Onward Bulletin 10/08/2021
The latest research, events and news straight to your inbox every Tuesday.
Hello and welcome to Onward’s weekly summary of research, events and opinion. We hope you enjoy it. If you do, tell your friends or donate to support our work.
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IN THE NEWS
The findings of our recent report, Greening the Giants, were cited in The Times and the iNews last week. They were also referenced in Michael Glackin’s piece for the Sunday Times and Siobhan Baillie’s piece for Conservative Home.
Today Will Tanner writes in The i, discussing the recent reports of tension between Number 10 and Number 11 and the importance of the next three months for this Government. Read the digital version here.
Will Tanner was also quoted in The Economist last week, reflecting on the number of applications for asylum in recent years and what the appropriate response from the Government might be.
It will have been a sleepless night for hundreds of thousands of eighteen year olds as they are put through the agonising wait to receive their A-Level results.
After two years of heavily disrupted learning, many will be relieved to be able to move forward with their plans, others will be left with some challenging decisions to make over their future. Reporting over recent weeks suggests that many more young people could fall into this latter category as universities grapple with honouring previous applicants and the confusion that comes with highly inflated grades.
Whilst this is reflected in overall offer rates being marginally lower this year, it is potentially concerning that amongst ‘lower tariff’ universities, offer rates have continued to climb. WonkHE analysis suggests offer rates have climbed by roughly 2% amongst ‘lower tariff’ universities, meanwhile students applying to ‘higher tariff’ universities are 5% less likely to be offered a place.
As Sir Peter Lampl told the Daily Telegraph this weekend, the risk of young people attending lower tariff universities or completing lower value degrees is that this causes mounting debts which graduates are unable to pay, landing the cost on the taxpayer as a result.
This was a concern raised by Onward in A Question of Degree, which found that 40% of graduates were enrolled in courses which led to median earnings of less than the student loan repayment threshold of £25,000 after five years, and 10% of graduates were still under the threshold ten years after graduating. The reality is that many of the undergraduate degrees that young people undertake are not delivering value for money, neither for them or the Exchequer.
It is promising therefore that the demand for alternative education appears to be growing. UCAS polling published last week suggests a fifth of those who are receiving their grades today plan to undertake an apprenticeship and over half of those surveyed have at least considered it as an option. This is a step in the right direction but we need to be doing much more. Not just because it is beneficial for young people to take on new, practical, skills and enter the workforce debt free, but also because the challenges this country faces, primarily the climate emergency, will not be overcome without a skilled workforce to get us there.
Policy Bites
The Government has called for greater global ambition to tackle the climate emergency following the release of a UN science report claiming that the world will reach 1.5 degrees sooner than thought, possibly within the next 20 years. Link.
The Government announced the creation of new iconic and recognisably British electric vehicle charging points to be rolled out across the country from 2022 onwards. Link.
The Government announced a new open access policy for UK Research and Innovation. Link.
The Government announced that the Competition and Markets Authority will investigate the differing costs of Covid tests by holidaymakers. Link.
Quick Links
Like Covid, the climate is an emergency that requires action now: Financial Times columnist Henry Mance argues for the climate crisis to be tackled as urgently as Covid. Link.
Change of a Lifetime: Chief Government Science Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance writes in the Guardian about how lifestyle changes are needed to tackle the climate emergency. Link.
Ten Years On: A decade from the 2011 riots, the New Statesman looks at what’s changed and what more needs to be done. Link.
Levelling Up the Counties: Vice-Chairman Elect of the County Councils Network Barry Lewis writes on ConservativeHome about how county councils can level-up too. Link.
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