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A new report published recently by the social mobility charity the Sutton Trust, has claimed that higher-level apprenticeships are being snapped up by the middle classes and have become as sought after as a traditional university degree.

A massive shakeup of the UK’s audit industry is on the cards. The Big Four, which audit all of the FTSE 100 and 21 of the FTSE 250, have been told by the accounting regulator to separate their auditing practices by 2024. It follows the collapse of Wirecard, a payments firm which recently admitted that €1.9 billion of the cash on its books probably never existed.

One of the big winners in UK chancellor Rishi Sunak’s summer statement is the housing market, where stamp duty has been scrapped for all house purchases under £500,000 until March 2021. This will cost the Treasury £3.8 billion, about 0.4% of the total tax take, and comes in response to four months of falls in house prices – their worst performance in almost a decade.

By Dean Naidoo, Associate Head of the Sheffield Creative Industries Institute at Sheffield Hallam University

COVID-19 has had a devastating effect on the restaurant industry. While a few restaurants have found ways to provide takeaway and dine-at-home offerings, the majority of businesses have shut up shop during lockdown. From July 4, restaurants in the UK are permitted to open – but dining out will be very different. Here are seven ways in which social distancing and the wider impact of COVID-19 will change the restaurant industry.

Universities have never been under more pressure to demonstrate their worth. Not only to their students and funders, but also to their communities in the cities and towns where they are located.

Green spaces in city neighbourhoods are critical for wellbeing. Policymakers know this, which is why they put local authorities under pressure to keep parks and green spaces open during lockdown. However, there is a large gap between what this research shows should be done to maximise the benefits of urban green space, and what is actually put in place in cities.

In response to Black Lives Matter protests, sales of books by black British authors, such as Reni Eddo-Lodge and Bernadine Evaristo, have topped the UK bestseller lists. Several recent prestigious awards have also been won by black writers, including Candice Carty-Williams who won book of the year for Queenie at the British Book Awards. While these firsts must be celebrated, they also shine a light on publishing’s systemic practices, which have maintained inequalities and under-representation for black, Asian and minority ethnic writers and diverse books.

This time last week thousands of young people up and down the country were nervously awaiting their A-Level and BTEC results.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, the UK Government – like most other governments across the globe – were obsessed by economic growth as the key measure of success. Growth brings prosperity, we were told; prosperity brings jobs and this is good. But what’s the point of all this prosperity if we’re just going to spend it all on healthcare? Wealth does not always equal health.