1. HEFCE grant allocations announced
The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) grant allocations for individual higher education institutions (HEIs) were announced this week. The grant allocations will leave three quarters of England's universities facing real-term budget cuts, for the first time since Labour came to power in 1997.
HEFCE has told institutions their individual allocations from this year’s total fund of £7.3bn - a cut of £573m from this year's budget. Among the biggest losers was London Business School, which saw a reduction in funding in cash terms of nearly 12% (14% when inflation is taken into account), while Reading University faces a 7.7% cut in cash terms.
2. Warning of “substantial risk” of repeat of student loans fiasco
A report on this year’s debacle at the Student Loans Company (SLC) has warned of a risk of a repeat of the student loans fiasco that occurred this year- leaving thousands of students without access to loan payments for several months. This was the first year that loan applications in England had been dealt with centrally, rather than through local authorities.
The report, conducted by the National Audit Office (NAO), describes last year’s mistakes as "unacceptable", and questioned whether the firm would cope with a doubling of the number of student finance applications this year.
3. 1 in 7 female students attacked, NUS survey finds
One in seven female students has been the victim of a serious sexual or physical assault, according to a recent survey conducted for the National Union of Students (NUS)
A total of 14% of those polled in the online survey of 2000 female students said they had been the victim of a serious sexual assault, serious physical violence, or both. But only 4% of those who were sexually assaulted reported it to the university, while a mere one in 10 reported it to the police, with more than four in 10 saying that they thought they would be blamed.