The Wonkhe Show

This week on the podcast we discuss the scale and shape of cuts across UK higher education, as new survey findings from Universities UK suggest institutions are considering mergers, groups, hiring freezes, redundancies, campus closures, and reductions in student support as financial pressures deepen.
Plus we discuss the latest international recruitment data, and we consider new Wonkhe research on belonging, friendship and student experience, asking whether universities are designing the structural conditions students need to form meaningful academic and social connections.
With Emma Maslin, Senior Policy and Research Officer at AMOSSHE, Neil Mackenzie, Chief Executive at Leeds Beckett SU, James Coe, Associate Editor at Wonkhe and presented by Jim Dickinson, Associate Editor at Wonkhe.
The international student boom is over – and the bust is being delivered by stealth
Friends, it turns out, have benefits
Are universities supporting students too much?
Managing immigration compliance risk through large deposits is immoral and probably unlawful
UUK: Two in five universities consider joining forces through 'multi academy trust' style models or mergers, new survey shows

This week on the podcast the final pieces of the Lifelong Learning Entitlement puzzle are falling into place, so what do the new regulations, the long-awaited transcript guidance and the list of 130 approved providers tell us about how flexible the future of student finance will really be?
Plus former health secretary Alan Milburn's review argues that too many young people are being pushed towards university rather than technical education as youth unemployment climbs to its highest level in over a decade, and our guests each pick a higher education story that has caught their eye.
With Anne-Marie Canning, Opportunity Mission Challenge Director at UK Research and Innovation, Johnny Rich, Chief Executive at the Engineering Professors' Council and Push, Debbie McVitty, Editor at Wonkhe and presented by Mark Leach, Editor-in-Chief at Wonkhe.
The Times: Thousands of young unemployed are university-educated
Who gets to offer LLE modules?

This week on the podcast we talk a turbulent week in Westminster, as Labour’s poor performance in the national and regional elections intensifies pressure on Keir Starmer, and the King’s Speech leaves higher education waiting for a legislative vehicle for promised reform.
Plus we discuss the Education Committee’s call for a bespoke insolvency regime for English higher education providers, what should happen if a university goes bust, and new comparative research on the pressures facing higher education across Europe.
With Brooke Storer-Church, Chief Executive at GuildHE, Jonathan Simons, Partner and Head of the Education Practice at Public First, David Kernohan, Deputy Editor at Wonkhe, and presented by Jim Dickinson, Associate Editor at Wonkhe.
What the Education Committee said about higher education funding
Euro visions: Key changes and wind machines won’t save the sector
King’s College London and Cranfield to merge

This week on the podcast the government turns up the heat on universities over antisemitism – but with enforcement details still to come, what does Keir Starmer's zero-tolerance pledge actually mean in practice?
Plus, a new Institute of Student Employers survey finds that employers expect AI to reshape rather than replace graduate entry-level roles, and a UCL Policy Lab report argues that higher education's chronic failure to connect with working-class voters is one of the key reasons political leaders keep their distance.
With Joe Cooper, Chief People Officer at University of East London, Aaron Porter, Chair at BPP University, and Livia Scott, Associate Editor at Wonkhe, and presented by Mark Leach, Editor-in-Chief at Wonkhe.
Students should feel safe on campus. So what’s the plan?
Why OfS got the meaning of free speech within the law absolutely wrong
AI isn’t taking graduate’s jobs, but it will reshape entry-level roles
Three reasons why the higher education sector struggles to land its political arguments

This week on the podcast as voters in Scotland and Wales head to the polls on 7 May, what do the manifestos mean for higher education? North of the border all parties bar Reform have committed to protect free undergraduate tuition, and much of the bigger thinking sits with the joint Scottish government and Universities Scotland "Future Framework" review.
Meanwhile a generation of Welsh Labour dominance is set to end under an expanded Senedd and a new electoral system, with Plaid Cymru and Reform UK emerging as the two largest parties – and Plaid pledging a wide-ranging HE review within the first 100 days. Plus David Kernohan has read the judgement in OfS v University of Sussex so you don’t have to.
With Justine Pédussel, President at Stirling University Students' Union, Richard Wyn Jones, Director of the Wales Governance Centre at Cardiff University, David Duncan, University Secretary and Deputy Vice Chancellor at University of Glasgow, Nanw Maelor, Welsh Culture Officer and UMCA President at Aberystwyth Students' Union, Michael Salmon, News Editor at Wonkhe, and presented by Jim Dickinson, Associate Editor at Wonkhe.
In Wales and Scotland, students were promised a maintenance floor. The promise is broken.