Background Recent government policy has focused on the importance of artificial intelligence (AI) for the future of the UK’s economy and society. In January 2025, the UK Government published the AI Opportunities Action Plan. The Action Plan set out the government’s intention to create a number of AI Growth Zones across the UK to boost …
Background In May 2025, the UK Government published the Immigration White Paper, “Restoring Control over the Immigration System”. A policy proposed in this paper was a 6% levy on international student fees, to be “reinvested into the higher education and skills system.”The Immigration White Paper Technical Annex projected the impact that this price rise would …
Professor Charlie Jeffery CBE, Vice-Chancellor and President at the University of York, has been appointed as the new Chair of Yorkshire Universities. Professor Jeffery takes up the role at a significant time for Yorkshire Universities (YU), where he will oversee the delivery of the recently launched YU 2025–2030 Strategy. Bringing extensive strategic engagement experience from …
A new Higher Education Compact has been signed by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority and higher education institutes in York and West Yorkshire. The Compact represents a commitment between the region’s higher education institutes (HEIs) and the West Yorkshire Combined Authority to work together to stimulate inclusive economic growth, drive innovation, and enhance social and …
Powering Place Unlocking Potential Yorkshire Universities (YU), the representative body for universities and higher education institutions in Yorkshire, has today (Thursday 25 September) published a new five-year strategy that will amplify regional strengths, unlock new investment and ideas, and strengthen partnership work to help drive benefits and positive impacts for people, places and business. The …
The AI Research Development Network (AI.RDN+) A joint project by the University of Leeds and Aston University has been awarded £3.4m by the Research England Development Fund to set up a network to assess publicly available artificial intelligence (AI) tools for PhD research. The AI Research Development Network (AI.RDN+) will bring together 20 universities from …
Dr Peter O’Brien, YU Executive Director The end of Yorkshire Universities’ (YU) 2024/25 year coincided with the anniversary of the Government’s first year in office. As we headed into summer, the breadth of complex challenges facing Ministers increased, and we saw a plethora of new policy initiatives and legislation, including the 2025 Spending Review, Industrial …
How Universities Can Help Drive Local and Regional Economies The Institute of Economic Development and AtkinsRéalis have today (Thursday 24 August) published a report on how universities can help drive local and regional economies. In line with government’s shift towards a place-based approach to growth, the report looks at the opportunities for universities as hubs of …
Steph Morris, YU Associate Consultant That was a message that came up repeatedly during panel sessions at Climb25 in Leeds earlier this month. Now, that might sound like the North doesn’t have a lot to offer scale-ups, but actually that is far from the case. Conversations at Climb25 were in fact very upbeat about the …
Yorkshire Universities (YU) is recruiting a new Associate to work with the YU Executive Team. The role is for a self-employed contractor to lead YU’s work on employment and skills, especially in the area of graduate labour markets and local and regional skills plans and strategies. The new Associate will also be expected to contribute …