If you were looking for reasons to be optimistic about the future of Higher Education, or HE, in England, the last academic year was a rather disappointing spectacle.

The inflation-linked rise in tuition fees towards the end of 2024 was swallowed up by the simultaneous increase in National Insurance costs for employers, including HE providers, while this summer’s Spending Review across all government departments offered no solutions to the sector’s funding woes.

In contrast, this academic year has started with HE in the news for a more positive reason, with the announcement on September 10th that the University of Greenwich and the University of Kent intended to “formally collaborate” to create a new “super-university”, provisionally titled the London and South East University Group.

So what is this new university group, and what is it trying to achieve? Could other universities be tempted to follow suit by setting up their own group-like structures? And is the notion of university groups the future of HE in this country or merely a distraction?

My guests are David Kernohan, the Deputy Editor of Wonkhe – a higher education news site - and Rachel Hewitt, the Chief Executive at MillionPlus, the Association for Modern Universities.

CLICK HERE TO BROWSE OUR PODCAST BACK CATALOGUE

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER / X

When Ofsted, the school and college inspectorate in England, launched a consultation earlier this year on their new framework for conducting inspections, the response from teachers and leaders was pretty damning.

That’s not to say that an inspection system is ever likely to be universally loved, but Ofsted’s original plans – which we discussed on this podcast back in February – created a huge backlash.

So Ofsted went away and had another go, culminating in their new set of proposals for conducting inspections, released on September 9th. Unfortunately for Ofsted, the response from all the major unions has been just as critical at the second time of asking.

So what changes has Ofsted announced to their upcoming inspection framework? Are these changes the ones that critics wanted to see? And which parts of future Ofsted inspections are likely to prove controversial for many months to come?

My guests are Helena Marsh, the principal of Linton Village College, a comprehensive secondary school in South Cambridgeshire, and Mark Enser, a writer and columnist and also a former Ofsted inspector.

CLICK HERE TO BROWSE OUR PODCAST BACK CATALOGUE

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER / X

Welcome back to Inside Your Ed – I hope you all had a great summer.

For many people working in politics, the summer break offers a gentler pace of life while most MPs and government ministers are away from Westminster. However, one former MP and minister decided that instead of putting his feet up, he should publish a new book that was almost destined to attract plenty of attention.

At the start of August, former schools minister Sir Nick Gibb and his co-author Robert Peal launched ‘Reforming Lessons: Why English Schools have improved since 2010 and how this was achieved’.

As you would expect from someone who was not afraid to take on his critics as a government minister, Nick Gibb puts forward a range of arguments and evidence to explain the major changes that he oversaw during his time in government.

I’m delighted to be joined today by Sir Nick, whose career includes 27 years as an MP, five years as Shadow Schools Minister and over 10 years as Schools Minister, for which he received a knighthood earlier this year.

So, what drove Nick Gibb’s thinking about how to improve schools in England? Is there anything he would have done differently with the benefit of hindsight? And where does Nick Gibb agree and disagree with the Labour Party - both past and present - when it comes to raising school standards?

CLICK HERE TO BROWSE OUR PODCAST BACK CATALOGUE

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER / X

Since T-levels were introduced in 2020 as new technical qualifications for 16 to 19-year-olds, they have rarely been out of the spotlight.

In the last two years alone we have had major reports on T-levels from the Education Select Committee in Parliament, Ofsted and the National Audit Office – none of which painted a particularly rosy picture of how these qualifications have fared so far.

The latest in this long line of inquiries came on the 27th of June, when the Public Accounts Committee in Parliament, which monitors government spending, published its verdict on how T-levels have been designed and implemented.

So what concerns did the Public Accounts Committee raise about T-levels? Why has this new brand of qualifications struggled to deliver the ambitions set out for them when they were launched five years ago? And are things likely to get better or worse for T-levels over the rest of this Parliament?

My guests are Robert Halfon, the MP for Harlow from 2010 to 2024 who was twice Minister for Skills and Apprenticeships at the Department for Education, and Sorah Gluck, a Senior Policy Advisor at the Edge Foundation.

CLICK HERE TO BROWSE OUR PODCAST BACK CATALOGUE

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER / X

On Thursday 4th July 2024, the Labour Party won a resounding victory in the UK General Election.

In their election-winning manifesto, Labour’s number one pledge within their mission to ‘break down barriers to opportunity’ was to recruit 6,500 new teachers.

This pledge for 6,500 teachers has been repeated many times by government ministers in the 12 months since the election, but we’ve hardly heard anything about how the pledge will be delivered, or what it means in practice for schools and colleges.

So, what exactly was the original pledge that Labour made in their election manifesto? Why is it proving so difficult for the government to even define their pledge, let alone deliver it? And what risks lie ahead as the Government tries to attract more people into the teaching profession?

My guests are James Zuccollo, the director for school workforce at the Education Policy Institute, and Jack Worth, an education economist and school workforce lead at the National Foundation for Educational Research.

CLICK HERE TO BROWSE OUR PODCAST BACK CATALOGUE

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER / X

On June 11th, the Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the result of the Government’s Spending Review, which confirmed the budgets that each government department will have until 2028.

The Department for Education, or DfE’s budget will rise from £101 billion to £109 billion over this period – an increase of 0.8% after adjusting for inflation.

So, is the Spending Review outcome a good or bad result for the DfE? How did schools, colleges and universities fare in relation to each other within the DfE’s spending plans? And what question marks remain about how the DfE will prioritise its spending going forward?

My guests are Katie Carr, an Associate Director at the consultancy Public First, and Dani Payne, Senior Researcher at the Social Market Foundation think tank.

CLICK HERE TO BROWSE OUR PODCAST BACK CATALOGUE

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER / X

I think most people would agree that England’s rise up the international education league tables over the past decade or so has been a welcome sign of progress.

But when government funding is now in such short supply and is likely to remain so for some time yet, sustaining this recent progress may become increasingly challenging.

A new report from IPPR and Ambition Institute, written by Loic Menzies and Marie Hamer, argues that the way in which we support and invest in the teaching workforce through continuing professional development, or CPD, may be the key to unlocking higher education standards in future.

So, what does this new report want to change in terms of how we invest in teachers and leaders? How easy would it be to convince teachers, leaders and schools to spend more time and money on CPD? And could improving the quality and quantity of training go some way to convincing more people to stay in the teaching profession?

My guests are Avnee Morjaria, associate director for public services at IPPR, and Loic Menzies, an associate fellow at IPPR and co-author of this new report.

CLICK HERE TO BROWSE OUR PODCAST BACK CATALOGUE

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER / X

Since the COVID pandemic, many jobs have been transformed by the dramatic expansion of hybrid and remote working.

A recent survey by the education charity Teach First found that 80% of young people now want some element of hybrid work in their jobs – which sounds like bad news for frontline professions such as teaching.

However, far from giving up the fight, some schools and trusts have decided to build flexible working models so that their teachers can enjoy some of the same flexibilities found in other professions.

So, what does flexible working look like in a school environment? What are the biggest challenges that leadership teams can face if they embark on the journey towards more flexible working? And could greater flexibility for teachers make a serious dent in the recruitment and retention challenges facing schools across the country?

My guests are Robyn Ellis, a school and college trust leader at Dixons Academies Trust, and Neil Renton, Headteacher at Harrogate Grammar School.

CLICK HERE TO BROWSE OUR PODCAST BACK CATALOGUE

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER / X