BAM Policy News January 2021
There have been a number of announcements in higher education policy over the last week. The interim conclusion to the Post-18 education and funding (Augar) review was published, forestalling many decisions and freezing student tuition fees for now. The further education white paper (Skills for jobs: lifelong learning for opportunity and growth) was published. And the government’s response to the Independent (Pearce) Review of the Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework (TEF) was published, making clear that the government will no longer pursue a subject-level TEF. (For our response to the original TEF review, see here)
There are also a couple of interesting opportunities for engagement that we wanted to alert you to. The Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) POST has identified 20 COVID-19 Areas of Research Interest (ARIs) for UK Parliament, and is inviting experts to add their research relating to these ARIs to a repository that may be used to inform Parliament's work in future. We encourage you to sign up POST’s repository here. Also, if you are interested in applying to UKRI’s pilot program for an early career researcher forum, please go here.
Numerous government consultations and parliamentary inquiries that have also been announced in recent weeks, which may be of interest to our members. A small selection of these are listed below. For a complete list of all ongoing inquiries, please look here.
- Economic impact of coronavirus, Treasury Committee (ends 29 January 2021)
- Contracts for Difference (CfD): changes to Supply Chain Plans and the CfD contract, Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS, ends 28 January 2021)
- Corporate transparency and register reform: implementing the ban on corporate directors, BEIS (ends 3 February 2021)
- Corporate transparency and register reform: improving the quality and value of financial information on the UK companies register, BEIS & Companies House (ends 3 February 2021)
- Corporate transparency and register reform: powers of the registrar, BEIS & Companies House (ends 3 February 2021)
- Future UK-EU relations: trade in services, EU Services Sub-Committee (ends 5 February 2021)
- Digital trade and data, International Trade Committee (ends 12 February 2021)
- Future of Financial Services, Treasury Committee (ends 17 February 2021)
- Inward Foreign Direct Investment, International Trade Committee (ends 26 February 2021)
- Measures to extend the ban on exclusivity clauses in contracts of employment, BEIS (ends 26 February 2021)
- Measures to reform post-termination non-compete clauses in contracts of employment, BEIS (ends 26 February 2021)
- Contracts for Difference (CfD) for low carbon electricity generation: new Supply Chain Plan questionnaire, BEIS (ends 11 March 2021)
- UK regulatory approach to cryptoassets and stablecoins: consultation and call for evidence, HM Treasury (ends 21 March 2021)