Highlights of the week ending 22 October
Ahead of next week’s Budget and Spending Review, Michelle Donelan set out higher education student finance arrangements for the 2022/23. As already announced, tuition fees will remain at £9250. All eyes, however, will be on the Chancellor next week and the expected details on the future of higher education funding. Will we finally get a full response to Sir Philip Augar’s review, which reported back in 2019?
The Skills and Post-16 Education Bill is nearing the end of its passage through the House of Lords. Once again, the government suffered a number of defeats as peers made several amendments to the Bill. However, given the government’s majority in the Commons, expect these to be reversed by MPs.
The Education Policy Institute has published a report on the impact of the pandemic on pupils and their learning. It suggests that this could have a significant impact on the government’s plans to “level up”, especially in the north and midlands. And the Institute for Employment Studies has put out a report into transforming jobs and skills for young people post-pandemic.