TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION: Sam Gyimah: how is English ‘minister for students’ doing so far?

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Andy Westwood, professor of government practice at the University of Manchester and a former adviser to John Denham in his time as Labour secretary of state responsible for universities, highlighted the post-18 education funding review and said of the outlook for Mr Gyimah: “Realistically, many of the biggest decisions are going to made higher up – especially with a PM and a No 10 that wants to control and intervene much more.”

He also noted that Mr Johnson “had some very strong civil servants in place – Polly Payne, Ruth Hannant [who formerly shared the post of DfE director of higher education reform] and Iain Mansfield [former DfE deputy director] – all with lots of institutional memory, and they’ve all moved on, leaving Sam with a less experienced team”.

Professor Westwood added that the key task of successfully steering through the post-18 education review and subsequent policy – which would amount to “political, technical, systemic” success, “probably in that order” – would take “some doing, especially given the expectations that have been raised”. But that task is “in the medium term so he can afford to be out and about making friends and meeting stakeholders. He’ll definitely need them”.