Students on free speech: strong in principle, narrower in practice
Polling published today found 35 per cent of students think Reform UK politicians should be barred from speaking on campus, and only 18 per cent support all political parties being free to speak there — alongside high stated support for free speech in the abstract. The contradiction matters now that the Office for Students’ free speech conditions are in force, because a students’ union that blocks a speaker is the case that regime was built for.
Ministers weigh further restrictions on international students
The government is considering another tightening of the student visa route, including removing an exemption that currently allows some students to remain. Each round of restriction has been followed within months by falling applications, and the sector’s finances now depend on those applications, so this is the policy that most shapes what happens to course provision over the next two years.
A bill to pay maintenance loans before term starts
Durham’s students’ union is backing a bill that would adjust maintenance payments so they arrive before term begins rather than after it. Anyone who has paid rent in advance while waiting for an instalment knows why: the current timing forces students to cover the most expensive fortnight of the year from savings they may not have. Budgeting covers managing the gap as it stands.
The universities that cut the most teaching staff this year
A count of job losses across Russell Group universities includes one institution shedding 614 posts. Cuts on that scale reach students as merged modules, bigger seminar groups, slower feedback and fewer office hours — usually a term or two later, and usually without being announced as a change to the course.