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A former universities minister has criticised the Westminster government for singling out poor-quality degrees in the Kings Speech as a dog whistle to the culture warriors.

Laying out the governments legislative agenda for the coming parliament,the Kings Speech said proposals will be implemented to reduce the number of young people studying poor-quality university degrees in England.

Concerns have been raised that the high-profile reference, read out by the monarch, could deter international students from coming to the UK.

Speaking at an event at Kings College London, Lord Johnson, who was universities minister between 2015 and 2018 and again in 2019, said: This is a continuation of language that weve been hearing for quite some time so in that sense its not very new its a continuation of a dog whistle to the culture warriors.

Thats the basic intent, but in terms of actual policy its harder to see where the government is going to take this in terms of devising policy that can withstand challenge.

I think the government is obviously doing damage to the sector by these sort of broadsides against it and its not serving the interests of the sector as a whole.

Lord Johnson said the English regulator, the Office for Students (OfS), had processes to assess quality already through the Teaching Excellence Framework and its B3 quality metrics.

Ministers have said they intend to cap the number of students on so-called rip-off degreesthat fall short on these metrics covering student continuation and completion and graduate employment but have parked proposals to to introduce aminimum entry requirement for students to be eligible for Student Loans Company funding, which many in the sector had warned would require complex exemptions to avoid penalising groups such as mature students.

Lord Johnson said it was right that, where therewere quality problems, the regulator does pile on in and addressed them to uphold the reputation of the sector.

However, at a time when the participation gap between the most advantaged and the least advantaged quintile of studentswas around 30 percentage points, Lord Johnson said, the sectorshould be wary of a policy that would throw the engines of social mobility in higher education into reverse.

I hope very much that this line in the [Kings] speech isnt softening us up foran attempt to reimpose number controls, he said.

Also speaking at the event, hosted by the ResPublica thinktank, Steven McGuire, dean of the business school at Sussex University, said it was important that the sector had robust regulation and robust outcomes.

We all want high-quality education I think the UK has an outstanding reputation for that and its a credit to all the system, he said.

Professor McGuire said he worried what the reference in the Kings Speech would do to the reputation of UK higher education, but he worried even more that it would create incentives for universities to cut access and participation schemes, and reduce their intake of non-traditional students or those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com

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Kings Speech a culture wars dog whistle - Times Higher Education

MADISONThe Assembly was in session twice this week, but spent much of the Peoples time engaging in fighting culture wars, and amplifying false narratives.Rep. Robyn Vining [D-Wauwatosa] released the following statement:

Wisconsinites are experiencing a mental health crisis that has been years in the making, and Wisconsins postpartum mothers, students, families, farmers, veterans, and workers deserve our help. We can do better, and we should.

Families are counting on us to address the rising cost of childcare, and childcare providers are counting on us to address how they will keep their doors open and the Wisconsin workforce at work. We can do better, and we should.

Our public schools are in desperate need of funding, after more than a decade of the Republican-led legislature defunding and underfunding public schools. As we are now seeing threats in my district to close neighborhood elementary schools, we can do better, and we should.

Wisconsinites need urgent action, and yet Republicans spent the week promoting culture wars, and furthering false narratives about Wisconsins elections.

Republicans this weekchose tocontinue their attacks on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion by gutting important initiatives that foster diversity in our universities. These attacks do nothing to invest in Wisconsins workforce challenges. Culture wars are investments in Republican campaigns, not the lives of Wisconsinites.

Republicans this week chose to attack democracy, sow doubt in Wisconsin elections, spin conspiracy theories, and attempt to change the state constitution in ways that make it harder for a person to legally exercise their constitutional right to vote.Attacks on democracy are investments in Republican campaigns, not the lives of Wisconsinites.

Wisconsinites expect and deserve their legislators to work to address the issues they are facing. By investing in access to mental healthcare, by fully funding our public schools, and by making sure Wisconsin parents have affordable, quality childcarethat is how we can move forward,together!We can do better, and we should.

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Rep. Vining: We can do better, and we should. - WisPolitics.com

If you dont believe American politics has become a spectator sport, you werent listening to the cable bloviators on Nov. 7. Speculation about the 2023 election's implications for 2024 dominated their analysis of voter results. This is, of course, something like reading tea leaves at the bottom of your mug for predictions of the future. We are experiencing a Mad Max episode where global turmoil threatens to erupt into another World War. The explosions we are witnessing in Ukraine and Gaza may sound far away, yet for the worlds remaining superpower they could prove the thunder before the storm. Both an ailing Ayatollah in Iran and the Russian czar in Moscow are hellbent to rearrange central Asia before they exit the world stage. For them, violence is Gods will.

An aspiring China would like nothing better than to watch the United States let itself become entangled in those disputes. Whether Joe Biden can navigate his way past these conflicts without putting American boots on the ground will be a far better predictor of his chances in 2024 than anything voters had to say last week. Its easier to identify the losers than the winners in 2023. We can start with a pair of governors, Glenn Younkin of Virginia and our own Jared Polis. Each of them has been a ghost dancer in their respective partys just-in-case auditions for the 2024 presidential race. Undeclared candidates, theyve been taking steps to prepare to jump into the arena should their respective and presumptive presidential candidates suddenly be sidelined by illness, death or incarceration.

Youngkins credentials as an authoritarian-lite, MAGA-wannabe were badly damaged as his brand took a beating at the polls in Virginia. He was the never-Trump Republican candidate-in-waiting visible behind the glass marked "break in case of emergency." The fulsome geniality that led to his surprise election as governor two years ago has apparently exceeded its expiration date. If he had delivered majorities in both chambers of the Virginia legislature, Glenn would have been on his way to designation as the dark-horse favorite for the GOP nomination. Instead, he will be occupied in squabbles with Democratic majorities about every line in the state budget, as well as nasty battles regarding the definition of parental rights in public education, abortion decisions and related culture wars. All good news for Nikki Haley.

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Colorados governor did not suffer as fatal a blow from the defeat of Proposition HH. But the loss of his signature fix for property tax increases, which dwarf those that triggered the Prop 13 revolt in California 30 years ago, is not a good look especially when you are attempting to send out the message you're prepared and ready to run the entire country. The legislative clean-up ahead will be challenging. Villains will have to be tossed under the bus, both Senate President Steve Fenberg of Boulder and Denver Sen. Chris Hansen have been nominated for this privilege depending on whom you speak with. Gov. Polis was well advised Thursday to accede to the Republican request for a special session, thereby displaying his bipartisan cred. Still, some kind of compromise must be cobbled together no small trick.

If successful, the governor can probably maintain his standing as a promising short list possibility for vice president a good match, say, for Gretchen Whitmer. Forget the top of the ticket for now. Polis will also have to abandon the attempt to better fund public schools using a raid on TABOR refunds. Truth be told, Proposition HH was never primarily about property tax relief so much as it was a backdoor gimmick to fund public schools. The good news is even Republicans have acknowledged Colorados teachers are underpaid. During the sole debate on the merits of HH, opponent Mike Fields noted his mother, a career teacher, deserves a better salary. The legislature can probably tackle this challenge during next years regular session, although Republicans are likely to insist any additional revenue be reserved for classroom teachers rather than additional assistant principals.

It was intriguing to see Mike Coffman cruise to an easy re-election as mayor in Aurora where changing demographics make it increasingly difficult for Republicans to win. Mike has held office, more or less continuously, for 30-plus years. There is a lesson for Republicans in his success. As I once noted, pundits, many of them Republicans, have predicted Mike would lose his next election for most of this period. And, indeed, he did finally lose his congressional seat to Jason Crow but not before knocking off Democratic heavyweights like Morgan Carroll and Andrew Romanoff. Coffman has proven a dedicated, persistent and honorable public servant. Though I have not and would not agree with him on every public policy, I would harbor no reservations about having him represent me. It appears Im not alone in this assessment.

When Mayor Coffman decided to go undercover and spend a few nights at several Denver homeless encampments he came in for a barrage of criticism. Perhaps there were grounds for questioning conclusions he reached regarding drug use. But I felt sympathy for him. In 1983 I was working as a telephone repairman during a strike at Mountain Bell where I was an installation manager. Tipped by someone, my picture appeared on the front page of the Rocky Mountain News hanging from a pole in Lakewood. When I asked a Denver Democratic captain what he thought rank-and-file Democrats thought of their chairman working during a strike, he replied, I suspect they were surprised you could actually climb a pole. I was surprised Auroras Mayor was willing to sleep on the sidewalk.

Miller Hudson is a public affairs consultant and a former Colorado legislator.

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The Election Day lessons of Polis, Youngkin and Coffman | HUDSON - coloradopolitics.com

A group from Bloomington, Indiana takes a tour of the Stanford University d.school in November 2022. Courtesy Alain Barker.

In this week's Around Town column, read about siblings reuniting, an electricity milestone and a Stanford student's book deal.

STARR STRUCK ... Palo Alto and its newest sibling city, Bloomington, Indiana, have many things and people in common: Tara VanDerveer, Stanford University's legendary women's basketball coach who hooped it up for Indiana University as a student; the renowned physicist Douglas Hofstadter, who took the opposite route and graduated from Stanford before becoming a professor at Indiana University; and Palo Alto City Council member Vicki Veenker, a former Hoosier who spearheaded the "sibling city" program that brought the two cities together. Earlier this fall, Veenker moderated an author talk with Hofstadter that took place in Bloomington and was simulcast at both cities. At one point, Hofstadter was asked by an audience member about how to maintain humility while moving into the future. He responded by making the case for humanities education, which he suggested fosters international unity and humility. He lamented the recent cuts to humanities departments in universities across America and the renewed emphasis by colleges on STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) courses. He argued that the country should be trying to instead preserve LAMP, an acronym he coined that includes literature, art, music and philosophy. "That should be what we should be trying to preserve," he said during the Sept. 7 event. "STEM is dehumanizing in many ways." The next joint event took place this Sunday, Nov. 12, and focused on the topics of race and belonging. The conversation focused on another person that the two cities have in common: former Stanford University president and notorious eugenicist David Starr Jordan, whose name was struck from a Palo Alto middle school and replaced with Frank S. Greene. "Both communities faced similar issues dealing with the legacy of David Starr Jordan and the renaming process," Veenker said.

A new all-electric heating, ventilation and air conditioning unit is lifted by a crane during its installation process on the rooftop of the Peninsula Conservation Center in Palo Alto on Jan. 25, 2023. Photo by Magali Gauthier.

OUT OF GAS ... For decades, the Peninsula Conservation Center has been known mostly for the eco-conscious nonprofits that fill its spaces, a list that currently includes (among others) Canopy, Acterra, and the Sierra Club Loma Prieta Chapter. Now, the building itself is taking on some of its tenants' personality. On Nov. 2, Mayor Lydia Kou came by the center at 3921 East Bayshore Road to help the nonprofits ceremonially flip the "off" switch on natural gas. The move came shortly after the 53-year-old center replaced its traditional gas-fired space heaters with Bryant heat pumps, making it the first existing commercial building to achieve this conversion to all-electric infrastructure, according to Phil Bobel, who serves as vice chair at the Peninsula Conservation Center board. (Several buildings in Palo Alto, including the headquarters of the Weekly's parent company at 450 Cambridge Ave., have been all-electric since their inception.) The center is not done with adding environmentally friendly infrastructure, Bobel said. Next on the list: replacing two older electric-vehicle charger ports with six more modern ports. He noted that a city of Palo Alto rebate program will fund about half of the $85,000 project.

FROM NEWSROOM TO PRINTING PRESS ... When former Stanford University President Marc Tessier-Lavigne stepped down earlier this year, it was then-Stanford freshman Theo Baker who was partially behind it. Baker wrote a series of stories for the Stanford Daily, the school's student newspaper, calling into question the validity of research that Tessier-Lavigne did prior to becoming president at Stanford. But now, the youngest-ever George Polk Award winner is on track to publish a book about his experiences, according to Page Six. Baker, whose parents are Susan Glasser, a staff writer at the New Yorker, and Peter Baker, the chief White House correspondent for the New York Times, signed the book deal with Penguin Press according to Page Six. Baker's book will be titled "How to Rule the World: Yacht Parties, Culture Wars and the Downfall of a President at Stanford," according to Deadline. Warner Bros and producer Amy Pascal who has also produced several Spider-Man movies won the rights to the book, Deadline also reported.

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Around Town: siblings reunite, an electricity milestone and a ... - Palo Alto Online

Kansas showed the way.

A year ago in August, the Sunflower State stunned the nation by voting down a proposed constitutional amendment that would have allowed the Legislature to ban abortion. A year ago this month, voters in this Republican-dominated state re-elected Democrat Laura Kelly to her second term as governor. In both cases, we offered a preview of 2023s elections, in which Ohio voters enshrined the right to reproductive health care in their state constitution and Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear was re-elected to lead Kentucky.

As famed Emporia editor William Allen White wrote back in 1922: When anything is going to happen in this country, it happens first in Kansas.

Ive often noted that even the reddest states contain an incredible diversity of political opinion. Heck, 42% of Kansans voted for Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, the largest percentage support for a Democratic presidential candidate here since Michael Dukakis in 1988.

Across the country, folks support the right of women to make their own reproductive health choices. Weve now seen voters in a staggering seven states turn out to make that very clear. Similarly, folks will vote for leaders who support mainstream, old-school values such as strong public education, affordable health care and an economy that benefits everyone, not just the wealthy. That means that centrist Democrats such as Kelly and Beshear rack up victories.

National pundits might want to beware, though.

You can read already hot takes about this weeks elections that suggest these high-profile wins (along with Democratic victories in the Virginia legislature) mean that Democrats should fret less about President Joe Bidens 2024 prospects. The party can cheer another string of victories as it chugs toward the title bout.

Democrats should still worry. Recent polling from the New York Times and CNN suggests Biden would lost against former President Donald Trump if their rematch were held today. Trump, as he never fails to remind us, has only ever had a loose affiliation with the Republican Party. Hes been careful to distance himself from extreme anti-abortion advocates. And for better or worse, the public appears to recall his four shambolic years in office through the rosy lenses of nostalgia.

Abortion-rights victories in red states don't prove their deep, abiding love for Nancy Pelosi. They instead demonstrate that, when voters can separate the issue from candidates and culture wars, they support a long-established constitutional right.

As I also wrote last year, abortion-rights victories in red states dont prove their deep, abiding love for Nancy Pelosi. They instead demonstrate that, when voters can separate the issue from candidates and culture wars, they support a long-established constitutional right.

Similarly, Kellys wins in Kansas show how one politicians determination to plot a low-key, moderate path can reap dividends. Important to understand, yes, but not earth-shattering.

When you go out to rural Kansas, they are not talking about all of the divisive social issues, Kelly told Politico last week. Whats on their mind is are you going to fund my schools? Or are you going to build my roads, fix my roads?

Before we wrap today, I would like to note that far-right conservative candidates appear to have fallen short in Johnson County and Baldwin City school board races. According to the Game on for Kansas Schools group, It was a very good election (though not perfect) for traditional candidates and a very bad election for extremists across the state.

Can we now finally put to rest the ridiculous idea that a vast majority of Kansans are clamoring for drastic changes to their public schools?

Far-right ideologues see public education as a Trojan Horse to inject their poisonous ideas into mainstream discourse. They want schools to stop teaching about the pernicious effects of racism and the fact that LGBTQ people exist. They want to install a statewide voucher program that would destroy K-12 education as we know it.

Kansans dont want that. They dont agree with that. Their votes on Tuesday proved it.

If state politicians do anything in regard to our schools, they ought to fully fund them and finally spend the required amount on special education services. The public doesnt want dramatic change; it wants elected officials who will do their jobs and make this a better state.

Nationally, I think thats the message voters sent as well. Most of us find our lives generally acceptable. No one enjoyed the pandemic, and the subsequent inflation didnt help. Yet when it comes to our families and friends, our neighborhoods and communities, we dont want disruption or turmoil. We want officials who will fix the problems that arise, steer us through any unexpected turbulence, and otherwise avoid messy drama.

They can manage that, right? Right?

Clay Wirestone is Kansas Reflector opinion editor. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.

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Last year's Kansas elections previewed results this year. Voters ... - Kansas Reflector