The Skills and Post 16 Education Bill together with the long-awaited government response to the Augur review promise to make 2021-22 a tumultuous year for higher education. While some argue changes in student funding together with a greater focus on higher technical skills present opportunities for universities to engage more fully with lifelong learning, others think that the ability of learners of all ages and backgrounds to enter will be constrained as pressures on providers intensify.

On the day which the Government plans to end lockdown, the Right2Learn campaign will be holding its summer event – 19th July 2021, 4.00pm to 5.15pm – ‘HE Challenges After the Pandemic’, focused on the questions facing universities and HE providers as they try to navigate through the aftermath of Covid and the challenges listed above.

For more information on Right2Learn please go to: https://right2learn.co.uk/.

Our inaugural conference on May 20th ‘Right to Learn is Right for Now’ can be viewed at https://vimeo.com553239613/af367354d9 .

Speakers include:

  • Baroness Morris of Yardley, former Education Secretary
  • Dr Pegram Harrison, Senior Fellow in Entrepreneurship, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford
  • Professor Patrick Bailey, Interim Chief Executive, MillionPlus Universities
  • Professor Danny Dorling, Professor of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford
  • Nick Hillman, Director of the Higher Education Policy Institute
  • Dr Deirdre Hughes OBE, former Chair of the National Careers Council
  • Professor Andy Westwood, Professor of Government Practice and Vice Dean for Social Responsibility in the Faculty of Humanities, University of Manchester

This Summer event will examine what prospective reforms could mean for HE and what challenges there are to enable universities to become drivers of access, lifelong learning and skills development in the post-Covid world. Other potential issues for discussion include the future for technical and digital skills, the balance between STEM and humanities and creative pathways and the role for HE in ‘levelling up’ plus issues of academic autonomy, make this, we believe, a timely intervention in HE’s road map for the 2020s.

The event will be introduced by Gordon Marsden, former Shadow Minister for HE, FE and Skills and moderated by the other co- founders of the Right2Learn campaign, Professor Graeme Atherton, Director of NEON and Head of the Centre for Levelling Up at the University of West London, Professor Vicky Duckworth, Edge Hill University and Matt Waddup, former Head of Policy and Campaigns at UCU.

The event will be FREE to all participants. Please register here: https://www.educationopportunities.co.uk/registration-form-he-challenges-after-the-pandemic-event-19th-july/