Theresa May

The panto villain of the higher education sector, Theresa May has loomed large over higher education and rarely for positive reasons. Feared and loathed in equal measure, her outright assault on the sector’s ability to recruit international students and her draconian counter-terrorism measures have left the sector reeling. The suspension of individual universities’ Tier 4 licence has torn chunks out of the sector’s previously gold-plated international reputation and caused tremendous strife for the institutions involved, not to mention the countless staff and students caught up in an ideological battle that has often dominated the agenda for the sector over the last five years. Her leadership ambitions are well known and as one of the big beasts of the political arena, the coming election is unlikely to be the end of the road for Theresa May and higher education.