Took some leave this week to do some domestic stuff, as one does.

Spent the rest of the week finalising the collaboration report I have been working on over the last couple of months.

A report from the Edge Foundation makes for interesting reading, it said that degree apprenticeships are attracting students with high levels of attainment.

I have mentioned in a number of conversations about the attraction of degree apprenticeships and the impact that this could have on general HE recruitment.

The research found that outreach and recruitment for DAs was generally not integrated, although both institutions in the study highlighted increasing interest in DAs from schools with a greater proportion of higher-attaining students and non-state schools, rather than the schools where their outreach typically takes place. Both providers had recruited a range of apprentices, with older apprentices already working for the organisation from comparatively lower socio-economic backgrounds being the norm on health-related programmes, while digital and STEM-related programmes attract younger apprentices as new recruits, from comparatively higher socio-economic backgrounds.

Read more about the report on Wonkhe:

Are degree apprenticeships opening up access, or entrenching privilege? Charlynne Pullen, one of the report’s authors, sets out what the research found.

A coming decline in the number of 18-year-olds makes the future ‘very bleak’ for some universities. A new report from the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) shows reductions in student demand in England, which are already affecting the higher education sector, will cause serious problems as the number of 18-year-olds in the population declines after 2030.

In an already financially constrained sector, the demographic changes will be making life more difficult.