Skills and apprenticeships
  
  
   
  
      
  
  
    
        
  
  
      
            
  
      Hesa examines association between productivity and skill levels at local authority level
       
  
      Strong engagement with students from socially deprived backgrounds rebuts claims of ‘middle-class grab’ of degree apprenticeships, finds audit
       
  
      LLE can overturn ‘mad idea’ that university must happen between ages 18 and 21, says David Latchman, stepping down as Birkbeck v-c after 21 years
       
  
      Fee forgiveness or more generous student loans could be used to ensure an area’s skills needs are met, argues MillionPlus
       
  
      Institutions focused on applied research and employer-informed curricula could be vital part of more coherent post-16 system, says LSBU chief
       
  
      Strathclyde principal flags growing realisation that greater national coordination is needed between universities and businesses
       
  
      Late researcher’s reform narrative chimes with Australian accord considerations
       
  
      Wiltshire-based engineering campus says it needs ‘highest levels of skill and expertise’ to compete globally
       
  
      Tory conference hears much talk of apprenticeships, with education secretary on mission to ‘change every middle-class mind in country’
       
  
      Representative body backs collaboration between tertiary education sectors but questions TAFEs’ ‘instrumental’ role in degree-level apprenticeships
       
  
      Our message is to hold the policy line. The levy has taken time to bed in, but it would be premature to tear it up and start again, say Chris Husbands and Natalie Day
       
  
      The route will ease the staffing crisis by widening access, but apprentices will have to pass the same professional exams as everyone else, says Nichola Hay
       
  
      The UK’s trailblazing marriage of academic study and practical training is billed as a win-win for students and employers. But are universities and companies pulling their weight? Are students getting what they want? And what does it all mean for the future of traditional study, asks Tom Williams 
       
  
      Education secretary directs OfS to create ‘competitive degree apprenticeship development fund’ in England
       
  
      More support and less complex regulation will allow the hybrid qualifications to flourish across more English institutions and sectors, says Dan Lally