Jonathan Simons

Quite so. Plus a renewed commitment to GCSE resits slipped in there, which is quite the commitment given the CAR….

I think the former

Yeah it’s a combined HE and L4-6 Apprenticeship target, with the latter element being targeted to double by 2040. I assume every funded App counts as “gold standard”

Participation measures in higher education, Academic year 2022/23 Higher Education initial entrants and estimated percentages of participation. Annual statistics that include student characteristics and provider type.

So

A) it is some growth
B) but a lot of that will happen naturally
C) London will probably hit it next year naturally (the latest data we have is for 22/23 academic year)

All from here explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statist...

I think current participation rates, in any form of tertiary (level 4+) by the time you’re 25, is 49% in England wide (and 62% in London). It’s 46% of all under 30s. This will grow naturally over time as younger cohorts, more of whom studied at 18 or so, grow to fill more of that up to 25/30 group

In fact, it’s even more weird - the implied mix of tertiary attainment by age 30 actually WAS the Blair target!

Fair play for getting headlines out of dropping a mythical target for HE entry, briefing it as being anti HE, and in fact setting a new target for tertiary participation. Piss off the people who ought to be happy and make happy the people you want to irritate?

Counting the cost: Modelling the economic impact of a potential levy on international student fees - Public First In May 2025, HM Government released a white paper called “Restoring Control over the Immigration System”. One policy proposed in this paper was a levy [...]

We do now :) www.publicfirst.co.uk/couting-the-...

Demand is a lot more elastic for non EU students than the previous estimates of EU students, so we’d expect to see a bigger drop off than the HO estimated

An excellent pop culture reference, only spoiled by the incorrect spelling of the band, Prof……

Are there any other forthcoming bad adaptations of beloved books which you’re worried about, perhaps?

Fascinating that it’s not “video nasties” from the 80s or “rap music videos” from the 90s or “violent computer games” from the 00s, but may in fact be “shitposting on 4chan” after all

Agreed!

Only about half (?) of AEB is devolved at the mo IIRC. And on apprenticeships, it’s v amenable / at risk to govt control still. You cld decide to restrict to young (or old) ppl or change £ rates or defund higher level ones etc and that’s now all driven by dwp priorities not DfE. That’s why it’s big

Big shift here - that’s about £5bn all in (and a big political priority) shifting from DfE to DWP

When a parrot wanted to connect with a distant friend, a touchscreen showed a selection of other birds available online. The parrots learned to activate the screen, designed specially for them, by touching it gently with their tongues rather than pecking aggressively with their beaks. "We had 26 birds involved," said Hirskyj-Douglas. "They would use the system up to three hours a day, with each call lasting up to five minutes." The interactions ranged from preening and playing with toys to loud vocal exchanges. "When we went through the data, we found that most of these parrots had favourite friends," said Hirskyj-Douglas.

Pet parrots which typically live alone (whilst those in the wild live in large flocks) were given the technology to call each other. They would use it for up to three hours a day, and developed favourite friends 💔
on.ft.com/3K05vhS

Has a technologist ever had a correct opinion about education?

And still with a dotted line into DSIT too….

Counting the ministers, unless JS is formally and primarily counted in DWP, there’s no room for a dedicated uni minister in DfE now

My learned colleague reminds me that from 1995 to 2001 we had the department of education and employment, pre DWP…..

DBT is as important to unis as DSIT tho - the latter directs the research budget but only lightly; all the intl focus runs through DBT

It’s the bit where payroll or email addressses or stationery are like 2 departments ago….

That face does give “I’ve just pierced my foot on a SPIIIIIKEEEEE” vibe too

Yeah that’s sort of what I was alluding to - DfE funds pre 19 still and SWP does post 19. But the former ESFA staff split between the two depts….

I am assuming not - that really would be stretching the portfolio

Dedicated uni minister coming I think. Skills white paper is, erm, now tricky. And a tertiary system seems a long way away right now…..

(Plus we’re almost certainly going to have funding for pre 16 and post 16 now split between DfE and DWP as funding agencies)

Britain on verge of civil war: update

Sam. Sam! Do an AMA again…..

That debut was more Coventry Gyokeres than Sporting Gyokeres