Mark Leach

1 week ago | wonkhe.com | Jim Dickinson |Mark Leach

I went along to AHUA conference on Tuesday, and saw a fascinating presentation from Esa Hämäläinen, who’s the Director of Administration at the University of Helsinki. The university has easily one of my favourite origin stories – it was established by a 13-year-old girl who the world came to know as Queen Christina of Sweden. It also has a cracking set of values, some of which appear now to be the sort of thing that’s banned by the Office for Students in England.

3 weeks ago | wonkhe.com | Hugh Jones |Mark Leach

Greetings from Oxford!Many – perhaps even most – universities have a statue or two. But few have a statute which is as troublesome as one of those belonging to Oriel College, Oxford. You can see the statue in question in the alcove directly above the door in the postcard – the one on its own at the top; not one of those along the first floor. And I bet by now you’ve guessed the statue.

3 weeks ago | wonkhe.com | Jim Dickinson |Mark Leach

At some point we might get some actual higher education policy out of the Department for Education (DfE), rather then endless crackdowns on the “long tail” of the market. There’s rumours of a (next) TEF delay which we might assume ministers will take an interest in, and a signature manifesto commitment on “raising the standards of teaching” to deliver. It all raises the question – what should Labour’s agenda on teaching be? How might it realise it? What levers will it pull?

3 weeks ago | wonkhe.com | Jim Dickinson |Mark Leach

On The Wonkhe Show, Public First’s Jonathan Simons offers up a critique of the way the higher education sector has been organised in recent years. He says that despite being more pro-market than most, he’s increasingly come to the view that the sector needs greater stewardship.

3 weeks ago | wonkhe.com | Hugh Jones |Mark Leach

Greetings from Oxford!As I write this blog, the spring statement is two days away, and I have no idea (although I can make a guess!) how Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves’ statement has gone down with people. Reeves studied for her first degree at New College Oxford, and so that’s where we’re going today. This being Oxford, New College is obviously a very old college. It was founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham, the Bishop of Winchester.