RISE researchers have been quoted in the national media, in response to a new scheme to advance social mobility in the North East of England. Dr Antony Mullen, Research Associate at RISE, responded to the Pro:NE proposals - led by Durham University - to put £2.5m into supporting BAME students...

The Education Secretary has announced that 55 local authority areas in England will be made Education Investment Areas, as part of the government’s Levelling Up agenda. The Department for Education defines the new EIAs as: “55 cold spots of the country where school outcomes are the weakest, to target investment,...

In his first speech to Conservative Party Conference, the new Secretary of State for Education outlined his ambition to tackle illiteracy and innumeracy. Nadhim Zahawi opened his speech by emphasising the importance of his own education. He came to the UK aged 11, having fled from Saddam Hussein’s regime in...

Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, Kate Green MP, has called for an extension to the school day in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Speaking at Labour Party Conference in Brighton, Green called for longer school days for extra-curriculum development. Labour is calling “for additional activities – breakfast clubs giving children the...

The debate surrounding this year’s GCSE and A Level exam results and the concerns about grade inflation have inspired several articles on the future of assessment in schools. Peter Hyman, of Big Education and the co-founder of Rethinking Assessment, wrote in the Guardian that our current approach to assessment is...

RISE’s Professor David Hopkins and Dr Antony Mullen, along with Dr Steve Burton of Leeds Beckett University, recently met to discuss our global research investigation into digital pedagogy. During the meeting, the team realised that much of the discussion around online learning (particularly in media commentary around teaching online during...

Dr Greg Walker, Pro Vice Chancellor (Academic Strategy) at the University of Bolton, has talked about the ‘individualised’ approach the University takes to supporting students and how this will support those who have been home educated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Speaking to RISE, Dr Walker explained how the pandemic had...

Andrea Jenkyns and Professor David Hopkins were delighted to appear on the ‘Future Rollout of Digital Provision in HE’ panel at last week’s Westminster Higher Education Forum conference. Andrea Jenkyns MP chaired the panel which featured contributions from Graeme Knowles (Head of Education Innovation, University of Warwick), Jon Faulkner (Managing...

Two reports published in the last week have highlighted the stark and continuing impact of COVID-19 on children’s educational attainment. Figures released by the Department for Education on 20th July revealed that over 1 million children were absent from school in the previous week, for reasons related to coronavirus. The data...

Andrea Jenkyns, the Head of RISE, has delivered an invited keynote talk entitled ‘Levelling Up with Digital Learning’ at NEON’s Summer Symposium 2021. The event, which focused upon access to higher education, took place on Friday 2nd July. Andrea’s talk examined how new developments in digital learning can make world-class educational...