Author
Martin McQuillan
Former Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation), Kingston University
37 pieces
Newest first, since April 2012 · page 2 of 2
· Comment
Remember, Remember the TEF of November
Martin McQuillan turns to the TEF – the most developed plan of the government’s new plan for higher education – and previews the new way of life for universities which he argues, the sector has brought upon itself.
· Stacks
Welcome to the Northern Powerhouse of Cards
As the conference season for the main political parties draws to a close, Martin McQuillan reports from the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester and finds more than a few more HE wonks striding the halls than in B
· Stacks
Labour Party Conference: won’t someone think of the wonks?
From Labour Party Conference in Brighton, where HE policy is decidedly not on the agenda, Martin McQuillan asks ‘won’t someone think of the wonks?’
· Comment
Labour Pains: Corbyn and the University
On Saturday Jeremy Corbyn was elected as leader of the Labour Party. He campaigned on a promise to abolish university tuition fees and fund higher education through direct taxation. Martin McQuillan looks at what it all
· Comment
The future of universities is more political than ever
Following the July Budget, big speech from the new universities minister and developments at the Home Office, Martin McQuillan brings together everything we know and considers how the Conservatives will tackle higher edu
· Comment
When will Coventry University be admitted to the Russell Group?
Martin McQuillan continues his monthly series on HE policy and politics to tackle league tables and the sector’s odd relationship with them.
· Analysis
General Election: what next for universities?
The UK wakes up this morning to a defacto Conservative majority, leaving decimation amongst the Liberal Democrats and Labour Party. But what happens now for our universities?
With Mark Leach and Graeme Wise
· Live
A new government takes shape
We’ve been live blogging the election results, aftermath and formation of the new government since Thursday night. Find the latest updates here, including developments on Tuesday.
With Mark Leach, Dewi Knight and Graeme Wise
· Analysis
How will universities swing in a hung parliament?
With the election getting closer, but the ultimate result looking as uncertain as ever, Martin McQuillan predicts a confusing five years ahead for higher education. How will the sector respond to a rainbow coalition, per
· Analysis
Blue skies thinking
After the heat and noise around Labour’s announced £6,000 fee policy, Martin McQuillan continues his monthly series on higher education politics and policy by turning his attention to the Conservative Party – their polic
· Comment
The art of the implausible
A week after vice chancellors intervened in the General Election campaign with an attack on Labour’s tentative proposal to lower tuition fees – citing its ‘implausibility’ – Martin McQuillan argues that the intervention
· Analysis
Universities, the economy and immigration
Higher education is now at the centre of a tentative Conservative Party leadership election battle between George Osborne and Theresa May. With May ever-pandering to right-wing impulses in immigration policy, Osborne is
· Analysis
Enjoy your REF, while you can
This week the results of the latest cycle of research audit in UK universities will be published. This will trigger a frenzy of analysis as the bones of REF 2014 are picked over with a view to identifying winners and los
· Comment
UKIP and the University
The week after a second UKIP MP has been returned to parliament in Rochester and Strood, Martin McQuillan takes the long view about this force in British politics and reflects on the significant dangers that the populist
· Comment
Placing Borrowing at the Heart of the System
A few days after the Autumn Statement, Martin McQuillan considers the Osborne plan to expand student numbers based on questionable finances that the IFS have labelled ‘economic nonsense’ and have slowly started to unrave
· Comment
Social Mobility, the very idea
‘Social mobility’ is now the central trope in the public discussion of university tuition fees and the guiding principle of HE policy. Given that social mobility is only a possible side effect of a university education n
· Blog
The Meaning of Stefan Collini
It would be extremely therapeutic for all of those involved in the management of higher education in the UK today to read Stefan Collini’s What are Universities For? (Penguin 2012). This is not because Collini actually a