Policy comes at us thick and fast in English tertiary education. Barely 12 months after the Skills White Paper and we also now have the passing of the Skills Bill, the response to the Augar Review and a Levelling Up White Paper to digest. For colleges offering HE, there are also the small matters of 1000+ pp of consultations from the Office for Students and the Department for Education on “low quality” HE and the proposed Lifelong Loan Entitlement. Following the Spring Statement, there is now also a formal review of the apprenticeship levy. And all of this alongside the confirmation of sector budgets for the rest of the parliament in last autumn’s Spending Review - the financial parameters within which much of these policy initiatives must be delivered.
