This is the forty-third of a series of bulletins produced by ISE to update members on key data and policy related to Covid-19. This bulletin covers the period 28th January – 3rd February 2021.

You can access all of the Covid-19 bulletins on ISE insights.

Latest Covid-19 data

Data taken from Wikipedia and from the government’s Covid-19 dashboard.

The UK has now had over 3.8 million identified Covid-19 cases and 112,660 deaths (with Covid on the death certificate). The R rate is estimated to be between 0.7 and 1.1 with the daily infection rate shrinking by between 5% and 0%.

Both the number of cases and the number of death is now falling from the peak.

Covid news

• Boris Johnson is optimistic that we will all have a nice summer holiday.
• How close is the light at the end of the tunnel for the pandemic.

Education

• Boris Johnson doubles down on 8th March as the earliest date when schools will return.
• Discussion of last week’s skills white paper is still ongoing including discussion of what it mean for career development (including a detailed briefing from the CDI). But, what does it mean for employers?
• Elite universities are reducing the grades that they ask for to boost their finances. This takes place in the light of student rent strikes and calls for compensation for current students and more funding to address this. Universities have been awarded £50 million to support student hardship during Covid.
• New evidence emerges on the future of digital learning.

The economy

• The lockdown is taking its toll on the UK economy. Professional services firms report that partners have taken a cut in their wages.
• New research on the impact of home working is released.

Student recruitment and development

• The ISE continues to explore how student recruitment and development are changing. The top 10 ISE webinars of 2020.
• Clare Adams argues for the importance of technology in addressing inequality in the graduate market.