Wonkhe SUs · Weekly webinars · 16 October 2026
What Burnham’s first conference means for SUs
Sharanya Sivarajah on Labour conference, Burnhamism and where students fit – and what SUs can do locally and before the Budget on 28 October.
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Sharanya Sivarajah looks at Andy Burnham’s first Labour conference as Prime Minister in Liverpool – the speech, the fringes and the offer to young people on skills – and asks where students fit in an agenda that mentions universities only in passing. We unpack what Burnhamism means in practice, from devolving by default to the powers being handed to mayors and what each of them means for student issues, and look at what the government does and doesn’t say about the size, shape and funding of the sector. The session closes with what SUs can do locally, and the asks to make before the Budget on Wednesday 28 October.
What we cover
- What happened in Liverpool – the speech, the fringes and the skills offer to young people
- Why universities got just two mentions in the speech, and what was said about loans and the university route
- What Burnhamism is – devolving by default, and the “Rewiring the state” statement
- What is being devolved to mayors and strategic authorities, and why each item matters to students
- Technical and academic routes – what Burnham wants, and what voters told Public First
- Universities going regional, and why only West Yorkshire measures graduate retention in its growth plan
- Students as recipients rather than leaders, and the missing answer on student finance
- NEETs and what the Milburn review means for higher education and student poverty
- Getting local – seats on growth boards, joint student manifestos, paid placements and a fare cap
- Asks before the Budget on 28 October, and what comes after – the ten-year plan, the devolution white paper and Milburn’s final report
Things to read
- What SUs in England need to know about graduate retention as mayors gain new powers
- The voter consensus forming around Burnham’s education agenda has little time for universities
- Is Burnham about to fall headfirst into the education policy trap?
- The sector can be both optimistic and worried about Burnham’s HE agenda
- Universities must be partners in the devolution agenda
- Higher education would look very different if local areas were in control
- Devolution is not the only answer – higher education still needs a national policy agenda
- What’s in Alan Milburn’s NEET report for the higher education sector?
- What is in the post-16 education and skills white paper for higher education?
- Burnham’s quiet pledge
- A reinstated Unionlearn might be the missing piece of the LLE puzzle
- Student poverty is feeding the NEETs crisis
- Rewiring the State – Cabinet statement
- Young people and work – interim report
- Post-16 education and skills white paper
- Public First – The cross-party consensus for Andy Burnham’s education policy
- Post-18 Project – You can go, you can afford to stay, and it will add value when you leave
- HEPI – Reflections from Labour Party conference 2026
- FE Week – Healey to ‘rebirth’ union learning advisors five years after cuts
- Times Higher Education – Burnham “to end dominance of universities in education system”