Callum Clark
Callum Clark is a multimedia journalist at STV News who covers education with a focus on how university finances and restructuring decisions affect students, staff and local services. His reporting combines clear financial detail with the human impact of institutional change, often setting out the scale of job losses and service closures alongside the rationale given by those in charge. He brings a background in local news and public service coverage to his current beat, which shapes a style that is direct, fact‑driven and grounded in official documents and statements.
Dundee University nursery and botanic garden closures
Clark’s recent coverage of Dundee University’s cost‑saving plans shows how he handles complex education stories that sit at the intersection of finance, employment and community life. In his report on the planned closure of the university nursery and botanic garden, he sets out headline figures such as the institution’s £20m savings target and an operating loss of around £2m a month, giving readers a clear sense of the financial pressures driving the changes. He quantifies the human impact by noting that more than 600 jobs have already gone since the university began its cost‑cutting drive in 2024 and that a further 190 posts are at risk under a new round of voluntary redundancies.
The piece closely tracks the stages of the university’s plan, explaining that this is a third round of redundancies and situating the nursery and garden closures within a wider restructuring effort rather than treating them as isolated decisions.
Clark makes extensive use of direct quotations from university statements, including the board’s description of the nursery decision as “exceptionally difficult” and its claim to have explored “all realistic options” to secure long‑term sustainability.
He reports the institution’s framing that there is “no viable option” to keep the nursery running in a financially sustainable way, presenting the university’s justification in full while leaving space for readers to weigh that against the scale of the cuts. In covering the botanic garden, he reports that the university is proposing to cease running the facility while “exploring alternative options” for its future, signalling that the closure plan is linked to a search for new models rather than a simple shutdown.
Across the article, the emphasis on precise figures, quoted language and procedural detail reflects a methodical approach to education reporting, treating university decisions as major public policy stories with lasting community consequences.
Education reporting shaped by public service reform
Clark’s work in education is informed by several years in local news reporting on public services and reforms, including coverage of changes to mental health services. That background in following complex service reorganisations and their impact on residents underpins his interest in how institutional strategies play out for workers, families and users of facilities such as nurseries and gardens. His style favours clear, uncluttered prose that sets out what an organisation plans to do, why it says the change is necessary, and how many people or services will be affected, rather than leaning on commentary or speculation.
This makes his education coverage particularly relevant when the story involves contested closures, job losses or restructures that require careful handling of numbers, timelines and official language.
Regional beat with a focus on institutions and communities
Across his career, Clark has reported on a wide range of local stories involving major institutions and the communities around them, building familiarity with how decisions taken by boards and executives translate into changes on the ground.
Before joining STV News he worked in a commercial radio newsroom, where he spent nearly three years covering varied stories that included mental health service reforms, giving him experience of tracking policy shifts through consultations and official reviews. That grounding supports his current education beat, where he continues to follow the formal processes around cuts and closures, such as redundancy schemes and public statements, and connects them to the lived experience of staff and families affected by those decisions.
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Albert Tait
Albert Tait is Education Editor at The Telegraph, leading coverage of schools and universities as institutions whose decisions have direct consequences for staff and students. He focuses on how regulators, senior leaders and governing bodies respond when safety, standards or integrity are under scrutiny, and how those responses affect classrooms and lecture halls. His work links school inspections and teacher safety to regulatory frameworks and conditions on the ground, and he reports on incidents such as knife attacks and “Code Red” alerts with attention to immediate impact and emergency protocols. He produces multi-part investigations into university governance, including extensive reporting on Cambridge’s handling of Jason Arday’s appointment and resignation. He also covers curriculum debates such as changes in how scientists view evolution and inheritance. He began at The Telegraph as a news reporter and previously covered community news at a local paper.
Beth Kennedy
Beth Kennedy is editor at The PIE News and stands out for reporting on how UK policy, institutional strategy and new delivery models reshape international education. Her beat covers UK study visa rules, international student flows, Home Office and UCAS data, alternative study pathways, language schools, and mergers and acquisitions across the sector. She reports on the practical effects of visa changes, scholarship schemes, online and transnational education, school closures, job losses and sector consolidation. Her work is direct and data-led, with clear explanations of complex systems and a focus on what policy and market shifts mean for universities, language schools and private training organisations. She has over a decade in specialist media, including years reporting for primary healthcare professionals before joining The PIE in 2024.
Carl Eve
Carl Eve is a crime and safeguarding reporter for Plymouth Live, known for showing how institutions respond when vulnerable people are harmed. He covers abuse, schools, social care, public safety schemes, serious violence, homicide, courts, sentencing, street crime, policing operations, protests and public order. His work has examined child abuse rings, the Vanessa George nursery abuse case, grooming gangs and failures to prosecute offenders. He also reports on night-time safety projects such as the Safe Bus and student volunteer patrols. Eve has years of experience as a specialist crime reporter, with earlier work for local papers and in documentary and radio research. He uses court files, regulatory reports, police input, direct observation and on-the-ground reporting. His clear, factual stories track investigations from first police action through trial, sentencing and institutional accountability.