
Student loans inquiry finds many did not understand terms
The Treasury inquiry is looking at student loan plans in England and whether repayment terms are “reasonable”.
FRIDAY, 03 JULY 2026, 18:47

The Treasury inquiry is looking at student loan plans in England and whether repayment terms are “reasonable”.

Treasury select committee hears that interest rate and repayment terms are ‘extortionate’ and ‘not reasonable’
Thousands of graduates have told an official inquiry their horror stories and bad experiences relating to student loans, underlining what the chair of an MPs’ committee called massive levels of “frustration and upset”.
Amid an ongoing row over the ballooning cost of degree course...

Russell Group university promises students, from chemical engineering to classics, ‘meaningful real-world experience’
A leading UK university is promising work placements to all undergraduates – regardless of their degree – to better equip them for the challenges of the current job market.
In what appears to be a first for a large Russell Group institution, the University of Manchester is...

With concerns about childhood obesity and screen use sky-high, cuts to primary PE are an unforced error
With remarkably poor timing, days before closing a consultation on children’s social media use, the government announced last week that it is cutting an annual £320m sports premium for primary schools in England. A new scheme worth £193m will cover secondaries too, and resurrect a...

Those affected will have to resit, or will get a mark based on their performance in other assignments.

The content creators behind channels like Chloe VS History are using AI tools to ‘bring history to life in a really visceral way’
“I have just arrived in Tudor London, 1536,” a young woman in a green puffer jacket tells the camera. “I’m going to check in at my room in the inn, get into the market. Then, later I am meeting the actual king – yep, Henry VIII – in person.”
On YouTube and other...

There are growing concerns over the way hair strand tests are being interpreted in the Family Court.

Tech minister Liz Kendall told the BBC the government would publish a response to the consultation in the summer.

Bridget Phillipson will ask the competition watchdog to examine costs that families are still facing in government-funded childcare.

Head of Early Years Alliance says additional charges paid by parents represent ‘cross-subsidy’
Parents of nursery children in England are being charged extra fees to cover for government underfunding of free childcare hours, with some paying thousands of pounds a year for consumables such as food, wipes and nappies, campaigners have said.
The comments came as the education secretary, Bridget...

Paris police looking into more than 100 allegations of mistreatment by ‘monitors’ after parents’ groups said they had fought for years to be taken seriously
France is facing a child abuse scandal as ‘monitors’ at dozens of state nursery and primary schools are investigated for violence, sexual assault and rape.
Paris police are examining more than 100 allegations of mistreatment, physical...

Nearly a third of vice-chancellors would cut hardship support if necessary over next three years, according to poll
Vice-chancellors have said they may need to cut hardship support for impoverished students and reduce outreach activities aimed at disadvantaged groups if the dire funding struggles at universities continue.
The anonymous poll of leaders by Universities UK (UUK) revealed the...

Announcement comes after Alan Milburn says Britain has neglected generation of young people struggling to access work and training opportunities
Ministers are expanding youth work experience and training schemes, after Alan Milburn warned Britain is spending £25 keeping young people on benefits for every £1 spent helping them into work.
Pat McFadden, the work and pensions secretary will...

Education secretary asks UK watchdog to look into nursery practices, including non-refundable deposits and add-ons
Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, is ordering a competition review of hidden childcare charges amid concerns parents are being hit with extra charges, despite the government’s flagship expansion of funded childcare hours.
Phillipson has written to the Competition and...

As intelligence itself becomes privatised by big tech, allowing your intellectual faculties to wither in service of inane bots seems a dangerous move
Long before the age of multi-billion-dollar AI companies promising to disrupt the field of software development, I was learning to code the hard way.
It was the mid-2000s, and I was a child with unmonitored access to the family computer. With the...

Risk of CTE in men’s sports has been widely studied, but female brains are softer and more vulnerable
Cleo Pallister-Turley, a back for Cardiff university’s women’s rugby team, winces as she recalls two major concussions from playing rugby. “Girls ask me, ‘aren’t you worried about getting injured?’,” the biomedical sciences student said. “I enjoy the physicality and the...

Growing backlash among European staff against radical cuts to pay off Covid-era debt, with some accusing council of ‘colonial attitude’
The historic Palacete building at 31 Paseo del General Martínez Campos in Madrid’s upmarket Chamberí district has been home to the British Council in Spain for about 70 years.
About 5,000 students each year pass through its 35 classrooms, learning English,...

New scheme will be worth 40% less than current government grants and will be shared with secondaries
Funding for primary school sport in England is to be slashed by Labour, including the abolition of a grant designed to cement the 2012 Olympic legacy, to the dismay of school leaders.
The Department for Education said that the £320m fund paid directly to primary schools each year through its PE...

The NCA and NPCC say children should be blocked from accessing sites which do not stop them seeing nudes or being contacted by strangers.

Kentucky is one of about 1,200 school districts across the US that have each sued Meta, TikTok, Snap and YouTube
Meta agreed to settle a major lawsuit on Thursday with a school district in Kentucky over claims that its social networks are designed to be addictive, leading to harm in children. The settlement comes less than three weeks before the case was scheduled to go to trial in federal...

When pupils could no longer play outside, St John’s school in Barnet decided to act, enlisting Trees for Cities to help rethink its outside space
The play area at St John’s Church of England primary in Barnet, north London, used to flood so severely it was often unusable. “It would get so bad that the children couldn’t be dismissed from the playground,” says Macci Dobie, the school’s...