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Franchised provision of higher education has been under the spotlight in recent times. Without shying away from the challenges faced by those delivering successful franchise arrangements, this paper shows how important franchising can be in extending access to higher education. The authors explain what protections need to be in place to ensure franchise arrangements work out for students. They end with clear recommendations to encourage more collaboration between franchisors, franchisees and regulators, such as the Office for Students.

In this HEPI Report, Nick Petford, Robert Griggs and Terry Neville explore the rationale and development of the University of Northampton's Waterside Campus, one of the UK's most ambitious university relocation projects. They conclude with a series of lessons learned.

The article delves into various policy papers recently published by the UK Government and parliamentary libraries, as well as insights from think tanks and other organizations. It covers topics such as T Level education plans, the integration of AI (artificial intelligence) in education regulation, findings from the National Behaviour Survey, and discussions on child poverty statistics and the UK's policy response.

The article focuses on providing details of policy papers published in the past week, covering topics such as the 2024 pay award for teachers and leaders, the Lifelong Learning Entitlement overview, and duties to report child abuse in England. It categorizes the papers into sections, including those from the UK Government, parliamentary libraries, and other think tanks or non-governmental bodies, offering comprehensive insights into recent policy developments within the education sector.

The article provides a comprehensive overview of policy papers released in the past week, categorized into sections detailing government publications, parliamentary documents, and papers from external organizations, covering various areas such as education, taxation, and international affairs in Great Britain. It also includes links to access each paper for further reading.

The article covers policy papers published from May 13-17, 2024. Several discussed include briefing from the House of Lords Library on proposed VAT changes for independent schools, a report criticizing the Office for Students' regulatory approach, a research briefing on school attendance in England, a briefing on educational outcomes for Gypsies and Travellers, and a briefing on youth unemployment statistics in the UK.

The article provides a comprehensive overview of recent policy papers released from February 12-16, 2024. It covers papers from various sources, including the UK government, parliamentary libraries, and other think tanks or non-governmental bodies. It highlights government policy papers, outlines parliamentary policy papers, including topics such as youth unemployment statistics and school attendance in England.

The UK white paper titled "Made Smarter Technologies: Powering the Digital Transformation of SME Manufacturers" aims to provide practical guidance for small and medium-sized manufacturers interested in adopting digital technologies. The paper covers a range of technologies, including software, industrial IoT, automation and robotics, 3D printing, and cybersecurity. It also highlights emerging tools such as artificial intelligence and digital twins. The white paper has received support from institutions like the North of England Robotics Innovation Centre, PrintCity at Manchester Metropolitan University, the Manufacturing Technology Centre, the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre, and the Hartree Centre at Sci-Tech. These institutions collaborate with Made Smarter to provide business support, grant funding opportunities, and training projects to SME manufacturers. Made Smarter has facilitated investments in technology adoption, resulting in benefits such as job creation, upskilling, and economic growth. [Extracted from the article]

Despite initial research about the biases and perceptions of Large Language Models (LLMs), we lack evidence on how LLMs evaluate occupations, especially in comparison to human evaluators. In this paper, we present a systematic comparison of occupational evaluations by GPT-4 with those from an in-depth, high-quality and recent human respondents survey in the United Kingdom. Covering the full ISCO-08 occupational landscape, with 580 occupations and two distinct metrics (prestige and social value), our findings indicate that GPT-4 and human scores are highly correlated across all ISCO-08 major groups. In absolute terms, GPT-4 scores are more generous than those of the human respondents. At the same time, GPT-4 substantially underor overestimates the occupational prestige and social value of many occupations, particularly for emerging digital and stigmatized occupations. Our analyses show both the potentials and risks of using LLM-generated data for sociological and occupational research. Potentials include LLMs’ efficiency, cost effectiveness, speed, and accuracy in capturing general tendencies. By contrast, there are risks of bias, contextual misalignment, and downstream issues, for example when problematic and opaque occupational evaluations of LLMs may feed back into working life, thus leading to potentially problematic technological constructions of society. We also discuss the policy implications of our findings for the integration of LLM tools into the world of work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides information on data sources and data manipulation used for the construction of hours worked and wages matrices. It discusses the scope of household survey on employment, unemployment, labor force participation and individual characteristics covered in the European Union (EU) Labour Force Survey and EU Structure of Earnings Survey, for EU countries and the United Kingdom (UK) and the Canadian Labour Force Survey and the Current Population Survey for Canada and the U.S.

A country report for United Kingdom is presented from publisher Country Watch, with topics including economic growth, reunification efforts, and political structure.

The article focuses on compiling and presenting a comprehensive list of statutory instruments related to education across the UK, covering the period from February 13-19, 2024. It highlights specific regulations, such as amendments to admission arrangements in England and changes to student finance regulations in Wales. It emphasizes on providing detailed information about legislative updates affecting education policies and practices in the UK.

The article focuses on compiling weekly reports on written parliamentary questions (PQs) related to education from the House of Commons and the House of Lords, excluding questions about individual schools, local authorities, or constituencies unless of national interest. Topics include inquiries about early identification tools and trials for neurodivergent children, concerns about the impact of funding withdrawal on universities, and measures to ensure the safety of Jewish chaplains and staff.

Shein, a fast fashion online retailer, has announced a €250 million investment in circularity initiatives in the UK and EU. The investment includes a €200 million Circularity Fund to support start-ups and businesses working on textile-to-textile recycling and other circularity technologies. Additionally, Shein has allocated €50 million to support brands, designers, and artisans in the UK and EU, including expanding their designer incubator program and helping businesses join Shein's Marketplace platform. This investment builds upon Shein's existing sustainability efforts, which include partnerships to source surplus fabric, adoption of eco-friendly denim printing technology, and a research partnership on recycled polyester fibers. Shein's executive chairman, Donald Tang, emphasized the company's commitment to addressing the fashion industry's environmental impact and supporting the growth of sustainable businesses. This announcement comes amidst speculation of Shein's possible initial public offering (IPO) and a legal campaign against the company by a human rights group. [Extracted from the article]

Hemisphere Brands has invested £1m ($1.3m) in a production facility in Scotland for its cream liqueur brand, Magnum. The facility, located near Kirkcaldy, will exclusively produce Magnum and has the capacity to produce 1,000 nine-litre cases per day. The investment will allow Hemisphere Brands to expand the distribution of Magnum in cream liqueur markets such as the UK, Canada, South Africa, and the US. The company also mentioned the possibility of introducing new flavors in the future. Magnum is made with single-malt Scotch whisky and is packaged in refillable bottles. [Extracted from the article]

According to the British Retail Consortium, UK non-food sales, including clothing, fell by 2.8% year-on-year in April, which is steeper than the average decline of 1.5%. In-store non-food sales also decreased by 2.4% compared to the previous year, while online non-food sales decreased by 5.5%. The chief executive of the British Retail Consortium attributed the decline to poor weather and disappointing sales, with consumers delaying typical spring purchases. Retailers are hoping for improved sales over the summer months as social events increase and consumer confidence potentially improves with a cut in interest rates. [Extracted from the article]