S1 Ep48: Episode 48: "A newspaper for people who work in universities"

University Registrars Talking About Stuff

In this episode of the podcast, a longer one this time as there is so much to talk about, I'm joined by someone who is not a Registrar but the founder, Editor-in-Chief and CEO of Wonkhe, Mark Leach.

We start with Mark's time as a student and subsequently sabbatical officer at the University of Kent where he first became fascinated with university committees and bureaucracy.

Mark credits Wes Streeting, at that time the Vice-President for Education at NUS, for making policy wonkery sexy and indeed Mark ended up working in the HE policy unit set up at Streeting's instigation with the aim of improving NUS's impact on the sector.

After NUS Mark had a stint at HEFCE and came up with the idea of an HE policy blog although was not yet in a position to start it properly as his employer was not supportive. However, having then joined University Alliance as a policy advisor, his new organisation welcomed the idea of him writing an HE policy blog and he started publishing his and other's articles in 2011.

Everything though had to go on hold as he took up an offer to work for Shabana Mahmood who was then Shadow HE Minister under Ed Miliband and needed help to develop Labour's HE brief.

After that exciting period, ended by a reshuffle, Mark took the plunge and decided to start Wonkhe in earnest with his initial concerns being how to get noticed and be useful for the sector. The first step was starting a Monday morning HE briefing which was where things suddenly took off and which Mark now regards as the single most important step for the development of Wonkhe. From here Wonkhe grew rapidly as it filled a genuine need in the sector.

We conclude with Mark's confession about his fondness for the sector's pageantry - he is a sucker for gowns, maces, hats and hoods and believes these distinctive HE traditions need to be celebrated and retained.