{"id":9307,"date":"2018-11-07T11:00:08","date_gmt":"2018-11-07T11:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/cel\/?p=9307"},"modified":"2018-11-07T11:00:08","modified_gmt":"2018-11-07T11:00:08","slug":"wonkfest18-what-are-the-key-messages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/2018\/11\/07\/wonkfest18-what-are-the-key-messages\/","title":{"rendered":"Wonkfest18: what are the key messages?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The ultimate chic location of Ravensbourne University down by the Millennium Dome was the location of this years\u00a0 @wonkfest18<\/a> –\u00a0 500 academics, policy makers and industry shakers came together to discuss, debate and future spot Higher Education trends.<\/p>\n\"\"\n

Policy:<\/p>\n

Sir Michael Barber, head of the Office for Students emphasised its regulatory responsibilities, and challenged Universities over the need for financial discipline \u2013 there will be no state bail-out, and failing Universities should not expect the public purse to fund failure. Speaking about the 21C agenda, it was good to see \u2018great teaching, great research and great combinations high on his agenda; with a call for ambition in terms of student access, success and progression. He closed with a challenge to university press offices \u2013 to tell the wider world what universities do and why. Getting across the infectious incitement of academic life is key to avoiding a popular backlash.<\/p>\n

Link to his slides here:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/wonkhe.com\/wp-content\/wonkhe-uploads\/2018\/11\/WONKHE-5-NOV-FINAL-MICHAEL-BARBER.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

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Minister Sam Gyimah covered fees, HEI finances, student accommodation, no-platforming and lots more \u2013 here is the link to him in conversation with WonkHE Editor in Chief Mark Leach.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/wonkhe.com\/blogs\/wonkfest18-live\/#listen-to-sam-gyimah-in-conversation-at-wonkfest<\/a><\/p>\n

Wonk David Kernohans summaries:<\/p>\n

At times Gyimah sounded very similar to Barber, particularly when highlighting the need for universities to make a positive case and sharing what they are doing. He\u2019d not yet seen any proposals from Augar, so was hesitant to draw red lines. But many did get the impression that he was not keen to see a return no number controls.<\/p>\n

Sam Gyimah voted against Brexit because he felt that it would be complex, difficult to do, and may not benefit young people. But he was equally clear it was what the British people have voted for, and the policy of his government. He sees some opportunities for HE, not least the historically high increase in government investment in research and development. Investment in knowledge and innovation, he felt, was key for the future of Britain.<\/p>\n

Is the \u201cmonoculture\u201d just code for the fact that students don\u2019t vote Conservative? Gyimah made the point that he\u2019d never used language around \u201csnowflakes\u201d and \u201cleft wing madrassas\u201d [this is true, but he\u2019s been happy to be\u00a0associated<\/a>\u00a0with one of these positions in the past \u2013 he\u00a0spoke out<\/a>\u00a0against Toby Young], and outlined his vision that people should have a right to express their opinions \u2013 using Barber\u2019s language (again) of the \u201cpursuit of truth\u201d. Debate, he argues, is always better than demands for retraction.<\/p>\n

In 1997 Sam Gyimah invited Tariq Aziz to speak at the Oxford Union (he was denied a Visa by the Home Office). He felt it would be good to debate him, so he could be challenged by \u201cvery intelligent students\u201d. He doesn\u2019t regret this, and feels that such people should be challenged on the views they hold rather than prevented from speaking.<\/p>\n

Post-qualification admissions represent an \u201cinteresting idea\u201d but Gyimah has yet to be convinced by it. Likewise the idea of strong national standards to combat grade inflation and maintain standards.<\/p>\n

On the vexed issue of lost contact time due to strike action, and the potential for legal challenge, he passed the issue back to the regulator (and the need for a contractual student arrangement) in a softening of his\u00a0earlier position<\/a>. On living costs, he stopped short of backing rent controls, but noted that this was the primary issue that students raise with him.<\/p>\n

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The ultimate chic location of Ravensbourne University down by the Millennium Dome was the location of this years\u00a0 @wonkfest18 –\u00a0 500 academics, policy makers and industry shakers came together to discuss, debate and future spot Higher Education trends. Policy: Sir Michael Barber, head of the Office for Students emphasised its regulatory responsibilities, and challenged Universities… Read more » about Wonkfest18: what are the key messages?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1294,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[197,795,308],"tags":[663,1000,1001,999],"class_list":["post-9307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conference-report","category-education","category-he-students","tag-ofs","tag-sam-gyimah-mp","tag-sir-michael-barber","tag-wonkhe"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1294"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9307"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9312,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9307\/revisions\/9312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}