High Commission to meet leaders at university after currency crash in home country meant students couldn’t 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 The Nigerian students were left distressed and in some cases suicidal after they were involuntarily withdrawn from their courses and ordered to leave, in what has been described as a “serious diplomatic issue ..read more

Figures show statistics, computing, physics and maths have risen in popularity and languages bouncing back Fewer pupils in England are studying drama, media and performing arts at GCSE and A-level, while the popularity of statistics, computing, physics and maths has gone up. Provisional figures for exam entries in England this summer, published by the exams regulator Ofqual on Thursday, also reveal a growing enthusiasm for modern foreign languages, which had been in long-term decline ..read more

School says it will only speak on university matters, which some criticize as feigned neutrality because of its financial ties to Israel Harvard University announced on Tuesday that it would no longer take official positions on policy issues following widespread student-led protests over the war in Gaza. The decision from Harvard comes after the university formed a working group in April to decide if it should continue making public comment on “salient issues”, according to an email announcing the decision ..read more

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 “rip-off degrees” if he wins the general election. In the latest of a flurry of announcements as the Conservatives try to narrow Labour’s 20-point poll lead, the party pledged to replace “low-quality” university degrees with apprenticeships ..read more

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 ..read more

The result has been an increase in fixed costs to pay for vast building programmes and administrative overheads, writes Norman Gowar Zoe Williams’ article (A generation of students is being ripped off – and our blood should be boiling, 20 May) shows that what is happening in our universities was entirely predictable following the government’s misguided attempt to marketise them. When the teaching grant plus fee of £6,000 was replaced by a student fee of £9,000, universities reacted like lemmings by increasing student numbers to make a profit. The result has been a rise in fixed costs to pay fo ..read more

We’re keen to hear how people feel about Labour’s plan to impose 20% VAT on private school fees, and how this might affect them We’d like to hear from parents in the UK how they feel about Keir Starmer’s pledge to add 20% VAT on to private school fees if Labour wins the next election. Labour has clarified it hopes to raise about £1.5bn to increase funding for state education through tax changes such as adding VAT to private school fees, without stripping them of charitable status as Keir Starmer and other shadow ministers had previously suggested ..read more

About half the students who got in touch skip lectures, with many ‘disappointed’ 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 ..read more

UK government allows British private schools in countries like UAE to use BSO kitemark while not teaching about same-sex relationships Ministers are allowing private schools abroad to brand themselves as “British schools” despite not teaching about same-sex relationships, equality or drug abuse as required in England, the Guardian has learned. Overseas schools are able to be officially accredited as “British Schools Overseas” (BSO) by the Department for Education (DfE). This came after the government U-turned and exempted them from using the same curriculum it requires in England if doing so w ..read more

Connexions, the youth careers advice service, is being closed down and will not be replaced until September Ministers are depriving up to two million teenagers of careers advice at a time of rising youth unemployment and record competition for university places, headteachers have warned. The Association of School & College Leaders (ASCL), which represents 15,000 headteachers, is furious that the government is waiting until September next year to set up its new national careers service for all ages ..read more