This week on the podcast we examine the implications of a change at the top of government, as Keir Starmer prepares to depart and Andy Burnham appears set for a swift coronation as Labour leader and Prime Minister. With new policy priorities, new ministers, and a new political centre of gravity potentially taking shape, what might “Manchesterism” mean for higher education?

We discuss what new evidence on graduate earnings tells us about the value of higher education, as the Institute for Fiscal Studies reports on returns to study and government edges closer to using outcomes data to shape student loan access and course provision, and we discuss the higher education stories catching attention this week, from science funding and postgraduate research student experience to English language standards, applicant trends, health and wellbeing, and ...