I have been given a wide brief for this speech. So I began my preparations by going back to see what I said when I last spoke to the Hallam Board, back in 2017. I started my remarks then by noting the level of flux in higher education policy.
We were on our third Universities Minister in three years, which seemed a lot at the time. But given we have had another three in the past year alone, along with five Secretaries of State for Education and three Prime Ministers, the period when I last spoke to you has retrospectively come to resemble a time of remarkable stability and calmness.
Intriguingly, given the political upheavals of the past few years, the other issues I spoke to you about in the autumn of 2017 have not changed much. For example, back then there was considerable uncertainty over many higher education policies. Indeed, the day before I spoke to you, Theresa May had announced there was to be a review of post-18 education – that became the Augar review, which reported in early 2019.
Four years on, we are still waiting for the Government to tell us how they intend to implement much of Sir Philip Augar’s report. Ministers held a consultation on this that ended over a year ago, in May 2022 – or two Prime Ministers ago in old money. It flagged the possibility of new minimum entry requirements, new student number caps and a new lower fee cap for Foundation Years. I have my fingers crossed that we will soon have an announcement on what Ministers plan to do in practice – though, like the Grand Old Duke of York, we have been marched up to the top of that hill before and, whatever is decided, there will be limited time to implement any changes before the next election.
