The Wonkhe Show

This week on the podcast the government turns up the heat on universities over antisemitism – but with enforcement details still to come, what does Keir Starmer's zero-tolerance pledge actually mean in practice?
Plus, a new Institute of Student Employers survey finds that employers expect AI to reshape rather than replace graduate entry-level roles, and a UCL Policy Lab report argues that higher education's chronic failure to connect with working-class voters is one of the key reasons political leaders keep their distance.
With Joe Cooper, Chief People Officer at University of East London, Aaron Porter, Chair at BPP University, and Livia Scott, Associate Editor at Wonkhe, and presented by Mark Leach, Editor-in-Chief at Wonkhe.
Students should feel safe on campus. So what’s the plan?
Why OfS got the meaning of free speech within the law absolutely wrong
AI isn’t taking graduate’s jobs, but it will reshape entry-level roles
Three reasons why the higher education sector struggles to land its political arguments

This week on the podcast as voters in Scotland and Wales head to the polls on 7 May, what do the manifestos mean for higher education? North of the border all parties bar Reform have committed to protect free undergraduate tuition, and much of the bigger thinking sits with the joint Scottish government and Universities Scotland "Future Framework" review.
Meanwhile a generation of Welsh Labour dominance is set to end under an expanded Senedd and a new electoral system, with Plaid Cymru and Reform UK emerging as the two largest parties – and Plaid pledging a wide-ranging HE review within the first 100 days. Plus David Kernohan has read the judgement in OfS v University of Sussex so you don’t have to.
With Justine Pédussel, President at Stirling University Students' Union, Richard Wyn Jones, Director of the Wales Governance Centre at Cardiff University, David Duncan, University Secretary and Deputy Vice Chancellor at University of Glasgow, Nanw Maelor, Welsh Culture Officer and UMCA President at Aberystwyth Students' Union, Michael Salmon, News Editor at Wonkhe, and presented by Jim Dickinson, Associate Editor at Wonkhe.
In Wales and Scotland, students were promised a maintenance floor. The promise is broken.

This week on the podcast John Blake, Director at the Post-18 Project has published his first paper arguing that English higher education's crisis stems from thirty years of policy failure – and that the only real fix is a major, multi-year review to establish a new concordat between the state, the sector and students about who is responsible for what, and how disputes get resolved.
Plus, new research from King's College London finds that the cost of applying for research grants amounts to thirteen per cent of the value of awards, and the Committee of University Chairs puts a near-final draft of its new governance code out for comment, with more explicit requirements for what boards must and should do.
With Sam Roseveare, Director of Regional and National Policy at the University of Warwick, James Coe, Associate Editor at Wonkhe, Jen Summerton, Operations Director at Wonkhe and presented by Jim Dickinson, Associate Editor at Wonkhe.
Blood, debt, toil, and arrears: why thirty years of policy struggle has left us without the higher education system we deserve
Expensive, time consuming, and unpopular – why is it so hard to end grant funding peer review?
Do the silent middle get to belong in higher education?
CUC Code of Governance – Draft for Public Comment

This week on the podcast we're in Reykjavik as the Office for Students (OfS) opens a consultation on a whole new approach to student protection – but with students already struggling to understand or use their rights, will a new regulatory condition actually change anything on the ground?
Plus more than twenty thousand weekend students have been told to pay back maintenance loans they were given in error, and what can UK higher education learn from a week in Iceland?
With Lisa Margaret Gunnarsdóttir, President of the National Union of Icelandic Students, Gary Hughes, Chief Executive at Durham Students' Union, Mack Marshall, Community and Policy Officer at Wonkhe and presented by Jim Dickinson, Associate Editor at Wonkhe.
Treating students fairly, on an ongoing basis
The weekend delivery scandal
SUs study tour to Iceland

This week on the podcast an Australian politician has called on universities to scrap group assignments entirely, arguing they're unfair and cheapen degrees – but is the real problem the concept itself, or is it poorly designed groupwork that's giving collaboration a bad name?
Plus the government axes popular management apprenticeships, and UKVI's draft proposals for rating international student sponsors go further than many expected.
With Mark Peace, Professor of Innovation in Education at King's College London, Hugh Jones, independent consultant, and Debbie McVitty, Editor at Wonkhe and presented by Mark Leach, Editor-in-Chief at Wonkhe.
Group essays? Pull the other one
A blanket removal of funding for level 7 apprenticeships will damage government plans to boost infrastructure
Amber isn’t a buffer zone in the new international RAG system – it’s a ledge