by Rob Cuthbert Higher education has always been something of a playground for junior politicians; HE ministers usually serve only short terms, and many are practising for bigger jobs. (Liz Truss and Boris Johnson were both briefly shadow HE ministers.) … Continue reading
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Who should pay for higher education in England, and how much
by Rob Cuthbert SRHE News is a quarterly publication, available only to SRHE members, which aims to comment on recent events, publications, and activities in a journalistic but scholarly way, allowing more human interest and unsupported speculation than any self-respecting … Continue reading
English higher education policy: hope and pay
by Rob Cuthbert The long-awaited Cabinet reshuffle offers a faint hope for some improvement in HE policymaking in England: there is of course plenty of room for it. Former Secretary of State Gavin Williamson never recovered from the A-levels debacle … Continue reading
SRHE News at 50: Looking back…
by Rob Cuthbert SRHE News is now 50 issues old, covering a momentous 12 years for higher education worldwide, but especially in the UK, and even more especially in England – an opportunity to reflect on what we thought and … Continue reading
Irregulation: is the Office for Students fit for purpose?
by Rob Cuthbert, SRHE News Editor The House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee has decided to investigate the OfS. The Committee, with a remit “to consider matters relating to industry, including the policies of His Majesty’s Government to promote … Continue reading
Quality and standards in higher education
By Rob Cuthbert What are the key issues in HE quality and standards, right now? Maintaining quality and standards with the massive transition to remote learning? Dealing with the consequences of the 2020 A-levels shambles? The student experience, now that … Continue reading
Another fine mess
by Rob Cuthbert The overweight man in charge had an unprepossessing thin sidekick doing his bidding, but constantly making things worse, prompting Laurel and Hardy’s famous catchphrase[1][2]. In unrelated news, if English HE was a movie, what is the story … Continue reading
The coronavirus isn’t a neoliberal
by Paul Temple In a blog post last December, I attempted to chart the broad changes in UK public-sector planning and management over the decades since 1945. I suggested that while central planning methods based on the idea of “predict … Continue reading
Cronyism, academic values and the degradation of debate
by Rob Cuthbert The pandemic has accelerated many trends which were already apparent, such as the switch away from the high street to online purchasing, and in HE the move to on-line, remote and asynchronous learning. The influence of social … Continue reading
“A market exit…with a material negative impact”
by Paul Temple Our late and much-missed friend David Watson used to say that every government department should have an office marked “Cassandra”. Whenever a new policy was proposed, someone had to poke their head round the door and say, … Continue reading
