Chair of the Purpose Coalition, Rt Hon Justine Greening, and a number of Purpose Universities Coalition Vice-Chancellors have this week written to the Prime Minister regarding his recent announcement about a crackdown on low-value degrees.

As students wait for their A-Level results on Thursday, new analysis shows how their plans for the future have been affected by the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis.

As we head towards A-Level results day, students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will be feeling the pressure as they wait to find out how they did in this summer’s exams and if that was good enough to get them into their university of choice.

We hear a lot about the skills gap. It’s a twenty-first century challenge and it’s ironic that it’s the tech sector where the situation is particularly acute.

Amid a continuing cost-of-living crisis and an uncertain fiscal outlook, a new report has shed light on how the pandemic impacted children’s development.

The University of Greenwich has written to the Government to raise concerns about how the quality of teacher training is assessed in what it called a ‘seriously flawed’ approach.

It’s clear this proposal will disproportionately impact more disadvantaged people from more disadvantaged communities.

Universities make a vital contribution to improving social mobility but a more strategic approach is needed if their work, and the transformative effect they have on communities, is to be maintained, a new report launched in Parliament today confirms.

The urgent need to level up the most disadvantaged areas of the country, particularly targeting women experiencing inequality, was highlighted by new research which shows that in 2021, a woman in the North East of England was 1.7 times more likely to die early as a result of suicide, addiction or murder by a partner or family member than the rest of England and Wales, an increase of 15 per cent since 2018.

With student loans expected to feature as a key issue in next year’s general election, figures from the Student Loans Company have revealed that outstanding student loans in England have surpassed £200bn for the first time. Individual debt has also risen again, with an average cost of just under £45,000.

The consequences of another interest rate rise are bleak. On Thursday, new analysis from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research found that by the end of 2023, more than a million households will run out of savings because of higher mortgage repayments, taking the proportion of insolvent households to nearly 30%, with the largest impact in Wales and the North East.

Leading social mobility campaigner and former Education Secretary, Rt Hon Justine Greening has joined forces with the Centre for Inequality and Levelling Up at the University of West London to launch a groundbreaking survey on social mobility tracking attitudes of employers.

Access to more detailed regional data will help deliver more effective social mobility strategies across the country.

The roundtable was an opportunity for the Minister to learn more about the work of private sector Purpose Coalition organisations and the benefits of Young Enterprise for teachers and young people across the UK.

Universities play a crucial role in their local areas, outside their primary function of providing degree-level education for their students. The best, purpose-led universities also improve standards in schools and drive economic growth in their communities.

This week I was delighted to welcome Labour’s Shadow Minister for Business and Industry, Bill Esterson MP, to a Purpose Coalition roundtable with senior representatives from leading business members of the Coalition, including Travelodge’s Chief People Officer Hannah Thompson, UK Power Networks’ Director of HR Andrew Pace, and Head of Government Relations at Pearson Education Daniel Pedley.

The University of Chester has formally launched its Levelling Up Impact Report to senior academics, policy makers, plus local government officials and business leaders at the law school’s new base in the Wheeler Building.

Matthew McPherson reviews what might come from a Labour reshuffle, and sets out why Keir Starmer needs a punchier front bench with ‘more Wes Streeting’s’ to take his message to the country.

As prime minister, Rishi Sunak has had some success in steadying the ship after the disastrous mini-budget of his predecessor, Liz Truss. But it’s not going to be enough. Running Britain isn’t the same as leading it. And to lead Britain over the next 12 months, the Conservative party will need to win the battle of ideas and set out a compelling vision of how to deliver them.

There has been much commentary, and some wringing of hands, this week on Sir Keir Starmer’s announcement that the Labour Party would be dropping its plans to scrap tuition fees in the light of the country’s changed economic circumstances.