Harassment reported by 35% of students at ‘high tariff’ institutions compared with 17% at those with lowest entry grades

Students 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.

National Secular Society to launch court action after failure to investigate alleged breaches of academic freedom laws

A university regulator in England has failed to investigate potential breaches of laws protecting academic freedom at a dozen theological colleges and is now facing legal action, the Guardian has learned.

The National Secular Society says it is preparing to pursue the Office for Students (OfS) through the courts to act on complaints first made five years ago, arguing that the colleges are ineligible for public funding or government-backed student loans because of their commitment to theological doctrine.

Ministers promised a ‘change of approach’, but their new tax could tip weaker institutions over the edge

Education opens doors, and the expansion of higher education begun under New Labour means that millions of young people who would not previously have gone from school to university have now done so. From 336,000 places accepted in 1997, the total rose by 68% to 563,000 in 2022. In last year’s student experience survey, just 11% of undergraduates said that they regretted their decision to take a degree.

In an interview with this newspaper at the weekend, Prof Shitij Kapur, the vice-chancellor of King’s College London, stressed that one consequence of this increased access has been that degrees no longer confer a virtually automatic graduate job. His likening of a degree to a visa – or a “chance” rather than a guarantee – was striking, and he is right that the increased difficulties of graduates in finding suitable work must be taken seriously. Along with rising student debt and the less favourable terms now attached to loans, this tighter graduate job market explains why, having reached Tony Blair’s target of 50% in 2017, the proportion of young people now going to university has since fallen.

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