Education

The Troubled Families Programme (TFP) is a programme in England administered by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG). The programme conducts targeted interventions for families experiencing multiple problems, including crime, anti-social behaviour, truancy, unemployment, mental health problems and domestic abuse. This briefing examines the TFP since 2012, details MHCLG evaluations of the programme, and describes recent commentary and potential future directions for the programme.

This House of Commons library paper gives an overview of the first sale of a tranche of English income-contingent student loans. It gives background to the sale and discusses the impact of the sale on borrowers and whether value for money was achieved by the sale. The Government announced the end of the sales programme in Budget 2020.

Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic there have been concerns about the financial impact on universities. Much of this has focussed on the potential loss of international students, but there could also be losses in income from lower home student numbers, a drop in research work and less revenue from accommodation, catering and conferencing. What are the size of these impacts and what has the Government done to support the sector?

Higher education underwent fundamental changes to how it was financed in England 2012. There have been ongoing smaller changes since then and prospects for much larger changes following the Review of Post-18 Education and Funding. How has this affected the balance between the broad sources of funding -the taxpayer and graduate and how has the total funding from all sources for universities changed?

In recent months the largely cordial relationship between the UK and China has deteriorated sharply. This has happened after over two decades when, regardless of the political complexion of successive UK governments, the trend was towards closer engagement and cooperation. This briefing looks at why and how this has happened.

This briefing has been updated following the release of examination results in summer 2020.

On Wednesday 9 September 2020, there will be an Opposition Day Debate on the subject of “The personal role and involvement of the Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Education in this summer’s exams fiasco”. This will take place in the House of Commons.

This House of Commons briefing discusses the problems with the awarding of A level grades in the summer 2020 following the cancellation of exams due to the coronavirus pandemic and outlines the knock on effect of this on university admission for 2020-21.

This House of Commons briefing paper discusses the impact of easing lockdown restriction on the FE and HE sectors in England. The paper outlines issues such as: re-opening campuses, prospective students numbers in 2020/21, temporary students numbers controls, delivery of courses in 2020/21 and the Higher Education Restructuring Regime. It also highlights issues such as the impact on graduate employability and catch up funding for FE colleges.

How have student maintenance support levels changed over time? How has the balance between grants and loans changed? What did theending of grants mean to this and to potential students? What support are students eligible for this and next academic year, is it enough and how much are their parents meant to contribute?

This House of Commons briefing paper answers some frequently asked questions about international and EU students in the UK. It sets out statistics in this area and outlines policy issues including the potential impact of Brexit and the net migration target on international and EU student recruitment.

The number of students in higher education with a known disability is increasing, but disabled students remain an underrepresented group and concerns have been expressed about the support provided for these students.

University Technical Colleges (UTCs) are schools introduced by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition Government, originally for 14-19 year olds, that work alongside employers and universities to deliver technical education and core curriculum subjects. This briefing sets out their conception, introduction, performance, and future direction.