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  1. Letter to the Times: “Nurses’ research time needs to be protected too”

    In a letter to the The Times, University Alliance CEO Vanessa Wilson responds to the Times’ Health Commission. ‘Sir, The ten recommendations of The Times Health Commission are timely, necessary and sensible. Your ninth point makes the case for NHS staff to take part in research, proposing that 20 per cent of hospital consultants and […]

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  2. 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 […]

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  3. Why degree apprenticeships deserve your attention

    This article was originally published in HEPI. Degree apprenticeships. They’re Skills Minister Robert Halfon’s “two favourite words in the English language” and we’re at the beginning of a whole week dedicated to raising awareness and celebrating the many benefits of apprenticeships at all levels (yes this year’s National Apprenticeships Week does clash with World Nutella Day, but that aside…). Armchair […]

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  4. Universities, the NHS, and health workforce transformation

    This article was originally published in Wonkhe. Working alongside the NHS requires universities to constantly be adapting. The relationship between universities and the health and social care sector can be described as evolutionary. For decades, nurses were trained directly on wards, with schools of nursing traditionally hosted by individual hospitals. Training began to move towards […]

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  5. Changes to student maintenance loans: UA’s response

    On Thursday 25 January, the government announced that maintenance loan payments would rise by 2.5% from September 2024 for students in England. On Friday 26th, the Department for Education released its Equality Impact Assessment for HE student finance in 2024/25, which looked at the impact of the proposed changes. In our latest briefing, we highlight […]

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  6. Letter in the Financial Times: what’s miss­ing in the con­ver­sa­tion about uni­versit­ies

    In a letter to the Financial Times, University Alliance CEO Vanessa Wilson talks about what’s missing in the conversations about the current challenges facing the higher education sector. “Robert Shrims­ley’s piece on the crisis in higher edu­ca­tion (Opin­ion, Janu­ary 18) sum­mar­ises the fin­an­cial chal­lenges facing uni­versit­ies in Eng­land well. There’s something miss­ing however in the […]

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  7. Eight Alliance Universities awarded funding to expand degree apprenticeships

    The Office for Students has announced a £12 million investment in degree apprenticeships in England, with over £2m allocated to Alliance universities. Vanessa Wilson, CEO of University Alliance said in response to the announcement: “It’s great to see eight University Alliance members awarded funding to expand their degree apprenticeship offer. Alliance universities have long been […]

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    Vanessa Wilson
  8. Unpacking the TEF narratives: what does teaching excellence at an Alliance university look like?

    The 2023 TEF submissions have been published but, as Jim Dickinson and David Kernohan observed on WonkHE, “there’s no way any human is going to read all of them”. I have however read the institutional narratives from the 14 English members of University Alliance (16 of the UK’s leading professional and technical universities) and have […]

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  9. 2023 in review

    It’s been another whirlwind year for the higher education sector – and a successful one for the Alliance.  These are my reflections on a few of the stand-out moments from 2023.  1. ‘Must do better’: the House of Lord’s Industry and Regulators Committee reviews the OfS  We kicked off the year by working with our […]

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  10. ‘Let’s Get Technical’: University Alliance publishes five policy asks for the next Government

    University Alliance, an association of the UK’s leading professional and technical universities, has today (Friday 29 September) published ‘Let’s Get Technical: How to harness the power of professional and technical universities to deliver for the UK’. Launched to coincide with party conference season, ‘Let’s Get Technical’ proposes five long-term goals for the next UK government, […]

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    Film students photographed - the Let's Get Technical campaign image