Opinions

At the start of the Augar Review, the panel set out their eight guiding principles. Number four is:

“The cost of post-18 education should be shared between taxpayers, employers and learners.”

I agree, but, it seems, the panel itself didn’t. Reading the Review – which is in many ways a fine and thoughtful document – among its fifty mostly welcome recommendations, I cannot find a single one about how employers should share the cost. More...

The backdrop was the recent publication of the Augar review and the enormous current political uncertainty. One theme that shone through was the need for universities, as autonomous institutions, to set their own weather as much as they can. More...

I went recently to see the play Admissions, by Joshua Harmon at the Trafalgar Studio in London. Colleagues in the sector had told me how relevant and thought provoking it was, especially in the current times where access and participation is said to be a high priority. The play was about a liberal Head of Admissions at private school fighting to diversify the student population at her school, however, her values were conflicted when her son was deferred for the university of his choice, whist his mixed-race best friend who ‘ticks more than one box’ was accepted. More...