University mergers and the "hidden curriculum"
Is collaboration the future of UK higher education?
Welcome!
Hello and welcome to The Student Eye, a publication for university students and those interested in higher education across the UK.
This week, we look at the merger the universities of Kent and Greenwich and ask whether their model is one that might be followed by other institutions in different parts of the country. Then, Jacqueline Wong unpacks the issue of the “hidden curriculum” and looks at its effects, as well as what universities should be doing to help combat it.
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Is the merging of universities the future for British higher education?
Wednesday 10th September saw the most dramatic illustration of UK higher education’s perilous financial situation yet. Kent and Greenwich university, more than 50 miles apart, announced that they would merge to create a new “super-university”.
There have been other collaborations and mergers between universities in the UK in the past, but the institutions say this is a “first-of-its-kind multi university group” with one governing body and one vice-chancellor.
The announcement did lead to plenty of breaking news headlines last week but it is also important to understand exactly what the agreement will mean. Whilst Professor Jane Harrington, Vice Chancellor of the University of Greenwich, speaks of an “education without boundaries, from city to coast”, the day to day experience of students will remain largely unchanged.
Those applying, for example, will still have to choose between one of the two institutions. Once there, it doesn’t seem as if there will be any particularly distinct ability to move between Kent and Greenwich.
Instead, the motivations behind this move are clearly financial, and it is from there that other universities will try learn lessons. Initial memos talk of efforts to “increased research capacity” and “address skill gaps”. Given the state of financial problems within the industry and the lack of ability to raise tuition fees, research has become the primary revenue driver for many universities that manage to remain profitable (you can read our full breakdown on that here).
Elsewhere, as some universities have looked to cut certain courses, collaborations such as this could provide some much needed flexibility. It is possible to foresee a world in which one of the two universities cuts certain loss-making courses on the presumption that they provided by the other. That could help ease public backlash like that which Cardiff received earlier this year when it announced plans to scrap modern languages. Those plans have since been reversed.
Wonkhe have also pointed out that this agreement “is by no means limited to only two universities operating under one umbrella”. There has been much talk of mergers in the past and it is likely that this will be the first of many in the UK.
Cracking the hidden curriculum: The unwritten rules of university life
By Jacqueline Wong
A-level grades may have improved overall in 2025, but the gap between the most and least deprived areas’ university admission rates widened to 22.5%, indicating that structural barriers are still in place. The Sutton Trust’s Opportunity Index shows an even sharper contrast: a pupil on free school meals (FSM) in East Ham is three times more likely to earn a degree by age 22 than one in Newcastle upon Tyne Central. But even for those who do make it to university the challenges continue.
Once there, success is no longer only about grades. Reading between the lines is key, like navigating seminars, approaching lecturers, balancing internships, networking, and understanding the unspoken rules that others seem to pick up automatically. These aren’t addressed in the curriculum, but they decide who succeeds and who barely survives. Researchers refer to this invisible terrain as the “hidden curriculum,” which consists of the unwritten rules, expectations, and behaviours that underpin university life but are rarely described to students.
As the Cambridge Centre for Teaching and Learning puts it, this hidden curriculum becomes “particularly evident when students do not fit well with such unarticulated expectations.” At the University of Leeds, it’s understood as the “implicit knowledge, norms and behaviours” needed for success, revealing a gap between students’ backgrounds and institutional expectations.
The scale of the issue
Research suggests these challenges shape day-to-day life at university in ways that widen existing inequalities.
Take, for example, the idea of belonging. The Higher Education Policy Institution (HEPI) Student Academic Experience Survey 2025 found that while 62% of students feel they do belong at their university, one in eight actively disagrees. That sentiment is crucial because without it, students are less likely to speak up in seminars, ask staff for guidance, or join student networks, which traps them in the loop of living in the hidden curriculum.
“42% of students say only one to three academics know their name and sense of progress, while 7% say none.”
Staff-student relationship data makes the same point. 42% of students say only one to three academics know their name and sense of progress, while 7% say none. Without these connections, students miss out on key opportunities to ask the “small questions,” like how to take advantage of office hours, plan for dissertations, handle group projects, and more.
And when expectations aren’t met, students describe the hidden curriculum directly. Among those who said their experience was worse than expected, nearly a quarter (23%) cited lack of support for independent study, and 19% pointed to poor feedback. Both are examples of universities assuming students will intuit academic norms without clear guidance.
The hidden curriculum impacts future opportunities in addition to student life. Employers regularly stress the value of communication, networking, and self-advocacy skills, all of which are fostered by informal university learning. If they don’t receive targeted support, disadvantaged students run the risk of graduating from university with the same academic qualifications as their peers but fewer of the extra skills that employers value.
The way forward
These figures reveal that the hidden curriculum is not a minor problem that only affects a small percentage of students. It is ingrained in the routine of higher education, subtly determining who thrives and who fails. Despite two decades of widening participation efforts, the data suggests that knowing how to “do” university – beyond the lectures and libraries – remains a form of privilege.
Universities and sector bodies have begun to recognise the issue. To help undergraduates in comprehending the unwritten rules of academic life, the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) published a Student Guide to the Hidden Curriculum in 2021. Later, a companion Staff Guide was produced to encourage instructors to explicitly state expectations in their instruction and evaluation. These steps matter because they chip away at the assumption that students will simply “pick things up.”
“Students learn best when the hidden curriculum is surfaced in structured, social ways.”
But evidence shows that piecemeal resources are not enough. Students learn best when the hidden curriculum is surfaced in structured, social ways. Peer mentoring is one good example. The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) found that mentoring can raise attainment by two months’ additional progress per year, particularly for disadvantaged students.
In higher education, schemes like peer-assisted study sessions (PASS) have been shown to improve not only grades but also students’ sense of belonging, the very ingredient the HEPI 2025 survey identified as fragile for many. Crucially, these programmes work because they do more than provide academic help. They make explicit the rules that are otherwise left unsaid and an upper-year student converts the hidden curriculum into digestible language when they explain how to approach an essay, what lecturers actually mean by “critical analysis,” or how to balance study with part-time jobs. In this sense, mentoring isn’t just extra support but a way of redistributing insider knowledge that some students inherit and others have to fight to acquire.
Staff practice also makes a huge difference. The achievement gap between disadvantaged and privileged students is reduced when lecturers use plain-language rubrics, annotated feedback, and examples to make assessment criteria clear.
The hidden curriculum may be invisible, but its effects are measurable – in continuation rates, confidence gaps, and graduate outcomes. Universities that take action to bring it into the open stand to gain not only more engaged students, but also a fairer higher education system.
Around the country
Each week, we bring you a selection of our favourite stories from student publications around the UK.
Emails reveal freshers told to accept Ustinov rooms or lose college housing
Durham University students have been at the heart of country’s student housing crisis and now, Palatinate reports on further developments. The publication found emails that said students were “not given the option to live elsewhere despite an initial University letter to residents claiming students have “chosen to live there.””.
High Court judge defends protest injunction
Varsity report on a high court judge’s argument in support of the University of Cambridge’s injunction against pro-Palestine protests. That injunction is set to last for 9 further months and the publication asks what the risks are that it tries to mitigate.
NUSU staffing restructure: what does it mean for students?
In this piece from the summer, The Courier look at their student union changes and try to map out what it will mean for students at the university. It plays into a wider debate about the role of student unions in different parts of the country and what more they could be doing for their students.
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Interesting as always. I had never thought explicitly about a 'hidden curriculum' but when I worked at Durham in the 60s and 70s the difference in life experiences of students from public schools was very different from those leaving most state schools. In this it simply reflected the wider society.