@chrisjparr.bsky.social
Award-winning education journalist. Senior editor, Research Professional News. Formerly Times Higher Education. Non-award-winning musician.
Breaking: Tories would slash university places by 100k.
Student numbers cap plan billed as saving £3 billion to invest in apprenticeship funding.
Tomorrow, Badenoch will unveil plans to limit student numbers across all subjects.
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-p...
Rocketing visa costs ‘squeeze university research budgets’.
Research-intensive institutions forced to hike spending on immigration fees, freedom of information requests show.
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...
Great day 1 at the Hidden REF Festival 2025.
Really friendly vibe, and really interesting discussions about non-traditional research outputs. @hiddenref.bsky.social
Write-up: www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...
Risk-averse universities “hindering REF performance” by ignoring non-traditional research.
Institutions should “pull their socks up”, @nataliejessic10.bsky.social tells the 2025 Hidden REF Festival (@hiddenref.bsky.social).
Free to read: www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...
Excellent address by the Uni of Liverpool's Natalie Wallis at #HiddenREF festival (@hiddenref.bsky.social). Report to follow.
In the meantime, here's something Wallis wrote for @resprofnews.bsky.social recently on non-traditional research outputs:
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-v...
Excited to be at day 1 of the Hidden REF festival (@hiddenref.bsky.social).
Fair to say it's an interesting time for research assessment. #hiddenref
Rocketing visa costs have forced UK research-intensive universities to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds extra to recruit international staff over the last two years—with costs at individual institutions reaching as high as £2 million a year.
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...
‘It’s bananas’: why student fee levy spells trouble for research.
Funding maintenance grants through money raised from international fees leaves universities facing “awkward questions”.
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-p...
It was a busy Labour Party conference for HE and R&D, with major announcements in the main hall and a lively fringe programme.🌹
Here is a rundown of our coverage, starting with news that a fee levy will fund maintenance grants in England. #Lab25
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-p...
Rising UK visa fees have forced research-intensive universities into spending hundreds of thousands of pounds extra to recruit international staff over the last two years—with costs at individual institutions reaching as high as £2 million a year.
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...
Some great quotes in this #Lab25 fringe.
Sussex VC says some journalists are on a “relentless campaign against universities” because they see them as “generators of woke ideology” (despite benefitting from university and expecting it for their kids).
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...
This was really interesting to look at. The creep, creep creep of higher visa costs means that in the space of 2 years, at least 5 Russell Group universities have seen their spending on visa costs rise by more than £100,000.
Meanwhile, it's not as if we are in halcyon days for university funding.
Universities ‘must not forget EDI obligations’ amid REF 2029 pause.
University of Oxford’s chief diversity officer says most Britons “believe EDI is a good thing”. #Lab25
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...
Keir Starmer ‘scraps 50 per cent university access’ target.
Starmer two years ago: “I never thought I would hear a modern Conservative prime minister say that 50 per cent of our children going to university was a ‘false dream’.”
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...
But it was never a target of "50% to uni" in the first place. It was that 50% should do some form of "higher education". Which is different.
30.09.2025 13:50 — 👍 7 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0"I can announce we will scrap that target and replace it with a new ambition that two thirds of our children should go either to university or take a gold standard apprenticeship." #Lab25
30.09.2025 13:47 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Keir Starmer: "I don't think the way we currently measure success in education. That ambition to get 50% of kids to uni. I don't think that's right for our times."
#Lab25
Universities in England will be chuffed that they will have an international fee levy imposed but not rest of UK.
Newcastle VC says charging students 6% more to cover the cost seems less likely than simply taking cash from he bottom line:
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...
More details - free to read.
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-p...
Labour government to bring back student maintenance grants, says education sec.
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-p...
Big HE announcement does come in Bridget Phillipson speech at #Lab25.
Labour will introduce "new targeted maintenance grants for students who need them most".
More details to follow.
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson rattling off education achievements of the Labour government at #LabourConference.
Nothing on higher education yet.
It was a lively session. Refreshingly frank statements from panellists and audience alike.
29.09.2025 12:36 — 👍 4 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
Lowering entry grades ‘may come back to bite selective universities’.
#LabourConference 2025: UUK president warns high-tariff institutions could struggle to meet student needs.
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...
Nice to be in Liverpool in the sunshine for #LabourConference. Big difference from last year's downpours (so far 🤞). #Lab25
28.09.2025 18:28 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
The RPN team will be up in Liverpool at the #LabourConference this week.
To kick things off, Sanjush Dalmia (@sanjushdalmia.bsky.social) suggests to delegates some discussion points around Britain’s R&D future.
Free to read. #Lab25
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-v...
Who will win a Nobel?
Each year, the Institute for Scientific Information analyses citation data to produce a shortlist used to identify potential Nobel laureates.
Find out who is on the list this year: www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-worl...
‘World-class research capacity at risk from cuts to staff time’.
University leader warns institutions rowing back on research time could lead to “tipping points”.
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...
OfS survey reveals high rate of sexual harassment.
Over half of students who reported sexual harassment during the past year said that the incidents had taken place on campus.
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...
KEF 2025: Newer universities excel at generating local growth.
Large research-intensive institutions perform less well on regeneration metric but stay ahead on IP and commercialisation.
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-i...
