Recent weeks here have seen picket lines at the main gate and some localised student activism. Political pressures, economics and the pandemic have created challenges for schools and universities. New pressures such as cost of living, Brexit, austerity and culture wars have joined the existing, perennial issues. Schools and universities struggle with inaccurate public, media and governmental perspectives. Simple misunderstandings, political motivation and long outdated stereotypes can all shape an unhelpful national discourse about education.
Despite these pressures, from the point of view of someone who has spent more than two decades in secondary schools, it’s clear that universities and the wonderful, polite calm and thoughtful people who work in them are currently in a far better position as compared to their colleagues in schools.
A few factors contribute to this; universities are independent, are regulated humanely and are powerful bodies in their own right.
