Universities

Higher education chiefs, academics and students to give evidence this week at royal commission Australian universities will be required to adopt definitions on antisemitism, Islamophobia and racism towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from next year, under a legally enforceable standard designed to stamp out discrimination on campuses.Details of the anti-racism standard will be published on Monday as university bosses, students and academics prepare to appear at the royal commission into antisemitism and social cohesion. Continue reading...

• Suspected Chinese spies have been infiltrating major US and Canadian universities since May by exploiting vulnerabilities in Roundcube mailservers. • Proofpoint threat researchers estimate that a few dozen targets were affected, specifically targeting data from physics and engineering professors and administrators. • The attacks highlight a targeted effort to steal sensitive academic and technical research from high-value institutions in North America.

• Penn State has been ranked No. 20 in space science according to the U.S. News 2026-27 'Global Universities' rankings. • The university's researchers are recognized for their work in discovering exoplanets, analyzing asteroid samples, and studying the evolution of the cosmos. • This ranking highlights Penn State's leadership in space-related innovation and the development of critical astronomical instrumentation.

Institutions could lose out on at least £200m a year if 30,000 or so potential students without even one GCSE are excluded each yearIf universities thought a Labour government would quickly revive their financial stability, those days are over. The vibes may have improved but little else has, with rising costs remorselessly squeezing their budgets and universities having to cut or close departments.Prestigious universities such as Nottingham were hit after tougher visa restrictions skewered their strategy of relying on overseas students paying higher tuition fees. Continue reading...

Nearly a third of vice-chancellors would cut hardship support if necessary over next three years, according to pollVice-chancellors have said they may need to cut hardship support for impoverished students and reduce outreach activities aimed at disadvantaged groups if the dire funding struggles at universities continue.The anonymous poll of leaders by Universities UK (UUK) revealed the extent of the budgetary quagmire facing higher education, with more than two-thirds prepared to cut staff jobs by compulsory redundancy if difficulties continue over the next three years, while nearly 90% said they were looking at hiring freezes or voluntary redundancies. Continue reading...

Harassment reported by 35% of students at ‘high tariff’ institutions compared with 17% at those with lowest entry gradesStudents at England’s leading universities were more than twice as likely to experience sexual harassment than those at “lower tariff” institutions, according to analysis.Data from a national survey of undergraduates shows that 35% of students at “high tariff” universities – those requiring the highest A-level grades for entry – reported experiencing sexual harassment, compared with just over 17% of those at universities requiring the lowest grades for entry and 26% of those at “medium tariff” institutions. Continue reading...

Office for Students plans new complaints system as Bridget Phillipson says academics too often are being silencedUniversities in England that fail to protect free speech could face fines of £500,000 or 2% of their income, and in some cases risk losing public funding, under a new complaints system, the government has said.The Office for Students (OfS) will run a “first-of-its-kind” scheme from the new academic year allowing university staff, external speakers, and non-student members to raise concerns about providers, the Department for Education (DfE) said. Continue reading...