@igmansfield.bsky.social
Current affairs, politics, education and miscellany. All views my own. Substack at edrith.co.uk
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24.11.2025 17:53 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0The design of such a levy matters enormously.
Policy Exchange has argued that a flat rate levy of £1000 per student would do more to achieve Government's stated aims than a levy set at 6% of total fee income.
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Read the full report here:
policyexchange.org.uk/publication/...
Of course, it could just - as we also recommend - exempt top universities from the levy entirely. This would mean foregoing c. 1/4 of the sum raised by the levy.
There are various metrics they could use to determine the exemption - which give pretty similar results.
If Government wishes to deter 'visa mills' - universities using cheap one-year courses as a pathway to longer term forms of settlement - while continuing to attract the brightest and best to our genuinely world-class institutions, a flat fee is incomparably better.
24.11.2025 11:59 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
A 6% levy means the levy paid for a STEM student at top university will be 3-4 times higher than that of a student on a cheap taught masters in management.
On average, a top 200 global university would pay £1400 per student, whereas unis ranked 1000 or lower would pay £750.
The design of such a levy matters enormously.
Policy Exchange has argued that a flat rate levy of £1000 per student would do more to achieve Government's stated aims than a levy set at 6% of total fee income.
Extremely good stuff 👍
www.gov.uk/government/p...
*rolls eyes*
The insistence among some HE folk on using a distorted funding baseline is really something to behold.
Per-student HE funding is now the same as in 2011-12 before tuition fees were tripled.
Over that same period, colleges, adult learning and school sixth forms have been pummelled.
If you enjoy reading my substack, why not try my book?
Details below ⬇️
open.substack.com/pub/edrith/p...
This government's relentless focus on growth has got out of hand.
23.11.2025 22:17 — 👍 183 🔁 29 💬 21 📌 1
Just a boy, standing in front of a political class, asking them to read @igmansfield.bsky.social's Seven Public Policy Rules of Thumb, this time on taxes:
23.11.2025 22:27 — 👍 58 🔁 9 💬 1 📌 1I've been assuming that they actually do want fewer international students, in which case a tax is a smarter way of achieving that than eg arbitrary bans as you capture some benefit.
With a desperation to restore maintenance grants and this being the only method HMT will allow getting DfE on board.
The fact that in both 2019 and 2024, the winning party did so with a set of manifesto promises that could not be kept and dissolved upon contact with actual office is something that as an industry we should be much more bothered by than we are.
23.11.2025 12:35 — 👍 417 🔁 87 💬 20 📌 9
ICYMI: Why politicians need to go big or go home- and what this means for next week's Budget.
open.substack.com/pub/edrith/p...
ICYMI: Why politicians need to go big or go home- and what this means for next week's Budget.
open.substack.com/pub/edrith/p...
Thank you!
I agree pardons are very problematic.
But I think their existence is some part of that same historical groping/revealed preference towards people not actually wanting perfect untempered justice.
From biblical Cities of Refuge to the Liberty of the Savoy; from Mediaeval church sanctuary to modern embassies, we continue to create places when individuals can take refuge from pursuing justice.
Why do we keep doing this?
open.substack.com/pub/edrith/p...
From biblical Cities of Refuge to the Liberty of the Savoy; from Mediaeval church sanctuary to modern embassies, we continue to create places when individuals can take refuge from pursuing justice.
Why do we keep doing this?
open.substack.com/pub/edrith/p...
Very interesting piece.
22.11.2025 10:51 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
No algorithm can replace our desire for human agency.
Judgement, nuance and a space of individual endeavour are essential partsor what we perceive as fair systems.
www.edrith.co.uk/p/why-do-we-...
Yeah this was a very depressing article because I do not see how a government changes this without getting eaten alive.
21.11.2025 09:23 — 👍 73 🔁 20 💬 4 📌 0
No algorithm can replace our desire for human agency.
Judgement, nuance and a space of individual endeavour are essential partsor what we perceive as fair systems.
www.edrith.co.uk/p/why-do-we-...
This does feel like a major crossing of the Rubicon – the world's best-funded and in many ways most powerful public health agency is now actively pushing disinformation.
I know there's a *lot* going on to care about at the moment, but this one really is significant, and matters well beyond the US.
For many, going to university no longer pays.
While the median graduate still benefits, the marginal graduate has long since ceased to.
And with 40% of university leavers in jobs that don’t need a degree, we are sending far too many people to uni.
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Fascinating findings.
20.11.2025 12:50 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0@bretdevereaux.bsky.social does this very well.
20.11.2025 12:32 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0I see we are neighbours!
But yes, I am fortunate enough to live in a very nice 4 bed house the price of which would have had 18-year old me gasping in disbelief - and it is nowhere near £1.5m.
Attention is on NEETs today, but the problem is much worse.
NEETs include stay-at-home parents & jobseekers.
Strip those out to focus on people not working, not seeking work, not in education & not parenting: this group of economically & socially dislocated young adults has *doubled* in a decade.
