Why graduates matter to Yorkshire

Op-ed by Dr Peter O’Brien, Executive Director for Yorkshire Universities The higher education sector is one of the UK’s greatest assets, generating significant economic, social and cultural value. Research commissioned by Universities UK, in 2022, found that universities in England contribute around £95 billion to the economy and support more than 815,000 jobs, Higher education …

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Communications and Projects Officer: full-time

Communications and Projects Officer: full-time, 36.25 hours per week. Two year fixed contract with the possibility of extension. Do you love collaborations and partnership work? Do you have experience of implementing ambitious communications plans? Yorkshire Universities (YU) is an action-oriented regional partnership of 12 Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The member institutions of YU are: Leeds Arts University; …

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Executive Assistant: part-time

Executive Assistant: part-time, flexible hours, up to 30 hours per week. Two year fixed contract with the possibility of extension. Do you enjoy working in a small and busy team? Do you have experience of working with a senior director? Are you a champion at navigating busy calendars and changing priorities? Yorkshire Universities (YU) is an action-oriented regional …

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UK to rejoin the EU’s Horizon Europe 

Commenting on today’s news that the UK has struck a deal with the European Union (EU) for the UK to rejoin the EU’s Horizon Research Programme, Executive Director of Yorkshire Universities, Dr Peter O’Brien, said…

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Introducing the new Chief Policy Fellow of Y-PERN – Andy Mycock

As Chief Policy Fellow, Andy is part of the Y-PERN directorate providing overall strategic leadership of the programme, working closely with the Senior Programme Manager, Kayleigh Renberg-Fawcett. Andy leads on the coordination of the team of Y-PERN policy fellows across the region, and the delivery and evaluation of the four programme Work Packages. He has responsibility for delivering Work Package 3 which focuses on policy engagement training, dissemination, and community engagement. Andy is the key contact point for engagement and networking with academic and policy communities across Yorkshire and the UK more widely, and dissemination of Y-PERN outputs.

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New job! Old books!

New job! I’m now a Y-PERN fellow, officially based in the Management School at Sheffield University, but mostly working with the South Yorkshire Combined Mayoral Authority (SYMCA, pronounced by folk who work there as ‘sim-ka’). Y-PERN (“Yorkshire & Humber Policy Engagement and Research Network”) is a pretty unique project – Research England funded it specifically to strengthen the glue between Yorkshire and Humber’s universities and its local and mayoral authorities, building on a memorandum of understanding between them. The project itself doesn’t have traditional academic research questions or output requirements; the glue-strengthening is the whole point.

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Higher Education Policy Landscape – Summer 2023

This briefing provides an overview of key Higher Education (HE) policy developments up to July 2023, highlighting national updates that will impact HE in Yorkshire, as well as examples of key developments within the region. This briefing was originally shared to provide context and updates about the HE landscape to external partners that YU is working with across local government and has been adapted for our website.

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Roundtable write-up: Opportunities for students and graduates within local government organisations

Marina Tapley, Policy and Research Officer at Yorkshire Universities In April 2023, Yorkshire Universities (YU) held a joint roundtable on Opportunities for students and graduates within local government organisations. This roundtable brought together careers staff from the universities and recruitment and HR staff from local government to explore potential for further collaboration and coordination around …

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Sharing power for meaningful and sustainable change 

Place-based approaches to policymaking seem to be gaining momentum in the UK. Whether people think it is cost-effective or feel it is just the right thing to do, the fact is that, over the last few years, there has been an increased interest in understanding the interconnections and relationships within a place and how working together can have a broader, deeper, and lasting change for the community. Within this context, in Hull and East Yorkshire, we have invited policymakers, academics and people with lived experience to sit at the same table, reflect on their role and take action and responsibility for improving the quality of life of their communities. In so doing, we have three underlying assumptions. 

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Y-PERN Blog – South Yorkshire Jobs

Elizabeth Sanderson and Dr Jamie Redman, Y-PERN Policy Fellows (South Yorkshire), at the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research, Sheffield Hallam University Over the last few decades, the UK has seen a rise in low quality work (Goos and Manning, 2007). These are jobs which are broadly defined as low-skilled, low-paid, insecure and more …

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