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Good morning. Parliament rises for its summer recess on Tuesday, but before it does, the Prime Minister today relaunches the government's war on extremism and the sector reels from further saber-rattling from the Home Secretary on international students. Amidst uncertainty about the future of the survey, HESA publish the full results of the Destination of Leavers Survey (DLHE) on Thursday - although the results could be increasingly important if linked to TEF outcomes and fees.
Extremely political
If for the last couple of weeks it was the Treasury in the driving seat of policy, now it's the turn of the Home Office. Today the Prime Minister is making a major speech that launches the government's strategy for tackling extremism - at home and abroad - over the next five years. The language being trailed ahead of the speech is noticeably stronger than what has been used before and the government is briefing that new policies will be announced today to back it all up. Given the prominence and of the speech and strategy, and the sector's battles with the government about how all this impacts on universities, it will be worth monitoring closely. However it appears that the government has partially compromised on its controversial guidance for external speakers on campus. The new guidance issued last week allows for extremist speakers to visit universities as long as they are fully challenged with opposing views at the same event. The government has also backed down on the requirement for speakers to provide a detailed script in advance of their visit. Universities are however expected to make a judgement and stop events going ahead that could 'draw people in to terrorism'. But Theresa May is keeping the power to issue a 'ministerial direction' backed up with law, to force universities to comply with counter-extremism rules, if she believes the university is failing in its duty.
For the second week running, the Home Secretary has issued some tough lines on international students. In a private letter to other ministers seen by the BBC and The Times, Theresa May set out proposals to stop the spouses and other dependants of international students from working in the UK, and require prospective international students to have significantly more available savings before arriving in the UK. The measures are deliberately designed to make the UK less attractive to international students, therefore driving down annual net migration. In a revealing line that demonstrates that the Home Secretary is fully aware of the importance of international students to UK HE, and the impact of her policies, she writes that universities should now "develop sustainable funding models that are not so dependent on international students".
As the Conservative government has substantially set out its HE stall over the past couple of weeks, the shape of the policy debate for the next five years is getting clearer. This morning on the site, Martin McQuillan continues his monthly series on higher education politics and policy - and finds the future of UK more political than ever.
Destination: uncertain
The full results of the Destination of Leavers Survey (DLHE) are being published on Thursday. Outcomes data has taken on new importance in the past few weeks following the announcement of the coming Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), which we now know will use some metrics to award extra fee cash to universities. With the TEF intended to start as soon as 2017, the government is working on a Green Paper that will set out how all this could work and a frenetic period of policy making, thinking and lobbying - aimed at influencing the TEF's course - has begun. The TEF might well introduce new metrics to measure excellence, but in the mean-time it seems likely that given the timescale involved, existing data will need to be input to the TEF at least initially, and the Destination of Leavers Survey (DLHE) is very likely to make an appearance in the new framework.
As I reported here a few weeks ago, the future of the survey is in doubt, following the recently-passed Small Business Act, which allows for educational data to be linked to tax records - thus giving policymakers a more robust tool to track the movement of graduates, making the survey all but redundant. And DLHE, which has plenty of critics, is due for a high-level review soon anyway. But whatever the future holds for the survey, this year's results could have a greater-than-usual impact, given its potential link to TEF outcomes - and the rise in fees that could go along with a good result.
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You might have missed on Wonkhe
Policy Watch had the OFFA access agreement outcomes, new HEPI report on level 4/5 education and the HEFE HE-BCI survey report, all out on Thursday last week. Paul Greatrix took Registrarism back to the future to visit the debates over quality in HE and how they (haven't really) moved on. He also published the next instalment of True Crime on Campus - the end of term edition.
Odds and sods elsewhere
The Observer carried a profile of the new SOAS head Baroness Amos who was 'taken aback' to discover that she was the first black female VC in the UK. Labour leadership hopeful Jeremy Corbyn last week announced a £10bn plan to scrap tuition fees paid for by a 7% rise in national insurance for those earning over £50,000 a year and a 2.5% higher corporation tax, or by slowing the pace at which the deficit is reduced. The Welsh Government has launched a review of the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW)
The rest of the week's higher education agenda
Monday July 20th
EVENT: HEFCE Quality assessment and teaching excellence conference, Birmingham
EVENT: NADP Working for disability equality in HE, Manchester (Until Thursday)
Tuesday July 21st
EVENT: HE and the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act for Universities, London
REPORT: HEFCE international research assessment systems
UK PARLIAMENT: House Rises for Summer Recess (returns 7th September)
Wednesday July 22nd
EVENT: Leadership Foundation Policy into Practice Conference on CTS Act, London
Thursday July 23rd
EVENT: HEFCE Quality assessment and teaching excellence conference, London
REPORT: HESA Destination of Leavers (DLHE) full results
Friday July 24th
EVENT: British Academy Culture and Pedagogies in HE and FE, London
Let me know what we missed or what else you'd like to see in the Monday morning briefing. Have a great week.
Mark
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