Degrees of reform: the government’s agenda for higher education

Date: November 11, 2025
Time: 10:00 – 11:00
Location: Main stage

We’ll open the Festival of Higher Education with an expert assessment of the Labour government’s agenda for HE. We posit a curious paradox in that there’s plenty of policy knocking about – on skills, funding, research and innovation, regulation, efficiency – and yet the overall agenda can feel insufficiently coherent or powerful to effect the kinds of changes the sector might hope for or need to enact in the current political and economic environment. Our panel will digest the existing policy landscape, assess where the gaps are, and consider what might be needed in policy content or execution to enable higher education to be prepared for the future it is facing.