Over the last couple of months I have been struggling to get these weeknotes up in a timely manner. I usually try and post them on the Friday of that week, but if not, get them finished over the weekend. However over the last few months I have been missing my own deadlines and have been posting them weeks late… I think I need to review the process by which I bring them together and what they are for, and what I need them for. I think that’s a blog post in itself.

Wonkhe in their weekly briefing were very positive about the recent A Level results.

Young people are turning away from university study in their droves. It is too expensive, too “woke”, too “marketised”, too traditional: too expected. There are other attractive options – apprenticeships, travel, specific work-related qualifications. University just isn’t as important any more. A degree is a financial millstone, not a career or lifetime benefit.

That’s the story we’ve been hearing all year from commentators who may (perish the thought) be incorporating their own ideological wish-fulfilment into their analysis. Any or all of the reasons may turn out to be correct for some groups of students, but the central contention is wrong. Overall there are more UK-domiciled 18 year old applicants with a confirmed university place one day after results day in 2024 than at any point in history.

Yes, you read that correctly.

…for now – take a rare vote of confidence: UK 18 year olds want to go to university, in record numbers.

Despite the positive news last week about the A Level results, the university sector is facing a financial crisis like never before. As mentioned last week, there was this report, Cash-strapped universities could go bust before new students graduate

Cash-strapped universities could fold within three years due to a “perfect storm” of plummeting international student numbers and being unable to attract undergraduates through A-level clearing, a leading education expert (HEPI) has warned. A funding crisis has left 40 per cent of universities facing budget deficits, a recent report has found, with around 70 undergoing redundancy or restructuring programmes amid growing fears over the higher education sector’s financial stability.

Of course the implication of a university going under means that there will be job losses as report in this article: Universities face job losses as ‘perfect storm’ gathers.

Some of the universities that today’s happy students will be aiming to attend from the autumn are facing huge financial pressures. Adam McCulloch investigates a sector that could well be on the cusp of contraction – with job losses and closed departments ahead.

As mentioned in the article, a list of job losses as collated by UCU

You kind of hope that some enterprising manager doesn’t decide that the solution to reducing the number of staff is to replace them with some kind of AI.

The HE sector is facing tough financial times ahead. Last week’s A Level results may have been a good news item, but the university sector are facing falling student numbers, both domestic and international. In addition, flat student funding combined with rising costs, means that universities can not sustain their current expenditure and operating model

I had planned to go to the office this week, but they had closed the line from the Portway Park & Ride to Bristol for engineering work. So would have done my usual trip to Bristol catching the train from Worle, but in the end I drove to work and parked in Bristol.

I finally managed to get my Funky Cat back from the dealership after nearly three months having a software update fail. The car had been reset to factory settings, so it took a while to configure it to how I had it before I took it in. There was also a new GWM app for the car as well.