Robbie Meredith
Robbie Meredith is the BBC’s education and arts correspondent in Northern Ireland, reporting on how decisions in government and institutions translate into real outcomes for pupils, students and cultural organisations. His coverage pairs close attention to the structure and funding of the education system with detailed stories about families, teachers and young people navigating it. He has held the education and arts brief for the BBC in Northern Ireland since 2015, building on earlier experience in the organisation’s radio news and current affairs output.
Schools, exams and pupil support
Meredith reports consistently on the school system, with particular focus on exam performance, pupil experience and provision for children with additional needs. His coverage of GCSE results in Northern Ireland tracks trends in top grades while foregrounding how pupils and parents experience results day, mixing statistical detail with on-the-ground voices from schools. He has reported on cases where pupils have been left without a school place, including an autistic teenager whose family received an apology from the Education Authority after an 18‑month absence from education, using individual stories to illuminate wider pressures on special educational needs provision.
He also follows how information and misinformation affect everyday school life, such as a piece explaining how education officials clarified the use of halal chicken in school canteens after misleading claims circulated online.
Alongside frontline issues, Meredith brings education research into his beat, for example covering a study on mind wandering and learning in children to show how cognitive science findings connect to classroom practice. The through-line in this strand of his work is a steady focus on what policy and administration mean for pupils’ daily experiences, backed by specific cases and data points from Northern Ireland schools.
Universities, further education and student finance
Meredith tracks the pathways students take beyond school, covering universities, further education colleges and the financial structures that shape those choices. He has reported on student place cuts in further education, detailing how colleges in Northern Ireland have removed thousands of places and examining the impact on learners who rely on vocational routes and local provision. His university coverage includes analysis of where students from Northern Ireland choose to study and how those patterns relate to cross‑border options and domestic capacity.
He also follows money and fees closely, including reporting on universities stating that students would not receive additional payments if tuition fees were increased, framing the story around what proposed changes would mean for current and prospective students. Taken together, these pieces show a consistent interest in access, affordability and the balance between schools, colleges and universities in providing realistic routes through education.
Education governance and politics
Meredith’s work frequently sits at the intersection of education and politics, tracing how ministerial decisions and party dynamics play out in committees and classrooms. In analysis of a major political deal at Stormont, he unpacks pledges on transforming the education system, reviewing commitments on sustainability, integrated schooling, special educational needs and support for disadvantaged pupils, and assessing what a promised “fundamental review” could mean in practice.
He has reported on the education minister instructing officials not to attend a Stormont committee meeting because of what was described as unacceptable behaviour by an assembly member, using the incident to highlight tensions between political oversight and departmental engagement.
His governance coverage extends to the Education Authority and other bodies responsible for delivering services, whether clarifying contentious issues such as halal provision in school meals or acknowledging delays in securing placements for vulnerable pupils. Across these stories he treats education as a core arena of political negotiation, but returns repeatedly to how decisions at committee tables affect staffing, places and support in the system.
Arts, culture and public debate
Alongside education, Meredith maintains a parallel focus on arts and culture, particularly where they intersect with public controversy and identity. His analysis of police dropping an investigation into the Glastonbury performance by the band Kneecap reflects this strand, situating the episode within debates about artistic expression, policing and political symbolism around cultural events.
He has also reported on issues in the university arts and humanities space, including coverage of a major academic at Queen’s University Belfast whose work is under formal investigation, tying questions of integrity and scholarship back to institutions at the heart of cultural life.
Meredith contributes to outreach and talent development too, appearing as an education correspondent at the BBC Young Reporter Festival, where staff offer guidance to young people interested in journalism. Across his arts and culture pieces, the common element is attention to how institutions, artists and audiences meet - whether at festivals, universities or in public debate - and how those encounters reflect the wider social context in Northern Ireland.
4 more education journalists.
Ajit Niranjan
Ajit Niranjan links climate science, policy and hard numbers to how extreme weather and environmental damage disrupt daily life, public services and industry. He is European environment correspondent at the Guardian. His beat includes violent heat, pollution, wildfires, air quality, EU green policy, corporate responsibility, energy transition, clean home heating, public health and long-term risks to landscapes and ecosystems. He examines how lobbying, supply chains and regulation shape environmental harm, from data centres and fish farms to fossil fuel industries. His reporting covers schools, hospitals, transport, homes and infrastructure as climate stress points. He previously reported on climate for DW News. He combines data, scientific research, eyewitness accounts and on-the-ground reporting. He also produces explainers, dossiers, factsheets and Q&As that translate complex technical debates into clear, precise language.
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.
Callum Clark
Callum Clark is a multimedia journalist at STV News who covers education through the lens of university finances, restructuring and their impact on students, staff and local services. He focuses on stories where cost‑saving plans, job losses and service closures reshape community life, such as Dundee University’s nursery and botanic garden closures, and sets those decisions within wider restructuring efforts. His reporting is direct and fact driven, built on official documents, statements and precise figures that show both the scale of savings targets and monthly losses, and the number of posts at risk. Clark’s background in local news and public service coverage, including mental health service reforms and redundancy schemes, shapes a methodical style that tracks formal processes while keeping the lived experience of workers, families and service users in view.