Interesting Reads This Week

Was this forwarded to you by a friend? Sign up, and get your own copy of the news that matters sent to your inbox every week. Sign up for the On EdTech newsletter. Interested in additional analysis? Try with our 30-day free trial and Upgrade to the On EdTech+ newsletter.

I’ve been fortunate to spend this week at the OEB conference in Berlin. While I’ll share a full update on the conference early next week, this week hasn’t just been about learning new things, making new friends, and enjoying the Christmas markets with their wonderful food. So, what have I been reading?

Austerity in among the celebration

One of the striking things about spending time with higher education professionals—first in London for a few days and now here at the conference—has been the palpable sense of just how much financial pressure the sector is under. I’ll go deeper into this issue when I write about the conference, but it was a recurring theme in much of what I read this week.

While Times Higher Education, which one wag in a session I attended described as “the official spokesperson for distressed HE,” highlighted some of the challenges facing the sector, a couple of other stories really stood out to me.

The Office for Students (OfS), the regulator for higher education in the UK, released a report (an update to an earlier one from May) on the Financial Sustainability of Higher Education Providers in England. The findings are grim.

Subscribe to Premium to read the rest.