Our team of dedicated and trusted higher education lawyers understand the globally competitive and challenging environment in which you operate and know you need pragmatic and practical solutions for your institution. In the ever-changing world of higher education, it is more important than ever that you have access to specialist higher education legal advice that you can rely on.
Our team of higher education solicitors will work with you to help you make and take opportunities in the rapidly changing legal, regulatory and commercial landscape you operate in, both domestically and internationally.
We’ll do this by providing genuine insight into current higher education law and a fresh perspective on the issues you face, as well as delivering client-focused solutions rather than technical answers to defined legal questions. We’re always looking to influence, innovate and challenge the status quo. We add value wherever we can.
Our clients choose us because of our sector expertise and intrinsic knowledge of higher education law, but they stay with us because of our exceptional service.
We work with senior leadership, management teams and in-house legal teams in higher education institutions (HEIs), supporting them with informed and strategic decision-making as well as the identification and management of risk.
We also engage with sector organisations to support their work and contribute to debate and policy.
"Browne Jacobson are hungry for education work, and provide a wealth of knowledge. They are expanding into the higher education sector and spend a lot of time getting to know the client and how it works."
The hiring of Bettina Rigg has brought strong sector experience and understanding to the firm.
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Emma Hughes, head of HR services at Browne Jacobson, explains how CST’s updated executive pay report and the linked benchmarking service from XpertHR can help trust boards make robust decisions on pay.
Browne Jacobson’s education team has again been confirmed as a national powerhouse after securing five Tier 1 rankings relating to Education in the latest edition of Legal 500 and maintaining a Band 1 UK-wide ranking for Education in Chambers & Partners UK 2023.
Law firm Browne Jacobson and the University of Nottingham are launching a ground-breaking two and a half year Knowledge Transfer Partnership which aims to develop and embed long-lasting equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) principles and learnings into the firm’s practices and processes, amongst its key client-bases and the national legal sector.
In an academic environment, there can be pressures to publish, particularly where funding is dependent upon research and reputation. Whilst there can be competition between Higher Education establishments to be the first to publish, there can also be internal conflicts over authorship rights where several individuals have contributed to the work.
In July, the long-awaited statutory guidance on the Subsidy Control Act 2022 (Act) was published in draft form (Draft Guidance). A consultation on the draft guidance has recently ended and the results have not yet been published – it may therefore change before the final version is published.
In July 2022, the Supreme Court handed down its long-awaited Judgement in the case of Harpur Trust v Brazel relating to the correct calculation of statutory holiday pay for part year workers. This decision has implications for all part year workers on contracts which subsist all year round, whether their hours are normal or irregular.
Universities and colleges are not immune from deception by unscrupulous bad actors. The extent to which educational institutions can manage and control risk not only depends on financial management and internal controls, but also the robustness of security and processes which can be exploited from outside the organisation.
In University of Dundee v Chakraborty, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) considered whether a first draft of a grievance report could retrospectively be deemed to be privileged.
Since the UK left the EU and are now able to move away from the EU data protection regime, the UK government have implemented a national data strategy with the aim of reducing the burden on organisations but maintaining a high data protection standard.
The long-awaited publication of the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021 provides universities with opportunities to generate additional income and build upon the quality of their research output.
In this edition we provide you with the latest in legal updates, news and insight from the higher education sector.
Cases involving the handling allegations of harassment and sexual misconduct by Universities continues to hit the news. They are clearly difficult issues for Universities given the competing duties owed to both the reporting individual and the alleged perpetrator and the inevitable sensitivities around the nature of these matters.
The data protection legislation (namely, the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018) contain various provisions that deal with the processing of personal data for research purposes.
National law firm Browne Jacobson has grown its team behind its dedicated Space + Time executive coaching programme with the addition of two more qualified coaches who will work with clients in the education sector.
In this edition we provide you with the latest in legal updates, news and insight from the higher education sector.
Five considerations for HEIs when undertaking an IT procurement for largely “off the shelf” small-scale student-facing applications for online teaching, knowledge stores and document repositories etc.
What does the HSE's decision to prioritise occupational health inspection & enforcement activities mean for higher education institutions?
To continue to meet legal obligations, higher education institutions must consider threshold figure changes in the Cabinet Office review.
Fire safety regulation is undergoing a period of evolution, with many new & far-reaching fire safety developments having significant implications for those responsible for educational premises.
The new regime is of direct relevance to the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) which work within many of the areas covered by the Act.
A ResPublica report highlighted that asbestos continues to be the UK’s number one occupational killer, with nurses and teachers 3 to 5 times more likely to develop mesothelioma than the general UK population. The House of Commons Work & Pensions Select Committee is investigating how the HSE manages the continued presence of asbestos in buildings.
In this edition we provide you with the latest in legal updates, news and insight from the higher education sector.
Our top tips for Higher Education Institutions supporting disabled students on higher or degree apprenticeships.
What does digital transformation (DT) mean to you? Because as it turns out, it means different things depending on who you ask.
Following the defeat of the Government in respect of the prorogation case in 2019, the Government commissioned an Independent Review of Administrative Law in 2020.
We consider each of the ‘action areas’ of the draft strategy & what it might mean for higher education.
A joint guidance paper written in collaboration between Browne Jacobson and the National Governance Association (NGA) on academy mergers within the education sector has been released today.
Tomorrow, (Wednesday 27th October), national law firm Browne Jacobson will host its second FAIRE: virtual work experience and legal careers insight event, in partnership with Young Professionals.
Browne Jacobson’s education team has been confirmed as a national powerhouse after securing five Tier 1 rankings in the latest edition of Legal 500 for the very first time, and maintaining its Band 1 UK-wide ranking for Education (Institutions – Schools) in Chambers & Partners UK 2022.
Women may have broken down many professional and personal barriers, but significant gender disparity remains in the research and development community.
In Sakyi-Opare v Albert Kennedy Trust, the EAT held that an Employment Tribunal erred in deciding a claim was out of time because it did not first consider the claimant’s application to amend her claim, which included events that post-dated her claim.
This year’s A Level results have been a resounding success and demonstrate the commitment and resilience of students, schools and school staff during these unprecedented times. However, there will inevitably be some students who are disappointed with the teacher assessed grade.
In this edition we provide you with the latest in legal updates, news and insight from the higher education sector.
19 July 2021 marked the lifting of many restrictions within England including the cessation of the need for social distancing, the removal of the legal requirement for face masks, and the end of required homeworking. We look at the guidance on the lifting of restrictions in the context of staff working in the higher education sector.
Student and staff files will be full of personal data, much of which may be particularly sensitive such as health information (known under the data protection legislation as “special category” data).
As HR teams in the Higher Education sector plan for the staffing implications of the return of students to university, they are also having to deal with the relatively new condition known as long Covid.
Following publication of the first iteration of Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF) results in Spring 2021, the British Academy released its report ‘Knowledge Exchange in the SHAPE disciplines’ (the Report) in June 2021 which presented a diverse range of case studies showing that knowledge exchange in SHAPE disciplines yields significant social, economic and cultural benefits.
The economy of the last few years has proven beyond doubt that nothing is “too big to fail” and that no sector is immune to insolvency. Despite the prevalence and publicity of such failures, there still seems to be a rose-tinted view that universities and higher education (HE) providers are a safe investment and that the Government will always be there if things go wrong.
The Office for Student’s (OfS) aim is to ensure that every student, whatever their background, has a fulfilling experience of higher education that enriches their lives and careers.
We discuss some points of particular relevance to Higher Education Intuitions (HEIs) in the recent Charities Bill.
