Recruitment a challenge for the public sector, universities aren’t immune from the politics of immigration, results delays for students. ISE’s CEO Stephen Isherwood shares what’s caught his eye in the news in May.

As strike action continues to disrupt campus life, graduating students may not receive their final grades this summer, reported the BBC.

Some students are striking back as nearly 1,000 take UCL to court over disruption caused by Covid and strikes, reported the Guardian.

Is this affecting how students will vote in the next election? New polling from HEPI shows that if there were a general election soon, 46% of students would vote Labour, 11% Green, 7% Conservative, and only 5% LibDem. But only 28% of students polled want Labour to abolish tuition fees in England.

Student immigration

When the government announced a net immigration figure of 606,000 for 2023, they also increased curbs on some student visas.

International postgraduate students on non-research courses will no longer be able to bring family members with them while they study, said the BBC reporting on a Home Office announcement.

Meanwhile the Office Student warned 23 universities not to over-rely on Chinese students’ fees, reported the Guardian.

T-levels

T-levels implementation plans will leave thousands of school leavers without access to education, warn 100 college leaders in a letter to Gillian Keegan, reported the FT.

The Greater Manchester Baccalaureate is one of the proposals outlined by mayor Andy Burnham in an overhaul of the region’s education pathways.

Public sector recruitment

REC data showed that week-on-week job postings increased by 4% to 1.7 million when recruiters returned from the Easter break, reported HR Magazine. The public sector has the most hard-to-fill vacancies, rather than the private sector, said the CIPD in their survey of HR managers.

Perhaps apprenticeships are the answer. Up to a third of nurses and 10% of doctors could be trained via an expansion of the NHS apprentice programme reported the i.

But it’s not only the UK that has a skills challenge. Skills shortages and lack of apprentices is also a major concern for politicians in Germany. The country faces a shortfall of seven million workers by 2035 reported the FT.

Supporting new hires

Both Deloitte and PwC are providing additional communication and teamwork training to new hires to make up for development experience lost in the pandemic reported the Guardian.

Managers need better training and support to manage their teams are the findings of a new CIPD report.

And finally, ‘Life isn’t a one act play’, is the first thing Bill Gates would give his younger self. The Microsoft founder listed five pieces of advice to the graduating class at Northern Arizona University, reported the Independent.

Catch up on pertinent student recruitment and development news in our News Digest series