The end-of-year podcast is excellent (right to the very end). But again, we come back to the failings of franchising universities to protect the controlled reputational range of the sector in their deals with for-profit providers. Let it stop in 2026.

So, that Centre for Social Justice thing that suggests that many graduates would be better off having done a higher apprenticeship. Turns out we are comparing a population of hundreds of thousands of graduates to a population of 1,810 L4 apprenticeships. wonkhe.com/wonk-corner/...

NEW on Wonkhe: Posh? Exceeded your A level expectations? You are less likely to go to university bit.ly/3MtZRWC

Pretty much what the article title says.

NEW on Wonkhe: Steven Hill sets out what Research England has been up to during the REF 2029 pause buff.ly/11zncPw

NEW on Wonkhe: There is another quality assurance system in England: it has little to do with outcomes metrics, and a lot to do with meeting immediate needs. David Kernohan lifts the lid. buff.ly/isIq0kU

NEW on Wonkhe: Ticking boxes misses the point bit.ly/3Mp9upo

NEW on Wonkhe: The external examiner system is respected, popular, and widespread. Vicki Stott asks how we can build on these strengths to improve the quality of provision further - across the UK and beyond buff.ly/MiPMIeZ

This week on Wonkhe: Seventeen years after its hopeful launch, Southend’s university campus is closing. Jim Dickinson examines what this tells us about the failure of place-based planning in UK higher education

Big question for me on this is why has it taken OfS so long to open a formal investigation?@manchestermill.bsky.social made the allegations in March, and the police started their investigation in May and intensified it in July? www.officeforstudents.org.uk/news-blog-an...

Charts, innit? wonkhe.com/wonk-corner/...

Love this on part time work and creative graduates.

Hearing that EIS-ULA also failed to meet the statutory 50 per cent threshold. Writing up the results here: wonkhe.com/wonk-corner/...

UCU ballot on industrial action over pay and pay-related: turnout 39%, meaning there will be no national industrial action on these issues by UCU. Still waiting for Unison and EIS-ULA results.

NEW on Wonkhe: The UK Standard Skills Classification is a new way to think about the connections between courses and jobs. David Kernohan loves a new coding framework buff.ly/nVlSlHr

NEW on Wonkhe: How can you get a maintenance loan and not a fee loan? buff.ly/p5uwLAb

Here we go: wonkhe.com/blogs/budget...

NEW on Wonkhe: Ahead of an evidence paper and call for submissions, Minister for Further and Higher Education Vikki Howells sets out her understanding of the key challenges faced by higher education in Wales buff.ly/gbquzUM

wonkhe.com/wonk-corner/... :eyes:

Commons Education Committee seems to think that there is a provider at risk of collapse before the end of 2025. DfE and OfS disagree. wonkhe.com/wonk-corner/...

I did a thing for Wonkhe in which I kind of make an argument not to scrap the graduate labour market survey. wonkhe.com/blogs/can-th... There is a live consultation on this that ends on 1 December. If you are convinced by my argument that we need hourly earnings data please do drop DfE a note.

NEW on Wonkhe: New Skills England guidance provides the detail for the white paper’s vision of a coherent skills system. Michael Salmon assesses whether it could work buff.ly/Dtpbg0t

Yep, why not score a goal from your own half in the 98th minute?

NEW on Wonkhe: It's taken eleven months, but the draft OfS strategy is now finalised. David Kernohan takes a look at what has changed buff.ly/K1ccOB7

Great piece - understands policy context and asks the right questions about what that means for the university and the city.

Happy The Festival of Higher Education day for those who celebrate! If you are joining us in London, may I modestly suggest sessions on a single data model, and on green skills, will be the sessions all the cool kids will be at.

NEW on Wonkhe: Plymouth is once again entering an era of defence-driven growth. Richard Davies asks how the university fits in buff.ly/dDLRkUZ

Though governments and the education industry seem to be stuck in the AI boosterism stage, the financial markets are very much moving on. www.cityam.com/ai-bubble-fe...

Well. wonkhe.com/wonk-corner/...

Never really certain if anyone sees these things on here, but for those who do and are interested, I am shortly stepping down from my role at the Office for Students -- full statement here: www.officeforstudents.org.uk/news-blog-an...

At last! www.hoopsfix.com/2025/11/fiba... - this is a great SLB season,now we can finally focus 100% on the court!

It feels like there is a risk that OfS has overstepped the mark here.

'It turns out that if you design a landscape that looks like alphabet soup, you shouldn’t be surprised when applicants misread the signposts.' 1/3

How wise of software developers to intuit that what really want is for everything to take four times as long to open, and to dispay a garish button imploring me to mangle whatever is in the file through a cheap knock off LLM.

NEW on Wonkhe: HESA researcher Tej Nathwani unpacks what would happen to our understanding of graduate outcomes if survey response rates continue to fall buff.ly/KxUL0ZC

NEW on Wonkhe: Diamond’s a distant memory as Wales plays inflation games with fees and maintenance bit.ly/4hJt0bZ

NEW on Wonkhe: Learning and work is for the well off bit.ly/47SAHch

NEW on Wonkhe: James Coe unpacks the incentives underpinning the government’s specialisation agenda wonkhe.com/blogs/change...

NEW on Wonkhe: For Richard Puttock the restrictions on national student survey results publications designed in 2005 need a rethink twenty years on buff.ly/4H0sVJC

Felt cute, thought I'd send the Daily 15mins early, no cap.

The white paper is wrong - changing research funding won't change teaching | Wonkhe

NEW on Wonkhe: New policy proposals mean new rules - both in law and in the regulatory framework. David Kernohan breaks it down into three steps buff.ly/ZQnKNXU

NEW on Wonkhe: We need to talk about Kalven buff.ly/Uf4hP5h

NEW on Wonkhe: A not so happy birthday to the Robbins Review wonkhe.com/wonk-corner/...

NEW on Wonkhe: As Wales moves toward a single regulatory framework for its entire tertiary sector, Jim Dickinson explores whether Medr's revisions signal true simplification or simply better-organised bureaucracy buff.ly/xknA26w

NEW on Wonkhe: For Elliot Newstead, the implications of changes to high-tariff recruitment behaviour go far beyond student numbers buff.ly/LAE5cwy

Everything that is in the White Paper for HE, handily digested. Or if you prefer audio: wonkhe.com/blogs/podcas... Or, if you prefer in person: www.thefestivalofhe.com

NEW on Wonkhe: Higher education reform is here – along with a comprehensive strategy for post-16 education and skills. Debbie McVitty and David Kernohan work through the details of the government's agenda for HE wonkhe.com/blogs/what-i...