With the most unusual academic year of your working life ending, there is much for EEUK Associates to incorporate into next year’s provision to ensure robust delivery.  With everything from future projections, gender, visas, and resources to help you, here is our monthly round up to help you get your ducks in a row for the next academic year.

The skills agenda is increasingly important in post Brexit UK, which sees the launch of ARIA Advanced Research and Invention Agency and a focus in HE on micro-credentials as industry-aligned short units of learning that are certified to ‘stack’ or count towards a higher education qualification.  They are also the focus of a current European consultation.

Future predications are made by the Getting Results for Scotland report which indicates the role that Scotland’s higher education sector plays in social and economic recovery through education, research and partnerships and predicts 1.3 million days’ worth of training and upskilling and £1.2 billion of not-for-profit support to businesses and charities by 2026, which will also see 1,000 new businesses and social enterprises being established by HE.

A key new EDI resource bank hosted by Nottingham University has spun out of EPSRC’s Inclusion Matters call as an open access online place where useful resources for EDI in higher education are being stored.

A new report from Small Business Charter supports business school staff with its latest advice for engaging with SMES, whilst OECD held a week focused on the overall outlook for micro-small business (MSME) as well as launching key reports on gender, digital transformation, and skills.  There is also help for HEIs undertaking self-assessment of digital ecosystems, which provides ideas for research tools, whilst New Zealand explores their issue of raising capital for female entrepreneurs providing the UK with food for thought.

And lastly, EEUK remains focused on the area of student/graduate visas, having just held an event to explore the latest for international students, UKCISA remains a good resource to help with key queries, such as what is work for the self-employed, whilst we wait to see if the proposed UK trade deals with India or others create new conditions for their students.

Alison Price

Head of Policy and Professional Development, Enterprise Educators UK