Vaishnavi Shukla
Vaishnavi Shukla is a sub-editor on the news website of Careers360, focused on education reporting that links national entrance exams, regulatory decisions and their impact on students and institutions. She covers a spectrum from live exam results and counselling updates to accountability stories on testing agencies, universities and professional regulators. She has three years of experience in journalism and pairs fast, service-oriented updates with close tracking of policy and compliance issues in the education system.
Entrance tests, results and counselling
Shukla covers high-stakes entrance and eligibility exams across school, university and professional levels.
Her coverage of the Andhra Pradesh Teacher Eligibility Test details result announcements, pass percentages for in-service and regular candidates, and multiple channels such as official websites and WhatsApp for accessing scores. She follows medical entrance and counselling cycles, including round-two registration windows and seat allotment dates in Uttar Pradesh NEET counselling, giving candidates clear timelines and process steps. Short, one-minute reads on admit card releases for exams like CSEET keep aspirants updated on download links and exam schedules in a concise format.
She also produces live result updates for recruitment exams, including the SSC GD constable exam, focusing on result links, answer keys, cut-offs and qualifying marks. Across these pieces, she treats exam coverage as a mix of real-time information service and basic analysis of performance data such as pass percentages and category-wise outcomes.
Regulators, compliance and medical education
A recurring strand in Shukla’s work is close coverage of education regulators and oversight bodies. Her reporting on the National Commission for Indian System of Medicine documents actions against “on-paper” teachers and the barring of faculty across multiple Ayurveda colleges in states such as Karnataka, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab. These stories emphasise regulatory scrutiny of teacher appointments, the role of the AYUSH ministry and the consequences for institutions that fall short of staffing norms.
She tracks directions from bodies such as the University Grants Commission on issues like collecting data about students with disabilities and recruitment of teachers and staff, underscoring compliance responsibilities for higher education institutions over a defined period. Operational developments at agencies like the National Testing Agency, including relocation of its office and details of the new premises, are covered with practical specifics that matter to stakeholders who interact with the agency. Together, these reports show a sustained focus on how regulatory actions reshape campus operations, staffing and governance in medical and allied education.
Student voices, protests and campus decisions
Shukla regularly centres student perspectives when institutions take contentious decisions. Her coverage of Banaras Hindu University’s fine arts admissions focuses on BFA candidates challenging entrance questions, raising concerns about practical scores and demanding an inquiry into the process.
She reports on student grievances raised directly with political leaders, such as Karnataka’s chief minister making a surprise visit to a college hostel to hear complaints about facilities and living conditions.
Her reporting on the cancellation of a Tata Institute of Social Sciences convocation, citing intelligence inputs and involving the chief justice as chief guest, highlights student anger and questions around transparency and proportionality in institutional decision-making. Across these pieces, she treats students and applicants as primary narrators of how policy choices, admission procedures and security decisions shape their academic journeys and campus life.
Exam reforms and testing agencies
Beyond daily exam alerts, Shukla follows debates on reforming India’s major national tests. In coverage of recommendations submitted to a Nilekani-led task force on JEE and NEET, she reports on student organisations such as ABVP and subject experts pressing for changes in exam conduct, structure and safeguards. Her stories connect these proposals to recent controversies and broader concerns about testing agencies, giving readers a sense of how stakeholder consultations may influence future exam governance.
This strand complements her beat on immediate exam logistics by tracing how policy reform processes seek to address systemic issues in evaluation and admissions.
Across this body of work, Shukla’s reporting stands out for treating education as an ecosystem where regulators, testing agencies and students interact, rather than as isolated exam events. She moves between granular updates on results and admit cards and more developed pieces on regulation, protests and institutional accountability, giving readers both actionable information and context for how India’s education landscape is changing.
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.