Posted By
Charles Levy and Prateek Sureka
20 March 2013
Charles and Prateek review Osborne's Budget announcement, and explore its shortcomings in terms of a concrete industrial strategy.
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Posted By
Charles Levy
18 March 2013
Our Senior Economist, Charles, puts forward 3 tests against which to assess the potential for innovation and growth in this year's budget.
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Posted By
Charles Levy
22 February 2013
Charles looks at what a downgrade of the UK's credit agency would mean in real terms, and what Government should focus on.
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Posted By
Charles Levy
14 January 2013
Senior Economist at the Big Innovation Centre, Charles Levy, shares his thoughts on the innovation debate surrounding this week's Economist.
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Posted By
Charles Levy
06 December 2012
Last week, I argued that this year’s Autumn Statement would be one of the most difficult economic speeches delivered for years. Unfortunately yesterday’s statement was modest and immediately forgettable.
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Posted By
Charles Levy
27 November 2012
In less than two weeks the Chancellor will have to deliver one of the most difficult economic speeches for years. While the latest GDP growth figure was positive he knows that this number was flattered by one-off events.
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Posted By
Charles Levy
01 October 2012
Today ( Monday 1 October) the Royal Academy of Engineering launched a new report highlighting evidence that the demand for engineers exceeds supply. Supported by Big Innovation Centre research and analysis, they present a compelling evidence base:
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Posted By
Charles Levy
13 September 2012
In a speech to the Universities UK conference today David Willetts reiterated just how difficult this year has been for many institutions. For all involved it has been a year of unprecedented change. Tuition reforms (read: higher fees), advancement towards the new Research Excellence Framework for measuring impact, announcements on the importance of open access to academic publications, changes to the fundamental definition of who can hold university status, new calls on universities to support their local areas and Local Enterprise Partnerships, and the unfortunate visa situation at London Met have all happened against the backdrop of a double dip recession of unprecedented scale, and a very tough labour market for recent graduates.
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Posted By
Charles Levy
10 August 2012
London secured the games, in part on the back of their promised legacy impact. It will be many years before we know the extent to which London 2012 changes the fate of the East End of London, but in one area the legacy is off to an incredible start.
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Posted By
Charles Levy
24 July 2012
Today (Tuesday 24th July) the Lords Science and Technology Committee published a detailed report into Higher Education in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths subjects (STEM). The paper rightly highlights that we simply don’t have enough good quality science graduates to drive innovation and growth.
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Posted By
Charles Levy
28 June 2012
Data out today from the Higher Education Statistics Agency confirms just how well our graduates are faring in our labour market compared to those without degrees.
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Posted By
Charles Levy
26 June 2012
Today the government published its long awaited response to the Wilson Review of University-Business engagement. Under previous governments these set-piece events offered opportunities for a raft of major new announcements and initiatives. In a time of financial austerity this simply isn’t viable. So it is encouraging that BIS have chosen to focus on an initiative that will help to consolidate progress and share good practice – a National Centre for Universities and Business Collaboration.
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Posted By
Charles Levy
20 June 2012
Today’s labour market statistics were welcome news, but there may be a sting in the tail. Rising employment, falling unemployment and strong private sector job creation should always be welcomed, but it is surprising when the output numbers tell us we were entering a recession at exactly the same time.
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Posted By
Charles Levy
29 February 2012
We know that our higher education sector is under strain. Complicated caps on student numbers, changes in tuition fees and the ‘impact’ agenda have created a baffling mix of institutional and individual incentives across the sector.
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Posted By
Charles Levy
30 January 2012
Today’s figures from UCAS show that 42,038 fewer English applicants applied for UK undergraduate courses starting this year compared to last, a fall of 9.9%. At any time this would be cause for concern – we have consistently demonstrated that as our economy recovers and grows it will create an expanded demand for graduates. But, this year there is an extra worry since 2012 will be the first year that dramatically increased fees will apply for higher education.
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