Write for Wonkhe
Wonkhe is a platform for commentary about, and analysis of, UK higher education. We have no fixed editorial position – we believe HE is best served by an extended conversation of many voices, especially those less frequently heard in the debate.
The best comment articles
A novel perspective
Present a new challenge, or offer fresh evidence or thinking on an established issue – moving the conversation forward, not repeating it.
Engaging and accessible
Written in a style any higher education professional can enjoy – limit jargon, don’t assume insider knowledge.
The wider implications
Explain what it means for readers – the people working in and around UK universities, sector bodies, government actors or students’ unions.
How it works
Pitch it
A sentence or two setting out the bones of your article is fine – no need to polish. You don’t have to be an “expert”, but you do need to know your topic and the argument you want to make. Send it to the team inbox and if we like the sound of it we’ll ask for a draft.
We review
Once you have sent your full draft, we’ll acknowledge your submission and let you know it has been assigned for review to one of our editorial team. We receive a lot of pitches, so turnaround takes a little time – if your piece is time-sensitive, say so when you pitch. We may come back to you if we have feedback or to request substantive edits.
Edit and publish
Once we’ve agreed a final version, the piece joins our publication pipeline and will generally be published within a few weeks. We’ll apply our house style to the piece and may also make minor edits for readability. You’ll need to supply a headshot and short biography including your job title and organisation, if applicable.
Worth knowing
- What gets published is a matter of editorial judgement – we don’t chase clicks, and we don’t discriminate between the highly newsworthy and the niche-but-interesting.
- We’re often interested in accessible summaries of research or new academic publications on higher education, written for a general professional audience.
- We only very rarely accept case studies or descriptions of practice – they’re hard to make engaging.
- A useful word count to aim for is about 800–1200 words for a standard comment piece. We can also publish “long reads” of 2000+ words where there is a case to do so.
- We don’t accept pitches published or submitted elsewhere. You’re welcome to repost your article on your own site 24 hours after publication, with attribution and a link to the original.
- Articles can have multiple authors – but please keep it to as few names as possible (three or four at most).
- Every article carries a named author, headshot and short biography – we don’t publish anonymous pieces.
- We don’t run advertorials or accept paid content. We do work with some carefully selected partners to curate content that we think will help inform the debate, guided by our editorial judgement.
Our AI policy
We accept that prospective authors may use AI to organise their argument, tighten up the expression of ideas, and proofread, and that AI may create opportunities for published authorship for some for whom it may have previously felt out of reach, though we discourage authors from using AI tools to wholesale write their articles. As with all editorial decisions, we exercise our judgement about AI use primarily about the quality of ideas of the words in front of us and whether it makes a meaningful contribution to the debate.