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weeknotes

A crisis of trust – Weeknote #363 – 13th February 2026

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The wet weather still seems to be haunting us. Even so I did make it to the office one day this week, which though was quite quiet in comparison to other days I have spent in the office, I was a productive and constructive workspace. I also had a day’s leave this week as well, visiting Stourhead (in the rain).

After a tip off from that Lawrie, I read Peter Bryant’s most recent essay in his Mirror University series of blog posts: The Mirror University 7: Trust is the only currency that matters in higher education: Rebuilding a culture of trust in an era of distrust.

The central argument of the article is that trust is the real existential crisis facing higher education. While public debates fixate on generative AI, academic integrity, declining attendance, or marketisation, these are symptoms of a deeper erosion of trust between students, academics, institutions, government, and society.

As with much of what Peter writes it’s a piece that makes you stop and think. Peter does come from this, from an Australian perspective, but there is much in there that resonates with the current climate in the UK towards higher education. Well worth taking the time to read.

I had my regular check in with my colleagues within NRENs 4 Education, or as I call it E in NREN. The team is presenting at TNC in Helsinki in June, I hope to be attending. 

As part of my work on E in NREN I have been developing some position papers on the eight use cases from the European Higher Education Interoperability Framework and where they sit within the UK context, where they sit within Jisc, and what are the links with a potential student data model and the proposed future of LLE (Lifelong Learning Entitlement). The key word is developing, rather than writing, as because as they are developed I am not only writing what I know, but also what I know I don’t know. In addition the act of development is helping me understand what I don’t know I don’t know. One of the challenges with all eight use cases are the multiple stakeholders involved. Jisc on its own, is not the solution, but is part of the solution.

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Positioning Interoperability – Weeknote #361 – 30th January 2026

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This week I made it to the Bristol office to work and meet with colleagues. I had a chance meeting with a member of the OpenAthens team which was useful and we sat down and had a discussion about trust and identity. I do like going to the office, and have decided I will try and get in more than I have been going. I think the wet weather probably puts me off. The other aspect is that if I have a lot of online meetings, then actually going into the office is makes that more challenging, as I would need to book a meeting room, and on some days, when the office is busy, there are fewer meeting rooms available.

I wrote an article on Erasmus+ for the internal comms team, which did draw on the article I wrote for this blog back in December.

I did write three blog posts this week. The first was on students’ perceptions of their providers’ response to financial challenges.

What this report and analysis is showing is that student satisfaction is being impacted by the financial situation in higher education.

The second was on the news from the University of Nottingham about their course closures and staff student ratios.

The university is planning to consolidate the number of faculties from five to three and reduce the number of courses that are delivered at the university by suspending recruitment on 42 courses. 

The two stories are somewhat linked. The financial crisis impacting on the higher education sector is not just about numbers and figures, it is about people. As well as the impact on staff and redundancy, we are also seeing the negative impact on the student experience and student satisfaction. Alas, this can be a somewhat downward spiral if we see student numbers drop. Having said that the news from UCAS this week was 338,940 UK 18-year-olds have applied for university – a record high and 4.8 per cent more than the 323,360 that applied in 2025. That increase though is driven by demographics, the number of 18 year olds in 2026 is largest for 35 years. Probably better to look at the application rate as a percentage of that demographic, and then the figure has remained relatively static at 40.7%, it was 40.6% in 2025. There was a peak of 42.8% in 2022. What we can say then is the rise in applications is down to population growth.

Going forward if applications stay around the 40% mark then we will in the future see the number of applications fall. Of course not all of those 40% actually go to university and then there are others who will choose later to go having not made an UCAS application.  The recent government white paper no longer talks of the 50% going to university but does talk about 67% undertaking some form of higher level education. What does that look like going forward?

The third blog post was on generalisations and assumptions.

As I said earlier, as a society technology and digital has become more embedded into our lives, the concept of post-digital echoes the sentiment that as technology becomes part of our everyday lives, the less we see it as technology. At the end of the day we are probably all digital now, living in a post-digital world.

I have been looking at the European Higher Education Interoperability Framework, in the main for the work I have been doing in the E in NREN landscape, but also how it could support LLE in the future. It is also been used within the UCISA work on the student data model.

I have been researching and planning some position papers on the European Higher Education Interoperability Framework, looking at the current UK landscape and what Jisc is doing or could do in that landscape.

I have also been having discussions about collaboration and sharing. One question that sometimes comes up, is do we know how to collaborate?

Though there has been ample talk about collaboration and sharing, it is one of those things that is probably easy to talk about and more difficult to actually do. Part of the challenge is how universities are inconsistent in their approaches to managing themselves, which then makes it even more challenging to work together or collaborate.

We need to remind ourselves that collaboration and sharing within higher education isn’t the problem we need to solve, it is in fact a solution (and not the only solution) to a (probably not well defined) problem. We need to be clear about the problem, define that problem, and then we can start thinking about possible solutions, one of which may be collaboration and sharing.

weeknotes

Competing collaborators – Weeknote #360 – 23rd January

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This week I was working from home. There was lots of rain and wind. The space I had gave me time to write up the workshop I attended last week. The write up also included the work I have been doing and the meetings I have had in this space over the last two months. I also had a number of meetings on the work.

This week I also presented at a GÉANT webinar on education. My part was discussing about possible alignment with existing funded work by NRENs across Europe. There is real diversity across the NERNs in Europe about the services they provide for higher education and research. Some, like Jisc, provide a range of education based services, others go further and even provide VLEs. There are though many NRENS whose primary area is research. Obviously it’s not that education doesn’t happen in that country, but that responsibility is down to other organisations.

Image by rawpixel from Pixabay
Image by rawpixel from Pixabay

On Friday the CMA (Competition and Markets Authority) published guidance on collaboration in higher education. This clarity about collaboration within the sector has to be welcomed. The law has not been changed, but the clarification can provide reassurance to the sector that looking to work together, sharing services and resources, as well as more formal collaboration is potentially possible. Part of me though does wonder, if the apprehension about collaboration was using the CMA and competition law as an excuse for not looking at collaboration rather than an actual reason not to collaborate. This new guidance mitigates that excuse now.

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It’s coming home – Weeknote #355 – 19th December

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The big news for me this week was the news that the UK will be (re)joining Erasmus+. The UK lost access to Erasmus following Brexit but this announcement means that in 2027 UK students will be able to study in the EU more easily. So what does the Erasmus announcement mean for UK higher education and for Jisc. I wrote up some thoughts from me on this.

We had our team Christmas meal and get together this week. Usually quite challenging for us to get everyone in the same place, as we are quite a geographically distributed team, even this time we didn’t have everyone. 

I continued my work into a student data model and the work SURF over in the Netherlands have done on this and the accompanying OOAPI. 

I also had some final meetings of the year with my European colleagues on various projects we are working on and potential routes to funding.

As the year comes to a close, the whole sector goes dark, as people take leave for the holidays. It is quite nice in some respects as virtually everyone takes the two weeks off, so there is little email and Teams messages.

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Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past – Weeknote #342 – 19th September

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This week I actually spent three days of my working week, working in the Bristol office. It was a very busy office, and as a result there was a real buzz. Some of my colleagues in my team were also in the office, so there was much discussion and in-person collaboration.

The beginning of the week I was in a meeting looking at improving internal communication and collaboration within our directorate. It was an interesting meeting.

Spent a lot of time on organising and planning next week. I am off to the Netherlands for a GÉANT TF-EDU (Education Taskforce) meeting in Delft and then will be attending the 1EdTech Learning Impact conference before ending the week meeting up with Dutch colleagues from SURF. I helped put together a presentation which Jisc will be presenting next week at the conference looking at sharing and collaboration.

I did look at travel options for the trip; my first choice was to actually drive and use the Harwich Hook of Holland ferry. Though this would take a lot more time, most of which would be driving to Harwich in Essex, which with charging would be a six or even seven hour drive followed by an eight hour ferry crossing. Another option was to catch the train. There are direct trains from London to Amsterdam, but the timings are challenging as it is a nearly a five hour train journey, but I would need to get to London first, and then at the other end get to Delft. In the end it was easier, quicker (and cheaper) to fly from Bristol. It’s a seventy-five minute flight, though I have to get from Schiphol to Delft, however that is less than an hour away on the train.

lecture theatre
Image by Wokandapix from Pixabay

The OfS has proposed a revised TEF (Teaching Excellence Framework) and is consulting how it assesses and regulates higher education. One key point is putting a lower burden on high-quality institutions; and increased scrutiny on weaker ones. There is still some reliance on NSS scores, which we know sometimes skews how universities interact with students.

There’s something for everyone in the latest rethink of the Teaching Excellence Framework, but as David Kernohan suggests at WonkHE, bringing disparate approaches together can highlight fundamental weaknesses.

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Is it a bird… Is it a plane… No, it’s a super-university! – Weeknote #341 – 12th September

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The big news this week was the announcement of the merger between the University of Greenwich and the University of Kent. It is being called the creation of the “first” super university. I wrote about this on the day of the announcement. Degrees from the new super university will still be awarded in the name of Kent or Greenwich. I think that this is a wise move and needs to be supported, mergers don’t and shouldn’t always means the loss of institutional identities.

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

Also this week I published a couple of vision pieces on The University Group™ and The Specialist University Centre. With the recent announcement of the “first” university super merger between Greenwich and Kent, I was reminded of a piece of work I wrote last February, which never got further than my hard drive (well cloud storage). Also last week was the UUK Annual Conference, the then science secretary Peter Kyle was speaking on the second day, and calling for increasing specialisation and collaboration in higher education, which reminded me of another vision piece. So, I put them both on the blog.

One of the reports I have been working on this year was on subject collaboration within higher education. We did reference a previous British Academy report, so it was with interest that I read their recent report, which obviously focuses on the arts and social sciences. I wrote up some thoughts on the report and the implications for the UK higher education sector.

laptop
Image by fancycrave1 from Pixabay

On the 1st September we published a version of one of the reports I have been working on, this week I have been  working with others finalising the second report which will be sent to UUK members.

The NRENS 4 Education group I am part of had a meeting with the European Commission. The last time we met, it was in-person in Brussels, this time it was a Teams meeting, so no Belgian chocolates for me this time.

We had a discussion and reflected on UUK’s annual conference, which took place last week. Positive attitudes to collaboration, however still understanding the challenges in making it happen. The Kent and Greenwich merger may demonstrate one way forward.

Writing up a business case for visit to Netherlands and attendance at Learning Impact Europe 2025 Conference.

I have been invited to be a speaker at HE Transformation 2025, taking place 19 – 20 November at the NEC, Birmingham.

I did make it to our office in Bristol and London this week.

weeknotes

It’s better together – Weeknote #338 – 22nd August

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I was on leave at the beginning of the week, which was nice.

A blog post on the Jisc websites, It’s better together – how to make the case for collaboration was published.

Convincingly making the case for collaboration across the higher education sector for better student experiences is crucial, but how do you get key people on board for institutional and personal buy-in?

As with most content that I have published on the Jisc website, it was a group effort in writing it. It has developed and changed since I originally proposed the idea.

This was one piece of communications that will support the publication of a report into one of the strategic online cases that Jisc developed as part of the Transformation & Efficiency Taskforce strand 2 work.

I have another blog post being posted next week as well.

We have been making final tweaks to the NREN 4 Education proposal in preparation for a meeting in September. Always challenging to undertake this work over the summer with people taking holidays or even closing down.

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Original Lemon Flavour – Weeknote #331 – 4th July

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lemons
Image by Neale Bacon from Pixabay

I actually got to our Bristol office this week, after spending what felt like the most of June travelling across the UK and Europe. Over the last few weeks I have been to Brussels, Belfast, Brighton, Nottingham for work. In addition I have been visiting University open days, so have also travelled to Bristol, Bournemouth, Plymouth, Worcester, Oxford as well.

It’s nice to get to the office and work, as well as meet people. I don’t really like going to the office if I have numerous online meetings, as I could be anywhere and stuck in an office looking at a screen to me isn’t really a real reason to be in the office. Though it has to be said the air-conditioning was welcome in all this heat we’ve been having.

Gromit sculpture

This week saw the presentation of the almost finished strategic outline cases to the UUK Transformation & Efficiency Taskforce at their final meeting. This has been a huge task, but really interesting piece of work.

It’s that time of year when I need to undertake some mandatory refresher training. This time it was Data Protection & Data Governance, and Information Security.

I took a volunteering day, it’s nice that Jisc allows staff to take time off for volunteering.

A lot of the week I was finalising a proposal (with NREN colleagues) on NREN support for pan-European student mobility.

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The answer is 43% – Weeknote #323 – 9th May 2025

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This was a shorter week, as not only was there a bank holiday on Monday, but I also took a day’s leave.

On Tuesday I was down in Southampton for a meeting. Though there are many advantages to Teams and Zoom, sometimes participating in an in-person meeting gives you more insights than the online version. There are affordances with digital, so I always consider them just different, rather than one being better than the other. Also, less train travel with an online meeting.

Spent most of the rest of the week working on the collaboration project we are doing with UUK. There were a few administrative meetings as well in my diary.

Friday I had an early start for an NRENs4Education (what I have been called in these weeknotes E in NREN) meeting about a future meeting in Brussels. As a group we have quite high aspirations, but there are many challenges that we face as we look at student mobility across Europe.

The press this week as been full of depressing detail about the financial state of higher education.

WonkHE did an illuminating article, What the latest HESA data tells us about university finances, in which David Kernohan notes:

I’m a fan of net liquidity days (a measure showing the number of days a university could run for in the absence of any further income). Anything below a month (31 days) makes me sit up and take notice… there’s 10 large-ish universities in that boat including some fairly well-known names.

The BBC News site also had this on on the 43% of universities who face financial challenges.

More than four in 10 universities in England are expecting to be in a financial deficit by this summer, according to new report from the Office for Students (OfS). The OfS, which regulates higher education providers, said universities were closing courses and selling buildings to cut costs, but “significant reform and efficiencies” were needed to turn the tide. It said a drop in international students coming to the UK was the main reason for the worsening financial position. The report found that 117 of 270 higher education institutions (43%) registered with the OfS expected to be in deficit by the end of July – despite course closures, job losses and selling off assets.

This demonstrates once more for the need for the sector to rethink their operating model. This can’t be just about more money, as we do need to consider the impact that (continually) raising fees will have on students, student wellbeing, and future student recruitment.

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Through the medium of dance – Weeknote #319 – 11th April 2025

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Image by Bernard-Verougstraete from Pixabay

On Monday I was prepping stuff for the rest of the week. In the main developing and writing activity for UUK Transformation and Efficiency Taskforce meeting. This involved diamonds and scissors.

I spent the day in London on Tuesday, the afternoon was taken up with the UUK Transformation and Efficiency Taskforce meeting, however as I had a two hour online meeting with the HEAnet Group Advisory Forum I spent the morning in the office.

I had some necessary Dovetail admin and Miro admin to do this week. I hadn’t used Miro for weeks and then all of a sudden, I was asked to input to an influx of Miro boards. I do use Miro, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. I don’t much like the alternatives either.

We had a discussion about capturing the senior voice and then what do we do with that once we have that. A bit of we can’t please all of the people all of the time.

Spent some time planning a session for AHUA Conference next week, which is taking place at Swansea University.

Recognised the need to plan out E in NREN work I am undertaking in some more detail. It has been agreed that this will continue into 2026.

I am attending and presenting at a couple of online conferences later this month, so spent time planning, developing and writing those presentations. Yes you would be right in thinking there will be lots of photographs.

Image by Tom from Pixabay

Noted that the situation in higher education is still not good, and in some sense is getting worse.

As higher education institutions shed thousands of jobs, Times Higher are tracking developments and bringing together latest analysis with resources for affected staff and students.

As a mounting financial crisis grips UK universities, thousands of jobs are being axed across the sector. This page tracks latest updates, exploring the reasons behind the redundancies, how they will affect staff and students, and the long-term impact on higher education and research.

In similar news the sustainability of higher education was discussed at Parliament. Where the Augar report was reviewed as Education Committee learn about university finances

Notably, Augar argued that no university should fail – the impact on local areas and the international reputation of the sector would be too big – and called for “behind the scenes” support for struggling providers. Universities UK’s Malcolm Press argued once again for a transformation fund to support universities in adapting to the current circumstances.

Our work with UUK was mentioned in passing.

Malcolm Press (vice chancellor at Manchester Metropolitan University, at the committee representing Universities UK) emphasised just how hard universities were working to drive efficiencies – highlighting examples of collaboration, and the ongoing Universities UK project in response to the government’s reform agenda.

Made me smile for the end of the week. This from WonkHE on Sussex on taking the position that universities can’t prohibit any speech unless it’s already explicitly banned by civil or criminal law.

 “The University would have to tolerate an academic conducting every lecture through the medium of song or mime (noting that freedom of speech protects the manner of speech as well as the content).”