07 November 2018 
Karel Thomas, Executive Director
John Gill, editor of THE wrote last week, "Michael Barber, chair of the Office for Students, has penned an article in The Telegraph newspaper in which he says that universities which are struggling financially will not receive a bailout, since “it would be irresponsible to give more public money to people who are demonstrably unable to manage their institution in a sustainable way”. John goes on to suggest that mismanagement may not be the whole story of why a university might fail. It is this debate that would be more useful than inflammatory headlines and partially informed rhetoric in popular media. Michael Barber's carefully choreographed comms included an interview on the Today programme and a speech and conversation at Wonkfest whose excellent live blog recorded, "[H]e closed with a challenge to university press offices – to tell the wider world what universities do and why." Dilly ding, dilly dong, as they used to say in Leicester.
