Ten universities face losing more than a third of their UK-based students under government plans to restrict access to student loans, which experts warn could put them at risk of going bust.
Ministers are expected to lay out plans within weeks that would limit loans to those with a pass in GCSE English, The i Paper understands.
A forthcoming consultation would leave the door open to GCSE-equivalent qualifications, but its scope has yet to be determined, according to sources familiar with the discussions.
The measures are intended to crack down on a rise in underqualified students on poor-quality degrees.
But universities called it a “blunt instrument” that would reduce opportunities for students with SEND or from disadvantaged backgrounds.
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health
How autism diagnoses are ‘increasingly linked to ADHD’
(Photo: Tarapong Pattamachaiyant/ Getty).
Experts found a rapid rise in autism diagnoses among 16-to 20-year-olds since 2010 in the UK, as well as a rise in women and white people, compared to other ethnicities.
What were the findings?
Researchers from the Medical Research Council looked at data from the UK and Sweden.
They found that new diagnoses have increased from six people per 100,000 in 2010, to 64 per 100,000 in 2023.
Analysis also showed there has been a change in the make-up of people diagnosed with autism, with a decrease in those with a prior diagnosis of epilepsy.
Instead, they found an increase in the proportion of people who had a prior diagnosis of ADHD, stress-related disorders, eating disorders, headaches and chronic fatigue.
The story in numbers
58%
The proportion of autism diagnoses in people with anxiety more than doubled form 29 per cent to 58 per cent between 2010 and 2023.
In the UK, 24.5 million adults contributed to the study, including 141,119 with an autism diagnosis.
Writing in BMJ Mental Health, the team said this could be the result of “greater appreciation of nuanced forms of autism that may have previously been labelled as other conditions due to overlapping features, particularly in females”.
money
How menopause is affecting women’s careers and pensions
(Photo: Joe Giddens/PA).
Half of women in the perimenopause or menopause say their career has suffered as a result, with workers cutting their hours or feeling forced to turn down opportunities for career progression, according to a new survey.
Lack of support for symptoms
Nearly one in three said their life stage had influenced their retirement savings, according to the research for Scottish Widows. A similar number also said their regular finances had been affected.
Caption: An older woman at home is doing hormone replacement therapy while sitting on the sofa in the house and taking medicine for hormones.
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Working from home can lead to a smaller mortgage, as well as reduced transport costs (Photo: Getty Images)
And 50 per cent of women surveyed said they would like more support at work. 17 per cent said they had been forced to take time away to manage symptoms.
Breaking down the numbers
One in eight (13 per cent) women had reduced their working hours and 10 per cent had turned down a promotion or career progression opportunity, for menopause-related reasons.
Scottish Widows found that a 50-year-old woman in full-time work taking a six-month unpaid break could potentially cost £1,300 in pension contributions.
Gaps in pension contributions will have a bigger impact over time, as savers will also miss out on the interest that could have been earned on them.
Two-thirds of women surveyed believe employers should be required to provide better support to women experiencing menopause symptoms, including financial support.
A blow to pension pots
Perimenopause or menopause often coincides with what should be the peak earnings potential of a woman’s career. When symptoms force women to reduce their hours, step back from promotion opportunities or leave work entirely, the ripple effect on their pension pots is huge
Susan Hope, a retirement expert at Scottish Widows
Lion’s mane mushrooms are believed to help with a host of symptoms including brain fog and memory loss (Photo: Getty)
Protests against pension reforms in Paris in 2023 (Photo: Antoine Gyori/Corbis via Getty Images)
money
The lessons Britain can learn from France’s pensions crisis
The i Paper takes a look at why the bill for pensions keeps rising on both sides of the Channel – and what can be done about it.
What’s the situation in France?
France will be unable to resolve its debt crisis without tackling sky-high pension bills, economists have warned.
It spends a massive 14 per cent of its GDP on pensions and the costs are rising every day.
Falling birth rates and rising life expectancy in France and the UK means pensions are mounting pressure on public finances.
A demonstration in Paris as part of the 12th day of nationwide strikes and protests against French government’s pension reform. (Photo: Stephanie Lecocq/Reuters)
Analysis
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Why pension burdens are becoming unsustainable
Economists have warned that unless France takes action to overhaul the pension system, it is unlikely to end its debt crisis.
In the UK, public spending will be further strained next year, as state pensions are set to get a 3.5 per cent boost.
Fraser Thorne, CEO of Edison, told The i Paper: “The UK’s… trajectory is more manageable. But more manageable isn’t the same as sustainable.”
UK advantages over France
Heidi Karjalainen, senior research economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, says bigger private pension pots in the UK are making it easier to increase the state pension age, whereas “in France, it’s been really difficult to do that”.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham and Chancellor of the Exchequer John Healey have been planning the Budget for months (Photo: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images)
French President Emmanuel Macron speaks following a videoconference with G7 leaders (Photo: AFP)
It’s this cushion that will help the UK better navigate the trials and tribulations that come with an ageing population and falling birth rates, she says.
Giving people time to adjust
The French proposals were announced “without much notice”, Karjalainen noted, while the UK made the decision more than a decade ago.
Thorne says France offers a “pointed lesson in what can happen when governments try to reset the terms of the pension contract: five prime ministers in two years; mass street protests; and a reform ultimately diluted by political reality even when the economics were clear”.
3 min read
Analysis
2 min read
business
Virgin Media O2 cutting thousands of jobs to save costs
Caption: Virgin Media O2 car is seen at a street in London, Great Britain on July 8, 2025. (Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
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Up to 4,000 jobs could be affected as the flailing company attempts to slash outgoings in a bid to save £800m by 2029.
What you need to know
Virgin Media O2 has built up £22bn in debt.
CEO Lutz Schüler said in the light of its financial struggles, “doing what we’ve always done is not an option”.
Currently employing 15,000 people, could cut as many as 4,000 jobs, an inside source told Sky News.
The aim is to reduce the company’s wage bill by 30 per cent.
Exclusive
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What will this mean for customers?
The majority of job losses will be in non customer-facing roles, the company suggested.
Virgin Media O2 has also decided to scrap planned upgrades, including its fibre broadband rollout, to try to reduce costs even further.
Prospect, one of the unions which represents staff, billed the upcoming redundancies as “disappointing and very unsettling”.
Thousands of workers facing job losses as new industry figures reveal 18 per cent of firms plan to make staff redundant as the furlough scheme tapers off. (Photo: Dominic Lipinski/PA)
Caption: Millions of customers are set to receive rebates on their water bills due to sewage and leaks (Photo by Leonard Ortiz/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images)
science
Major study into ‘forever chemicals’ in our bodies launched
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has set out to understand more about the health impacts of PFAS, known as forever chemicals.
How will it work?
The UKHSA will use blood and urine samples, already taken for the Health Survey for England, to test the levels of forever chemicals, lead and arsenic, in the UK population.
Some people in their late 40s and early 50s have already been invited for their second dose after just six weeks (Photo: Soonthorn Wongsaita Shutterstock)
Not all men will be offered the screening (Photo: Kitsawet Saethao/Getty)
Dr Edward Wynne-Evans, a director at the UKHSA, told BBC Radio 4 he hopes the study will reveal “what different levels of exposure mean for an individual’s long-term health”.
What are the impacts of PFAS?
PFAS are commonly used in non-stick and water-resistant coatings, as well as firefighting foam and a variety of other common items.
They do not break down in the environment and two types have already been banned for cancer risks.
For these, PFOA and PFOS, known risks also include raised cholesterol, lower antibodies and impacts on the thyroid.
This summer, blood testing in the Lancashire town of Thornton -Cleveleys, near a major chemical factory, found elevated PFOA levels.
Exclusive
3 min read
money
The help available for first-time buyers, rated
The Government’s Your First Home scheme won’t launch until the spring but others are currently available.
Here is what might work best for you.
Your First Home
The scheme will see first-time buyers buy a new-build property with a small deposit, backed by a 20 per cent equity loan.
Housing developers will contribute to fund the scheme, which will have an earnings cap.
Experts warn that such a small deposit could mean buyers will have limited savings.
The plan will deprive many first-time buyers of stability as they prepare to purchase a home (Photo: Yui Mok/PA)
Money Clinic
2 min read
Lifetime and first-time buyer ISA
The Lifetime ISA allows people to receive a 25 per cent bonus on their savings up to £1,000 per tax year.
The Government also confirmed first-time buyers will have access to a new savings product called the first-time buyer ISA from April 2029.
It will replace the existing LISA for new savers and will allow them to save up to £4,000 a year with a 25 per cent government bonus that will be paid upon withdrawal towards a home worth £450,000, with the maximum value of the bonus capped at £20,000.
Money Clinic
3 min read
Other options on offer
Shared ownership: Purchase a share of the property’s value, and then pay the rest in rent, as well as a monthly service charge and ground rent.
Low-deposit schemes offered by developers: Many developers offer help towards people’s deposits. But experts warned buyers should not be tempted to stretch for a bigger home than they can afford.
3 min read
One in 12 undergraduates (31,800) starting full-time courses last year had no formal qualifications, including GCSEs, data from the Higher Education Statistics Authority (HESA) shows. This is up from one in 62 a decade earlier.
More than a third of UK-based undergraduate students accepted at 10 universities in 2024-25 had no GCSEs or formal qualifications and were from England, where the measures are set to be implemented, analysis by The i Paper found.
Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute think-tank, said providers who are heavily reliant on students with no qualifications could close, cut courses, or downsize under the plans.
Neurodiverse and poorer students would lose out
Ravensbourne University, a former art college in London, had the highest proportion of students without GCSEs, at 72 per cent, followed by Bath Spa University at 64 per cent and Leeds Trinity University at 58 per cent.
A Ravensbourne spokesperson said the university was committed to widening participation and providing opportunities to disadvantaged students, adding that traditional qualifications did not always reflect potential.
He called for any changes to student finance eligibility to recognise the importance of alternatives.
Professor Georgina Andrews, the vice-chancellor of Bath Spa University, said “equivalent qualifications and alternative routes into higher education” allow students from disadvantaged backgrounds to “improve their lives”. These include learners who are neurodiverse and have experienced childhood poverty or deprivation.
Andrews warned: “Restricting access to student loan funding should not be used as a blunt instrument to create unnecessary barriers to opportunity and social mobility.”
Some universities consider professional experience in lieu of formal qualifications under a system known as Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning. This would allow someone who left school early for work to use that hands-on experience to retrain at degree level.
Other universities with high proportions of students without GCSEs were Arts University Plymouth (53 per cent), University of Wales Trinity Saint David (51 per cent) and Birmingham Newman University (48 per cent).
It is not known if all these students accessed a loan to fund their studies, but 95 per cent of eligible students nationwide do.
Professor Damien Page, vice-chancellor at Buckinghamshire New University (47 per cent), said: “If this is about quality, it should be judged on how students do, not on what exams they sat at 16.”
‘Franchise’ universities face squeeze
Private higher education providers that are not universities would also be affected. These providers typically partner with universities that take in more students without GCSEs.
The biggest of these is Global Banking School, where 57 per cent of the intake had no GCSEs. The largest teacher of full-time undergraduates in the country, it is a private firm contracted by universities around England to teach students who may never set foot on their own campuses. It has had partnerships with universities including Bath Spa and Leeds Trinity.
So-called franchised providers, like Global Banking School, have been growing and keep most of the tuition fee for each student, but give their sponsoring institution a cut for accrediting the degrees.
Hillman said the Government has concerns that these franchised providers are cashing in on the student loan system and offering poor value for money.
Global Banking School’s partnership with Oxford Brookes University is being investigated by the Office for Students over quality concerns.
Arts University Plymouth also said its figures for the number of students without GCSEs included programmes delivered by its franchised partner, Victoria College of Arts and Design.
Dr Naeem Aslam, a board member at the Commonwealth College of Excellence, where 34 per cent of students had no GCSEs, said the planned curbs were “really alarming and will significantly impact our business and sustainability”. He warned of “serious and unintended consequences”.
‘Unscrupulous providers accepting anyone who applies’
But Iain Mansfield, a former government policy adviser on universities and head of education at the Policy Exchange think-tank, said a pass in GCSE English is “the absolute bare minimum” that should be required to get on a higher education course.
The rise in students with no qualifications comes a decade after the country’s formal cap on student numbers was removed.
Mansfield said this left “no barrier” to “unscrupulous providers” accepting “anyone who applies” and getting tuition money from the Government that will often never be repaid.
The Government loans over £21bn per year to students but loses as much as £7.3bn annually on that cost, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
“If institutions have admitted so many grossly unsuitable people onto courses purporting to be higher education, then it is their own lookout if they suffer financially if these much-needed restrictions come in,” Mansfield said. “It does call for the Government to be ready with insolvency regimes so that they can protect students and protect elements of provision that are valuable.”
However he said a good nursing school should not shut down because of a “bloated” business studies department, for example. Officials should be “ready to step in to save those parts of the system that are worth saving”, he added.
Hillman said a GCSE in English was a “low bar” for entry with which international students already have to comply, but cautioned that enforcing it could add administrative costs to universities that are already struggling financially.
Universities UK (UUK), UK Business College, Arts University Plymouth and Bucks New University said they offered non-traditional routes for students to participate in higher education and improve their life chances.
A spokesperson for UUK, which represents 142 institutions, said any requirement “must recognise equivalent qualifications and prior experience”.
The other providers named in this article either did not comment or referred to UUK’s statement.
The Department for Education confirmed its planned consultation would look at a “range of options” for a minimum English language requirement for prospective undergraduates to access student loans.
Do you have information about this story? We’d love to hear from you – please email alexa.phillips@theipaper.com