PODCAST: Regulation, complaints, essay mills, WP

This week on the podcast our guests dissect the latest letter from Gavin Williamson to the Office for Students, and ask if the regulator is becoming unduly politicised.

There’s also developments on the student complaints front, essay mills action in Parliament and DK deep dives into HESA’s new widening participation data.

With Mary Curnock Cook, higher education expert and serial non-exec director, Steven Spier, Vice Chancellor at Kingston University and presented by Jim Dickinson, Associate Editor at Wonkhe.

Items this week

• The government will not succeed in its efforts to increase flexible and modular provision until it ends its obsession with narrow student outcomes, argues Susanna Kalitowski.
• Gavin Williamson has a fresh set of priorities for the Office for Students. David Kernohan and Jim Dickinson read between the lines.
• Graeme Atherton argues that the sector would be wise to lobby the government to keep BTECs as a route to higher education, or risk winding the clock back on decades of progress on widening access.
• Is progress on participation moving as fast as the OfS trajectories suggest it should? David Kernohan plots the latest data
• Clubhouse app: what is it and how do you get an invite to the audio app Elon Musk uses?
• The government has been clear about the importance of the creative industries to the economy, but if it wants to support them, it needs to rethink the increasing lack of support for studying creative subjects, says Kingston University vice chancellor Steven Spier.

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