A quarterly review of the latest news from the world of High School and Higher Education
LONDON KNOCKED OFF TOP SPOT
After three years at number one, London is no longer the QS top ranking student destination. The QS Best Student City 2026 is Seoul, followed by Tokyo, with London demoted to number 3. QS methodology measures 6 key categories: University Rankings– how many highly-ranked institutions in the city; Student Mix– how many students, how many are international and how inclusive is the city; Desirability– how safe, pollution levels and popularity; Employer Activity– youth employment, employers ratings of local graduates; Affordability– tuition fees and cost of living; and Student View- perceptions of friendliness and percentage staying on in city after graduation.
QS Best Student Cities Rankings 2026 | Top Universities
NUANCES OF INTERNATIONAL STUDENT MARKETING
A 2025 UCAS market survey of 13-16 year old students in France, China, Turkey and USA asked about their hopes and ambitions for life after school. One thing that united them all was an overwhelming interest in computers. With 39% of students in China wanting to work in IT. In most countries this was followed by engineering and then medicine or business- the reason given was because ‘they like these subjects’. 79% were thinking of studying abroad. The strongest influence on these students, when it came to choosing destinations for study, was advice from parents and teachers- with parental influence remaining constant even as teacher advice was valued less after the age of 15, as social media influence increased.
Bright, bold, and instinctive | UCAS
BANNING PHONES BOOSTS GRADES!
Banning phones from classrooms demonstrably lifts grades according to the first, large, gold-standard trial measuring their impact. A randomised controlled study led by UPenn of 17,000 students at ten universities and colleges in India measured the relative impact on those surrendering their phones. The results showed ‘ “In-class phone bans represent a low-cost, effective policy to modestly improve academic outcomes, especially for vulnerable student groups,”. In UK schools most teachers restrict phone use in class, but only one in ten secondary schools impose a strict ban.
USA UNI MADNESS CONTINUES
Little clarity has emerged as to what on earth is happening to the USA university sector. Elite universities including Harvard, Columbia, Brown, UPenn, Duke and U Michigan continue to make individual ‘deals’ with the Trump administration- promising to clampdown on student protest, shutter DEI departments, revise transgender policies, share international student data and allow the government a role in some faculty appointments; on top of paying substantial taxation on endowments. Meanwhile the government continues to restrict international students, to cause visa delays due to increased vetting, plus banning students from several countries. The impact on future international student applications will become clearer as 2026 deadlines approach.
Trump Has Targeted Universities
‘WATCHING A SCIENCE SUPERPOWER DESTROY ITSELF’
An opinion piece in the 8 Sept New York Times, by Stephen Greenblatt of Harvard University, bemoans the demise of USA universities. ‘Scientific research has been curtailed; postdoctoral fellowships have been abruptly cancelled; laboratories have been shuttered and visas denied.’ The Nature Index is an open database which tracks contributions to research articles published in high-quality natural-science and health-science journals, based on reputation by an independent group of researchers. Ten years ago, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) was the only Chinese research institution to appear in the top ten. The latest annual Nature Index only has one US institution in the top ten, Harvard, coming in at second place, a long way behind CAS. 8 of the top 10 are Chinese, with Germany’s Max Planck Society also in the top ten.
A brief guide to the Nature Index
HAS AI KILLED THE STUDENT ESSAY?
Prof Mark Shanahan of University of Surrey, relates how the 2025 marking season- was particularly challenging. Despite several outstanding essays, for the first time in his 15 years in academia, the majority clearly used generative AI. A paper on Law and the Media over-referenced Amanda Knox, Johnny Depp, Boris Johnson and Anthony Weiner cases and the tone was uniformly smooth and generic. Shanahan will in future introduce more in-class work and alternative assessments to mitigate the problem. He concludes that whilst academia must embrace the information revolution, ‘students need to learn the core skills of critical thinking, communication, collaboration and problem-solving first. Then they can use AI as a support tool – but not as a replacement for their own skills’. AI impact on college essay
CODING JOBS FALL OFF A CLIFF
NYT August 10th reported how employers such as Microsoft and Amazon are laying off workers as they turn towards AI coding tools. In 2024 , over 170,000 college students in the USA majored in computer programming and processes, double the number of 2014. However, these 21 year olds who were encouraged to major in computing science at college on the expectation of $165,000 jobs upon graduation- are now entering a very different job market. 22-27 year old computer science and computer engineering graduates face some of the highest unemployment rates, 6.1 and 7.5% respectively- compared to 3% for biology and art history graduates. One Computer Science graduate spoke of applying to over 5,000 jobs, receiving 13 interviews and no job offers.
NYT- Student Coders Unemployed
UK UNI MERGERS
The recently announced merger of Kent and Greenwich universities in 2026 to form the London and South East University Group has stirred great interest in the UK higher education sector. Given Kent’s well-known financial problems, the merger has been characterised as a takeover by Greenwich. Vivienne Stern, CEO of Universities UK believes that the significance lies more in the new structure of multi-university groups and that universities are looking for ‘radical collaborations’. Recent mergers between City University and St Georges, University of London to form ‘City St. Georges’, and Anglia Ruskin joining with Writtle University College last year point towards possible growth of regional ‘superuniversities’ as a way to improve academic collaboration and financial viability.
Kent and Greenwich universities to merge
NEW ZEALAND IN PUSH FOR OVERSEAS STUDENTS
International student enrolment in New Zealand grew by 21% between 2023 and 2024 and the Education Minister Erica Stanford has said that the government wants to “supercharge that growth track”. On July 14th the government of New Zealand outlined a plan to increase international student enrolment from 83,700 in 2024, to 119,000 by 2034. At the same time, work-visa rules will be relaxed and students will be able to work up to 25 hours a week, up from 20.
New Zealand push for Int Students
TESTING OPEN-MINDEDNESS OF UNI APPLICANTS
Six US universities; Columbia, Chicago, John Hopkins, Colby College, Northwestern and Washington have announced they will accept optional submissions from an online module run by Schoolhouse.world that assesses ‘the readiness of applicants to engage in civil discourse’. Seen as designed partly to assuage the Trump admin crackdown on campus protests, some academics claim that “It at least sends a signal to students that they should understand themselves as entering a project aimed at learning across differences and encountering new things and not just one that provides them a platform to advance their current commitments.” MIT and Vanderbilt trialled the programme and decided against its use, with Vanderbilt identifying some ‘concerns’ without specifying what they were.
