Monday 19 October 2026
Jim Dickinson

Team Wonkhe

Jim Dickinson

Associate Editor (SUs)

2,633 pieces

Newest first, since August 2013 · page 3 of 132

  1. · Wonk Corner

    Staff to student ratios explain far less about the student experience than we assume

    If a course has fewer staff per student, do the students rate it worse?

  2. · Comment

    We need to talk about mobility

    As the UK prepares to rejoin Erasmus+ at around £570 million a year, Jim Dickinson argues that the sector’s five-year record of underspending mobility money should worry everyone – and that the domestic version of the pr

  3. · Wonk Corner

    The story is not the problem, international education has a design problem

    I spent this morning chairing a panel at the ICEF Monitor Global Summit in London with the title “How do we tell the story of international education?”.

  4. · Wonk Corner

    What is happening to the SSR? The 2027 edition

    The other day a student leader told me that she struggled to get a word in edgeways in her seminars. I was surprised, given her general demeanour, until she revealed that the average size of them was 35-40 students.

  5. · Policy Watch

    Student loans are still broken and unfair

    The government’s reply to the Treasury Committee’s inquiry on student loans accepts some wording changes and rejects the rest. Jim Dickinson finds it answering a fairness question with a solvency one

  6. · Wonk Corner

    Someone has to make housing a condition of recruiting students

    In the i Paper today, Martha from Essex got into Exeter through clearing, and then had to spend a couple of weeks in an Airbnb while she tried to find accommodation.

  7. · Wonk Corner

    UUK’s work experience target forgets that most students already have some

    Am I really reading a report on universities offering work experience that has managed to involve 30 universities, 200 employers and business groups, a poll of 500 employer senior leaders, but not a single student?

  8. · SUs · Members

    You can’t say that

    With Sharanya Sivarajah

  9. · Comment

    OfS wants students to complain more. AI is about to oblige

    What happens when students can produce a lawyer’s letter in an afternoon? Jim Dickinson weighs up whether the sector closes its complaints gap or simply promises less

  10. · SUs

    What happened at Senate Summit 2026?

    Jim Dickinson, Sharanya Sivarajah and Mack Marshall round up the first Wonkhe SUs Senate Summit – assessment, employability, rights and Europe, session by session

    With Sharanya Sivarajah and Mack Marshall

  11. · SUs · Members

    Course correction

    With Sharanya Sivarajah

  12. · Analysis

    Whose universities are they anyway?

    As Andy Burnham rails against the privatisations of the past, Jim Dickinson reviews the corporate takeover of a 164 year old university in Lincolnshire

  13. · SUs · Members

    What’s in Scotland’s Programme for Government for students?

    What’s in Scotland’s Programme for Government for students?

  14. · SUs · Members

    A round up of student influence, voice and representation policies from our eurotours (2026 update)

    Jim Dickinson updates Wonkhe’s compilation of student representation and voice practice gathered from SU study tours across Europe, with a shift away from course-level reps toward school and faculty structures.

    With Wonkhe SUs explainer

  15. · Wonk Corner

    A float against a tariff that doesn’t pay the bills

    Some good news.

  16. · Comment

    Are students as lucky to be here as they feel?

    Jim Dickinson tracks how scarcity claims, ceremonial offer letters and gift-framed scholarships convert an ordinary purchase into a debt of gratitude students feel they can’t call in

  17. · Comment

    There’s a student-shaped hole in Scotland’s funding gap. Here’s how to fill it

    Scotland’s HE funding gap is £200m, but there’s a huge gap for students too. Jim Dickinson has a think about how to fill them.

  18. · SUs · Members

    Credit where it’s due

    With Sharanya Sivarajah

  19. · Wonk Corner

    Are OIA decisions on free speech compatible with OfS guidance?

    It was January 2025 when then Secretary of State Bridget Phillipson explained the new government’s approach to the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023.

  20. · Comment

    There’s 104 days of summer vacation and school comes along just to end that

    Sharanya Sivarajah and Jim Dickinson explain what they learned on a summer of SU training visits, where students patiently patched up the gaps their universities left behind

    With Sharanya Sivarajah