News

Pensions dominated the news again this week with the publication of reports by the Institute for Fiscal Studies whose report on Pay and Pensions released to complement their Green Budget offered the opinion that “[T]he pension reforms just negotiated will make little or no difference to the long-term costs of public service pensions.

Just this afternoon HEFCE have published their response to the grant letter, putting flesh on the bones of the funding agreement.

The figures also show that there has been a decrease of over 11% in applicants from EU countries, but the number of prospective students from outside the EU has increased by 13.7%.

UCAS this week published the 2012/13 applicant figures for students to UK universities. The data set shows an 7.4% decrease on the same stage last year.

News of the EU Commission's action against the Luxembourg interpretation of the cost sharing exemption and how this could alter the UK's position.

Confirmation that BUFDG plans to seek a legal opinion to assist members in determining whether the EU Procurement Regulations will still apply when the new funding regime comes in this Autumn.

Last Wednesday afternoon (a matter of hours after last week’s Digest went to press) BIS released its grant letter to HEFCE, confirming funding allocations and highlighting government priorities for HE for the year.

David Willetts delivered a very upbeat speech at the Politeia Winter Address last Thursday.

Bits and bobs for the Weekly Digest

Business schools are facing a 10-15% fall in applications for MBA programmes, new figures released by the Financial Times suggest.