New thinking, ideas & policy solutions for post-18 education in the UK
Reports
Y Gorau Oll: Making Wales the best place in the UK to be a student
Gwenno Roberts and Jim Dickinson set out eight student ambitions for Welsh higher education and test for the newly-commissioned review of Welsh HE. Is Wales prepared to make its system “y gorau oll” – “the very best”?
5 August 2026
Recent reports
A Ministry for Manchesterism: rewiring Whitehall for locally-driven prosperity and change29 June 2026Blood, debt, toil, and arrears: why thirty years of policy struggle has left us without the higher education system we deserve16 April 2026Earning the license: How to reform university governance in the UK6 November 2025Marking the course: Realising the ambitions of the post-16 white paper26 October 2025Doing better, getting better: Getting a grip on the full-time student experience7 July 2025The cashpoint campus comeback – franchising, fraud, and the failure to learn from the FE experience25 June 2025
Policy Signals
24 September 2026Happily HEVA After: A new value add framework for higher education22 July 2026No Country For Young Men: Four scenarios for higher education in a shrinking Britain7 July 2026Silence of the Loans: How loan book fictions prevent higher education reform7 June 2026The Big Shortfall: Demographic downturn and the post-18 education system
From the Director
“You can go, you can afford to stay, and it will add value when you leave”
At Labour Conference 2026, I joined a panel considering what Labour's offer to students ought to be. Here's a version of my answer!
7 October 2026Professor John Blake