This week on the podcast reports suggest the Department for Education is considering restricting access to the student loan book to those who hold a pass in GCSE English – a move that could prove financially devastating for institutions with large numbers of students who lack that qualification, many of them linked to franchised provision.

Plus, the Committee of University Chairs has published a revised Code of Higher Education Governance, and we discuss the Sutton Trust's latest research on opportunity which complicates the narrative around white working-class boys.

With Mike Ratcliffe, Interim Academic Registrar at Canterbury Christ Church University, Annie Bell, Associate Director Higher Educ ...