Bristol and Gloucestershire universities in the news as exam advice, senior appointments and student activism converge

Regional universities in Bristol and Gloucestershire have featured in separate news items this week, covering a senior appointment, GCSE guidance and a local obituary [1][2][3]. The University of Bristol press office said a molecular epidemiologist who led a major study to help schools develop systems to prevent and cope with a possible COVID-19 outbreak during the pandemic will return to the university in January 2027 as Pro Vice-Chancellor for Health and Life Sciences [1]. The Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard reported that the University of Gloucestershire is reminding young people collecting GCSE results this week that there are different routes into employment, further study and university [2]. Meanwhile, the Bristol Radical History Group published an obituary for Hedley Bashforth, who died in May at the age of 74, was born in Barnsley and first came to Bristol to attend university in the early 1970s, later taking part in politics as an activist, party officer and trade unionist [3]. Taken together, the reports show the area’s universities acting both as destinations for school leavers and as institutions whose former students and returning academics later shape health policy, political activism and local public life [1][2][3].