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The LLE is seen as a key part of maintaining employability in rapidly changing employment sectors. Yet with less than six months to go before applications open for the stand-alone modules central to the vision, interest among learners and providers alike appears lukewarm at best. Helen Packer reports

Institutions required to publish information on complaints, refunds and compensation under latest OfS proposals

Historic tuition fee rates adjusted to current levels, leaving those who have undertaken traditional three-year programme £9,790 to play with

Party objects to marketisation of higher education, promising to maintain free tuition and fight for longer graduate visa

With undergraduates viewing education as a transaction and AI offering helpful summaries, reading is dying out on UK campuses, says Agnieszka Piotrowska

Post-election coalition could see parties collaborate on funding review, but reforms may be hard to negotiate with Westminster

Treasury to generate £679 million in surplus from last Plan 2 cohort, analysis shows, with graduates paying thousands more than under original system

The former education secretary’s throwaway line arguably fired the starting gun for a new era in which scholarly expertise could be dismissed and social media sages exalted. Ten years after the notorious putdown, Patrick Jack caught up with Michael Gove and his critics on the legitimacy and legacy of his infamous barb

Pretending research environments could be measured by metrics or policies ignored how scholarship actually relies on peer-to-peer relations unique to academic cultures, say Martin Holbraad, Dan Nightingale and Aeron O’Connor

Universities prioritising ‘rapid expansion’ over sustainability threaten survival of the entire English sector, new report warns

Extending UK government technology funding to universities could save sector millions of pounds a year, argues new report

Conservative manifesto ahead of Holyrood poll promises to promote alternatives to higher education, but declines to row back on totemic fee policy

Increase in visa refusals expected to be used as primary method for addressing asylum concerns for politically important nations

Universities and employers rethinking training strategies as government targets apprenticeship funding at younger learners

A wave of dismay about student loans has flooded the UK media recently, with graduates complaining that ever-rising debt levels are threatening to capsize their personal finances. How could or should the government bail them out? We ask the experts: Philip Augar, Kate Ogden and Nicholas Barr

No evidence of ‘systemic malpractice’ implied by ministers when implementing new ‘visa brake’, according to research-intensive group

Research-intensive universities also pledge to remove barriers to medical careers as part of bid to support strained NHS 

Education secretary when Plan 2 loans were introduced tells ɫ��ֱ�� that universities ‘would be in even shakier position’ without his changes

Campaigners call for ‘more structured’ approach to helping students in crisis zones after shock visa block leaves applicants in limbo

Sector will face heightened questions about role and purpose unless it engages with new political forces, report warns

Such students’ uneven degree results suggest that we might be funnelling some young people into university too early, says Alex Blakemore

Closer links between universities and industry would help to fix 120,000 shortfall in required technical staff by 2035, says study

Government pulls money as part of efforts to prioritise funding for young people but universities say move ‘not in interests of economy’

Universities told to adjust to new attitudes on HE expansion, as figures show boom in new entrants who have few to no qualifications

System being pushed to the brink as sharp increase in number of students not matched by investment in teaching capacity, report highlights

Treasury committee begins inquiry after calls to restrict government’s ability to change loan conditions after they have been taken out

Breakdown in relationship between universities and ministers has made planning for the future even more difficult, according to former Research England chair

Federation launches new online learning system to allow students to dip in and out of modules at their own pace

‘Radical’ reform to English model should also involve shorter courses and a move away from ‘residential’ system, says former Open University v-c

With supercomputing and other AI-related spending prioritised, Research England has told institutions to focus on maintaining existing facilities instead of building new ones

Adopting a ‘two plus two’ system including longer integrated master’s would boost access, employment and the economy, argues Anthony Finkelstein

Birmingham vice-chancellor’s call to review loan eligibility for students with no A levels criticised by own staff members

Closure of low-enrolment courses, higher staff-student ratios and departmental mergers among measures being considered by institutions

New polling finds voters would like to see government prioritise reducing interest rates for graduates over other reforms

While ‘doing an Albo’ and wiping proportion of student debt unlikely to make any difference to English graduates’ cost-of-living fears, evidence from Australia shows it was a vote-winner

Calls to loosen restrictions on international students in wake of shock defeat to left-wing party in by-election may go unheard without leadership change, say experts

Party says it will recognise universities as central to ‘Wales’s economic future’, while cutting funding for institutions perceived as curtailing free speech

‘Difficult questions’ must be confronted as English funding system ‘not working for anyone’, says Birmingham’s Adam Tickell

ɫ��ֱ�� Office puts ‘emergency brake’ on some applications after surge in asylum claims, affecting thousands of potential students

Early career academics most likely to express negative views about teaching culture at their institution, survey finds

Concern around student finance and graduate dissatisfaction in England will continue to grow regardless of expected Treasury reforms, say former government officials

Although Trump has rolled back some of Biden’s programmes, his replacement is still more progressive than England’s Plan 2 system, says Graeme Atherton

Prime minister promises reform after coming under pressure over student finance ‘debt trap’

Universities want ‘clear division’ between FP10 and competitiveness fund to protect frontier research

UK-wide survey of university promotion policies reveals emphasis on PhD recruitment and completions, rather than the need for high-quality support

Scorned for their employability metrics and students’ experimental outputs, Britain’s art schools should be seen as seedbeds of innovation that can help graduates thrive as white-collar jobs are replaced by AI, says J. Harry Whalley

Smaller universities expected to be hardest hit by job losses in bodies supporting overseas growth

Partnerships between the higher and further education sectors currently dogged by power imbalances, critics say

Interdisciplinary research hub focused on arts and humanities will shut in July amid financial sustainability issues

Forcing institutions to remain neutral on contentious issues will stifle – not protect – academic freedom, argues Gavin Schwartz-Leeper

Party unveils proposed changes to student finance system that it says would save graduates hundreds of pounds

UK’s incoming tax on international student fees could have unintended consequences for country’s health system and research capabilities, universities warn as consultation comes to an end

We discuss what lies behind sharp rises in the number of international students enrolled on research master’s courses and what it could mean for the future regulation of the sector

Debates around graduate debt have exploded in recent weeks amid concern about balances that continue to inflate even as graduates seek to pay them down. Has the system become a ‘Frankenstein’s monster’ that politicians will rush to slay? Juliette Rowsell reports

Conservatoire accepts academic’s beliefs protected after he faced student boycotts owing to email questioning structural racism

Former home secretary puts universities ‘on notice’ after being appointed to Nigel Farage’s ‘shadow cabinet’

Further proof of rapid growth in research master’s courses emerges, with programmes with ‘low academic requirements’ and ‘no English tests’ advertised online

Pre-action letters sent to 36 more universities over lost teaching during pandemic as long-running ‘test case’ resolved

Scottish higher education minister commits to taking group’s recommendations seriously as work gets under way on new sustainability framework

More credibility checks and visa refusals creating problems for UK universities and students as tighter compliance regulations about to come in to force