Four Scottish universities face strike ballots over job cuts
Staff at four universities in Scotland are voting on industrial action over cuts and compulsory redundancies, in what is becoming a sector-wide dispute rather than a series of local ones. Ballots in January produce strike days in February and March, which is when coursework deadlines and revision fall. If teaching on your course is disrupted, ask about mitigation early rather than after the assessment. Extensions and academic support explains how.
Five Russell Group universities with serious deficits
A look at the Russell Group institutions running the largest deficits finds even Cambridge making less than it spends. Deficits are the mechanism behind course closures, larger seminar groups and hiring freezes, so a university’s financial position is now a fair thing for an applicant to ask about — the accounts are public, and the students’ union usually knows the detail.
Manchester expects half its students to be studying online within a decade
The University of Manchester’s strategy assumes half its students will be studying online within ten years, as part of a shift towards flexible delivery. Online study suits people with jobs and caring responsibilities and is cheaper to run, which is why it is growing; what it changes is the part of university that happens between the teaching, and that is worth weighing before choosing a flexible course. Lectures and seminars covers how teaching works now.
Careers services move to the centre of what universities do
The association representing graduate careers staff has renamed itself the Graduate Futures Institute, which sounds like branding but reflects something real: employability has become a measure universities are judged on, so careers services are better funded and more central than they were. The practical read is that yours is likely to offer more than you assume, and in first year rather than final. Graduate jobs in the UK covers using it.