Steve Besley's Education Eye: week ending 04 October 2024

Fewer education headlines this week. Just two stories seizing the headlines.

One on the future for UK universities and the other on teachers’ pay, in schools and colleges.

To take the future of UKHE first, this has been the subject of considerable debate for some time with no obvious consensus. So this week’s 140+page blueprint for the sector from Universities UK has come at a timely moment.

Billed in its words as “a bold package of reform to stabilise, mobilise and then maximise the contribution of UK universities to economic growth and widening opportunity for all,” the blueprint contains a series of reflective chapters from leading figures, including Lords Willetts and Mandelson, each of whom has tackled a key aspect of reform, from local growth to global challenge.

The aim, as the blueprint explains is simple: “to create a UK university sector that is better in ten years’ time than it is today.”

This is to be achieved through five big shifts, around opportunity, tertiary collaboration, local growth, future research, and global positioning.

In all, it comes with 42 recommendations.

These range from securing the funding base by for example “linking fees to inflation and restoring the teaching grant” and generating stronger local growth through features like Local Growth Plans, to expanding opportunity by developing a Tertiary Fund and bringing back maintenance grants, to building a new global strategy through further collaboration and research.

As Sir Anthony Seldon thought that given recent reported difficulties across the sector, the government is ‘in a mood to listen.’ He reckoned that the report was “tremendous,” though did wonder whether it was ‘a little too keen to address the new government’s agenda.’

Wonkhe felt that ‘the blueprint does a cracking job at clearing the ground but could have devoted a bit more scrutiny to other aspects less subject to policy and regulation such as learning and teaching.’

While HEPI’s Nick Hillman said that “the proposals were promising but needed costing, plus more impetus on funding.” Specifically it’s all ‘a little too timid on fees and a little too trusting on the teaching grant.’

We now await a government response.

Many will argue the hard work has now been done for them in terms of direction but the key issue remains financing. The view remains that the government is preparing to confirm a staged increase in tuition fees, potentially with maintenance loans. ‘In due course’ is the current phrase.

As for pay, this cropped up in a letter from college leaders and with the remit letter triggering the latest pay round for school teachers.

In the latter, as the education secretary stated, the aim is to get any announcement out earlier than previously, hopefully by the start of the financial year in April.

The backdrop, as the remit letter explained, remains “the challenging financial position this government has inherited” which is not a line the unions wanted to hear. “Affordability is about political choices, not a matter for the Review Body,” the NAHT said pointedly.

As for colleges, the issue of the pay gap between those in schools and those in colleges was listed in an open letter to the Chancellor this week.

“That gap,” the AoC explained, “is making it impossible to recruit and retain lecturers in key sectors like construction, engineering and health and social care, stifling economic growth and opportunity.”

They reckon it would cost £250m to put right and was one of three issues, along with VAT reimbursement and funding growing numbers of young people in colleges, set out in the letter to the Chancellor. Again, all eyes on the Budget.

Moving on to other education news this week.

In schools, the education secretary called for support materials to continue for students taking GCSEs in maths, physics and combined sciences over the next three years. Ofqual has launched a short consultation. The issue is the continuing concerns over the disruption to learning caused by the pandemic.

In other news, the DfE published the assessment dates for primary schools for over the next two academic years. And Ofqual urged schools and colleges to take cyber security seriously after a poll by Teacher Tapp revealed a lack of cyber security training among secondary school teachers.

In FE, Jacqui Smith, the skills minister, sought to calm fears around the future of many BTECs and related qualifications in an article for FE Week.

“Where the review identifies the balance of learner and employer needs within a sector requires level 3 qualifications other than T Levels and A levels,” she wrote, “we will maintain the relevant qualifications.”

Welcome news to many but there’s still the issue of the review not reporting until the end of the year when many decisions for the year ahead will need to have been made.

Elsewhere the Resolution Foundation welcomed the government’s intention to reform the apprenticeship levy but argued that it “must get its design and implementation right” by ensuring enough places for young people and maintaining quality. “For too long, well-intentioned reforms have failed to end the cycle of failure when it comes to addressing chronic staff shortages across Britain,” it argued.

Over in HE, the university access charity, the Brilliant Club, reported on its survey from earlier this year into some of the challenges many students face, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, when going to university.

As one wrote “we weren’t really taught note taking and stuff like that so it took me a while.” The report called among other things for a national transition programme to help such students.

And JISC proposed the creation of a dedicated security operations and research centre to provide cyber security protection across the tertiary sector. “A security operations centre that will act as a single central service across UK FE, HE and research.”

They reckon it could cost £34m pa and hoped the Treasury might look kindly on the proposal as part of the Budget.

It’s back to Westminster next week for MPs where the build up to the Budget, among other things, will continue.  

Links to most of these stories below starting with the week’s headlines.

The top headlines of the week:

• ‘Aim for 70% tertiary education take-up by 2040, say UK university chiefs’ (Monday).
• ‘Cambridge International announces digital exams launch’ (Tuesday).
• ‘Restore expert group to tackle school absence crisis, DfE urged’ (Wednesday).
• ‘Student transition scheme urged to bridge school-university gap’ (Thursday).
• ‘Private schools say early signs of pupils leaving’ (Friday).

More specifically ...

Schools:

• Teachers’ pay. The education secretary kickstarted the 2025/26 pay review for teachers with a letter to the Chair of the Review Body acknowledging the ‘challenging financial situation’ facing both government and schools, asking for recommendations on TLR payments and flexi working, and aiming to make an announcement earlier than previously, typically by April.  
• Exams 2025. Ofqual announced a brief consultation on the continued provision of support materials for students taking GCSEs in maths, physics and combined sciences over the next three years, following concerns from government that such students may have suffered from disrupted learning due to the pandemic.
• Assessment dates. The DfE confirmed the KS2 assessment dates for next year and added the dates for the full range of primary school assessments for the year after.
• World teachers. The NEU highlighted a shortage of qualified teachers globally ahead of World Teachers’ Day, suggesting this would make meeting Sustainable Development Goals in education difficult and calling for a funded Global Strategy.
• Digital exams. Cambridge International announced it was launching digital exams in six subjects in June 2026, inviting schools in eligible regions to sign up for its Early Adopter programme, giving them ‘exclusive’ access to its digital exams platform of mock tests and familiarisation sessions as part of the preparation.  
• Cyber security. Ofqual called on schools and colleges in England to take cyber security seriously as it published the results of a poll showing a high number of incidents last year yet low amounts of staff training in this area.
• Poetry. The National Literacy Trust highlighted its range of range of free resources and activities put together for this week’s National Poetry Day, as it published new survey evidence showing that over half of children and young people don’t engage with poetry in any way, yet those that do, often find positives from it.

FE/Skills:

• Dear Chancellor. College leaders called on the Chancellor to demonstrate support for the government’s skills drive by ‘fully funding the growing numbers of young people in colleges,’ providing VAT reimbursement and closing the pay gap to help tackle teacher recruitment, in an open letter released just weeks ahead of the Budget.
• L3 reform. The skills minister argued in a comment piece in FE Week that the government remained committed to its reform programme for L3 qualifications but that unlike the previous government, it would consider providing for some qualifications that overlap with T levels where such need was identified. 
• Skills reform. The Resolution Foundation welcomed the government’s recent proposals for reforming reform the apprenticeship levy but argued that success couldn’t be taken for granted, pointing to three risks, including ensuring enough opportunities for young people, managing flexibility and maintaining quality.
• Recruitment practices. The Gatsby Foundation published the results of its ‘small-scale research into employer recruitment practices’ looking especially at the role of tech/voc qualifications in the process and finding that rather than looking for particular qualifications, employers tend to focus on experience and skills which can often be a challenge for young people who don’t have the opportunities to gain either.

Not-to-be-missed numbers of the week:

• 0.5%. The revised figure for growth in the UK economy between April and June this year, down from 0.6% previously according to latest data from the ONS.
• 1.8%. The projected figure for inflation in the EU area for September 2024, down from 2.2% in August according to Eurostat.
• 755. The number of applications from across UK schools, colleges and universities to the Turing Scheme 2024/25 of which 642 were successful, according to latest government figures.
• 95%. The number of eligible members who voted in a snap poll to accept the government’s recent pay offer of 5.5%, according to the NEU.
• 34%. The number of schools and colleges in England that experienced a cyber incident during the last academic year, according to a poll from Ofqual.
• 51.2%. The number of children and young people who don’t ‘engage with poetry in any way,’ according from a survey from the National Literacy Trust for National Poetry Day.

Everything else you need to know ...

What to look out for next week

• Westminster Hall debate on the removal of VAT for independent schools (Tuesday 8 October).
• Westminster Hall debate on Skills England (Wednesday 9 October).
• IfS Green Budget (Thursday 10 October).