• Ukrainian students in the UK: Under current government guidance, if a student is aged 18 or over and their course is at degree level, they are allowed to stay in the UK for up to 5 years. For courses below degree level, students can stay in the UK for two years. The Home Office has now announced that Ukrainian students will not have to return home if their visas run out. The Home Office has also announced visa concessions for the family members of Ukrainian students to come to the UK. 2020/21 data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) shows that there were 870 Ukrainians studying in UK universities. The number of Ukrainian students in FE colleges is unknown but the Department for Education (DfE) has confirmed that colleges can use their 16-19 bursary fund and Adult Education Budget (AEB) allocations to support any Ukrainian FE students they may have who are facing financial hardship. On 1 March, the Association of Colleges (AoC) published an update for colleges providing advice on this and other relevant matters.

The Department for Education has finally published its initial response to Philip Augar’s review of Post-18 Education and Funding, almost two years after it was launched.

It is worth noting, however, that this is an “interim” response and the final conclusion will not be set out until the next Comprehensive Spending Review.

click here to read the article

Interesting analysis from David Kernohan Associate Editor at WONKHE. Did the increase in students placed during the 2021 cycle do anything for widening access? David Kernohan keeps it in proportion. So yes in conclusion. Driving up numbers overall will necessarily expand access, but from where we currently sit there is some danger we are creating a kind of binary divide.

to read the post click here

Thanks to Alan Birks who writes the Click newsletter for forwarding this information. A copy of the Click newsletter can be found here

Data produced by the Association of Colleges for 2020/21 reveals that there were 162 FE colleges on OfS register of HE providers, delivering HE courses to 118,000 students. Of these students:

• 31,000 were under the age of 21
• 22,000 were aged between 21 and 24
• 65,000 were aged 25+.

The AoC data also shows that FE colleges deliver:

• 84% of Higher National Certificates (Level 4)
• 66% of Higher National Diplomas (Level 5)
• 67% of Foundation Degrees (Level 5)