In our latest ‘Innovators’ blog, Dr Helen Aveyard writes about how Oxford Brookes University are empowering nurses and midwives to become researchers. “In 2021, The Chief Nursing Officer for England, Ruth May, published the Strategic Plan for Research which outlines the intention to ‘create a research environment that empowers nurses to lead, participate in and […]
Employability is an individual matter. It requires each student to embrace their professional development and to access the support and opportunities our universities provide. Unfortunately, many students leave it too late, assuming employability is a set of skills they can acquire at some point before they graduate. However, academics and other staff responsible for employability […]
If you ask any UK Vice Chancellor what’s keeping them awake at night, it’s highly likely to be the financial sustainability of their institution and the wider sector. Years of frozen funding coupled with rising costs are inevitably taking their toll across all four nations. University leaders are also increasingly worried about the impact the cost-of-living crisis […]
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, […]
Universities are faced with rising costs and shrinking margins, and the challenges are many. Student attraction and retention remains a priority, amid an everchanging mix of domestic and international students. There is no doubt the competition for international and other highly sought-after students has been heightened by COVID, and the ability to manage profitability through […]
Professional and technical universities educate approximately 1 in 3 midwives and specialise in innovative provision such as degree apprenticeships. In our latest ‘Innovators’ blog, Sue Lawrence, Senior Lecturer in Midwifery at the University of Greenwich writes about how her institution innovated by developing one of the country’s first degree apprenticeships in Midwifery. “Back in 2019, […]
Professional and technical universities like those across the Alliance have great links to the creative industries – but creative graduates often find the transition to employment difficult. Dr Edward McCaffrey, Senior Lecturer in Film Production at Middlesex University writes about how he worked collaboratively to boost employability prospects for creative arts graduates. “When I started thinking […]
Today (5 July) marks the 75th anniversary of the National Health Service. With the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan announced last week, Dr Denise Baker, Pro Vice-Chancellor Dean of the College of Health, Psychology and Social Care at the University of Derby, and Chair of the University Alliance Deans of Health Group, discusses what measures […]
Since the government consultation response to the new Lifelong Loan Entitlement (LLE) was published in March this year, the higher education sector has had a chance to let the news sink in. Now it’s time to reflect on what the next steps might be. The introduction of the LLE has been long anticipated and was […]
Professor Ross Renton, Principal at ARU Peterborough writes about his institution’s approach to developing a skilled healthcare workforce for local needs. Skills needs ARU Peterborough as an institution has been specifically designed to target local skills needs, co-creating the curriculum with employers. That crosses a wealth of areas in the sciences, business and engineering, but […]
