Thursday 8 October 2026

Events · Past event

Counting the cost: Augar, HE and the future of post-18 education

2 July 2019, London · Imperial College

This event has taken place. The page is kept for the record – the programme and speakers as they were announced.

A one-day event to assess the impact of the Augar review on higher education and the wider post-18 education landscape featuring an interview with Philip Augar.

The day will give you a chance to hear from Team Wonkhe’s experts as well as leading voices from around further and higher education – both to understand the report’s implications and consider the response.

We will demystifying and digesting all the numbers, such as the reduction in the fee cap, the repayment threshold, and assess their impact. We will digest the impact on the whole post-compulsory education system, lifelong learning, further and higher education and how they relate.

And all of this in the context of a Conservative party leadership race, an impending spending review and a demographic upswing on the horizon. Where will it take us next? We hope the conference will be part of the building blocks of the response.

Agenda  

09.00 Registration

09.30 Where did it come from and what does it say? Team Wonkhe recaps and digests the Augar review.

10.00 How much does it all cost?
Gavan Conlon & Maike Halterbeck, London Economics
David Malcolm, Head of Policy and Campaigns, NUS
Lorraine Dearden, Professor of Economics, UCL Institute of Education and Centre for Global Higher Education (CGHE)

11.15 Break

11.30 Philip Augar in conversation with Wonkhe’s editor in chief Mark Leach

12.15 Building an HE sector-wide response to the Augar review
Debbie McVitty, Editor, Wonkhe (Chair)
Mary Curnock Cook, HE Specialist
Andy Westwood, Vice Dean for Social Responsibility in the Faculty of Humanities and Professor of Government Practice, University of Manchester.
Nicholas Barr, Professor of public economics, London School of Economics

13.00 Lunch

13.45 TRACing the cost of delivering higher education
Andrew Bush, Director of Higher Education Internal Audit and Advisory lead, KPMG

14:30  Lifelong learning, FE and skills with your host Rachael Firth
The Augar review’s implications for post-compulsory education are broad. Spreading out far beyond the boundaries of higher education fees and funding, Rachael will guide us through the whole landscape with leaders, academics and experts from across post-18 education. Each will give their take in seven minutes, questions to the whole group will follow at the end.

Tim Blackman, Vice Chancellor, Middlesex University and incoming Vice Chancellor of the Open University.
Claire Callender, Centre for Global Higher Education.
Jonathan Michie, President, Kellogg College, Oxford.
Jane Baker, Director, Higher Education Qualifications, Pearson
David Hughes, CEO, Association of Colleges

15:45 The future for Augar is political
Mark Leach (Chair)
Rachel Wolf, Partner, Public First
Nick Hillman, Director, Hepi

16.30 Drinks reception

Read all of Wonkhe’s analysis on Augar in one place here.