Publications

Read policy publications and consultation responses by the UA team.

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  1. ‘Delivering the Healthcare Workforce of the Future’: University Alliance publishes proposals to help tackle the NHS workforce crisis

    University Alliance, an association of universities which collectively trains 30% of nurses in England, has today (31 January) published a briefing on ‘Delivering the Healthcare Workforce of the Future’. It comes at a time when the NHS is facing a workforce crisis, with over 130,000 vacancies in England and over 46,000 vacant nursing posts – a record high. A key challenge is the need to train more nurses more quickly to the same very high standar…

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    NHS Workforce
  2. Let’s Get Technical: Priorities for the new government

    Let’s get technical: Priorities for the new government Let’s get technical: Priorities for the new government Enter keywords Download Let’s Get Technical: Priorities for the new Government as a PDF In 2023, we published Let’s Get Technical, our manifesto for professional and technical universities. With a change of government taking place In summer 2024, we published an updated policy publication, titled: Let’s Get Technical: Priorities f…

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  3. University Alliance release ‘Let’s Get Technical: The First 100 Days’ 

    In a new publication, University Alliance has set out a range of impactful priority actions for the government to take in their first 100 days in power. UA’s latest policy briefing ‘Let’s Get Technical: The First 100 Days’ identifies policies that are cost-neutral or low-cost to deliver that could help professional and technical universities deliver the government’s agenda. In partnership with government and industry, University Alliance argue th…

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    'Let's Get Technical: The First 100 Days'
  4. University Alliance responds to OfS consultation on proposed regulatory advice

    University Alliance has published their response to the Office for Students’ consultation on proposed regulatory advice and other matters relating to freedom of speech. Summary We welcome the principle of OfS developing guidance on freedom of speech with practical examples. However, UA members have not found the draft guidance as helpful as it could be. The examples given seem manufactured and simplistic, lacking nuance. More importantly, they do…

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  5. Explainer: international students at Alliance universities

    This briefing examines the drivers behind growth in the number of international students studying at Alliance universities in recent years, and the decline we have seen in 2024. By many of the government’s own measures of quality, including the Teaching Excellence Framework and the National Student Survey, Alliance Universities are some of the highest quality universities in the UK. International students know that, and it goes some way to explai…

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  6. UA’s asks ahead of the Spring Budget

    Addressing the immediate challenges facing our universities and their students UK universities now incur losses of £6bn annually on their core activities of research and teaching for UK home students. Our members are making significant changes to adjust to financial pressures, including major restructuring and transformation programmes. Recent analysis by PwC demonstrates that all universities remain extremely vulnerable to scenarios that are not…

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  7. UA briefing on international students

    International student numbers have been growing in the UK as part of a government strategy to grow education export income for the UK, provide financial sustainability for universities without increasing the contribution of taxpayers or UK students, and ensure our country remains globally connected. Universities have supported this strategy both because we believe in the power of global connectivity, and because international student fees fill a …

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  8. ‘What now?’: how adaptations to assessment during COVID-19 can improve inclusivity

    Pandemic learnings   As the public Covid-19 inquiry grinds painfully on, it is appropriate for us in the Higher Education sector to conduct a little reflection of our own.   There is much about lockdown life we all want to forget: the grim headlines, the concern for our loved ones and ourselves, the questionable Netflix binges and loo roll shortages. But despite the countless negative impacts of lockdown, something interesting happened in our uni…

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