision, Rishi Sunak is threatening to scrap one in eight degree places.
βYou donβt have to go to university to succeed in life,β tweeted the prime minister, who to be fair is currently proving that you can go to lots of universities β he has a degree from Oxford and a masterβs from Stanford β and still see your career end in failure. The money saved by slashing 130,000 supposedly βMickey Mouseβ places would, he promised, fund 100,000 apprenticeships. Though given the enduring failure to get these off the ground over the past decade, it would be unwise to bin the Ucas form just yet. Meanwhile, the education secretary, Gillian Keegan, called the apprenticeship she did at 16 her βgolden ticketβ but failed to mention her subsequent degree in business studies, followed by a masterβs.
Continue reading...Nigeria takes up case of its Teesside University students ordered out of UK
High Commission to meet leaders at university after currency crash in home country meant students couldnβt pay for tuition
Delegates from the Nigerian high commission in London are to meet bosses from Teesside University to discuss the treatment of a group of students who were ordered to leave the UK after failing to meet tuition repayments.
The Nigerian students were left distressed and in some cases suicidal after they were involuntarily withdrawn from their courses and ordered to leave, in what has been described as a βserious diplomatic issueβ.
Continue reading...My quest to cure prion disease β before it's too late | Sonia Vallabh
An optimist's take on reskilling in the age of AI | Sagar Goel
Courage, the most important virtue | Bari Weiss
Sunak pledges to replace βrip-offβ degrees with skilled apprenticeships
Tory policy would be funded by scrapping courses with high drop-out rates and low job progression
Rishi Sunak has promised to create 100,000 high-skilled apprenticeships a year by scrapping βrip-off degreesβ if he wins the general election.
In the latest of a flurry of announcements as the Conservatives try to narrow Labourβs 20-point poll lead, the party pledged to replace βlow-qualityβ university degrees with apprenticeships.
Continue reading...Sussex university students warned they may not graduate if fees remain unpaid
Those struggling to pay debts include students from overseas who have seen the value of their currency crash
Hundreds of students at the University of Sussex have been warned they may be unable to graduate or re-register for the next academic year if they fail to pay outstanding debts.
Those affected include students from Nigeria and Iran who have been struggling to pay their fees after the value of their currencies crashed. Other international students, as well as UK students, are also among those in debt.
Continue reading...The problem with being "too nice" at work | Tessa West
βI see little pointβ: UK university students on why attendance has plummeted
About half the students who got in touch skip lectures, with many βdisappointedβ with the experience and others forced to prioritise paid work
Frances, 19, from Newcastle, had been looking forward to starting a design degree at the university of Northumbria last autumn.
By the end of her first semester, however, she had major doubts about having made the right choice.
Continue reading...I run a university β people like me should be backing students' right to protest over Gaza | Patrizia Nanz
The brutal repression of student protests from Amsterdam to Los Angeles is exposing failings at the heart of our universities
Across the world, university students have set up encampments to protest against the humanitarian disaster unfolding in Gaza and put pressure on academic institutions and governments. Whatever one thinks of their message and of their requests, their moral indignation in the face of avoidable human suffering is one we should all be able to share.
I find it inspiring that this student movement has been spearheaded by a generation that was too quickly labelled apolitical and self-absorbed. Think about it: these students grew up in the bleak post-9/11 world, with a future foreclosed by the 2008 financial crisis and the climate meltdown. They are still reeling from two years of pandemic that have taken a heavy educational and emotional toll. Still, this generation has succeeded in organising a global movement that is coordinated, smart and humane. It deserves much better than condescension.
Prof Patrizia Nanz is president of the European University Institute
Continue reading...Are we celebrating the wrong leaders? | Martin Gutmann
With AI, anyone can be a coder now | Thomas Dohmke
Mackintosh building restoration should be taken out of Glasgow art schoolβs hands, say experts
Architectural gem has twice been badly damaged by fire and rebuild has suffered a string of setbacks
The responsibility for restoring Glasgowβs Mackintosh building should be taken out the hands of the cityβs art school and placed with an independent body, according to leading architects, politicians and heritage experts who have expressed dismay at the lack of progress.
Thursday marks 10 years since the building β which houses Glasgow School of Art β was first badly damaged by a fire, which destroyed the Mackβs library, one of the worldβs finest examples of art nouveau design.
Continue reading...The good news you might have missed | Angus Hervey
Nigerian students at Teesside University ordered to leave UK after currency crash
University informs Home Office and withdraws sponsorship from those struggling with fees after drop in value of naira
Nigerian students at a UK university say they are devastated after some were thrown off their course and ordered to leave the UK when they got behind on their fees because of a currency crash.
Teesside University withdrew students who missed their fee instalments and informed the Home Office, after some studentsβ savings were wiped out when the value of Nigeriaβs naira crashed.
Continue reading...Rishi Sunak backtracks plan to restrict graduate visas after cabinet opposition
Ministers argued for radical crackdown on visas would be damaging for universities and UK economy
Plans for a radical crackdown on graduate visas that allow overseas students to work in the UK for up to two years after graduation look set to be abandoned by the prime minister after coming up against staunch opposition from cabinet colleagues.
Rishi Sunak had been considering restricting and even scrapping the graduate visa route as a way of reducing migration figures, but he is now expected to opt for more modest reforms to close loopholes and βprevent abuseβ of the immigration system.
Continue reading...How to fight for democracy in the shadow of autocracy | Fatma Karume
The luminous mystery of fireflies | Wan Faridah Akmal Jusoh
A generation of students is being ripped off β and our blood should be boiling | Zoe Williams
Politicians talk about tuition fees as if the students were somehow getting a good deal. In reality, theyβre being shockingly exploited
Whether or not universities are at risk of going bust is often talked about like a second-order problem. Sure, itβs sad and all, but is it as serious as a local authority going bankrupt? Is anyone actually going to die if non-Russell Group universities can no longer afford to run humanities degrees? Is it the end of the world for students to leave with 150 grandβs worth of debt, instead of 80?
But then one morning, you wake up and think: enough. Successive governments have been staring an entirely predictable calamity in the face for years, doing nothing about it while ripping off an entire generation with ever greater impunity, then masking that incompetence with casual anti-intellectualism and defeatism. OK, maybe saying that out loud doesnβt do an enormous amount to help students, but not saying it makes your blood boil.
Continue reading...Ex-ministers warn UK universities will go bust without higher fees or funding
Exclusive: Vice-chancellors suggest fee rise of Β£2,000 to Β£3,500 a year, but others say that is βpolitically impossibleβ
Vice-chancellors and former ministers are warning that the cash crisis facing universities is so serious that the next government will have to urgently raise tuition fees or increase funding to avoid bankruptcies within two years.
They said the state of university finances was more dire than revealed in last weekβs report by the Office for Students, which forecast 40% of Englandβs universities would end this year in the red.
Continue reading...Biden vows to fight βpoison of white supremacyβ at Morehouse speech
Speech warmly received at historically Black college despite backlash from students in weeks leading to address over war
Joe Biden told graduating students of Morehouse College that American democracy has failed the Black community, but vowed to continue fighting βthe poison of white supremacyβ, in a widely watched speech to a historically Black college during an election year.
Despite a backlash from some students and alumni in the weeks leading up to Bidenβs commencement address, including over the Hamas-Israel war and concerns that Biden would use the speech as a campaign event, the presidentβs address to the all-male school was warmly received. He used his speech to reaffirm his commitment to democracy in the wake of the January 6 insurrection, and to reiterate his call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Continue reading...Rishi Sunak faces cabinet backlash over plans to curb foreign student visas
Education secretary Gillian Keegan, Jeremy Hunt and David Cameron oppose move, while university leaders warn of economic and cultural impact
Rishi Sunak is facing a cabinet revolt over plans to scrap a graduate visa scheme that allows overseas students to live and work in the UK for up to two years after graduation.
Under pressure from some on the right of his party to demonstrate that the Tories are tougher on immigration than Labour, Downing Street is considering further restricting or even ending the graduate scheme, which some believe can be used as a backdoor entry route to the UK.
Continue reading...Police arrest six student protesters at University of Pennsylvania
Pro-Palestinian students were attempting to take over a university hall to protest schoolβs refusal to negotiate in βgood faithβ
More than a dozen pro-Palestinian activists, including six students at the University of Pennsylvania, were arrested after attempting to occupy a hall on the university campus late Friday.
The protesters were arrested around 9pm after trying to take over Fisher-Bennett Hall but had been met with a response from university and Philadelphia police, according to reports. The Daily Pennsylvanian reported that protesters caused the evacuation of an alumni event at the Penn Museum.
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