Friday Five: tuition fees, equity scorecards and new attendance data

1. What does the tuition fee increase mean for universities and students?

This week the Government announced a rise in tuition fees to £9,535 from 2025/26. But this is unlikely to have much impact on the troubled finances of universities. New analysis published in the FT shows that:

• Due to inflation, tuition fees are still devalued compared with 2012
• Numbers of high fee-paying international students continue to decline
• Changes to national insurance mean universities are paying out more

The increase in fees adds to the Government’s decision not to reinstate maintenance grants, meaning the ‘cost of learning crisis’ will continue to adversely impact students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The full analysis is here

2.Education secretary announces plans to improve SEND inclusion

Bridget Phillipson unveiled new measures yesterday to boost the Government’s commitment to SEND inclusion. Speaking to the Confederation of School Trusts, she said an expert panel on neurodiversity will be created and more mainstream schools will be encouraged to set up specialist SEND units.

 Two major new SEND government advisers were also announced: Dame Christine Lenehan, director at the Council for Disabled Children at the National Children’s Bureau; and Tom Rees, CEO of Ormiston Academies Trust.

 These moves follow the National Audit Office’s (NAO) highly critical report on the SEND system, which Phillipson has described as ‘neglected to the point of crisis’.

For more details read here

3. School attendance improves – but still far from pre-pandemic levels

This week, the FFT Education Datalab published attendance data for the 2023/24 school year. The percentage of pupils defined as persistently absent (having missed 10% of sessions or more) has improved slightly compared to 2022/23, but returning to pre-pandemic levels is still a long way off:

Persistent Absence in 2018/19

• 8.2% of primary students
• 13.7% of secondary students

Persistent Absence in 2023/24

• 14.7% of primary students
• 26.2% of secondary students
  

Early figures for 2024/25 show some positive signs, particularly at secondary, but only time will tell whether Bridget Phillipson’s recent policy enactments – an increase to absence fines and expansion of attendance support mentors – will herald significant improvements.

The full data breakdown is here

4. New organisation launched to co-ordinate international education research 

A new organisation headed by CfEY alumnus and founder Loic Menzies was launched this week with funding from The Nuffield Foundation. The Centre for Education Systems (CES) will be the first to co-ordinate international research on macro policy to inform policy making in education.

 Comparing policy data across international contexts is difficult, which leads to misguided policy sharing between countries. CES will synthesise the evidence and make it available in more usable formats, so that policy makers can make better-informed decisions.

 CfEY attended the organisation’s launch at the House of Lords on Wednesday.

Read more on CES here

5. ‘Equity Scorecard’ launched to inspire Ofsted

A scorecard that measures schools’ effectiveness in serving disadvantaged students, developed by the South-West Social Mobility Commission, is being trialled in 20 schools. It will focus on three main areas: “disadvantaged outcomes”, “disadvantaged inclusion” and “community engagement”.

It is hoped that Ofsted will incorporate these metrics when they release their new report cards in September next year. The report cards will replace the controversial one-word judgement system scrapped by the Government in September.Read more on this story here

That’s all for this week! If you found this blog useful, please be sure to share/tweet it and follow @theCfEY, @conorcarleton, and @Barristotle for future editions.