Positive thinking

Stella Chatzitheochari, University of Warwick and Lucinda Platt, London School of Economics and Political Science Almost half of all young people in England now go on to higher education. This means that teenagers in the UK are more likely to go to university than ever before. Official figures reveal that 49% of students in England are expected to enter advanced studies by the age of 30. But our new research shows that students with special educational needs and disabilities are far less likely to go to university than those with no known disabilities . Our study investigated the different factors influencing disabled young people’s attainment. We examined data from a longitudinal survey of about 16,000 young people in England, linked with administrative data on school performance. Our analysis covered young people with special educational needs and those with long-term mental and physical conditions. We found that only 26% of disabled students achieve five A* to ...

Anne Wesemann, The Open University It started with a letter . A seemingly simple request for information, sent by the Conservative MP Chris Heaton-Harris to university vice-chancellors . But you don’t even have to read between the lines before alarm bells start to ring, because in the letter, Heaton-Harris requests access to university course documents as well as the names of professors involved in “the teaching of European affairs, with particular reference to Brexit”. The UK government has distanced itself from the letter, which has understandably caused outrage at universities across the UK. Many academics have spoken of their anger at such requests, calling the letter “sinister” and accusing the MP of carrying out a “ McCarthy-style witch hunt ”. To put this into context, while asking a vice-chancellor for information regarding the institution generally is of no concern, it is unusual to address them for detailed matters of curriculum in this way. This is mai...