Graduate openings fall to a six-year low
Graduate vacancies in the UK have dropped to their lowest level since 2020, with employers putting money into AI skills while economic uncertainty and higher employment costs hold hiring down. For anyone applying this autumn it means more applicants per opening, and a stronger case for applying early and widely rather than waiting for the big autumn schemes to open. Graduate jobs in the UK sets out how the cycle actually runs.
A university buys the businesses its students will train in
University College Birmingham is spending £15 million acquiring and running commercial hospitality venues across the city, so students get paid work and placements in live businesses rather than training kitchens. It is one example of a wider move by universities under financial pressure to invest where a course leads straight into a job. The placement year explains how placements are paid and assessed.
The argument that rankings are devaluing the degree
A HEPI piece argues that UK higher education has become fixated on global rankings and recruitment targets, and that the degree is worth less as a result. It is an argument rather than a change, but it is the same argument running underneath the course closures, larger cohorts and cut contact hours that students have been feeling for two years, so it is worth knowing it is being made inside the sector rather than only by students.